7 Ways to Keep Deals Together

One out of four deals nationwide fell apart in 2025.

That's not bad luck. That's bad systems.

In this episode, we break down the 7 things top producers do differently to hold deals together when everyone else is watching them collapse.

What you'll learn: 

→ The pre-offer conversation that eliminates 90% of fallout 

→ Why pre-inspections flip the power dynamic in your favor 

→ The payment shock mistake killing deals before they close 

→ How to hold your client accountable without losing the relationship 

→ The communication rhythm that keeps panicked clients grounded

Plus: A real story about a septic nightmare that should have killed a deal, and how two strong agents saved it anyway.

If you're tired of doing all the work just to watch deals die at the finish line, this one's for you.

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Transcript

Mike Novak:

[0:33] Alright, welcome to 2026, first podcast of the year. Excited to be back, you know, back from a

little bit of time off. And back talking about things that matter to people. You know, we asked a lot of

questions to buyers, sellers, agents, like what matters to you on this topic definitely came up a fair

amount. So today we're going to talk about the ways that you can keep deals together. We're going

to give you seven tactical ways to do so. So if you're an agent listening to this, you may use these

to better position your transactions to make sure they close. If you're a buyer or seller, these are

maybe things that you want to be thinking about and understanding that are coming your direction

from your agent and kind of what your agent's mindset is as they're guiding you through these

different frameworks. But the big issue that we saw in 2025, and we didn't really experience this as

a team, like our contract fallout rate was about 5%, but nationwide, it was more like 25%, which

means one out of every four deals that went under contract came back on the market, which is

really, really high.

Rachael Novak:

[1:35] That's significant. Yeah. Especially compared to the last five, 10 years before that.

Mike Novak:

[1:39] Yeah. And so there's a lot of reasons for that. Obviously, there was nationwide, like a lot of

shift happening in the market. The inventory was rising pretty quickly. Prices were softening.

Buyers had some ability to negotiate they didn't previously have. Sellers maybe had some missed

expectations thinking they still controlled the market. So it was kind of a melting pot of just

misaligned expectations between buyers and sellers that I think really led up to this issue. But it's

something you don't want to have continue on into 2026. I think there's a lot of things you can do to

minimize that 25% follow rate and get it to more like what our team is doing, like more like 5%. Like

some deals are still going to fall apart.

Rachael Novak:

[2:19] Of course.

Mike Novak:

[2:20] But there's a lot of things you can do, way before you ever go into contract to try to really

increase your odds of that deal actually closing, which is what the agent wants. It's what the buyer

or seller wants as well. You know, like that no one enters a contract hoping it's going to fall apart.Rachael Novak:

[2:34] Well, and I think that that's probably like a big shift that a lot of agents or maybe, you know, a

buyer or seller needs to kind of think about because I think there were a lot of agents that go into it

and they're talking people into writing offers with this contingency, like, oh, there's multiple ways to

get out. Like if you don't like something, so almost giving them an out, like an excuse before we

even get in, as opposed to really challenging, like if all factors fall into place, is this the house you

really want? Right? Like, so I think that's a really important part of it as well.

Mike Novak:

[3:04] Yeah, absolutely. That's a good one. So let's jump right into it. The first solution to keep deals

together is to set better expectations with your client. And this starts in the initial consultation. So

whether if it's a listing appointment or a buyer consultation, there should be a time where you sit

down as the authority of a professional, and the person who's got experience doing this dozens, if

not hundreds of times, and really lays out like, what does this process look like from start to finish?

Rachael Novak:

[3:29] Exactly. Yeah. Like having, being able to go through the roadmap of exactly what it is, you

know, we break ours down into four different phases. Obviously, we suggest you the same if you've

bought in or part of our masterclasses, we actually give you that for free and editable version for

you to actually take in R&D. But that's a really important thing for them to know. They're not going

to retain all the information, right? As an agent, when you're explaining something in the initial

consultation, you want to hit the big things like the next steps first. But to be able to give them the

entire roadmap, the entire view, gives them at least it puts it in their brain so that as we go through

the process and we're referencing things, they're able to kind of go back and access those files that

were planted in their months before. Right.

