Agents Get Crushed or Paid : Q1 Is a Warning, Q2 Strategies

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Agents Get Crushed or Paid: Q1 Is a Warning, Q2 Strategies

If you’re waiting for interest rates to drop before your business picks up…

You’re already behind.

The real estate market has changed and the agents who are winning right now aren’t working harder, they're working smarter and more accurately.

In this episode, we break down what actually happened in Q1 and exactly what you need to do to win in Q2.

Because this market won’t reward effort alone it rewards precision, consistency, and adaptability.

You’ll learn:

• Why waiting on rates is killing your business
• What actually changed in today’s buyer behavior
• Why this is a “less forgiving” market
• How pricing mistakes will cost you deals instantly
• Why buyers need more guidance than ever
• The simple strategy to generate more deals immediately
• How to stop overthinking and start closing

If you want to stay relevant and profitable in today’s market, this is required watching.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

If you're waiting for rates to crash for your business to go up, you may as well just get out of business. Buyers are back, but they're different and you better treat them differently. They're cautious, they are well informed, they need more clarity and guidance than ever. Welcome to real estate untucked. Let's talk about what happened in Q1 and advice for Q2 because Q2 is going to be interesting. It might kick your butt. But if you're actually hoping that Q2 is just better than Q1 because we had a lot of snow in Q1 and you think Q2 is magically going to be better, you are toast. And I see a lot of people that do that, right? And here's the thing there are people that that are rocking it right now, not because they're more talented and not because they're working harder, but because they've adjusted and changed to the market that we have right now. And um I I do not believe that Q2 is necessarily going to reward effort. I think that Q2 is going to reward accuracy. I think we always got to do the work, but I think accuracy is is is huge right now. Um and there's a lot of people that are slipping, a lot of people are treating this market like that like they used to. So yeah, let's let's dive in and go through a couple lessons we got in Q1 and then some strategies we need to implement for Q2. Sound good?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

So yeah, I think real quick, if you're one of those naysayers that Q1's always slow, Q4 is always slow, fine. But here's the thing Q2 and three need to be double what you would have done in Q1. So it's not just I'm gonna do a deal. Like that's fine if you're gonna do 12 deals this year. You might do a half a deal on average the first quarter, but you better be doing three deals a month in the second quarter. So yeah, you gotta start actually guessing what your math is and make sure you're coming through. You can't use an excuse and then not crush it in the second quarter, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

So 100%. Yeah, and and and look for it, watch yourself for justification. There's a lot of people that that I hear this justifying, right? They're like, Well, the first quarter was down, but our market was down, blah blah blah. What about this? And I'm like, it's okay to to to check your rearview mirrors every once in a while and kind of see what's going on, but like if you're staring at those, you're about to crash. Meaning, like one of one of my guys has a huge inspection company, and they go, Well, our market's down 25%. And well, you were down more than 25%. But but here's the thing: like, there were still 500 homes that needed inspections in his market. Like, that was plenty for you, dude. Like, you you didn't need 500, you needed you know 2550, whatever it is. So, like, gotta be it's okay to check the review mirrors. Hey, markets down, things are different, we gotta change our approach a little bit. But but if you're using that to justify you not hitting your goals, we're we're in trouble, right? So I think that a couple things we learned. One is rates, you know, you know, moved around a little bit, but even when rates moved, it didn't magically fix demand, right? No, you know, rates rates moved a little bit, they went up a little bit. We don't know exactly what's gonna happen. But if you're waiting for rates to crash to for your business to go up, you're maybe just get out of business. Enough with the rates. We're over the rates. Rates are gone with the rates.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Put a nail in it, they're gone.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Shut the fuck up and sell a house. Yep. Yeah, sorry. No, you're you're right. The second thing is inventory is is you know, somewhat, somewhat it's up, but it's not up insane, right? Like inventory, and I think naturally it's up like seven, eight percent, right? Get give or take. Some places it's a little, it's a little bit lower, right? But it's it's it's about that. And and here's what's really interesting. We're not seeing we're seeing buyers come back to the market, which is great, right? Home buyer confidence is up. We're seeing homes get a couple offers usually. Yeah, what I love that we're seeing is the new first-time home buyers feel like they've woken up. Don't you feel like that? Like it's been a couple years, they they like hibernated for years. Um, and I feel like they're coming back, right? 34% up with with first-time homebuyers, which I think is great, which means I think they've kind of accepted the the interest rate thing. They've kind of accepted the market. They've kind of gone, hey, I was gonna rent for a year, now it's been three. Like, let's just go, let's just go get the house.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yep. And so I think also I want everybody to check their local math because I just did this for our team two weeks ago. Yes, our inventory was up like 15% year over year. Our sales were up four percent, so that's good. We're still climbing. But here's the thing inventory's up, sales are up. Our sellers were still getting on average 98% of list of sale. Yeah. So it's not a bad market if sellers are still getting close to what they're asking and buyers are buying. So you can't usually there's never actually, I want to actually we should clarify. There's never a bad market. There's just not. There's pros and cons to every single market, depending on what side you're on, but there's always a pro to it, and that's the pros you need to pull out of this conversation to go have conversations with first-time home buyers and sellers and tell them why why now is good for them versus why now was good for them a year ago. It changes. So I absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

