In my career, and teaching the ABR® class, the Accredited Buyer Representation class, one of the biggest objections you'll get from a buyer is, "hey, I think I'm going to work with the listing agent directly. I think I can save a few dollars, and I'm pretty tight on my budget, so I think I'm going to try to do that."

What do you say to that? What's your response to that?

Well, it's a valid concern, especially in today's buyer agent world where buyers may have to write a check. Of course, we know that's not super common today. It might be in the future, but in today's environment it's not super common.

So my response to that is very simple. I would say:

"Hey, listen, I totally understand. If that's what you want to do, more power to you. But can I ask you a question—other than the commission, do you see any other benefit from doing that?"

Most people say, well, not really. And that's where you follow up with this:

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"So I just want to plant a seed for you. I want you to think ab...

As an office leader, a brokerage owner, is having teams in your building, teams on your roster, a good idea or a bad idea?

So when you look at this from the outside perspective, and I'm somebody that's been in the business for 36 years, I've owned a network of 17 offices, I've run billion-dollar companies, and so I've had a lot of teams working for me over those years.

And I will tell you that teams overall can add a lot to your company because they help you with market share. There's going to be a tremendous amount of market share growth that they're going to bring to the table.

So do you make a lot of money on a team? Usually not. Usually they're on the lowest splits coming to the company. They take up a lot of resources. They can actually take up a lot of real estate in your office.

So on a profitability scale, not great. But on a market share scale, fantastic.

So we have to ask ourselves—we need to have the right mix. We have to run a lawnmower or a piece of equipment that req...

When you're turning a page with your company and saying, “We want to take our business to the next level. We want to grow. We want to have a year of growth,” what does that actually mean in practical terms? How do you put that into motion in a real, meaningful way?

The first step is to set goals for your firm. You need recruiting goals. You need listing goals. You need sales goals, and you need closing goals.

The recruiting goals fall squarely on your shoulders. You have to figure that out. You have to dive in and work a system, a program, a path to performance. We give you that through the brokerage coaching we offer.

But the other three goals—sales goals, listing goals, and closing goals—are the responsibility of the entire team.

It still falls on your shoulders as a leader, but it also falls on the shoulders of everyone who works for you.

Here’s what you should do, and what most brokers do not do. You need to ask, “What is our closing goal? What are we trying to do on a monthly...

For you agents out there, I’ve got a question: have you mapped home anniversaries for your entire database?

What does that mean? When we help someone buy a home, we automatically record the closing date in our CRM. If you haven’t been doing that, start now. If you haven’t done it for your whole career, go back and do it for every house you’ve ever sold.

When that anniversary date comes up—January, February, March, April, May, whenever—you now have a reason to call those clients and say, “Hey, happy six-year home anniversary. Can you believe it’s already been six years?”

Then you say, “Guess what? It’s your turn for a home equity analysis. I like to update all my friends on how much money they’ve made on their house over the last 12 months.”

You tell them, “Here’s what you’ve made. Percentage-wise, it looks like about $22,000.”

That’s a great present to get every year. Your clients will love this.

Second, you follow it up by saying, “By the way, if you know anybody buying or selli...

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, is it better to be a renter or a homeowner in today’s world? Especially with the rise of digital nomads and people wanting maximum flexibility—being able to live anywhere and work from anywhere.

There’s a strong attraction for that lifestyle, especially for Gen Z. Some in real estate worry: “Will Gen Z still buy homes like Gen X did?”

The reality is in the numbers, and we need to educate them.

Here’s a stark comparison: the average homeowner has 43 times the net worth of the average renter.

Average renter: ~$10,000 net worth

Average homeowner: ~$430,000 net worth

The reasons are many, but the number one factor is leverage.

Let me give you an example. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article comparing real estate to the stock market. They said if you had invested in the S&P 500 over the last 30 years instead of buying a house, you would have made more money.

That’s misleading, because they ignored leverage. Let’s break it down:

Imagine someone gives you $...

Brokerages owners, you’ve probably heard me talk about this before, but I want to give you a different spin on it.

When I’m talking to agents, I give them what I call my “4-1-1-1 Strategy.”

For them, that means:

1. Lead generate for one hour a day
2. Set one appointment a day
3. Go on one appointment a day
4. Add one new person to their sphere of influence each day

If agents do that consistently, they’ll see transformation in their business within 30 days.

But what if I told you, as a brokerage owner, that you could apply your own version of the 4-1-1-1 Strategy to create transformation for yourself?

Here’s what I’ve found: the most successful recruiters in the country—the ones consistently bringing on experienced agents month after month—operate just like top-producing agents.

Most of their recruits—70%, 80%, sometimes even 90%—come as referrals from people already in their office. They’ve built such strong relationships that their agents become evangelists, out there singing their ...

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...

Brokerage owners and team leaders, I want you to start watching for something, and I want you to be opportunistic. That might sound negative, but it’s not.

As an office leader, you have a duty to yourself, your business, your family, and your colleagues. That duty is to recruit consistently. One of the easiest ways to do that is to be opportunistic in a positive way.

What does that mean? Look for trigger events.

Trigger events in your community could be:

• An office leadership change at XYZ Company
• A brand change
• A staffing shakeup
• A technology challenge

I hear about these things all the time, and when they happen, they give me a reason to engage with that company.

For example, I might ask in my office, “Do you know anyone who works at XYZ? They’re having some changes over there. I’d like to reach out.”

Then I’ll make the call:

“Hey, I understand there’s been some changes at your company. I’ve always been impressed with your work. You’re probably very happy where you are—a...

Did you know that half the listings in America aren’t selling? Yes—half.

That takes us back to the old-school days. When I first started in real estate with Century 21, I proudly wore the gold coat. I had to buy it myself, so it was a big accomplishment. Back then, I attended a class called the Two-to-One Class. The theory was simple: for every two listings you took, only one would sell. A 50% sales rate.

Now, imagine meeting with a seller and saying:

“Good news—I’ll do my best to get your home sold. Bad news—I’m only successful about half the time.”

How do you think they’d respond? Probably not too excited. I realized quickly I didn’t want a 50% failure rate—I wanted 100% success. That meant changing the conversation.

Here’s the script I used:

“Mr. Seller, you may not realize this, but in today’s market only about 50% of listings are selling. That’s unacceptable to me. I want to sell 100% of the listings I take. But that requires us to have a different kind of conversation. I ca...