Latest / Massive Agent Podcast / The Good, Bad and Ugly of Real Estate in 2025

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The Good, Bad and Ugly of Real Estate in 2025 · Massive Agent Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Today I am recapping 2025 from an agent's point of view, a state of the union, a realtor state of the union, if you will.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go over the good, the bad, and the ugly from a real estate standpoint and what you need to know going into 2026.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: The Massive Agent Podcast.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: We lead generation tips and strategies to get you more leads and sell more homes.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: I love to buy houses.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: I like to sell houses.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: Leads a week.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: Oh, have I got your attention now?
0:37
SPEAKER_01: Here's your host, Dustin Brome.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: What is up, guys?
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode 417 of the Massive Agent Podcast.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Dustin Brome, here in Salt Lake City, Utah.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Every time I say the episode number, uh, that's a lot.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh one of my big wins for this year is another year of one episode every single Thursday morning.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Whether I was inspired or not, I freaking did it.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: And we'll continue doing it well into next year.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: And who knows?
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Maybe 10 years from now I'll still be doing the Massive Agent podcast.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: Haven't thought about it.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: It's just uh week after week.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh before I jump into I have a ton of notes today.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go over a ton of the good things that happened this year in real estate, the bad, the ugly, what you can learn from it, all of that.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you some of my personal insights.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what's happened with me personally this year, some of my wins, some of my losses, all of that.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: But before we start, uh I had I got a text the other day.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, I need to back up.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Last week, I announced finally, I launched the free masterclass that I made for agents.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: If you, if you want to or need to build a client generating machine that you can count on for new business every single month, I built this masterclass just for you.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: It's completely free.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: It's over at clientsfromsocial.com.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Go check that out.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I got a text from somebody that that took the masterclass over this last week.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: And we had what we have, I think we had 300 agents go through.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Or no.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: I think we had a hundred, either 300 or 120.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know which one.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: We had well over 100 agents go through the free masterclass this week.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: And one of them sent me a text that said, Bro, I made one little tweak you mentioned in your masterclass and have two new listing consultations.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: Unreal, thank you.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh that is unreal.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: So it that that is incredible.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: The masterclass is great.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh only only attend it though if you're serious.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, so I was wondering if I how do I say this without absolutely jumping up and down on someone's toes.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: I got a message from someone that was like, hey, can you just give me the cliffs notes?
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Nobody has 30 minutes to watch your masterclass.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: And my response was, well, then don't fucking watch it.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what do you want me to do?
2:54
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have 30 minutes to commit to learning some new strategies that are working for agents that get business from uh for free every single month on autopilot, and that's not worth 30 minutes of your time, I can't help you.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh, but if I if I spent my time to create the Cliff's notes and dumb it down and shorten it and remove details just for you, uh, and then give it to you, you wouldn't do it because you've obviously shown that you're not able or or willing to make a commitment.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: So it is a 30-minute masterclass and it is jam-packed, and it I'm telling you right now, it is it is designed to get you off your ass and to take action.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: So every single part of it is there in that place for a reason.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: So if you're if you get into the masterclass and you're like, well, just give me the cliffs notes, like just give me the couple things to do.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, if I just gave them to you, you wouldn't do them.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: I built the master class very specifically and intentionally for agents that are serious about actually doing the thing and building a client-generating machine where you get five or more deals every single month on autopilot that don't cost you anything.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: So, if that's interesting to you, clients from social.com, I hope you enjoy it.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you have a similar experience to my friend here who got two new listing consultations from one tweak that he learned in the master class.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: Incredible.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Look, 2025 did not reward the smartest agents.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: 2025 didn't reward the smartest agents.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: It rewarded the ones that who were real and stopped lying to themselves and who took action.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Has nothing to do with intelligence, has nothing to do with ability to do the job.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Some agents had their best year ever, while others left the business.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: They quit.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't make a living anymore, and they left.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: They went and did something else.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: So isn't that weird?
