Making use of data is a great way to convey facts rather than headlines and educate your agents.

On a regular rotation, the National Association of REALTORS® collects and presents market data to help brokers stay up to date on market trends. Use these stats to help guide your agents and your business.

At the 2024 Broker Summit in San Diego in mid-April, Jessica Lautz, chief economist for NAR, observed that while current market trends are difficult, there’s opportunity embedded in the numbers.

Current Numbers of Note

• Nearly a third—27%—of the agents in the field are considered new, having entered the industry since 2020, which means many agents haven’t yet experienced a market with high interest rates and low inventory. Brokers can use this moment as an educational opportunity to offer training and support.
• Most brokerages, 82%, are one-office firms that average three full-time licensees, making the boutique brokerage the industry norm.
• As of March 2024, home prices were at a record high—higher than those in any other March period NAR has recorded. The opportunity here is that those who have been in their homes for a while have substantial equity, and if they want to move, many can do so comfortably. Brokers should take care to educate agents on how to approach clients. Interest rate buy-downs and large down payments can offset interest rates and high costs.

A Few Stats to Take Action On

One of the most effective ways to use NAR’s data and findings is to take relevant numbers and make business decisions that reflect the current trends. Here are a few:

Add Renovation Expertise to Your Repertoire

Lautz said the average age of a purchased home in today’s market is 38 years, so there is an opportunity to educate buyers and sellers on renovation projects and partner with renovation professionals.

Millennials Outpace Boomers Yet Again

Last year, the market was all about boomers as they outbid and outbought millennials, but the tides have turned and millennials are now overtaking boomers in the marketplace. In many cases, millennials are repeat buyers, Lautz said, observing the industry needs to remember that on the older end of the millennial generation, buyers are up to 44 years old, settled in a career, with a viable income and previous experience in the real estate market.

Buyers Want to Be Close to Friends, Family

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers were moving from their original locations, sometimes for hundreds of miles, but that’s subsided quite a bit, Lautz says. They’re still willing to move a little further away than before the pandemic—up to 20 miles, as opposed to the 1989 average of 10 miles away. Still, for young people, the data shows that being close to friends and family is important to young buyers.

That said, about a quarter of buyers are still moving upward of 500 miles, but data shows that it’s to be closer to grandchildren, parents or friends.

Cash Rules the Market

Nearly one-third of buyers—28%—are all-cash buyers, so they don’t care about interest rates. This means that mindset is important for brokers and agents. Yes, interest rates are high, but a substantial portion of the market isn’t worried about interest rates.

‘Houses Before Spouses’

Single women and men make up one-third of the first-time buyer market, with women dominating the space, Lautz says. What’s more, 29% of Black first-time home buyers were women, signaling that they’re prioritizing homeownership. Priorities are different in today’s market, and real estate professionals need to be cognizant of what’s available for single people ready to get into homeownership.

Unique Living Situations

Still, with affordability being a key component for first-time buyers, companionship and support of varied kinds make for a market with diverse needs. Unmarried couples, friends and multiple generations of families are teaming up on homeownership to afford bigger or more comfortable living arrangements than they would be able to on their own.

Pets are also important, she says, observing that 19% of home buyers consider their pets’ needs during their search for a home.

Don’t Skimp on Tech and Online Marketing

A sticky trend—a figure that continues to surface time and again—is that buyers are purchasing homes without seeing them in person. Since the start of the pandemic-fueled housing frenzy, the number of buyers purchasing homes without setting foot in them is creeping up, and Lautz projects that it will continue to do so. That means now is as good a time as any to ensure technology is up to date and in use and that online options for potential customers to view homes are available.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Unruly real estate agents can cause issues small and large at the brokerages where they work, from creating distractions during training sessions to leaving the office with a stash of snacks, cups and plates intended for visitors and clients.

Brokers lamented problems such as these on Sunday at the Idea Exchange Council for Brokers Forum during the REALTORS® Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C. The small discussion groups agreed that conversations with agents around these topics are never easy—but are necessary. 

One attendee, Ann Enos, a former longtime broker and now director of professional development at the Rhode Island Association of REALTORS®, noted that brokers are better off having uncomfortable conversations with disruptive agents sooner than later. Brokers shared the following tips: 

Think about the relationships: If disruptive agents’ behavior patterns aren’t addressed, it could sour relationships far and wide. Agents who conduct themselves with respect might sour on a broker who allows one agent to continually act in a way that causes problems. Likewise, an agent who is causing issues inside the office is likely causing issues outside the office, too, which reflects on the brokerage. Relationships with industry partners, clients and the local community could be at risk.  