Mike Novak:

[4:09] What happens when you don't do this is something comes up and the buyer seller didn't

expect it was going to happen. And people don't do well with surprises, especially when there's lots

of dollar signs behind those surprises. Right. They tend to react very emotionally and it can be hard

to ground back out an emotional client, you know, like it takes time and a lot of counseling to get

people back to logic. Yeah.

Rachael Novak:

[4:31] If you haven't set clear expectations for the upfront costs getting into a contract for a buyer,

right? They don't know about how much earnest money to expect. If they don't know about how

much an inspection costs or a well water test, there are so many things that you need to make sure

that you're setting the expectation for the buyers and for buyers for you to know. Like i i don't

necessarily get into homes with zero dollars right even if closing costs are covered in things so like

when those if you don't know about those things if you're not setting expectation for those things

that is the first change you absolutely need to make is to set better expectations there yep.

Mike Novak:

[5:07] So like rach said um you know we've got a buyer and seller master class it's 58 modules long

it shares with you what our exact process is for these consultations you can grab that um we'll put alink below where you can go check that out uh it's 497 Super cheap for literally, you know, 1,500

transactions worth of experience.

Rachael Novak:

[5:24] Our entire business.

Mike Novak:

[5:25] Anyways, okay. The second one is sellers. You should be pre-inspecting your listing in almost

every case. I mean, I can't really think of a case where it doesn't make sense to do this. The reason

why obviously is to know if there's issues with the home before you put it on the market. It gives

you a chance to fix those problems. It also increases the chances that the buyer waives their

inspection contingency. And we should talk about that for just a minute. And every state's a little bit

different, but in Washington state where we live, the inspection contingency in the contract is a very

loose contingency. There's no requirement to even inspect the home. The buyer can back out for

any reason they want during that period of time. So if you can eliminate that as a possible

contingency, the odds of closing that transaction go up astronomically higher.

Rachael Novak:

[6:05] Yes, exactly.

Mike Novak:

[6:07] And buyers typically will feel comfortable doing that if they know what they're getting, Like,

waiving an inspection contingency without seeing an inspection is going to be very scary for a lot of

people, even though it was really common, like 2020 and 2021. But if they know what they're

getting, that's a lot more of a sure thing.

Rachael Novak:

[6:22] Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, to your point, you know, I think there were different markets

where the demand was so insane that sellers maybe didn't need to in order to transfer the property.

In a normal market, like one that we're in now even, like even though it feels abnormal because it's

different than it felt before COVID or before those years. As a seller, if you know that you've

maintained the home really, really well, if you know you're a very conscientious homeowner, then

spending $450 to $500 on an inspection will solidify the fact that you have taken good care of the

home, and it will then breed confidence in every buyer and buyer agent that comes along to

potentially offer. If you haven't necessarily, taking good care of everything, and you're not exactly

sure what you should address. That's exactly how we use it as a tool in the pre-listing phase with

our clients. Let's go get an inspection. Let's figure out what things maybe need to be addressed.

That way we can prioritize what funds we're actually allocating toward the different projects around

the home so that we can present with the highest value to potential buyers when we do list.

Mike Novak:

[7:27] Yeah, makes total sense. So what about the people that have like a beat up kind of run down

a home. They're afraid to get it pre-inspected because they know there's bringing problems.