4:53
SPEAKER_00: The same market conditions, same everything, same tools available.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Some agents thrive, some don't, some fail.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's the way it is every week, every year.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: I think 2025 really exposed a lot of agents, though, and they just those who had bad habits or weren't willing to do certain things, or were just operating by an old playbook that doesn't work anymore, their time just ran out.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: And that that sucks because some of them were my friends, some I really liked, some were great agents that just couldn't make a living in this business.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: But uh, most agents are about to repeat the same exact mistakes in 2026, unfortunately.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: If you don't understand why agents failed in 2025, you're probably doomed to repeat the same thing.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: So you're in the right place if this interests you.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm gonna talk to you about what actually happened in 2025.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay, not just the Instagram version, not the flashy version, not the headline version, the real shit.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the real version.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Good decisions that quietly paid off.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk about bad habits that held agents back.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk about the ugly truths that a lot of agents avoided until it was too late.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, some of you are still have your head in the sand about certain changes that you need to make, pivots you need to make, adjustments, additions, subtractions, all of it.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: You still have your head in, I'll put it generously, your head's in the sand.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay, your head's in your ass.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Your head, your head is in your ass.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: And my job today is remove heads from asses.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
6:20
SPEAKER_00: That's my goal here.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: I I I had a front row seat to all of this this year through the agents that I that I coached, that I mentored, that I'm partnered with, who are part of my organization, uh, part of my world, part of my coaching group, all of that.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: I watched who grew, I was able to see who stalled out, I was able to see who burned out, and I was able to see who finally broke free and had breakthroughs in their business.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Some agents forexed their business this year with the same interest rates that you're dealing with, the same excuses that you're using they chose not to use.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: This episode's not about the market, it's about behavior.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: It's about choices and action.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so be because 2025 wait 2025 made one thing painfully clear.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: The gap between agents who own their own business and agents who rent it is getting bigger.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's what I mean by that.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, well, I'll explain that.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: If you understand what really happened over this last year, you can make 2026 your best year ever.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Because if you know what's happening in the world with technology, with consumer attention, with consumer expectations, with uh um AI, all of that stuff.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: If you understand that, you can have your best year ever.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: So stick with me.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and then I'll give you a personal update about me in 2025.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Let's start with the good.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: All right, I promised you the good, the bad, and the ugly with 2025.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh, let's start with the good.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Agents who committed to content and building a brand finally broke free.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: I watched agents who made a commitment to building a personal brand and doing content on a consistent basis and following a certain blueprint, following a certain strategy, doing it a certain way.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: I watched them go from feast and fam go from that feast and famine cycle, that the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys, bullshit that most agents go through, myself included.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh most of my career was ups and downs, ups and downs, ups and ups and downs.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: You do a bunch of stuff that gets you busy.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: Once you get, and then when you get busy, you stop doing the stuff that got you busy.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: And so boom and bust, boom and bust.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: And you so you have to have a system, you have to have a machine, if you will, a client-generating machine that just keeps going.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Even when you're busy servicing clients, it's still bringing new people in the door.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: That's the key.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: And agents who committed to building that uh are finally seeing abundance, they're finally able to count on and predict the next month and the next quarter because they can count on their leads, they can count on their closings, they can count on their uh their lead sources without paying for them, and that's been pretty cool to watch.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh, simple, raw, low production content started outperforming super polished studio created stuff.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: People want real and authentic on social media.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: People want real and authentic, which takes much less time to create because you don't have to produce it and do all this bullshit.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Makes it easier.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: You just have to have some ideas and be authentic and put it out there.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Social media became a real leverage tool instead of just a vanity metric for the first time for many agents.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of agents that just use social as like, hey, here's how many followers I have, but I don't really get anything from it.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: And you made it all about your followers.