And and and that's one of the five things that we that we want people to do. The last thing I'll say about the last quarter and where we're at right now is you know, median price is is in most places, it's stagnant, right? Which which is is kind of okay. And here's what I mean by that the sellers are not thrilled, but most of them have equity. But the buyers have had a chance, like it's not like it's up 10% again and again again. Like the buyers have had like a little bit of emotional stability in the sense by the prices not going up another five percent, like they're like, hey, this home was 350 last year, right? It's 350 or 360 this year. Cool, let's go. And I think that we saw years where it was like 350 12 months later of them saving money. Now it's 380, right? Then they still tried, then it was 420, like they just chased it forever. And I think that that really took a lot of enthusiasm and and wind out of out of those things. You know, all this said, we're gonna give you some things to do it in the second quarter, but at the end of the day, who knows what's gonna happen? And we got like, I don't even know how many countries we're bombing right now, right? Like, I don't know what's going on. Like, my my they're running out of fuel in the Philippines. Like, my team's like, hey, I hope we can work next week, but the power might be off because we can't don't have fuel anymore coming here, right? Like it's gonna get weird, but let's go through a couple things that people need to do right now in the second quarter that if they don't do, it's gonna it's gonna be bad.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah. I think it starts with consistency kicks talents ass any day of the week. So if you're ever in you're ever confused of what to do, just keep doing the same thing you've been doing that has gotten you business before. And if it's not getting you business, you do twice as much. If it's not getting you business, you do it three times as much. That is the game. So consistency, which you fall back. Don't think of these big shiny objects, these new male postcard campaigns, this, that, the other. Now is not the time to try new shit. Now is the time to double down on the stuff that you know is working specifically for you. And if you're a lead gen monster and you're taking leads from your team, ask for more. Keep going. Like, do not try something new in the second quarter. That you're not gonna get a good scientific experiment because all the variables are not gonna be the same.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Your your results are in direct proportion to how many conversations you have. Yeah, and and I know that's an or it's an oversimplification, but somebody needs to hear that right now. Like, if you're not if if you want more deals, you just need to have more conversations, and you can get really complicated on that and have a bunch of really fancy funnels, which is awesome. If you don't have your fancy funnels built yet, you should probably pick up the phone. I saw one guy sitting in the park with a ask a realtor a question sign, and he literally was sitting in the park, he had a big sign that said ask a realtor a question. And people were coming by and they're like, actually, I do have a question. Like, I was thinking about doing this, and he's like, he's picking up business, sitting in the park with a sign that says, Hey, ask a realtor a question. Like, we make it real complicated. And if you want to go build the funnels, awesome. If you want to go build really fancy lead magnets, that's amazing. You get to do that after five o'clock. You get to do that after you did the lead generation, not before, not hoping that that's eventually gonna catch up. So, so here's a couple things. First one is the market is less forgiving, it is not necessarily a hard market, it is a less forgiving market and it punishes sloppiness. We were talking about this a little while ago, right, Brad? Like, like, what's the impact of listing two or three percent off?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Death. I mean, math is math, and now with AI, because here's the thing people forget now. Yes, Zillow's got his estimate. Yes, they can do some math, but people are taking your recommendations, they're putting them in AI and they were spitting back a number.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

So your math has to be point on. There is no trying in the second quarter. This is go time. So, like, don't try a price. Now you list it for what it's worth based on the comparables and let the market push it if it needs to be pushed up because there's more demand than there is supply. That's my opinion when it comes to pricing. Trying is is is no trying is dying in the in in this world.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