Give agents more responsibility: Sometimes, disruptive agents need more responsibility. For example, an agent might be causing distractions during training sessions out of boredom. In these cases, Enos said, the agent could take on a more active role and lead a training if they have an area of expertise or a skill that helps them drive business.  

Consider the liability: Enos made clear that brokers must consider that their agents’ behaviors could cost them. Liability falls on the broker should an agent’s behavior turn from disruptive to ethically questionable. It’s the broker’s license that’s on the line, which is why brokers need not delay a conversation to establish boundaries and make clear the expectations for an agent’s conduct.  

Bring in the team lead: Brokers with teams can delegate some responsibility to team leads, especially if a troublesome agent is on one of those teams. Team leads are in positions of authority and should be ensuring the agents under them act in a way that aligns with the brokerage’s core values.   

Have empathy when warranted: Some brokers said that agents sometimes act out because of a need, which might be true in the case of an agent who routinely takes office supplies, food or what might be deemed as a household essential, like toilet paper. A conversation without empathy at its core might elicit shame or embarrassment on the part of the agent. These conversations should be handled with privacy and care in mind.

Likewise, if an agent is suffering through some kind of struggle, the brokerage can come up with creative solutions to aid, Enos said. When she was a broker, she initiated an “in-house charity” fund. She and her agents contributed a nominal amount to the fund when they had the financial means. She said that over time, the fund grew to a substantial amount and did help agents in need. It also boosted morale in her office.  

Suggestions for difficult conversations:

• Don’t wait too long to have a conversation. Doing so could empower an agent to continue their poor behavior.
• Establish boundaries. Make expectations for behavior clear, and when you can, tie it back to core values or office policy.
• Be direct in your communication while also listening and showing empathy. Agents might be having outside struggles that are driving the behavior. 

If all else fails, remember that an agent’s behavior is a reflection of you and your brokerage. If you must make adjustments to protect your reputation and avoid liability, do not hesitate, brokers said.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

New Insights Hub provides information on your agents’ training, education and association involvement.

In the REALTORS® M1 database, brokers now have access to pertinent association-related data—credentials, education, volunteerism and more—on the agents in their office.

M1’s Insights Hub, which was once reserved for association leadership, has been reconfigured to include a dashboard for brokers. The announcement came from Laura Vinci, director of association technology services at the National Association of REALTORS®, at a meeting of the Broker Engagement Committee on Monday during the REALTORS® Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C. Vinci said the data can help brokers assess where improvement can be made in their office in areas such as training, education and certifications.

George Zoto, NAR’s director of data science, noted that when a broker logs into M1 to access the Insights Hub, the various dashboards are automatically customized for their office. If a broker has more than one office, a dropdown menu enables them to switch between offices to gather agent data from each. Most importantly, Zoto said, the data is fully private and belongs to the brokers.

The dashboards provide data on agents, including:

• Code of Ethics training status by cycle
• Designations and certifications achieved through NAR
• Endorsements earned through NAR
• Involvement in NAR committees

An example of member data provided through the new Insights Hub feature, available to brokers through the M1

Zoto also noted that the association is looking for feedback from brokers on what other dashboards and data they’d like to see implemented. Brokers can then take the dashboard data and export, email or share it as needed. “Brokers are the owners of the data. NAR provides the insights,” Zoto said.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Post-transaction follow up boosts an agent’s sales and a brokerage’s bottom line, so make it easier for your agents to engage their clients over time.

Nearly 90% of home buyers and sellers say they’d recommend their real estate agent, according to National Association of REALTORS® data. Unfortunately, many never do it because they forget their agent’s name, says Shay Hata, Team Lead of The Buy Sell Love Chicago Team at BHHS Chicago. The reason? Instead of post-transaction follow-up (PTF), many agents focus on how quickly they can segue from contract to closing and onto their next client, observes Isaiah Hazward, a real estate agent and Director of Sales at Coalition Properties Group in Washington, D.C.

To ensure your team doesn’t miss out on repeat and referral business generated from PTF, “lighten the load for agents,” urges Hazward. Streamline some of this outreach so your agents can focus on what they’re best at: selling real estate. Here’s how.

Provide Perspective

Explain to agents that real estate is a long game. National Association of REALTORS® data finds that buyers expect to live in their homes for a median of 15 years. That’s why they must build client relationships over time, staying in touch long after closing day. If they’re doing enough PTF, agents who’ve been in the field for more than a couple of years should expect at least 80% of their business to come from past clients and their sphere of influence, shares Hata.

Systematize Follow-Up

To make sure agents stay on top of PTF, automate it via an integrated CRM and transaction management system, urge Hazward and Hata. Once you’ve chosen a system (Hata uses Realvolve and Hazward uses Brivity), write follow-up messages and newsletters and establish workflows.