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Um It's weird what happens when you flip it and say, to hell with the followers.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: That's not my number one driver, that's not my number one goal, that's not you know that that's not the main goal here.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: If the goal is to have conversations, if the goal is to create conversations, create at bats, which will then turn into clients, obviously, it can really flip for you.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And it's really it's really cool to watch the agents who that committed to that.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Um some part of my coaching group, many are not, that have that figured it out, that that are just doing great shit and they and they stuck with it and they're blowing up.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: It's super cool to watch.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: AI tools, this is okay, continuing on with my list of the good.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: AI tools made it possible to be 10 times more productive as an agent.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I'm able to get so much more done because of leveraging Chat GPT and Gemini, which, by the way, as of today, December 17th, 2025, Google Gemini and Nano Banana Pro for images is fucking awesome.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely awesome.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: I am loving Gemini.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: I still use Chat GPT primarily, but Gemini is incredible, and I'm testing out Claude for more creative and marketing type stuff because I've heard it's really good there.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: These tools are unbelievable, and I use them as much as I possibly can, and it's helped me to do so much more.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: It's helped me to create so much more and be so much more productive in less time.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some brokerages, that this is a good thing that's happened this year.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Very few brokerages, actually, but some brokerages have emerged as as being leaders in AI.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: They've gone all in on using AI and building AI tools to as a tool for their agents to be more productive, to be more profitable, uh, to reach more people, to nurture more leads at the same time, all of this.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: And agents, the brokerages that are not all in on AI at this point, I think are in big, big trouble at some point.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: At some point, they're gonna wake up and be like, how did that brokerage take everybody?
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's because they built something that everybody wants and it doesn't cost anything extra.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: So the brokerages that are really focused on AI and that are all in, uh, watch out.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I if I was you, if you're not with a brokerage like that, I would look for one.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't want to leave your brokerage, look for AI tools like that that you can leverage yourself because it's you're competing with with agents who are using AI effectively.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not, you're just gonna you're just gonna be left behind.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Like they're just gonna outproduce you, they're gonna outreach you, they're gonna out conversation you, they're gonna out everything.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: More agents started thinking like business owners instead of job owners.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: I saw more agents start to realize that they're entrepreneurs and not salespeople.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's been really cool to watch because once you realize that you own the business and you're the CEO of your own business versus just the owner of a job, everything changes.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: You make different decisions, you start to build systems, you start to hire people around you to help, and you really start to become productive and sell a bunch of houses and make a bunch of money.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's super cool.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh I watched a ton of indie brokerages.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: I've watched a ton of independent brokerages make pivots this year.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: I've seen more independent brokerages uh like shut, not shut down, but like close out their indie brokerage to become a team at another brokerage because they they're like, hey, it makes so much more sense in a 2025-2026 world to not have to recreate all the wheel and just do all this stuff when we could just you know build our business on top of an existing brokerage and leverage all their systems, their processes, their legal, their payroll, their marketing department, their technology.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're an independent, you're competing with real, you're competing with a few others who have like it's just wild to watch these indie brokerages recreate the wheel to compete against those that have this giant machine already when you could just build yours on top of that machine.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: So a ton of indie brokerages are no longer indie brokerages this year.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: They're now teams at a brokerage, and they've never been more free, they've never been more profitable, they've never had less liability, and that's super cool to watch.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh teams and agents, by the way, making a lot of pivots.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: There's been a lot of big names that have moved brokerages this year, big in the brokerage world, big acquisitions.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Compass Bought Anywhere, which is uh Better Homes and Gardens, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, ERA, which is ERA is funny to me.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, what does that stand for?
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Electronic Realty and Associates or something?
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's such an old-timey name.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: It's like electronic realtors.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: It's it's funny.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh so good on them for being called ERA.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: But Compass took them over because they just got behind and couldn't innovate.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: They had too much too much overhead, too many expenses.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: They and so what are you gonna do?
14:43
SPEAKER_00: Like they had to be acquired, and they were.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: That was something crazy that happened this year.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh what else?