And and like you've got to be pinpoint accurate, right? Like, like I think a couple years ago, we could list it 5% above, 3% above. Like we we could we'd figure it out, right? Right now, you list it 3% above of price, like it is a narrow window, and and you you nail that target, you're gonna get multiple offers. Sure, it's gonna get sold in the first two weeks. You are a little bit outside of that window and you are toast. And I'll tell you what, once a buyer emotionally says no to a home in this market, you could drop that thing by 50 grand and and and they might retake a look at it, barely, right? Once they've emotionally said no to something, you could drop by$100,000 and most people aren't gonna go back to it. So you get it, you better become an expert at pricing and an expert at having conversations with your clients to go, hey, you know, love you. I understand that that it sounds nice to try this out. Um, I've had other clients that have thought that. Here, here's what what what they felt, here's what they found, and here's the impact of that.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Well, one thing I want to add to that is people people will say, Well, you never know. So it might be worth more to somebody else. No, you do know because hundreds of houses have sold in the previous months in that market. And then if you couple that with data from your MLS, that shows it's only it's only appreciating 2%. How are we gonna put something that we know is worth$400,000 10% over when we know the houses are only averaging 2% in gains a year? Like you got to take all the math in because you do know what the house is worth because other people have told you what the house is worth.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah. Really quick, you know how YouTube works. Like and subscribe so we know this is working and it keeps pushing the content out.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah, this is what we do as a passion project. Wayne's got his own coaching, I got my real estate, but we've come together because we want y'all to learn from all our scars and mistakes. So that like and subscribe means the world to us because it means you care and it means we can keep giving, and also it makes us look cool with my mom. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

We have so much data. So much. So much. And to that point, the the second thing that the or the next thing we want you to be really aware of is buyers are back, but they're different and you better treat them differently. They're cautious, they are well informed, they need more clarity and guidance than ever. So if you're still communicating with buyers, like it's like it's 2021, you are toast, right? And 2021 was like, hey, you want to buy a house? Cool, let's go look at a bunch, and then we'll throw some things out there and pray to God somebody accepts your$100,000 over offer, right? Yeah, cool. That was fun. Hope you had a great time. Right now, buyers need guidance. They need you to do a great buyer presentation. They need to help them realize that, hey, we find a home that's priced right, we're going to pay what it's worth. Here's what that looks like. Hey, we better get clear on what your five needs are, and anything that's outside of that, we're not looking at unless you want to change what your your what your five musts are. They but they need guidance right now. And I see that that's I think the thing that a lot of agents are not doing well is they're not, they haven't resumed the guide, you know, seat, and they're still in the you know, the the showing, showing, showing kind of position.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

And for listing agents, when it comes to buyers in this market, I run my entire company and have for years off of buyers' emotions. So if you're listing something, it better look like pottery barn or damn near closed. It better have fresh pine straw. You better have cookies bacon, you better make the baseboards clean. What is pine straw? Is that a thing? Is pine straw? Pine straw? Pine straw. What is pine straw? It's pine needles from pine trees, and then you put it on your flower beds, the pine needles? Hmm. Mulch. Is that you do contests? There we go. We do mulch. Yeah, there we go. We do pine straw. But anyways, fresh mulch, turn it up, put them, you know, new. I'm wearing contact and I used to like grabbing my glasses. Um, but here's the thing they're gonna walk in, and if it feels like home and looks good like pottery barn, they're gonna buy it whether you have a wall in the back or not. But if you got some shit going on and it looks bad, and you're like buyers will overlook that, they will not overlook in this market. I'm telling you, I've been in this market 10 different times in my career. They will not, they will not buy your house over one paint color. Guarantee. Absolutely. And oh, sorry, I had to get move rattle bit.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Oh, I gotta get my calisthenics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one nerve I have in my back. Um, all right, here's another take, and I'd love your thought on this. I think it's time for a lot of agents to go back to builders. I think there's there's some great builders right now. Right now, we're in in a fairly good relationship with builders, right? Like, like when the builders need us, they love us to death. When they don't need us, they are your worst friend, right, you've ever had. But I think right now we're in a healthy, we're in a pretty healthy relationship with with home builders right now. Meaning most of them are pricing it accurately, right? And they're offering, you know, decent incentives that can be a win for your buyer. So I I think if you if you flipped off builders, you know, in the last several years, it may be an opportunity to go back and look and just make sure you're aware of what's out there because it could be a win for some of your buyers right now.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

