Real Estate's Naughty & Nice List of 2025

The Naughty & Nice List of Real Estate in 2025... 

aka The massive Agent Christmas Special 🎄

This week, I'm giving you the real estate naughty and nice list of 2025.

Real people, real behaviors, and real business moves that either helped agents win this year, or quietly held agents back.

I also share a powerful Christmas Eve closing story that explains why thoughtfulness beats expensive gifts, why clients remember how you make them feel, and how small intentional actions can lock in loyalty for years.

In this episode, you'll learn: 

• Why chasing shiny objects keeps agents stuck in the same place
• Which agents are quietly putting themselves in a position to win
• Legacy brokerages that refused to adapt and paid the price
• Why waiting for lower rates was a losing strategy
• How systems, content, and brand building separated winners from everyone else
• The danger of blaming the market instead of owning your outcomes
• Brokerages that over-extracted while under-delivering
• The rise of agent-led communities and events that actually create growth
• Law firms attacking commissions while demanding 10x the commission themselves
• A few very personal additions to my own naughty & nice list this year

This episode is part reflection, part accountability, and part wake-up call heading into 2026.

If you want next year to look different, this one is worth your time.

🎁 Christmas Gift to Yourself

I’m hosting a free masterclass showing agents how to build a client-generating machine that produces five or more closings every month without buying leads.

Register at www.ClientsFromSocial.com

Merry Christmas.

I’ll see you next year with Episode 419 on New Years Day!

***********************
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:34

This week I'm breaking down the naughty and nice list in real estate for this last year. It is our Christmas special. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

The massive agent podcast. Lead generation tips and strategies to get you more leads and sell more homes.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

I love to buy houses. I like to sell houses.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Wait a minute. Leads a week. I've said better. Oh, have I got your attention now? Here's your host, Dustin Brome.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