14:48
SPEAKER_00: Last one for the good.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Agents blew up and built giant brands on social this year by letting their personality shine, by being creative.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: And when they stopped worrying about being professional, uh, Tampa Bree, by the way, if you've ever watched Tampa Bree's content, she's not worried about being professional.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: And that's why she has hundreds of thousands of followers and is absolutely crushing social.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: There are so many agents that that blew up this year and became these big brands, not just locally with consumers, but within the industry too, by just letting their personality shine, by being themselves and being creative and not worrying about being professional.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: They just said to hell with a professional.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna be me.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: And when you're unique and interesting, people want that and they gravitate towards you.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Hmm, maybe a lesson there.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the bad, okay, the bad stuff that happened in 2025.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Lead platforms continued raising prices and squeezing margins.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is a huge danger if you are reliant on someone other than you for your leads.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: If you are relying, this includes if you're a team member, relying on a team, because the team, all of a sudden, if Zillow increases their prices, or realtor.com or homes.com or Dave Ramsey ELP wants a bigger split or whatever, all of a sudden, what did pencil and made sense all of a sudden might not, and that lead source might go away.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Or it's just way too expensive to maintain, and you're like, uh, we can't do this anymore.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: And even as a team member, you can watch your lead sources dry up.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: You've got to build a brand.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: You have to become self-reliant.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: That is why I did that free masterclass, Clients from Social, is to teach you how to be self-reliant and to be fully in control of your leads, your conversations, and your clients, how many of them you get, how many of them show up in your inbox.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to pay for them.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a paid, uh, this is not a paid lead program or anything like that.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: It's it's showing you how to become your own lead generating machine.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Please, if you haven't yet committed to doing that for yourself, please do it going into 2026.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: I cannot tell you how far behind you're going to be in another year if you just keep doing the same shit without making an adjustment.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: So lead platforms continue to raise prices and squeeze margins.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Watched agents, unfortunately, I watched a lot of agents stay stuck and not progress or grow.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: A lot of them sold fewer homes this year versus last year.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of reasons for that, of course.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: One of the big issues we have in this industry is shiny object syndrome.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: You try one thing and you're like, oh, three weeks in or a month and a half in, it's not working yet.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: So, oh, I'm gonna do this thing.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try that program, I'll try this.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so and so is crushing it with direct mail.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: I better do that.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so then so and so is doing YouTube, so I'm gonna do that.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: And you keep jumping from one to the other, and you never give any of them enough time to work.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Everything works and nothing doesn't.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Everything works and nothing doesn't.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: You have to pick something that's in alignment with you and your goals that can actually get you to your goals, something that you enjoy doing, something that you that you are good at or can become good at, and hit it every single freaking day, over and over and over and over, without looking at some other thing to add.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: That's the that's the key.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: It's not sexy, but that's that's it.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: So unfortunately, I watched a lot of agents stay stuck because they just kept jumping around from one thing to another, or they they just weren't willing to make certain adjustments in their content, in their marketing, in their business, maybe their brokerage, whatever.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: And it just kept them in the same place.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: And if you're if you're in the same place next year as you are this year, that's not that's not growth.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: That's not growth.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: That's uh that's called maintenance at a minimum.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay, another one of the bad social burnout from overthinking content and chasing trends rather than following one plan, one formula, one framework, and doing it over and over and over.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna beat that one like a dead horse uh because it's so important.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: But I watched a lot of agents burn out on social because of overthinking.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: And look, I overthink.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: I overthink content, I overthink ideas, but I'm able to catch myself and be like, okay, what am I trying to do?
18:58
SPEAKER_00: Who am I trying to reach?
19:00
SPEAKER_00: What are they gonna find interesting?
19:01
SPEAKER_00: What are they gonna find helpful?
19:03
SPEAKER_00: How can I deliver that in an interesting or entertaining way?