Rachael Novak:

[7:35] I mean, that's absolutely a lot of the people that we see, right? I mean, we work with a lot ofsellers who've lived in their home for 20 or 25 years. They know they haven't done all the things

that they, quote, should have done to the home to continue to maintain it. This is very normal, and

that's totally okay. Again, the goal is to understand what needs to be done with the home so that

you can either fix it if you have the funds or price it so that buyers know what they're getting. It's not

a negative to price a home based on the condition that it's in. That's actually a real positive

because that way your home's not gonna sit on the market forever. The buyer is then not gonna

find something in their inspection period, which would then flip the contract, right? It would come

out of contract because the buyer wasn't aware of these major items. When you're able to disclose

them, it's actually a stronger contract when you go under.

Mike Novak:

[8:22] Yeah, so just because there's an issue doesn't mean you have to fix it. It just means that you

need to disclose it.

Rachael Novak:

[8:26] Exactly.

Mike Novak:

[8:27] And the buyer needs to know what they're getting. Again, that's all about having like really

clear expectations on both sides before you enter into a contract, you know?

Rachael Novak:

[8:34] That's exactly right.

Mike Novak:

[8:34] So yeah, definitely important. Okay, number three is having your lender run a specific

scenario on a home before you put an offer in. I'm talking to you buyers and to you buyer agents

right now. I feel like this one is super obvious, but man, I saw this mistake a lot in 2025 where

people put offers in and they go under contract. and then they see what their payment is for the first

time for some reason the next day and they get sticker shock. They're like, holy crap, I didn't know

my payment was going to be this high. And they back out of the contract, usually using an

inspection contingency. That happened a lot.

Rachael Novak:

[9:08] I want to say that was probably the majority of that 25%. A lot of people seeing that sticker

shock, not knowing how that 6% correlates to this purchase price and them not liking what they

saw.

Mike Novak:

[9:21] Right, so there's a couple things that you need to do, and this is a totally avoidable mistake,

by the way. Buyer agents, this should never happen under your watch. If you're a buyer, what you

should do is you, when you get pre-approved, you should understand what your max approval

looks like in real dollars, not just like, Hey, you're approved for $700,000, but Hey, you're approved

for $700,000. Here is how much your down payment and closing costs are going to be. And here's

what your monthly payment is going to be with taxes and insurance.Rachael Novak:

[9:46] With everything. Well, on this specific property.

Mike Novak:

[9:48] Well, just like a scenario, like an initial scenario. And then the second part of that is when you

find a home you want to offer on before you put the offer on, send that property to the lender and

then have them run the specific scenario so that the unique taxes, maybe the HOA dues that might

be unique to that property, they're collected in that equation as well because taxes vary widely on

properties.

Rachael Novak:

[10:07] Yes, exactly. Based on county, location, all of that.

Mike Novak:

[10:11] So do it up front, kind of like a worst case scenario and then do it before you offer on the

home. Please do not wait to do it until you're under contract.

Rachael Novak:

[10:17] Exactly. Well, and, you know, buyers agents, this is another way to make sure that you're

doing a service and not wasting your client's time, right? If they know the scenario, if they know the

monthly number, like that is how buyers actually buy homes is based off of what their monthly

payment is going to be, not necessarily what the sticker price of the house is. So if you can know

the general scenario, the area that you're shopping in, and then be able to dial in that particular

house's HOA dues, taxes, insurance, all of the things, then you can very, very likely stay in contract

once you get under contract.

Mike Novak:

[10:55] Exactly.

Rachael Novak:

[10:55] Love it.

Mike Novak:

[10:56] Number four, reframe your relationship with the other agent. This is a really big one for the

mindset of a buyer's agent is really look at that listing agent like a partner, right? Obviously, you

both are going to be, you know, fiscally responsible for your business own clients, right? So you're

fiduciaries, but you can be friendly with each other. Like you don't have to be an asshole to the

other person just to like, feel like you're representing your client. Well, you know, we call this over

representing your client and it's never going to actually serve a client. Well, it just makes people not

want to do business with you. And you have to remember, like, this is a small industry. This is an

industry where the top 5% of agents do about 90% of the deals. So we remember you. And if it was

a good experience, remember that. If it was a bad experience, we definitely remember that as well.

