What do you think agents say is the number one consideration when choosing a real estate brokerage? I bet the default for many of you would be the commission plan. Most assume they’re always going to go right to the commission plan.

What if I told you that’s not true? According to a brand new study of 600 agents, they found that the number one thing driving the conversation about making a switch was technology—who is leading in technology.

So here’s a question for you: what is your tech stack as a real estate brokerage owner or team leader? Does your tech stack put you on a parity basis with the major players in your market, or are you inferior? That’s number one.

And then, do you have some advantages? Do you have things you’re doing a little bit differently?

Maybe you’re starting to use some AI in your business. Maybe you’ve created some lead-flow opportunities. Maybe you’ve created playbooks and plugged technology into them to make that technology really work for your agents.

So...

What’s your response when the buyer says to you, “I think we're going to put a pin in this right now. We're just going to wait and see what happens with the market.”

Your first response should be, “Hey, totally understand. Let me ask you, what do you see as the advantages to waiting?”

Dig deeper. Figure out what's going on in their heads.

Most of the time they're going to say that they’re waiting for interest rates to drop or prices to fall.

When you hear that, what are you going to do?

You could say, “Well, we'll wait and see with you,” and then follow up in six months. But if you do that, they'll end up signing up on some lead form, getting captured by another agent, going to an open house, or being connected with someone else through a referral, and you're probably going to lose them.

That's the reality.

So instead of doing that, here's what I'd recommend.

Say, “Hey, totally get it. Waiting for interest rates to stop seems like a safe bet, seems like the wise decision to mak...

Hey guys, do you have emotional intelligence? That’s an interesting question, right?

There’s a massive difference between IQ and EQ.

Some of you, like me, have probably met really smart people — PhDs, doctorates — yet when you meet them, they’re super awkward. They’re not easy to talk to, sometimes they’re complete jerks, and you wonder why these people are flat broke. They’ve got huge degrees but are living like paupers.

Why? Because IQ doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful career or life. EQ, though, has a massive impact on our success as human beings.

You see plenty of people who didn’t graduate high school or college but went on to build incredible businesses. Maybe that’s you. It’s certainly me. They have high EQ, or emotional intelligence.

So what does EQ mean?

It means having the ability to build relationships with people and elevate those around us so they feel good about the relationship — and about how you’re impacting their lives.

So when you think about how...

Hey guys, as a real estate broker, we all know we should be recruiting every day. But sometimes we get caught in a mental trap—thinking that being overly assertive or aggressive with potential recruits is the way to get results.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to recruit.

The right way is by creating relationships, building value in your conversations, and genuinely developing friendships with agents in the marketplace. When you do this effectively, making calls, sending texts, or emails doesn’t feel “salesy”—it feels natural because you’ve built a connection.

The wrong way is sending cold texts, emails, or voicemails repeatedly without making any meaningful connection. Eventually, people shut down, and you hit a brick wall—you’ll never break through.

Start from a position I call “no recruiting.” Don’t start with a recruiting pitch. Build a relationship first. The worst thing you can do is try to sell too early.

We’ve all experienced it—walking into a car lot or furniture stor...

What is your real estate company worth right now? What would you sell it for?

I ask because many people tell me, “I don’t want to do this forever. At some point, I want to escape. I want to sit on a beach with a margarita in my hand. I don’t want to die with a pen in my hand at a desk.”

My answer is always the same: Your company is not worth what it should be today.

Here’s why:

For a company to be truly profitable, it needs experienced agents. The more experienced agents you have, the more sales you generate and the more profit you create.

So, what is a real estate company worth? The answer depends on market conditions, how long your agents have been with you, your brand, and other factors. But in general, companies are valued at two to five times net income.

Now, what if you don’t have net income? Then your company is worthless. In fact, 70-90% of real estate companies in America today fall into that category.

How do I know? Because the brokerage owner still has to sell real es...

Quick question: Have you put your sphere of influence to work? If not, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

Think of your sphere as a massive sales army. Maybe you have 100 people, maybe 200, maybe 500. But are you actually putting them to work?

That means programming their reticular activator—the brain’s pattern recognition system—to look for real estate opportunities. We all have it, and you can tap into it. I’ll give you two simple techniques.

First technique:

When you’re talking to someone this week, try this script:

“Here’s a crazy stat that might blow your mind—within the next two weeks, you’re going to hear of someone who wants to buy or sell real estate. You might not think so because you’re not tuned in to it, but just watch. And when you do, think of me. If you can, I’d love for you to send me that referral.”

What happens? Almost inevitably, they’ll hear about someone buying or selling a house within the next couple of weeks.

For the second strategy, say this:

“As we he...

If you're a real estate broker, I want you to do something the next time you're in a grocery store. Look at the shelves and notice how many products say new and improved.

Now apply that to your own real estate company. Ask yourself: What about my company, what I'm offering to agents in this market, is new and improved?

If you can’t think of anything, neither can your current agents—and certainly no one outside your company can either. But this is the secret sauce.

We often think recruiting is all about commission splits. It’s not. If the lowest split was all that mattered, then the operator with the lowest split in your market would have every agent working for them—and we know that’s not true.

So what is attracting agents to join one company over another? It’s the tools, the technology, the services, the support, and most importantly—which company they believe can help them close more transactions at the end of the day.

Here’s the challenge: What can you roll out every quarter th...

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 ...

I've got a question for you as an office leader or team leader:

Do you have a recruiting website?

Most of the people I coach—office leaders and team leaders across the country—don’t. It's just not something they've thought about.

But having a recruiting website is important.

When someone starts to consider joining your company, they’ll do a little Google search. They’ll check out your website. They’ll look to see if it looks professional, if it feels like a good fit, and if it reflects who they are.

Now, if you also have a recruiting website—or at least a dedicated recruiting page—they can dive into the value your company offers without needing to talk to you just yet.

That’s powerful. A lot of agents are nervous about making that first contact. They don’t want to jump on a call right away. You can make it easier by creating a recruiting page on your website—or even a separate website entirely—dedicated to recruiting.

The most important part of that page?

Outlining your entire ...

I want to give you a strategy to start using every day in your office.

As you're walking through the halls and having conversations with your agents, follow those conversations up by asking, "How’s your pipeline?"

You’re communicating to your team that you care about their performance and want to help them reach the next level in their business.

By asking those magic words—"How’s your pipeline?"—you’re going to unlock a lot of meaningful conversations.

People will say things like:

• "I wish I was doing better"
• "I feel like I'm underperforming"
• "My last listing just sold"
• Or "I’ve only got one escrow left and I’m worried about paying the bills"

You’re going to hear a lot of that. And that’s exactly what you want.

Don’t avoid those conversations… go straight at them.

Because if you’re not having that talk, someone else is... and that someone is likely trying to recruit your agents by offering them a solution.

You are going to be that solution.

When an agent shares a challe...