Every year, NAR studies home buyers and sellers and compiles the data into a report called the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. It examines metrics like how buyers and sellers behave, how they find agents, and what technology they use.

I pulled out some key insights today that are especially relevant to lead generation.

First, let’s talk about how sellers find their real estate agent. Any guesses? Here’s the data: 77% of sellers find their agents through a referral or repeat business. That number is increasing, not decreasing. Last year, it was 69%, and now it’s up to 77%.

Despite predictions that online leads and new technologies would reduce this percentage, that hasn’t been the case. Referrals and repeat business remain the dominant ways sellers find agents.

Now, how many agents do sellers typically interview before hiring? You might think there’s a lot of competition, but the reality is this: 81% of sellers interview only one agent. While we should be prepared for compet...

If I were to walk into your office right now and put my hands up in the air, asking, “What do I feel? What’s the energy in the room?”—you might think that sounds a bit new agey, especially when it comes to running a real estate company or team. But it’s true.

You can feel the energy in a room.

Let me give you an example. How many of us have been to a concert? You can feel the energy, right? A better example is a sporting event—you can feel the waves of energy when a point is made or lost. The energy is palpable.

Now, who sets the tone for that energy? It’s the players on the field, the musicians—the people performing. They create the energy in the room.

As a leader, whether you're a broker or team leader, you are the one setting the energy in your office. You create the weather. And how do you do that? It’s through your positivity, your enthusiasm, how you carry yourself, and how you walk into the building.

If you walk in with your shoulders slouched, talking about your bad mornin...

Are you running sales contests with your teams and brokerages?

If not, you're missing a big opportunity. Sales contests can generate energy and excitement, which drives performance. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do a sales contest.

Here’s the wrong way: focusing the contest on results.

You might wonder, what else would you focus on?

Well, if you're tracking things like how many escrows were created or how many listings were taken, the same people will win every time. The problem with focusing on results is that you can’t control them.

What you can control is the work. So, instead of focusing on results, shift the focus to what actually creates results—the work itself.

For example, you might say, "We’re doing a contest this month on who adds the most people to their sphere of influence." Or, "Who can do five posts a week for the next four weeks?"

You could track how many unsolicited CMAs agents push out in three weeks, who does the most open houses, sends the most ha...

If you're coaching agents as part of your real estate brokerage or team, which we all do, one of the best methods I’ve learned is the 1-3-1 Method.

When someone brings you a problem, start by asking:

First, let's clarify the problem: What’s the one main issue we’re dealing with here?

Not 55 different things—just the one big issue we need to solve.

Then, ask: What do you think are three viable solutions for solving this?

If they can’t come up with three, help them brainstorm.

Finally, have them choose: Which do you think is the most viable option for actually getting this resolved?

Encourage them to go out, try it, and see how it works.

As a leader, whether you're a team leader or a brokerage owner, make a note in your CRM to follow up with that agent in a day or two. Check if the resolution actually solved the problem. Sometimes they'll come back and tell you, but if they don’t, reach out and ask, "Did that solve the issue?"

By using the 1-3-1 Method, you’re teaching them to f...

Join us as we interview industry expert Dawn Daly, the owner of House of Brokers, who has dedicated over 20 years to building a successful, hyper-local brokerage. Starting her career with House of Brokers in 1999, Dawn has worked in nearly every aspect of the business, from corporate relocations and agent recruitment to marketing, budgeting, and mentorship programs. Now at the helm of the company, she continues to drive its growth while fostering a strong sense of community and agent development.

Are you doing live buyer farming right now?

If not, you're missing a huge lead generation opportunity.

So, what is live buyer farming? It’s simple. When you go out to show a home, use the 5-5-10 method: reach out to five homes on either side and 10 homes across the street. Send them a quick text or call saying something like:

"Hey, my name's Jim. I just showed your neighbor's property across the street. They love the neighborhood, but the home didn’t quite check all the boxes. Quick question—would you consider selling for the right price if you didn’t have to list your house and had plenty of time to find your dream home? If you’d consider it, give me a call, email, or text. I’d love to have that conversation."

What's the response rate on this? On average, one out of every 20 people you contact will be open to having that conversation.

This is a winning strategy for lead generation. You’ll start so many conversations that can lead to future opportunities. Even if they say no, here...

Hey guys, we know the number of listings getting stale on the market is rising, right?

70% of listings have been on the market for over 30 days, and nearly 50% for over 60 days. What does this mean?

It means more expired listings are going to start showing up in your MLS soon.

Going after expireds is a huge opportunity, something we haven't seen much of in recent years because the market has been so short on listings. But today, we have 34% more listings than a year ago, and many are going stale, which means a lot of them will be coming off the market.

Let me give you one quick, out-of-the-box approach for going after expired listings that’s definitely effective.

The conversation will go like this: I'm going to call that expired listing as early as possible and say, "Hey, my name’s Jim Emily with ABC Real Estate, and I noticed your listing got delisted from the MLS this morning." (The keyword here is delisted).

Then I’ll say, "I’m sure you're getting a lot of calls from REALTORS,...

Have you ever had a seller who wants to overprice their property? Almost all sellers, right? It's pretty much universal. So, what's a conversation we can have with sellers to help them price their home correctly?

One approach I like is called the "One Bite at the Apple" conversation.

Here's how it goes:

"Hey Mr./Mrs. Seller, I totally understand that you want to get top dollar for your home. But the market has shifted a bit, especially when it comes to marketing homes. Over the past five to ten years, mobile and internet searches have become the dominant way buyers find homes. Most buyers—99%—are signed up on a portal to receive new listing updates.

So, here's what that means: when we list your home, within 24 hours, essentially every buyer in the market is going to see it. They'll all get the listing in their inbox around the same time and make a snap decision: is it priced right or overpriced? Do I want to go see it?

This is why most homes that sell do so within the first five t...

If I were to sit down with you today and talk about why an agent should join your firm, what would be the top five reasons?

I do this all the time—teaching live classes and coaching brokerage owners and team leaders. This is a conversation I love to have. Often, I'll hear things like, "We're a family-oriented organization, we have a great culture, we do a lot of social events, we're really engaged with the community, and we're hyper-local. Staff is great, we have an open-door policy."

Those are all great things… But these are centered around what I call “soft value.”

Soft value is what keeps agents at your company. It’s important for retention—and trust me, you want to retain agents.

But if you’re going to move agents from one company to another, you need a different conversation, one focused on “hard value.”

Hard value moves agents, soft value keeps them.

So, what's hard value? It’s anything that helps me close more transactions in the next 12 months. When I'm sitting across fro...

When we talk about targeting for recruiting in your market, who would be your number one target?

I’m going to share an opportunity you may not have considered yet: Who’s the most likely to move?

NAR did a study on how often agents switch companies, and they found that the average agent stays at a company for about five years. So, agents move about every five years on average. But there’s a group of agents who move more often—agents on teams.

Agents on teams don’t move every five years; they move every three years, making them much more likely to make a move.

Why?

In my experience, the number one reason is their splits. Team members are often on lower splits, maybe 50%, 40%, or even 30% when all is said and done. They're typically earning around 30-50% from a transaction, and they’re often doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

The issue is that they start to look at their team leader and think, "The team leader isn’t working as hard as I am." They don’t always see the full picture—how...