And we all like working with agents that we know get deals done and are good to work with.

Rachael Novak:

[11:49] Absolutely. This cannot be stated more importantly. The relationship that you have with theother agent can absolutely make or break not just the client experience, but the actual transaction.

If you as a buyer agent come off too aggressive or very combative or condescending or in any way

trying to kind of one-up the other agent, that other agent is not going to play nicely. And what we

need, what we do in this industry is play nicely with others. Yes, that doesn't mean that we're going

to not look out for the interests of our clients because of course we are. But there is a way to

communicate, to negotiate, to posture, to, you know, set expectations with the other agent that is

professional and tactful and classy and has never, never, never has to go to a petty classless

place.

Mike Novak:

[12:47] The reason I think that this came up so much in the last year is honestly agents that were

really financially scared. Like they needed this deal to close so bad for their own family. Like they

were super emotionally attached to it. And so they kind of stopped thinking as the logical,

professional advisor. And they started thinking like, I need this to close, not like, you know, is this

the best thing for my client? And so that really shifts that conversation in a different way. So like

when you are financially unattached to the transaction, which is what you should be doing, like you

should be indifferent to whether it closes for you. You should be obsessed with that closing for your

client. That's when you become a much better agent to work with.

Rachael Novak:

[13:28] That's such a great point. Yeah. I mean, because how we work out, how our agents work on

our team, how we coach is to stay detached from the outcome, right? Obviously, we want all of our

deals to close. Obviously, we want all of our clients to win. But at the end of the day, if we're so

emotionally attached to that money that's attached to this transaction, then it's going to cloud our

judgment when it comes to actually representing our clients positively.

Mike Novak:

[13:52] Yeah.

Rachael Novak:

[13:52] What a great point.

Mike Novak:

[13:53] Number five is be ready to hold your own client accountable. And this is like maybe

something that newer agents don't fully understand. And like a lot of agents think that, Their main

job is to just represent their client to the other party, right? And that is definitely a big part of your

job. But the more challenging part of your job is often going to be keeping your client grounded in

reality and actually following through with what they agreed to do.

Rachael Novak:

[14:18] Yes.

Mike Novak:

[14:18] Right? People like to make things up. They like to create new realities that aren't actually

true. And they don't necessarily want to follow a contract. And so your job is to make sure thecontract is going to explain to them before they sign it. And then you have to hold their feet to the

fire to hold up their end of the bargain, which is that can result in very hard conversations.

Rachael Novak:

[14:38] That's absolutely true. I think this is also, you know, most important, again, when it comes to

like the inspection contingency, right? Like if we're putting an offer in on a home, we can see like

the things that we can see in the home. This offer is based off of those things that we can see. So if

a client then comes back during the inspection contingency, nothing big came up in the inspection

report except, oh, they mentioned that carpet is old. Like we were able to see, or they mentioned

that, you know, the appliances are older, like we are able to see when we're walking through the

home and your client says, well, I want to ask for an all new appliance suite. Well, no, let's pump

the brakes here a second. We made this offer with these terms based on the appliances that were

there, right? So it's things like that, like to be able to say to your client, no, no, no, this is what we

agreed to. This is what you've signed. We've talked through this. And if you aren't talking through

those things. And again, this comes back to number one, which is setting expectations with your

clients.

Mike Novak:

[15:33] Yeah. And if you're a buyer or seller and, you know, your agent has a hard conversation with

you and pulls you back to reality and what you've agreed to on something you don't want to do,

That's a good agent working for you. Like that agent is doing their job, whether you like it or not.

And they're trying to protect you legally. Like they're trying to keep you from getting sued in the

future or from losing your earnest money potentially. So listen to them. You know, like that's a sign

of a really strong agent. And I see a lot of passive agents, again, those agents that don't want the

deal to fall apart. So they think that just letting their client run rogue is the solution. And it actually

makes the whole situation like 10 times worse.