Since workflows begin on closing dates, message content can be tied to the stage of home ownership. For instance, an email sent to someone five years post-closing might suggest a sump pump replacement. Then ask an admin to help individual agents learn the system and tailor messages to reflect their communication style. After closing, all agents need to do is initiate that client’s workflow—and the system will automatically send targeted messages. In addition, brokerages can create holiday cards and weather-related newsletters, which their agents can send to their databases.

Encourage Additional Outreach

Make sure agents supplement these automated messages with calls and texts, suggests Hazward. Of the 36 times clients hear from Coalition post-closing, about two-thirds of this outreach will be event invites, calls and texts, he explains. To prompt agents, take a cue from Hata and program your CRM to send quarterly reminders to text clients. Also encourage agents to follow and engage with their clients on social media, which will help them keep tabs on their life events (like moves).

Automate Reviews

Hata suggests that to ease the load further on agents, use RealSatisfied to automate customer reviews. All agents need to do is enter their client’s name and email address and whether they’re a buyer or seller. Then, the system will send the client a survey and review request. If they leave a review, the system can generate and share a post about it on realtor.com®, Facebook and Twitter. It also sends the client a thank you message with an e-gift card.

Ease Client Gift-Giving

Client gifts shouldn’t be limited to closing gifts or the holiday season. If an agent is to stay top-of-mind, sending small trinkets to clients to celebrate a milestone or life event makes a big difference.

To send gifts, all Coalition agents need to do is use a basic app the brokerage created with Jotform. Once they choose from a curated gift selection and enter basic client data, a Coalition admin handles the rest. Meanwhile, Hata’s team configured specific gifts for specific occasions: a branded onesie for a baby, windchimes for bereavement, chocolate-covered berries for a new job, and a branded poop bag holder for a new dog. This method streamlines the process and makes it easier for everyone.

Host Events

Both Hazward and Hata recommend hosting gatherings, like annual client appreciation parties. Since party planning can be time-consuming and agents don’t have the bandwidth, Hata suggests brokerages use staff to do the legwork, while individual agents pay a set per client fee.

For instance, brokerages can rent a hair salon for a day, with agents paying for individual client blow-outs. Using the same cost model, agencies can put together photoshoot sessions, movie nights, pick-your-own-pumpkin outings and Thanksgiving pie giveaways. “The key is for events to be close to your clients,” says Hata. So, if your farm area is big, consider smaller events in multiple locations. In the interest of lead generation, tell agents to encourage their clients to bring friends and family. After events, remind agents to follow up with clients and their invited attendees.

Track Follow Up Efforts

Monitor your team to ensure they stay on top of PTF, suggests Hazward. Since Brivity includes a tracking tool, Coalition is aware of all calls made on company-owned devices. To supplement this data, his agents fill out daily KPI trackers. Each week, the brokerage’s leadership team reviews this information and, when necessary, advises agents on outreach efforts.

Motivate Wth Incentives

Consider following Coalition’s example and offer agents monthly awards for PTF and other business-promoting activities. Since they began such a program a few months ago, Hazward estimates a 20-30% increase in contacts and appointments.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

When I tell people that the office sales meeting is one of my most valuable tools, I get incredulous looks from brokers, managers and agents alike. Most agents find sales meetings boring and pointless. That feeling is shared by many managers and brokers as well.

I find that the OSM, when run properly, is highly effective for training, retention, and streamlining processes. Consider what can be accomplished at an OSM:

• Educate the agents on sales technique.
• Promote cooperation and teamwork in the office.
• Share market data with your agents so they can share it with their clients.
• Inspire the agents to greater production.
• Stroke the egos of the agents who need stroking.
• Assist in recruiting new and experienced agents.
• Promote your office’s new listings.
• Help secure a listing that the seller hasn’t yet committed to your agent.
• Learn things about your agents that would be difficult to learn otherwise.
• Show a more relaxed and personable side of yourself not often seen in the day-to-day operation.
• Protect yourself from legal pitfalls.
• Share good (and bad) experiences with mortgage companies, inspectors, attorneys and others.

Here’s a guide that will put your OSM on the fast track to success.

Figure Out Your Why

You know why you’re in the business and why you chose to run a brokerage. You teach your agents to figure out their whys as well. Now it’s time to figure out why you have sales meetings in the first place. The bottom line for your sales meetings should be a better bottom line. You accomplish this by using sales meetings to maximize the productivity of your agents and minimize expenses due to turnover, mistakes that could have been avoided and missed opportunities.

