Hey guys, lots of news around home prices happening right now. New reports are showing a massive imbalance between home buyers and home sellers:

There are roughly 500,000 more home sellers than buyers in the marketplace today.

What that means is there's a lot of pressure for sellers to get their prices right, attract buyers, and offer incentives.

Zillow is predicting prices will decline this year by 1.9%. Redfin is also forecasting a 1% decline. So, we’re starting to see price adjustments already—especially in the major metro markets. 11 of the 50 metros across the country are already seeing price declines.

This is not going to be an easy year for sellers, but you can still sell your home—as long as you're doing the right things and guiding your clients properly.

One thing I like to discuss with my sellers is “search engine pricing.”

What is search engine pricing? It means understanding how buyers search for homes online.

Here's what they don’t do: They don’t sit down and say, “...

If you're a broker, owner, or manager running weekly team or office meetings, here’s one key component you might be missing: the “Genesis Conversation.”

The Genesis Conversation happens when someone talks about a new listing, a new escrow, a pending deal, or a closed sale. When they share that win, ask them:

• "Where did that lead come from?"
• "What was the genesis of that client?"
• "How did you find the buyer or seller?"

When you get everyone in the room sensitized on what’s actually working and creating results, something powerful happens:

Your whole team focuses on what creates results.

Most of the time, you’ll find that 70-80% of the business comes from repeat and referral clients. But you’ll also uncover seasonal patterns or specific lead sources that are currently hot—like open houses, sign calls, online marketing, farming, or targeting absentee owners.

It’s a simple but effective way to direct your team's attention to activities that produce results.

And it's a key trai...

Hey guys, have you ever heard the phrase “a high tide floats all boats?” You probably have.

This concept applies to pricing. In a strong market—like we saw during the COVID years—if you priced a home slightly wrong, it didn’t really matter. The market was so hot that it would cover your mistakes. Even if you were off by 4% or 5%, prices were rising 10%, 15%, even 20% annually.

But that’s not the case today.

Today, we’re in a completely different market. There’s an imbalance: about 500,000 more home sellers than buyers. Prices are flat or even declining in many areas. Zillow and Redfin are both predicting price drops this year—the first in several years.

What’s driving this shift? Interest rates. Once rates come back down and buyers re-enter the market, things will likely shift again. But for now, we're stagnant—or even declining—on price.

So, when you're sitting down with sellers, the pricing conversation becomes crucial. We're no longer in a "high tide" market. In fact, the tide ...

Hey guys, did you know that there are 32% more listings on the market today than there were a year ago at this same time?

We're still a bit below pre-pandemic levels, but we’ve climbed past 2023 and 2024 numbers. Sellers are coming back to the market.

But here’s the thing—we’ve got a lot more competition, and while pending sales are higher than last year, they’re not absorbing inventory as quickly as they used to. That means market times are going up.

When we're talking to sellers, it's really important to help them understand what’s happening in real time.

One strategy for doing that is called the Buyer Eye Strategy.

What is the Buyer Eye Strategy?

It means when you're sitting with a seller, you say:

“Hey Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I'm going to set you up just like you're a buyer in this market—someone looking for a home just like yours in the same price range. That way, you’ll be able to see when new listings hit the market, when there are price reductions, when homes go pending, an...

When we're talking to our sellers and giving them feedback each week about what's happening in the market, it's really important that we educate them on a few things that often get missed.

One of those is the power of virtual showings.

So what’s a virtual showing? A virtual showing is when someone visits your listing online. They may or may not come see it in person, but that initial view online is still a strong signal. It means your marketing is working—it's attracting people to look at the listing on Zillow, Realtor.com, your own website, or the MLS.

From there, the buyer decides: Is the listing priced right? Does it look like it’s in great condition? Is it staged properly? A number of other factors come into play once they arrive at the listing page—but your job is to get them there.

And when you’re talking to our sellers every week—and this is how you earn price adjustments, by the way—you need to bring up virtual showings.