When you say go back to builders, you mean like show new construction again kind of thing? Correct. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think one thing is a broker mind I want to caution people on is taking bonuses from builders. It is it's gonna get bad. I believe that's gonna be one of the next major lawsuits of steering because builders are offering. I had one the other day, they offered us$15,000 bonus on top of a full commission on a$200,000 house. And we said, we want to give that to our buyer, just give it to the buyer. And they said, nope, can't give it to the buyer because it'll take down, they won't take it off the sales price and that'll hurt the comps. So my point is buyers be careful with builders, check with your brokers because I think you're about to get smacked. Because if that's not steering, here, Wayne, I'll give you$15,000 extra dollars to bring me a buyer. You don't think that buyer's gonna feel like you just steered them to ABC Builder? Shit.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

I I would say you only have to worry if you're not a ginormous company with a huge bank account because they get away with whatever the heck they want. So, so we'll we'll we'll go go back two episodes and listen to our rant on RESPA. But but yeah, if if you don't have a million dollars sitting around to fight lawsuits, then you should probably watch watch your six.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

But if your minor agency says it, go there. They offer more commission typically. So yeah, make make heaven sunshine.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

There, there you go. Um, the the other one is I see a lot of people that are still kind of stuck, and this is this happens a lot, but usually when when the the market kind of gets weird like this, there's a lot of people that are dragging their feet right now. And and I think there's a lot of people paying an uncertainty tax, they're not quite sure on what to do. Um, so they're dragging their feet, they're waiting for clarity, they're overthinking, and really they're not they're not taking action, right? Clients or agents. If you want to agents, right? Like if you want to make a fancy plan, awesome. But until then, right, go to the park and talk to 100 people and asking they want to buy a house, right? Like, you want to make a fancy funnel, cool, go do that. But like, there's no excuse for not taking action today. If you're not talking, if if you your business isn't where you want it to be and you're not making a hundred phone calls a day or talking to 20 people a day, like get the hell out. Like you're not you're not doing what you need to do.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

75% of your time should be spent on immediate possibilities, 25% on those click funnels, right? Because they could work, you need to build them, but they're gonna be long term. And so if you're opposite, yeah, you're only spending 25% of the people you could sell today. And if you don't know who to sell, one of my favorite things is go ask other agents in your office if you can have some crumbs. And so I did this on one of my videos, but you there are agents in your office that get phone calls all the time, like that house sell, cool, give me a call if it doesn't. Hey, I've got Zill leads I'm not responding to, Tiger leads, whatever, right? And just go, hey, do you have any leads you're not following up with? Can I follow up with them? And can I give you a little bit back if I get something from them? And just if you're hungry, you'll do that. If you're not, you're just you're you're lying to yourself. So that's an easy one you can do because there are leads in your office that are not being followed up with. Absolutely. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

And and before we get to the last one, one one thing I want to point out is well, first off, go like and subscribe because it makes me very happy. So hit that bell to get notified that that Brad's on a new rant, right? But but before I get there, R D is your you do need to RD, right? You do need to do research and develop and find out, hey, is this funnel gonna work? But but that can be that's your after hours if you're not making the money you want. If you are making the money you want, that's that's 15% of your time, give or take. But then I would say the last thing that is is stop trying to do everything from scratch, right? Like, like one of the reasons Brad and I do E4 and E5 is because we bring together people to go, hey, here's what I've done that worked, here's what I tried, didn't work, here's what I've done that worked, right? They're they're sharing go high-level funnels. They're there's they're sharing, hey, this video really worked. You should make your version of this. There's they're sharing, hey, leads from here is working right now, leads from this place isn't. Hey, here's how we changed our marketing packets, whatever it is. Like, stop trying to do all the RD on your own. Instead of spending, you know, months of RD, get in an E4 and E5 room with us for half a day and walk away with, hey, these three things are actually working. So I think stop trying to do it all on your own is huge. And stop taking advice from idiots that that that saw a YouTube video but haven't done it. One of our favorite things we talk about in E4 and E5 is like, is that an idea you saw on YouTube, or is that something you've done and it worked? Like, you know, share whatever you want, but like be clear. Like, I'm saying this because it actually works versus I'm saying this because I, you know, I saw somebody talk about it and it sounds really nice.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, no, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

So reach out to us, figure out when our next one is, and we'll give you all the information about it, see if you're a good fit to uh come hang out and fight club today.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Should be a should be the first link in the description down below. Hey, real quick, if you're liking this content, imagine having a full day immersed with people that are on this like us that are learning from each other.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Man, we do these kind of events, these intensive, a couple times a year. And if you know that you are the smartest person in the room and you need to get into the other rooms, this is the place to be, right? So apply, send us a message right now. We'll send you the application link and see if you are the right fit to be in one of the rooms.