What is up, guys? Welcome to episode 418 of the Massive Agent Podcast. I am your host, Dustin Brome here in Christmassy Salt Lake City. Merry Christmas. This episode, if you're listening on Christmas morning, God bless you. I mean, you're you're amazing. This is uh this comes out on Christmas. So if you're listening after the fact, Merry Christmas. Hope you had an amazing time. And if you can, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see my incredible Massive Agent Podcast Christmas sweater that I busted out last year. I forgot about it until this morning. And what perfect timing. So if you're watching on YouTube, check this out. Like does it get any better than that? I don't think it gets any better than that. That's fantastic. I gotta change the focus on my camera. Okay. Welcome to the Christmas special. I have a naughty and nice list. I've been looking at what's happened in real estate over the last year. And I've got a naughty and nice list. Some there's some people or some concepts, it's not all people, that should have had a stocking full of coal this year. And others, I hope you got everything you asked for. So let's uh let's break down the naughty and nice list. But before that, I cannot think of a better Christmas gift to yourself in the spirit of this Christmas season. I can't think of a better Christmas gift to give yourself than to attend my new five new closings a month master class that I put together. I'm hosting this masterclass. It's completely free to attend. Give yourself the gift of five, six, seven, eight new closings a month every month for free that you don't have to pay for because you built a machine that attracts them. All you got to do is uh go register at clientsfromsocial.com. My Christmas gift to you. Enjoy. Uh I'm gonna tell you a quick story before I get into the naughty and nice list of a closing that I had where they took possession on Christmas Eve. Actually, it was like Christmas Eve evening. It was wild and it was snowing. So obviously, this was back when I was still personally uh doing transactions, but it was probably 10 years ago or so. And this couple, uh, they they had amazing people, but they were very specific about what they wanted, and they started looking, and I want to say August, and it they got under contract on two different places, ended up getting cold feet for a couple different reasons. Uh, you know the whole thing. And finally they found a place. It was uh a condo, uh a top floor condo, uh, incredible corner unit, like super cool uh vaulted ceilings, all that good stuff. And they loved it. We had to pull some strings, but we got it under contract. And as we were looking at the deadlines, we're like, okay, when can we close? They wanted to be in before Christmas. The lender said, Yeah, it's kind of tight, but let's see what we can do. And it worked for the seller because they had already moved out. They're like, whatever, you know, the sooner the better. So it ended up recording, it ended up recording the afternoon of the 23rd, and then on the 24th, we were able to get them the keys. Uh there was a whole thing with getting the keys and all that, even though it recorded 24 hours prior, they got the keys 24 hours later. I met them over there as it was snowing on Christmas Eve. They brought a tree with them, like they're walking up the stairs with a couple of their couple of their bags with a tree. I don't think they stayed there that night. They didn't move in that night, but they brought a little tree there. But uh, they started their family there shortly thereafter. It's super cool story. But one thing that I took away from that Christmas Eve closing, the Christmas Eve possession, when it was snowing in Salt Lake and it was dark, and it was seriously like 6 p.m. I think it was about 6 p.m. that I met them over there because I had to hurry home to be with my family. But what's super cool is they called me, I'd say it's two years later, to sell that house. And the reason they did, or the reason that they remembered me and stayed loyal to me and all that, of course I stayed in touch with them. They saw me on social media and all of that, but I made a deep personal connection with them that I didn't realize that I had made until they brought me over to look at the place to list it. What I had done on that Christmas Eve, because I'm like, I got to get him a gift, and I didn't just want to get him a gift card or a TV or something like that. I wanted it to be thoughtful. And so the the husband, uh, part of their pickiness was he loved a certain number. I probably should have looked this up. I forget the number, but it was the number of his favorite baseball player. I'm I'm looking it up right now, actually, uh, who played for the Chicago Cubs, Ryan Sandberg. What number are you? Ryan? I'm trying to find a picture with uh with a number. But he wanted that jersey number in the address of the house. And so even though they found some places that were incredible, uh they, you know, he's like, uh, I'd really like for this number to be in the address. Okay, 23. It was number 23. That's right. Number 23, uh, which was cool because they closed on the 23rd. And yes, that was a big deal. Um, they didn't get possession until the next day. But regardless, I thought, okay, I know that he loves the Cubs. I know that he loves this particular baseball player. So I just like looked on Amazon, I just typed in the name of the player, and I found like a starting lineup action figure thing. If you you dudes remember the starting lineups, it was still in the plastic, and and it was Ryan Sandberg. And I'm like, it was like$15 or something. And I'm like, uh, I should probably spend more, but I think he'll like it. Maybe I should get him like a Cubs baseball or something. But I'm like, but he has all that stuff. So I got it for him, and I'm like, he's probably just gonna, you know, put it on a shelf somewhere and uh, you know, think it's cool, but whatever. Because I I I thought, like, you know, dummy, that the amount you spend on a gift somehow has any uh influence over how impactful or important or uh cherished that gift will be. Really doesn't. So I come back to that uh to to check their place out to list it. He's like, I gotta show you something. He brings me into his bedroom. They have a shelf, and on that shelf was the Ryan Sandberg starting lineup action figure, and he's like, Do you remember that? You remember that? And I was like, Yeah, yeah, I do. I'm like, I'm glad to see you like it. He's like, Like it. I had been searching for years to try to find one, but they were always sold out, or on eBay, someone wanted like 150 bucks for them. Somehow I found it on Amazon for like 15. And uh, and so that thoughtful gift, where I he knew that I was paying attention to him, I knew his favorite player, I knew he needed the number 23 to be in the address and all of that. And we even closed on the 23rd. We wrote it up that way. That's I'm it's all coming back to me now. I it I wrote 23rd as the closing deadline to appease him and make him happy. But that entire two years where they were living in the house, like I was their guy because of that thoughtful gift. And I got something for his wife, and I don't even remember because it wasn't nearly as thoughtful or as impactful, apparently. But that one little thoughtful action solidified me in their mind as their agent. So they did not interview anyone else. They didn't think about anyone else. They're like, up, we're we're we're having kids now, we need more size. This apartment isn't gonna work. We need to sell. They called me an only me. So there's a moral of the story in there. You guys can pick it up. Let's get into the naughty and nice list of 2025, shall we? Uh now, this isn't personal, okay? It's just it's accountability. It's not personal, it's accountability and honesty. Some people or some systems, some things, some zy some things helped agents win in 2025, and others absolutely did not. Let's start with the naughty list. Actually, I'm gonna alternate. I'll go naughty, nice, naughty, nice, naughty nice. And I think I have about the same. Yeah. Okay, so naughty list. Number one agents who chase shiny objects all year. You are on my naughty list. You get coal. Unfortunately, the coal in your life is lack of results. It's still being in the same place or even sliding backwards. It's still struggling, still not having built a brand, still not having a consistent client-generating machine. If you're just bouncing from one thing to another thinking that's going to be your magic bullet, I promise you, you've already gone through 10 magic bullets. Every single one of those could have been your magic bullet had you just stuck with it and gotten really freaking good at it. Or just kept doing it long enough to actually see success in it, like direct mail, for example, email marketing, like door knocking, all of it, social media content. People usually don't reach out the first time they see you, but if they see you over and over and over and over and they like you, and you teach them something, you're interesting, and you you educate them, that's it's multiple touches. You should all know that by now, that it's all about the touches. So if you're chasing shiny objects all year, you're resetting the clock at zero every time you do something new, stop it. The nice list. Selfish agents, selfish agents are number one on my nice list. Meaning agents that put themselves first, put themselves in a position to win this year. You thought selfishly about your business, about the brokerage you do it at, about the model of your business, who you service, what you charge for your services, all of that stuff. If you you're on my nice list, if you actually proactively and intentionally thought about, okay, here's what I want to do. This isn't working, let's do this instead. Uh, I just paid my broker$60,000 this year. Uh, that doesn't work for me. I'm gonna go over to this brokerage where I'm only gonna pay$18,000 or whatever, and that was a good move. The selfish agents, that if you put yourself in a position to win and you made wise business decisions and not emotional ones, you're on my nice list. Naughty list number two, legacy brokerages that refuse to adapt. Yeah, there's a couple of those. Outdated technology or lack thereof, bloated overhead. This is why Compass was able to acquire anywhere and why anywhere needed to be acquired, which is Coldwell, Century, ERA, Better Homes and Gardens, blah, blah, blah. They had so much overhead, all these leases on offices that nobody really goes to anymore. And these brokerages with zero innovation, and it led to acquisition being the only option to save the company. So, I mean, respect to their leaders for realizing that, but that sucks. Legacy brokerages, or even teams that refuse to adapt with the times and adopt new technology and new ways of doing things. You're on my naughty list. Nice list number two, agents who built systems, content, and a brand. You know why you're on my nice list? Because if you did that consistently, you are thriving so much more now than you were at the beginning of the year. Hmm. There's a takeaway there. Okay. Naughty list number three, waiting for lower rates to save you. Yeah, how'd that go? For you guys that have been, even if it's it's probably subconscious, uh, most agents aren't sitting there thinking, you know what, I'm I'm just gonna sit here and I think that rates are gonna change by next week. So I'm not really gonna, I'm not gonna commit to doing that, I'm not gonna commit to doing that, I'm not gonna invest in that course or that program, I'm not gonna get a coach, I'm not gonna, because rates are gonna come down. It's usually a subconscious thing, but if you are at all at any level waiting for the market to come roaring back before you can be successful again, you're on my shit list, not just my naughty list. What are you doing? You have to take control of your business. If you if you are letting your success be dictated by any outside force, how's that going for you? How's that been going for you? And I bet if you continue, it's gonna continue going just that way. So stop it. Nice list. My videographer. I hired a videographer back in March, Aaron Norris, incredible. Thank you, Aaron. He he's he's been learning on the job, which is awesome. Um, he's traveled with me to certain events and stuff, and you know, uh most of what we do is my vision and my idea, and I just kind of direct it and then he makes it happen. And that's super cool. But I'm watching him progress over time. He's getting better, he's coming up with ideas, he um, he's learning, he's getting faster at editing for sure. But if you've seen, if you follow me on Instagram or TikTok and you think that my content has improved in quality and all that over the last year, it's because of Aaron and you know, honestly, me hiring a videographer, which allows me to do so much more content, do so much better content, and you know, just level up my entire brand. And it has. So when you get more impressions, when you get more views overall, and you're just seen more often and you have decent stuff, your brand grows. And it's led to more speaking opportunities, uh, it's led to uh partnerships, it's led to all sorts of agents that that I partnered with within my organization, all that stuff. So shout out to Aaron Norris, my videographer. You are on my nice list. Uh I was about to go to the next one. Okay. Naughty list. This is kind of the same as the last one. I don't know what I was thinking. Agents that blame the market. It's kind of the same as waiting for rates to save you. Now, if you blame the market for why you slid backwards or you know weren't as successful or didn't hit your goals, I'm not I'm not saying that the market was not difficult. However, here's what I do know. Some agents doubled their sales in the same market. Some agents tripled, some agents 10x their sales and their income in the same time in the same market as you. So the the market's obviously not an excuse for them. It's just it's just weak. It's it's giving power away to some outside force, and that is not conducive to a thriving business. It's not conducive to success. So if you blame the market, stop it. You're on my naughty list. Next on my nice list, my man Tamir Poleg, the CEO and founder of Real. Not only is he an incredible human being, he's hilarious, by the way. He just is a hilarious guy, an incredible leader. Um I am so grateful for the business that he has built that I've been able to be a part of over the last almost two years. It has changed my family, changed my life dramatically, and changed literally thousands of other agents as a direct result. And it's crazy to see I know that I've talked to him about this and and he knows this, but when he started the company, he kicked over the first domino, and to see what that's become now with almost 32,000 agents in North America, and every one of those has a family, and it's just the ripple effect is incredible. So I'm super grateful to Tamir and to Joel and Jenna and Dre and Protesh and all the executives, all the leadership over at Real, all that the agent leadership, Brad, Tim, Katie, everybody, uh all my leaders in my organization, Randy, Kristen, Michael, Christian, uh, Matt, Neil, Candace, Sean, and on and on and on. Thank you guys for partnering with me, and it's just been fun. So I'm I'm having an absolute blast. I have never had this much fun in real estate ever than the last almost two years that I've been at Real. And that's super cool. Next, naughty list, brokerages over-extracting and under-delivering. Have you seen any anyone doing this where they raise the fees because their costs go up, but they did not raise the fees because they're giving more? They're not giving anything more. And sometimes they take away and they still raise the fees. I hear about this shit weekly, but multiple times a week, I hear about brokerages that are raising their fees, but they're not increasing the value at all. Sometimes they're taking away things. That's extraction. That big broker mentality is bullshit, and it's not necessary because not everybody plays by those rules. Not everybody thinks like that. And it's it's it's just wild. It's wild to see brokerages over-extracting from agents and under-delivering. And um, agents who are with those brokerages or continue to stay there as they over-extract, they're making a choice too. Like they're not victims in this, they're choosing to stay there. So, you know, uh, you're on my naughty list too for choosing that. But whatever. Like, you're a big boy, you're a big girl. Number whatever. The next one on my nice list, the further together events. So last year, uh it was it was Q, what, September, October. Yeah, September, October. Some of us agents got together and said, let's do an event that's not run by the company, it's just agent-led, and let's do 30 events in 30 days. We called it Further Together. I was the I led the one and organized the one in Salt Lake, and there were 29 plus other agents around the country who did these big further together events. It was brokerage agnostic, open to any agent at any brokerage, and it was a huge success. And they're gonna be happening again all over the country in what I want to say, like uh it's in Q1. I want to say January, late January, into February. They're gonna be happening again. There might even be more of them. So look for those further together events. Those are incredible. I from the one that we did in Salt Lake, I had incredible feedback and it was fun. Met some great people. It's it's it's just cool when agents who are like-minded and entrepreneurial get together in the same place and they just talk and mastermind and learn from each other. Magic happens. Those are the rooms you need to be in. Moving forward, whenever whenever there's something like that, try to like. I know it's probably weird for some of you to be like, well, they say it's brokerage agnostic, but they're probably going to pitch us on joining their brokerage. Well, literally none of that happened at the Further Together events because that's not how we roll. That's not the intent, that's not the purpose. Ask anybody that went. It was not a real event. It was an event by agents, for agents, had nothing to do with brokerage. If you're with KW or Little Independent or whatever, you're welcome. And that's how it is. So get in more of those rooms because that's where you really start to level up because you see others doing big things and they freely share with you, and then you can fill in the missing pieces and do it yourself. Big stuff. Big stuff. Okay. The last one I've got for the naughty list. And I actually have two extra nice ones. Okay, cool. I have more nice than naughty. The last on the naughty list, law firms taking 40% while screaming about real estate's three and 3% and 6% commissions. The law firms trying to take down brokerages, the law firms trying to take down NAR, the law firms trying to take down Zillow, the law firms trying to take down Zillow Flex teams, the law firms trying to take down real estate in general because they see we are a big target. There's blood in the water. Let's go after these commissions and make these assholes look so greedy and attack their commissions. Our three or six percent commissions are greedy, while these freaking law firms are taking 40%. So, yep. Uh big lump of coal for you. Yeah. But guess what? They're winning the PR battle with that, which is wild. Which is absolutely wild. They are winning the messaging battle, the PR battle, the marketing battle. It's almost like we need someone at an organization that represents realtors who could counter that. Wouldn't that be nice? I know. Wishful thinking. All right, let's finish off with a nice list. My wife for putting up with for putting up with me, for uh picking up the slack whenever I needed to work longer days or whenever like I was launching my master class and it was just, you know, all day, every day creating, planning, strategizing, putting stuff together, recording, taking the kids to do jujitsu and gymnastics like I normally do. She picked up the slack in so many ways because we are a team. Uh my wife is absolutely incredible. So uh, babe, you are on my nice list. For sure. At the top. At the top, of course. And last on the nice list, I have an incomplete note here. It says agents who have already. Yeah, so if you're an agent who has already, you're also on my nice list, whatever the hell that means. So, okay, cool. Well, well, there's that. Who's on your nice list? Who's on your naughty list? I hope that you are on your own nice list, because if you're not in your own corner, who The hell it's gonna be. 2026 is here. I know that this is the Christmas special, uh, which is funny. The next episode comes out on New Year's Day. Well, what an amazing lineup calendar-wise for holidays for a podcaster where downloads the download numbers, the analytics get decimated when your show is released on a holiday because far few people listen on holidays because it's like they're out of their routine, right? So we we have Christmas, we have New Year's, and then we had Thanksgiving all on Thursdays this year. That's fantastic. Uh but I do this for you. If this was helpful, if this was entertaining, share it with a friend, share it with another agent, share it with your broker, your team leader, share it in a Facebook group or your Instagram story, uh, tag me and let me know that you enjoyed this episode, and I will keep coming back every single freaking week, like I have for eight years now with another new episode for you. I'll be back on New Year's Day with episode 419. Do yourself a favor before this year ends, attend my new free master class showing you how to get five new closings every single month on autopilot for free. I break down the system, I show you how to do it. All you gotta do is go to clientsfromsocial.com. In fact, I got a text yesterday. I think it did I read this on my episode. I might have read this on the last episode, I can't remember. But I got a text yesterday that uh oh, here we go. Okay. I got a text from somebody that went to this masterclass. They said, you probably won't believe this, but I have a new buyer already. Smiley face. And five more convos just from just one post. Just followed your advice in the webinar, fire emoji. So I guess it's gone okay, haha. I want that for you. Sometimes, sometimes it's you're just missing something that you don't know you're missing. You don't know what you don't know. So attend my masterclass completely free. It's 30 minutes long because I go in detail and I set it up properly so that you take action at the end. It's not just here's some information. If you just needed information, you would have already done it. You need some information and implementation. And that's what my masterclass is designed to do is to lead you to take action with that new information. So go to clientsfromsocial.com and register today and attend my master class. Merry Christmas. I will see you next year.