19:07
SPEAKER_00: And I don't need the studio, it doesn't need to be this big elaborate skit.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: I could just give a little tidbit of information in this clever way.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: I can green screen, give my opinion on a certain article, a certain news story, a certain uh local event that's happening.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: And it's just content does not have to be hard.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: Content does not have to be hard.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the easiest and quickest content to create performs the best.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: It's wild how that works.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: What else do we have here?
19:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: And uh here's another bad one.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Agents paying their brokerage way too much.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: If you are paying your brokerage$50,000 a year,$70,000 a year,$120,000 a year.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even some of you, depending on your on how much you're selling, if you're if you're giving your brokerage$25,000 a year, it's it's just way too much.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: It's unnecessary.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: A lot of you are overpaying your brokerage, they are over-extracting from you and they are under-delivering to you.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: I know this because I talk to you guys every single day.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: I talk to agents like you every day.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: And I talked to an agent the other day that paid his brokerage this year over$100,000.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Wildly unnecessary.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: He could have saved$70,000 by coming to my brokerage, could have saved more by going to other brokerages, less by going to some others.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, if you're paying your brokerage$100,000 and you don't really get shit in return, or even if you do, like what do you get in return for that that makes it worth it?
20:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Make a change.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: It's just wild to me.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh, paying too much to your brokerage is something you should look at.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Are you overpaying?
20:43
SPEAKER_00: Are you not?
20:43
SPEAKER_00: Is it worth it?
20:44
SPEAKER_00: You have to answer that.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: But start asking the question.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't understand those that aren't even asking the question.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the ugly.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: The ugly in 2025.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Legacy brokerages got so into a hole that they had to be acquired by more modern players.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned Compass acquiring the Anywhere brands, Century, Coldwell, ERA.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, electronic realty and associates.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Is that it?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Electronic Realty Associates.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, something like whatever.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: They're electronic realtors, the electronic realtors.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Look, those are those brands have been around for decades, and they're trusted by consumers and everybody knows them, but they couldn't make ends meet anymore.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: They just got too outdated, too bogged down with expenses and overhead and all this stuff that they didn't have a choice but to be acquired.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: That I think more is going to happen this year.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see more of that because there's a lot of brokerages that are just stuck and they can't they can't innovate because they don't have any profit margin.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: They don't have any ability.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: The profit margin at some of these brokerages is actually negative.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Most of these legacy brokerages, uh, their profit margins are single digits.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: You can't innovate much with a single digit profit margin.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: So that's very unfortunate.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Continuing on with the ugly, agents and teams that relied too heavily on one lead source felt the pain or went out of business.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: If you are too reliant on any one source of business that you do not have control over yourself through your actions and effort, you are vulnerable.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: If a change happens, if a price shift, if an algorithm change happens, and I mean you're in trouble.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: And I watched a lot of agents, great agents, and great teams get really burned this year as a result.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: Buying leads without a long-term branding plan trapped agents in dependency.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Again, if you're buying leads, you're relying on realtor, Zillow, Holmes, whoever, Op City, whatever, you know, Dave Ramsey, ELP, they could say, hey, we want 5% more in a referral fee now, or else we'll just give this business to somebody else.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do?
22:54
SPEAKER_00: What if if that's 60% of your business, what are you gonna do?
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Please start building a machine that you control through your effort and actions that will continue to bring business to you month after month after month.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: So you're not relying on someone else.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Um fake growth tactics like purchased followers and black hat shortcuts on social backfired hard.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and they always will.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: We all know the dipshit with 385,000 Instagram followers who gets, you know, a thousand views, 743 views on their videos, or they hide their view counts, which is the best.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: We all know who the fakers are, everybody knows who the fakers are.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: So if you bought followers like I did back in the day, which is why I had to delete my account and start over, that's why I did that episode a few weeks ago uh about that whole saga, about that whole brain fart scenario.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: I learned that lesson hard.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Please do not get tricked into these short-term, quick fix tactics.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: That it's all bullshit.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: It destroys your credibility, it destroys your brand, it destroys your social presence.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: So d don't don't do it.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh last one, ugly.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: A lot of great agents left real estate.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Too many agents waited for the market to save them, meaning it when interest rates come down, I'm gonna get so much business.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: When interest rates come down, I'm gonna get so many listings.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: All my whole pipeline is gonna want to buy and sell.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: And then guess what happened?