Rachael Novak:

[16:08] Absolutely true. Or like they'll, you know, their client is really pushy, really adamant about

something. Please just ask, just ask this. If it's something that is so outside of the contract that like

even asking is would almost be an insult to that other agent. You really need to think about having

that hard conversation with your client and say, I won't ask for that. And here's why. Right. You

signed this as part of the contract. It's not up for negotiation at this point. Yeah.

Mike Novak:

[16:33] That's a tough one, especially for newer agents. But I think this is really one that separates

average agents from exceptional agents.

Rachael Novak:

[16:42] And agents who stay in the industry for a long time. Because if you're constantly getting

pushed around by your clients, other agents know you as somebody who is not really able to coach

your clients, doesn't have your clients under control at all. Again, that's going to tie into the

relationship you have with other agents to do business.Mike Novak:

[16:59] This is one where when I'm on the listing side, I try to test on the buyer agents and see like,

what kind of control do they really have of their client before going under contract? And a lot of that

can be just gained from having a conversation with them.

Rachael Novak:

[17:10] Exactly.

Mike Novak:

[17:11] Exactly. When it comes to holding your client accountable, I just want to add one more thing.

The place to do this is not over text message. You're going to find that when clients get emotional,

they like to text. They like to hide behind it. And your job is to stop responding on text message and

call them direct.

Rachael Novak:

[17:25] Absolutely.

Mike Novak:

[17:26] Every time. And run towards that hard conversation. It has to happen voice to voice. It

cannot happen in a passive aggressive way, which is how most people like to do it. You have to

shift that conversation medium from text to an actual phone call or an in-person meeting. because

people are totally different when we get them on the phone.

Rachael Novak:

[17:42] I would also like to add too, as somebody who's worked with hundreds and hundreds of

clients and all sorts of different lifestyles, that if the client tends to get emotional or start sending

you radical text messages in the evening time, it may not be productive to call them, especially if

maybe they're drinking or maybe they're very tired after a very long day. Yes, you want to change

the state and you want to have that conversation, But sometimes it's better to let things lie if it's not

time sensitive and talk to them the next morning.

Mike Novak:

[18:14] Yeah, I think like a good cutoff is 7 p.m. Like if it comes in after 7 p.m., just let it lie there till

the next day and then pick it up. And you'll find that like 80 percent of the time the issue is no

longer an issue that next day because the person slept on it. They've calmed down. They're no

longer emotional. And now they've thought logically about it. But I also think it's important to have

some personal like draw of the line. Like respond to people from these hours to these hours.

Otherwise, you're just on 24-7. you know? All right. Number six, communicate more frequently.

Bare minimum, a call every week to your client explaining what's happening and what's happening

next. So here's what to expect this week. And again, this should not be the first time they've heard

about it. They heard about it when you first met with them, but we're recapping, right? And we're

just reinforcing this is what's going to happen now. And it just, again, it makes it predictable for

them. It keeps the surprises to a minimum. It's a very important thing to do.

Rachael Novak:

[19:01] Well, what happens, Michael, when you don't really have an update? There's not much thathas happened. What do you say when you call them?

Mike Novak:

[19:07] I just call and have a conversation with them.

Rachael Novak:

[19:09] Yes, exactly.

Mike Novak:

[19:10] Like, there's no script for it. It's just, it's literally just a human-to-human conversation.

Rachael Novak:

[19:13] This, and then I'm asking that because that's where people get tripped up, right? And I've

dealt with both administrative teammates and sales teammates that are like, well, what do I say?

What do I call? Literally call, like, hey, like, there's a lot going on behind the scenes, obviously.

There's not any action items for either of us to take right now, but how are you doing?

Mike Novak:

[19:29] Yeah.

Rachael Novak:

[19:29] That's an okay conversation to have.

Mike Novak:

[19:31] Yeah, and they appreciate that.