Create a System

Now that you know why you want to hold as sales meeting in the first place, it’s time to set up your routine. Meetings involve a little planning, and having a system in place can help streamline the process.

Give yourself enough time to plan. A one-hour meeting takes about 2–3 hours of planning. Yes, that’s quite the chunk of time for a broker or manager who is already busy, but if you commit the time, the effort will pay off.

Keep a file folder on your desk marked “Next Meeting.” As you work through the week, make a note of particular challenges your agents are having, interesting news articles, and other thoughts that will be useful to your team. This way, when it’s time to plan the meeting, you’ll have much of the content already in that file folder.

Hold your meetings at the same place, day and time. Get your agents accustomed to, for example, the first Wednesday of the month at 10 a.m. being ‘meeting time.’ A recurring meeting at the same time and place makes planning easier for all.

Use an agenda template for your meetings. A template simplifies things for you and provides consistency for your agents. Send out a brief from the agenda two days before the meeting. Keep it short and a little mysterious. For example, you might note something like, “I’ll be sharing a visual that earned one of your colleagues a 5-figure commission this month.”

Add in some visuals. Agents will retain more if they see as well as hear what you are communicating with them. A PowerPoint presentation is great for this.

Play up the meeting space. Make sure the energy level in the office is high so the agents know as soon as they walk in this is not a typical day. Uptempo music and a dozen helium balloons are great for this.

Start the meeting exactly on time. Not only are you modeling punctuality, you are showing respect to your agents who arrive on time.

Set Up Your Agenda

An agenda helps you plan, and it also gives your agents an idea of what they can expect from the OSM. Here’s an example of what to include and how to structure your meetings.

Begin with an icebreaker. I start with a question such as “Where were you born?” or “What was your first car?” This gets everyone into the flow of the meeting. It also affords the opportunity to learn something personal about their colleagues.

Make it positive. Start the content section of the meeting with “Great News.” An example might be highlighting an agent or company milestone or welcoming a new agent. This is also a great time to read excerpts from raving fan letters.

Share some tools. You want the agents listening to you, not checking email or texting, so highlighting some tool available to them they may not be using is a great way to focus them on you. I call this section “Tools to Use So You Don’t Lose.’ These tools don’t need to be new; they just need to be effective.

Share the most current market information. I make a point of not only showing the monthly and year-to-date average sales price, but the average days on market, inventory level and mortgage rates as well.

Add in bite-sized updates. The “Administrator’s Minute” provides your administrator the chance to speak to the group about the things they need the agents to do. Likewise, the “Mortgage Minute” is a great opportunity to bring in a mortgage partner to speak for a moment on the state of the industry. I have a marketing services agreement with a local mortgage rep. This minute is when he presents to our office and gets to know the agents.

Introduce your main topic. This is the focus of the meeting and where you spend the most time. While every other section of the meeting should be under 5 minutes, in this section you can go 10 to 15 minutes. If you have a guest speaker, this is where they do their presentation.

A note about guest speakers: Nothing turns agents off faster than a guest speaker trying to sell them something. Before I agree to allow any guest to present at my meetings, I set the ground rule that they are to “teach, don’t sell” in the meetings. They have to provide information that my agents can use in their businesses. I instruct the guest to use the presentation time to make the agents feel good about them, then offer to stay and answer questions after the meeting. That’s how guests leverage meetings into new relationships.

With the meeting drawing to a close, I offer everyone the opportunity to briefly share details about a new or upcoming listing or a buyer whose needs have not been met. Several times, my agents were able to help one another. I then review upcoming events like educational or social events, and of course, the next OSM.

Finally, I conclude the meeting with a bullet point recap of the important points I want them to retain. I also email the slides to all of my agents, whether or not they attended the meeting. For those who did attend, the slides serve to remind them of what they heard and saw at the meeting. For the agents that were not there, it serve to show them what they missed.

If you dedicate yourself to putting on uplifting, vibrant meetings with relevant content, you will quickly see the time you spend on your OSM well worth the effort.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Brokers can’t do it all, especially if they want any kind of work-life balance. Delegating the right tasks to the right people is the key.

More than three decades ago, Leslie McDonnell hired a part-time person to help her with an overload of work.

“It was really scary to let go. I realized if I didn’t delegate, I wouldn’t grow. That’s the biggest thing with delegation. You need to [have] trust,” says McDonnell, EPRO, team leader and associate broker at RE/MAX Suburban in Libertyville, Ill.

Though she initially struggled with loosening her grip on the reins, McDonnell found that delegating to others allowed her the time and space to grow her business and have time for her family.