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Or guess what didn't happen?
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Interest rates didn't fall.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: And you're screwed.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: I watched a lot of good people, friends of mine, leave real estate because they just didn't make the changes necessary, and they were relying on some outside force market conditions instead of their own actions, their own effort, their own machine.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: And that's sad.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: That sucks.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some personal ones, right?
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Here's something I was wrong about with 2025.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: I was I was wrong about interest rates.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: I thought interest rates would be much lower.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: I thought they'd be in the low fives or the high fours.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that sound nice?
25:11
SPEAKER_00: But they're not.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: They're not.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: So I was certainly wrong about that.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh I doubled down on content this year.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: I hired a videographer full-time in March, and we've been able to do so much more content.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's been much better content.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: I've been able to I've been able to reach outside my comfort zone and do like some more skits and uh like humorous stuff, just kind of like being a smart ass like I am, and and so it's been more enjoyable.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: It's also helped my brand dramatically.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: It's helped everything.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: When you have when you get seen more often, it's like the rising tide that lifts all ships.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Your goal, like to oversimplify, is just how can you be seen by more people more often?
25:53
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: So for me, hiring a videographer, which was a big investment this year, has paid off dramatically.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Like it's just incredible.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: So I'm so excited about what we can do next year.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh that so doubling down on content creation with a videographer was a big win for me this year.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: Here's where I came up short.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Another year went by and I did not commit to YouTube.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: I did not get YouTube rolling.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I put my podcast out on YouTube, but I I have not created made-for-Youtube videos.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: I think I made one or two this year, which is just wow, when I say that out loud, that's ridiculous.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: So YouTube is is the area that I've got to focus on.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: I I was able to really get more consistent with email, email marketing, and that's been great.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Email marketing is wildly underrated.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not on my email list, I send some really good shit, especially on Friday afternoons, our five shot Friday.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: That's really good.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Just go to my Instagram at Massive Agent and then click the link in the bio, and there's you can just register for my email list right in my link tree on Instagram.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: You can also reach that on TikTok as well.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: So just my bio on TikTok and Instagram, click the link, and up at the top, join my email list, and you can get get my good shit every every single week.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Um I also came up short on my income goal.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: I made less money this year than I than my goal.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: I made less than I thought I would.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: And like painfully so, actually.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: Now, not a bad year, still a better year than last.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's been a better year than last as far as income, but nowhere near my goal.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: And so that that's something I gotta I gotta fix.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: But it is what it is.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Um I also came up short with date nights with my wife, not nearly enough of them.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Very inconsistent, very I fell into the trap that a lot of us uh a lot of us husbands do.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, you know, I'm busy and we're busy, we're we're tired.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: And you just don't think about it.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh, let's do it next week.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Oh, let's do it next week.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: And pretty soon two and a half months, three months, four months goes by, and you're like, we haven't done a date night.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: So I personally have fallen short on that.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: My commitment to regular date nights with my wife and need to and will do much better next year.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Here's some big wins.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: I've been I've been able to spend more family time uh at night.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: I take my kids to jujitsu twice a week, I take my daughter to gymnastics twice a week, I've been able to be much more present at night, work less at night, and that's been incredible.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm proud of myself for that, even though admittedly I'm not I'm not perfect.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I am on my phone or my my my mind is on work or on building something or on a situation, or you know, we're trying to help this one this one uh brokerage of a hundred people come over to come over to real or something like that.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: And so like if my brain is elsewhere, that's not fair to my family, so I'm not perfect, but uh I have been able to spend a lot more time with them at night, and that's been great.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Because I read this incredible quote on on X, and I shared it in my story yesterday, which when you're hearing this, it'll be two days ago.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: But uh let me see if I can find it.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: This is worth me pulling up.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: This is worth the dead air, if you will.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here it is.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: This is from Sahil Bloom on X.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: The single greatest challenge for any ambitious person is eliminating the guilt associated with free time and rest.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know what else to say about that.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: But it's so true.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: I've been working on it, I will continue to work on it.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: I made a big leap this year, and I'm proud of that, and I hope you do too.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: In 2025, I had more speaking opportunities.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: I had some really awesome speaking gigs at different bigger events.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh this one with Fairway uh at the Fairway Elevate event in Denver at Mile High Stadium.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Like I spoke on a stage at Mile High Stadium.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: That was unbelievably cool.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: I grew up a Broncos fan, not really anymore.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't really care about the NFL anymore, if I'm being honest.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm a college football guy and a golf guy.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: And but that was cool.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: That was really cool.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: So uh really enjoyed my speaking opportunities this year, speaking at different events.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I hit platinum with Bonvoy with my my Marriott Bonvoy.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: I hit platinum, which is awesome.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, some free room upgrades from time to time.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: That's sweet.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh another year, like I said earlier, of one pod every single Thursday morning.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Proud of that.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: This is episode 417.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: I've never in eight years missed a week of this podcast, and I have no plans to.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: And I had big growth on Instagram this year too.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: I I meant to look up what I started the year with, but I I didn't quite double.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: But I I think 33 to 40% growth on Instagram this year is pretty awesome.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: And as far as views and impressions, those were up one at one uh 150%.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: So that's really cool.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Um something that I stopped doing this year.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: I stopped spreading myself too thin.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: I've been able to focus more on a few things, especially with social.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: I've given up caring about a certain uh about a couple platforms instead of trying to be everywhere all the time.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: For me, up to this point, that has not been reasonable.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: It has not been um doable.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: So I let go of a few platforms, at least consistently, and focus on Instagram, TikTok, podcast, email.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: And and then YouTube, I put some YouTube shorts up there every once in a while.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: I obviously got to do better, better with that.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: And I also stopped editing videos.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Unless it's something that I recorded and doing a quick green screen, I do that myself.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: But as far as like editing all my videos, that's why I have Aaron, my videographer, who's incredible.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: And that's what that's why you hire someone great to take a big workload off of your plate.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, he does it way better, anyways.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: 2025 rewarded focus, consistency, and ownership.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: 2025 punished shortcuts, dependency, and indecision.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: And I think 2026 is gonna widen that gap even more, which is kind of crazy.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you know what you want out of next year.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: That's the that's the first part.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: And then what's gonna help you get there?
32:17
SPEAKER_00: I built and am hosting a free mastermind for agents who want to build a client generating machine that brings you clients for free every single month, month after month after month.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: You can count on them, they show up in your inbox, you have more conversations happening, you build a personal brand as a direct result of this.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: But uh, if you want to build a client generating machine, I'm hosting a free master class to teach you exactly how some of the top agents are getting five or more new deals every single month for free.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you the system that they use.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: Just go to clientsfromsocial.com.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: It's 30 minutes, so commit to 30 minutes, go to clients from social.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: It's it's straight into the point, uh, gets right into it.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: But it is, like I said before, that masterclass is designed in a way to help you take action, not just to give you a couple pieces of information.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, cool.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: If it was all about just giving you the data points, I would have just like put it all in a put a few things in a PDF.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: But no, I had to teach, give context, give some details, and frame it properly so that you not only learn it, but you learn it deep enough to where you actually take action.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Clientsfromsocial.com is where you can register for that masterclass I'm hosting.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you guys next week.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Next week's episode is on Christmas.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: How convenient for downloads.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, so this year, I think, well, every year, my episode comes out on Thanksgiving morning.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: Never the best as far as download numbers.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Christmas is gonna suck for download numbers, so look out for next week's episode, a nice Christmas gift in your podcast player next week.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: See you guys.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Take care.