Right now, price adjustments are on the rise. About ...

When you're sitting with a seller for the first time, I like to have what I call the “Red Flag Conversation.”

I'll say, “Hey Mr. and Mrs. Seller, one of two things is going to happen now that we've listed the property: either we’re going to get showings—or we won’t. That alone gives us valuable insight. If we put your house on the market tomorrow like we're planning, and we get a surge of activity, that tells us something important.

“It means that the backlog of buyers—hundreds of buyers waiting for the next listing—have turned and looked at your property. If they like what they see online—the photos, the condition, the price—they’ll come see it in person. So if we see a surge of interest, a spike in calls and showings, that’s a signal we’ve nailed the price and did our job right.

“But the opposite can happen too. If we don’t get much activity in the first week or two, that’s a red flag. It’s the market telling us we probably missed the mark on pricing.

“There’s also a third scenar...

This is the season of open houses. We should be doing more open houses than ever. When you’re hosting them, think about incorporating curiosity questions into your conversational strategy. Curiosity questions can unlock the door to continuing a relationship after someone leaves your open house.

Let me give you an example. What if I said, "Hey, feel free to walk around the house. I’ll answer any questions you have and point out some unique features. But one quick question for you— the seller has authorized me to give anyone who’d like a copy of the CMA we used to price the property. The comparative market analysis—it's almost like an appraisal. Would you like a copy of that?"

This is catnip to most buyers. They usually can’t resist wanting it. Often, they’ll say yes. I’ll respond, “Great! I can text it to you or email it to you—what would you prefer?”

Now I’ve gotten permission to continue the relationship.

Of course, before I make this approach, I would’ve cleared it with the selle...

Hey guys, with the trade war heating up, renters are concerned about inflation. This is a great opportunity to have a conversation with them, and really put it out there on social media. You could do a video, or send out mailings about inflation likely rising again.

We can say, "Hey, if you're concerned about the trade war and inflation starting to rise again, remember we all lived through COVID when rents skyrocketed. A lot of experts are starting to say that this could happen again. So, if you're worried about that, one of the best ways to hedge is to buy your own home."

I know buying a home can seem like a stretch if you’ve never explored that route, but here’s what buying a home does for you. Even though you might have to stretch a bit for that payment, it locks in your payment for 30 years.

Your payment might seem expensive today, but five, 10, or 20 years from now, it won’t be. If you stay a renter, your rent is guaranteed to increase every year. It’ll keep getting higher and ...

In my second year as a real estate agent, I took 150 listings. Managing that as a young 20-year-old was a lot, but I knew early on that I needed to systemize my business. That's when I implemented something I called the "auto price reduction."

When I met with a seller, I'd say something like:

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"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, as part of my communication strategy, I like to do something a bit outside the box. Every two weeks, you'll receive a message from my team—back then it was a letter, but today it would be an email—asking if you want to consider adjusting your home's price if it hasn't sold yet.

I don't want you to be offended by it. If you're not interested in a price reduction, just disregard it. If you want to think about it, set it aside. But if you're open to having a deeper conversation about possibly adjusting the price, we can discuss it. It's simply a prompt to keep the conversation going every two weeks.

The reality is, the longer a home sits on the market, the harder ...

Here's a question for you:

If I were to look at your website today—pull it up and review it together—would it truly represent the market or niche you serve? Would it showcase what you actually sell?

Or would it just be a big, beautiful picture of you, with no clear indication of your market? If your website doesn’t clearly reflect your niche, that’s a mistake. Your website should visually and contextually align with the market area you serve. The photos, the language, and the messaging should all match your target audience. This is key to becoming a hyperlocal agent.

A hyperlocal agent is someone people immediately associate with a specific market. So take a moment today and analyze your website—does it truly reflect the area you serve? Making this small adjustment can significantly improve engagement.

Now, let’s take it a step further. Look at your social media. Are you a strong representation of your market there? Are you showcasing all aspects of your local area? Do you have a Y...