People often ask me, “Jim, what’s the secret to recruiting?”

Here it is: spend one hour a day recruiting—just like your agents are expected to spend one hour a day lead generating. We tell agents to prospect daily; as a brokerage owner or team leader, you need to do the same thing with recruiting.

I call this the “Five by Five” system. It’s a proven strategy we use in our company and with our brokerage coaching students across the country to drive performance and success.

Here’s how it works. Within that one hour of recruiting, you commit to:

• Making 5 calls
• Sending 5 texts
• Sending 5 video texts
• Writing 5 personal notes
• Doing 5 social media touches

If you hold yourself to that standard, you’ll start unlocking new opportunities.

The next question is: what do you say? What should you be texting, saying on calls, writing in notes, or posting on social media?

The key is natural, authentic conversations that resonate. Great recruiting isn’t about pushing for an appointment eve...

Virtual showings. Let’s talk about them:

First, what is a virtual showing? When the National Association of REALTORS surveys buyers, they ask: “How many homes did you look at before purchasing? How many weeks did it take?”

For years, the average has been about 8 to 10 properties over 8 to 10 weeks.

What’s interesting is that of those 8 to 10 properties, about half are now virtual showings. Buyers perceive they’ve “seen” the home just by taking a virtual tour online. That’s a big generational shift. Roughly half of showings today are in-person, and half are virtual.

We need to explain this to sellers—and we need to offer it as a service to buyers.

Here’s what I recommend. When you meet with buyers, include this in your presentation:

“I offer virtual showings. That can mean one of two things. First, many listings already have a virtual tour option—like Matterport—where you can walk through the house online. Second, if you’re really interested in a home but can’t make the schedule w...

We’ve all heard of a listing presentation and a buyer presentation. Hopefully, you’re already doing those. But let me give you another spin on that—what I call a success portfolio.

Think about when you hire a photographer, architect, or wedding planner. They always have a portfolio to show their previous work. A photographer might showcase wedding or graduation photos. A wedding planner highlights past events. An architect shows their plans and finished projects.

Why not do the same thing as a REALTOR? Every year, go back 12 months and highlight your successes. Showcase the buyers and sellers you worked with, the marketing strategies you used, and the testimonials you received.

For example:

• “These buyers thought they wanted this, but we ended up finding them that—here’s how we guided the process.”
• “This seller wanted to market the home a certain way, but we introduced fresh ideas, highlighted a unique feature, and positioned the home around its million-dollar view.”

That beco...

Hey guys, is there one giant national real estate market? The answer is no. Real estate, like politics, is all local. One market is going to be different from the next, and what drives conditions in every market across the country is supply and demand.

Supply and demand determine what sellers can ask for a home and what buyers can ask from sellers. This is true in every market in America.

If we broke the national market down, we could look at it in four distinct regions, as often done by NAR: the South, the West, the Midwest, and the Northeast. These markets are wildly different.

I live in the West, where there are currently more sellers than buyers. Sellers here are feeling the pressure—reducing prices, offering concessions, and being more aggressive to attract buyers.

In the Midwest and Northeast, it’s the opposite. There are more buyers than sellers, giving sellers pricing power. Agents in those regions might say, “What are you talking about? It’s completely different here.”

He...

Brokerage owners and team leaders — I have a question for you: What problem are you solving for agents?

If you're not solving a problem for them, there's no reason for them to come work for you.

The number one problem you can solve is helping them unlock the door to more transactions. Most agents are struggling here, so giving them a roadmap, tools, strategies, and techniques to close more deals should be your top priority.

But there are other problems we often overlook. Maybe they’re struggling with time management, technology, client management, building out a CRM, or having a reliable way to evaluate potential listings.

Agents have many challenges, and if we’re not addressing them, we’re giving them no reason to join our company.

All great businesses — especially industry disruptors — solve problems.

Think about the great companies you do business with today. They’ve solved a problem.

You need to be the problem solver.

Take a moment to reflect on your market. What are four o...

Hey, brokerage owners and team leaders. I’m going to do a quick role play with you right now.

Let’s pretend you’re an agent who just had a failed transaction with one of my agents. I’m going to call you—not text you, but call—and say:

"Hey Jim, I just wanted to reach out. I know you had a transaction with Bob that didn’t come together this morning. I got the bad news, but Bob told me you were an absolute pro throughout the process. This has nothing to do with you or your client—sometimes things just happen. I just wanted to say thank you for your professionalism. We look forward to working with you again in the future. And if there’s ever anything I can do to help, I’m here."

Now, imagine making that kind of call after every failed transaction where the other agent handled things well. What do you think is going to happen on the other end of the call?

Do you think that agent will appreciate it? Absolutely. No other broker is making that kind of call.

What you’re doing is laying a ...

We have a lot more listings nationally on the market than we’ve had in many years. That means we’re going to see a lot more expired listings, especially since pending sales are also dropping.

Pending sales are soft—we're on track for about 3.94 million sales this year, very similar to last year. This is all driven by interest rates. As they hover around 6.5% to 6.75%, the sales pace will likely persist. When interest rates drop, we’ll see a big surge back into the market. But for now, expect more expired listings.

If you're an agent looking for more listings, it's time to focus on expireds—especially as we move from summer into the fall and winter market.

So what can you do to engage these potential sellers?

The #1 strategy: Work with an active buyer.

We all have buyers. Use that active buyer to farm three key categories:

1. The Neighborhood – Target the neighborhood your buyer wants. Use that buyer as a conversation starter with homeowners there. One in 20—at least 5%—will have ...

Brokerage owners and team leaders, how do you establish trust with agents in your market area?

The number one way to build trust today is through social media. Specifically by recording video daily. The most effective way to build trust is by letting people get to know who you are.

Thanks to video, people can now get a real sense of your personality, your energy, and your overall vibe.

Think about an agent who’s never seen you on video and hasn’t met you in person because everyone’s so busy. All they know is that you're the owner or leader of XYZ Company. You’d be surprised how many agents feel intimidated. Not because you’re intimidating, but because of your title, experience, and success. They might think that they could never talk to you, let alone calling or texting you.

They don’t know you because you haven’t made the effort to show up.

And the way to break down those walls is to consistently show up on social media and post videos daily. Post them to your personal page. Frie...

Okay, guys, do you ask the seller what they want to list the property for?

When you walk into that listing appointment, do you say, “Hey, do you have a price in mind?”

If those words are coming out of your mouth, it’s a mistake, and I’m going to tell you why.

Because when the seller voices that number, I believe they start to solidify around it. They begin to take a position. And if they feel like they’re being backed off of it, they may feel like they’re losing face. So they start defending it even more—especially in front of a significant other, a spouse, husband, wife, whoever.

They feel the need to defend that number.

So what’s the alternative?

Don’t encourage them to state a price.

Sometimes they'll volunteer it anyway, but don’t prompt them.

Instead, try saying this:

“Hey guys, I brought in a lot of data for you. I’m a data person, and I believe that to make a really good decision, you just need really good data. So I bring in all kinds of information that helps with pri...

If I asked you—as a brokerage owner or team leader—what are your top five differentiation points, could you answer clearly?

What makes your company different from every other company in the marketplace? In other words, what’s your value proposition?

If you can’t answer that, no one else in your market can either.

Some of you might rush to say, “Well, we have the lowest commission plan in the market.” But that’s a terrible value proposition.

If a commission plan were all it took to recruit agents, then the brokerage with the lowest commission would have the most agents. But that’s rarely true.

Why?

Because commission plans are not the single greatest motivator for agents.

The #1 motivator for an agent to join your office is this: Will you help them grow their transaction count?

If your value proposition doesn’t clearly communicate how you’ll help agents do more deals, you’re going to lose—every single day—to competitors who can.

So here’s my challenge to you:

Take some time to...