Rachael Novak:

[19:32] Absolutely.

Mike Novak:

[19:32] So commit to doing it. Number seven, stop quitting so easily. Like I see agents that are just

like, screw it. I'm throwing in the towel on this transaction. It's dead. And sometimes deals are

dead, but you want to make sure you've really exhausted every resource you have to close the

deal. I had two transactions in December and I thought they were both dead like three or four

times. And now they're both on track to close, which is kind of crazy. But like you can't just give up

on the transaction.

Rachael Novak:

[19:58] You know so and this this comes down to your ability to work with the other agent also right

the the ability to slow down the cadence of communication to not throw gas on the fire to bring

some logic and perspective to other agents because there are other good really good agents in our

market and if they come and they're posturing you know their negotiation position for the maximum

possible opportunity that their clients want and then your client reacts emotionally sometimes you

have to wait a day or two, talk them down, bring them down, and then come back with a different

kind of negotiation for them to find that middle ground, right? I think that's one thing that I've

experienced a lot, especially in the last year, year and a half, is that on the listing side, when buyers

come in and they just spit a lowball offer, a lot of sellers get very offended, and they get very upset,and they don't even want to respond. And I think that's when it's really important as an agent, like,

don't not respond. Like, don't let your client not respond. If you need to respond in kind of a cheeky

way, right, where the offer is so ridiculous, you're literally responding back with a full price counter,

do that. But for the most part.

Rachael Novak:

[21:06] Fine middle ground, like a win in a normal market, a win between a buyer and a seller

doesn't necessarily feel like a slam dunk for either side. There's compromise on either side. And

that is where the not quitting comes into play. Because as an agent, you know, our job is to solve

problems. It is to put puzzle pieces together for both sides to feel like it's an acceptable way

through, not that one side got a complete slam dunk win and the other side is totally getting

screwed. So I think that, you know, in a normal market like we're in now, that is a really important

perception and to have. Yeah.

Mike Novak:

[21:43] And I think the best way to do this is to start just mapping out options for whatever scenario

you're up against. You know, Sharon has a saying that if you don't know what your options are, you

have none. And so I think it's really important to think through, okay, like what are the three or four

different options that we have with this obstacle we're up against? It could be an inspection

negotiation, it could be an appraisal issue, it could be a septic issue, whatever. Like what are the

three or four different ways that we could get through this? And then try to think of the best strategy

for your client. You know, this is the time where like a really good mentor or a coach could maybe

be a sounding board for you and someone that's seen the same issue before how they got through

it. Because, you know, after you've done this long enough, you've seen just about everything that

can go sideways. And so that gives you the benefit of typically avoiding those potholes to even start

with, like just the way you structure deals. But they still do come up, you know, and so getting

someone who's been through what you're trying to work through can be very, very helpful.

Rachael Novak:

[22:32] Do you want to give your example of this one of the deals that you were able to keep

together, the septic issue?

Mike Novak:

[22:38] Yeah, I mean, obviously client confidentiality, so I'm not going to show any names or

anything like that, but we went under contract on a home and it was a very competitive home with

multiple offers, escalated well over list price. We ended up being the winning offer. And the home

was listed as a three-bedroom house. They had not inspected the septic yet. And so we had

waived all contingencies except the septic contingency, but we had released the earnest money to

the seller to win the deal. And I explained to my clients the risks of doing that, they decided to do it.

At the septic inspection and the pumping, I went there with my client, and I don't always go to

these. I'm really glad I did. And the seller had all these documents there to review. And so I started

just kind of like thumbing through documents in like 10 seconds. I saw the septic permit and said

two baths or two, two bedrooms. It's like, oh shit. And so I pulled my clients aside. I said, Hey, we

got a big problem. This is a two bedroom septic. The house should have been listed as a two

bedroom house. Like the listing agent made a mistake. They thought it was on a three bedroomseptic. The seller thought it was on a three bedroom septic. It was mislisted the previous time as

well.