Delegating is a layered endeavor, as she found out. Ten years after she’d started delegating, a pivotal moment made her realize that, once again, she needed to offload more work to achieve the work-life balance she desired. She was driving her boat with her then-10-year-old son and a friend in tow. The kids were tubing behind the boat, but she had to stop the fun to take a work call. Her son became impatient because she was on the phone so long. He jumped out of the tube and swam back to the boat.

“I knew at that moment this operation needs to change. I was making all this money but [had] no time to enjoy it. It was crystal clear. I hired two full-time people,” she says. “I wasn’t working at my business, because I was busy working in it.”

Why Delegate

In order to capitalize on their strengths, leaders first need to know what those strengths are, and then they need to figure out if how they use their time aligns with what they excel at. If they find that they are focused on tasks that do not maximize their skill set, it’s time to delegate.

“Every day, especially in the real estate industry, there are time challenges, deadlines, due dates, and ever-happening ‘shock collar situations’ that come up,” says Terri Murphy, president and master level coach of Terri Murphy Communications. “So having a resource in place helps keep the operational excellence of efficiency and profitability on track.”

Murphy has written several books, including Terri Murphy’s Listing & Selling Secrets and the forthcoming Smart Women/Smarter Choices – 10 Tips to Work Smarter and Not Harder.

Trust the Process

Many brokers and managers are used to getting the job done on their own. Though they may have mentors or coaches to help them build their businesses, most of the time brokers are focused on maintaining their businesses without much help. Still, delegation can help a broker scale or manage stress. Murphy notes that despite the benefits of delegation, many leaders struggle to trust its outcome, and “in the case of real estate, the broker or manager is ultimately responsible for the outcome or shortcoming,” making it difficult to let go.

Murphy maintains, though, that if a broker can overcome the fear and trust issues, “delegation is one of the most underutilized options many brokers make, especially women.”

What to Delegate

Now that you’re ready to trust the process, it’s time to figure out what to delegate. So you know what can be handed off and to whom, Murphy suggests, first break down tasks into the following categories:

Licensed or unlicensed tasks: By dividing tasks that require a license and those that don’t, you minimize risk. “The Code of Ethics is clear on what can be delegated for unlicensed activities,” she says. Any real estate leader delegating certain tasks should check the National Association of REALTORS® website, which offers a list of State Statutes and Regulations for Unlicensed Assistants in many states across the country. Tasks that generally require a license include hosting open houses, showing properties, interpreting information on listings, titles, contracts and the like, and any task regarding negotiation.

Administrative tasks: These are mostly straightforward, standard tasks, like giving general information on properties. These tasks could also include scheduling meetings, setting up spaces for in-person training sessions or meetings, sending out event reminders, making copies or printing documents, etc.

Marketing: If you’re a brokerage that does not have an in-house marketing team to create graphics, sales sheets, signs and social media posts, outsourcing this kind of work can free a large chunk of time.

As-needed outsourcing: Sometimes, you don’t need extra help all the time, but welcome it on an as-needed basis. Certain busy times or situations call for extra hands. If you’re delivering holiday gifts or have a staffer out on vacation or medical leave, the extra help can come in handy. In many cases, hiring an college student who needs an internship or a contractor for a limited project can make the difference.

Whom to Delegate To, How to Handle Mishaps

When McDonnell first began hiring people to delegate her tasks to, she focused on whether or not she liked their personalities, choosing people who were similar to her. She’s a fan of the DiSC assessment and was trying to find people who matched her characteristic profile. The personality test uses four behavioral characteristics to help people understand how they operate in the world and the workplace: dominance (D), influence (i), steadiness (S), and conscientiousness (C).

“On the DiSC profile, I’m like a dominant social influencer. I’m a really good time,” she says. Though she likes to socialize and have fun and thought having people around her who liked to do the same would make it easy to get along, she realized that finding people with the same personality type wasn’t quite working for delegation, because still nothing was getting done.

Coming to understand that she needed somebody very detail-oriented who could follow instructions, McDonnell hired someone who had a “C” personality. That person has been working alongside her for 20 years now. At first, she was worried about personality clashes, but she quickly learned that her new hire was teachable and helped her stay accountable.

Many tasks can be done without a presence in the office, too. Marketing, accounting and scheduling can all be done remotely in most cases, and a virtual assistant could be the answer.

There are times, of course, when things don’t always go as planned, and leaders need to be open and ready to rectify the issue so it doesn’t happen again. For the times when the delegating goes wrong somehow, that’s when McDonnell chooses open communication to address the issue. “You try not to blame. I take responsibility myself for stuff,” she says. “I blame the situation. My discussion is about where did the disconnect happen.”

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission