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...

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, “...

I've heard this so many times over the years: "My market's different, Jim." When it comes to recruiting, people say, "We're in a tiny market, a rural market, a niche market, or a very cliquey market. People here don’t make moves like they do in big cities. Recruiting doesn’t work here."

Let me tell you something: I come from a small town with a population of 25,000. I’ve worked in big cities, small towns, medium-sized cities, and even cliquey ones. Here’s the reality: the numbers behind recruiting aren’t something I’m making up. These are national statistics.

The average agent in America moves every five years.

Look at your entire database of agents in your market and think about this: every single one of them will likely move in the next five years.

Statistically, some will move sooner, some later, but overall, they’re going to move.

The question is: where are they going to go?

Think about your own career. Did you stay at one company forever without ever making a move? Probably ...

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...

Hey guys, price drops have hit an 18-month high. Here are three stats you need to know:

1. In May, 6.4% of home sellers dropped their home prices. In the last week of May, home prices actually came down by $3,000.
2. This is the first time home prices have declined in the last six months.
3. Homes are also staying on the market longer, now averaging 46 days. We are seeing more stagnation with listings.

When analyzing the market, we consider supply versus demand. We still have very low supply, but demand is decreasing due to high interest rates and record-high home prices. This combination makes affordability tough for many home buyers.

When discussing this with sellers, it's important to explain that a market can have pricing power or pricing pressure. For years, sellers had pricing power due to low supply and high demand. Now, with demand dropping, pricing pressure is entering the market.

The best time for a price adjustment might be surprising—it's at the listing appointment. At the...