Mike Novak:

[23:39] So now all of a sudden we've got this house that we possibly way ever paid for because you

can't list it as a three bedroom. It's really two bedroom and it should have been listed as a two

bedroom. So, you know, it was a very contentious two week long negotiation with the listing agent

and the car client was in a tough position because the earnest money was released, but there was

misrepresentation on the listing agent and the sellers part. So there was obviously like a legal case

for both sides that was going to have to be fought out on the earnest money. There was like

$25,000.

Mike Novak:

[24:09] But ultimately, you know, the co-list jumped in, who I know really well, and like literally in two

hours, once he got involved, we struck a deal where, you know, the clients got a certain amount of

dollars off the house. It made economic sense to them again. They felt like they got a fair outcome.

And, you know, again, the list agent had really good control of their seller. They said, hey, you have

to do this because of the mistake you made.

Rachael Novak:

[24:31] Absolutely. So, again, like it could have been totally dead in the water. You could have said,

hey, sorry, guys. yeah like you know that was part of the risk and walking away from earnest money

because these guys aren't going to be willing to play ball but instead it was a two i mean two weeks

is a long time when you're talking a 30-day closing.

Mike Novak:

[24:46] Well it took a lot of thinking through like what's the best strategy here like i told the list agent

about it as soon as it happened as soon as i discovered it you know and i i told them like hey this is

a really big problem you know and they kind of like hemmed and hawed about how much liability

they had in it you know so i just i I made it very clear, like the $25,000 was not going to be gone

without a fight. Yeah. And I had given them our personal attorney's contact information who was

going to get it back one way or another.

Rachael Novak:

[25:13] So have resources.

Mike Novak:

[25:14] But then again, I had that hard conversation with my client. I said, hey guys, to get the 25

back, be ready to write a $5,000 retainer on day one.

Rachael Novak:

[25:21] Right.

Mike Novak:

[25:21] And then be ready for a fight. So do we really want to go down that road or do we want to

make a deal?Rachael Novak:

[25:24] Right.

Mike Novak:

[25:25] You know?

Rachael Novak:

[25:25] And again, that infuses logic and reason into the emotion of that situation.

Mike Novak:

[25:30] Right.

Rachael Novak:

[25:30] Yeah.

Mike Novak:

[25:31] Exactly. So, yeah, that's just one example of, you know, a challenging deal that we had to

work hard to keep together. But again, if you can like really... Work through these things. Think

carefully, talk to, you know, other agents on your team. Like, I think that's one dynamic we have on

our team that's super cool is we share these battle stories in our weekly meetings. So we all learn

from each other. We're like, oh, well, how did you keep that deal together? Or how did you put that

deal together? Or how did you get this to the finish line? And so you kind of get like the benefit of

everyone else's experience, which is really cool.

Rachael Novak:

[26:02] Yeah, exactly right. Yeah. And if, if you are not on a team and you're a single agent, like start

making some connections, start getting into rooms with other people, start, you know, know make

like you seek out a mentor in your in your market like somebody who you know does well or

whatever if like that's that's what we do at real right we have a community a community of people

who aren't on our team necessarily but we're partners in business so that we can mind meld so that

we can connect on these kind of things and utilize and cross-strategize with how to keep things

together how to not quit how to set expectations all of these points that we covered today yeah.

Mike Novak:

[26:33] Absolutely all right well we will see you guys next week really excited for 2026 and to bring

you guys tons of value if you guys have something you want us to talk about, send Rachel and I a

message on Instagram and we will definitely consider that topic if there's enough demand for it I'm

at the real Mike Novak on Instagram.

Rachael Novak:

[26:51] And I am at Rachel Novak with the XJ send.

Mike Novak:

[26:54] Us your questions and your topics and we will look at them.

Rachael Novak:

[26:57] Love it have a great day see you next.