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Growing up in the real estate industry, I’ve always viewed the world through the lens of “home.” My childhood home wasn’t just a place — it was where I learned about the business, strategized open houses with my mom who was a Realtor and celebrated my real estate successes once I ventured into the industry. Home served as both a hub and a haven, laying the foundation for my career. 

The concept of home also beautifully parallels the idea of resilience. As the last two years have shown us in no uncertain terms, resiliency is a must in our ever-evolving business landscape.

Just as we renovate our homes to adapt and improve, we can draw parallels to evolving our businesses. Here are four key similarities:

Have a plan, but be prepared to change it 

Home renovations often require flexibility. As I work on restoring a 100-year-old house, I’ve learned to adapt my original vision, consider alternative solutions and handle unexpected challenges. The same applies to your business plan.

Whether you’re a new real estate agent or an experienced professional, recognize that business plans are dynamic — they need constant adjustment. Adaptability ensures resilience. 

Evaluate the structure; fortify the foundation 

Sometimes a house’s bones are solid, but the attached elements need updating. In real estate, relationships matter most. Your expertise forms the weight-bearing walls of your business foundation. Clients trust you to guide them through significant financial and emotional transactions. Strengthen these bonds by maintaining transparent communication and frequent connections. 

Sometimes you can’t DIY it, and that’s OK 

Just as not all home improvements are DIY projects, some business challenges demand professional expertise. Recognize when to seek help — whether refining your marketing strategy, exploring new lead generation methods or embracing technology.

Lean on the resources and expertise from your brand, broker and fellow agents. In times of change, drawing on the strength and stability of your network can help guide you through turbulent times. Regardless of market conditions, tap into the broad array of resources available to you. 

Your business is an investment. It grows over time

Renovating a house is an investment that takes time to yield returns. Similarly, as a real estate agent, you are your business. Investing in yourself is crucial for sustainable success. Enhance your skill set, stay informed about industry trends, and maintain a growth mindset.

Strategic decision-making, guided by continuous self-improvement, leads to greater returns. Adaptability and resilience remain your greatest assets. 

Wishing you success in your personal and professional renovation projects! 

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The impending changes from the national commission settlements continue to confuse and worry many real estate agents — especially in the lower and middle price tiers.

But whatever impact the NAR deal ends up having on the market for first-time homebuyers and typical sellers, luxury agents and brokers who spoke Monday at the Inman Luxury Connect real estate conference in Las Vegas said they don’t anticipate high-dollar buyers would be inclined to skimp on their agent’s commission in light of the change.

“One of the things about luxury buyers: They’re very accustomed to paying for expertise,” said Jennifer Lind of Coldwell Banker. “They’ve got a lot of trusted advisors that are managing multiple pieces of their world. And … most of our agents feel very comfortable in their ability to negotiate.”

In other words, if pressed to cover their agent’s fee themselves, luxury buyers are likely to foot the bill.

Tammy Fahmi, senior vice president of global servicing and strategy for Sotheby’s International Realty, said that she still thinks that luxury sellers are unlikely to take a hardline approach — even with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line.

“I think that remains to be seen,” Fahmi said. “We’ve always been consistent in saying that we believe that there are many reasons why sellers should continue to offer buyer broker compensation, one of which is to make sure as many buyers are exposed to [a listing] as possible.”

Thad Wong, co-CEO of Christie’s International Real Estate, said that the commission changes are not meaningfully impacting business or agent-client relationships.

In conversations with clients, Wong said, the commission changes are “coming up much less [often] than the way agents feel. If one customer talks with an agent about the lawsuit, it feels like everyone’s doing it because it brings so much anxiety. 

“So it’s much more of an industry issue than it is a market issue.”

In most markets, Wong said he doesn’t think the lawsuits are going to have the impact that is most feared. He also said that these changes are coming at a fortunate time for both the luxury market and homes in lower price tiers.

“Aside from Austin and some places in the country, we still have low inventory in many major markets, and we still have low luxury inventory,” Wong said. “So it’s a very, very good time because the buyer agent is only more significant right now in finding properties and searching.”

Echoing Wong, Fahmi said that Sotheby’s has not seen any substantial issues with clients navigating the upcoming changes, and doesn’t expect them to pop up in great numbers in the luxury space.

But all of these panelists on Monday agreed that this moment represents an opportunity for luxury agents to get more organized and prepared to defend the value they bring to the buyer side of the transaction. If they do, luxury buyers will be able and willing to pay for their services if needed, they said.

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Black homeowners have long struggled to experience the same gains as their white counterparts during the selling process. They grapple with slower home value growth, especially if they live in a majority-minority ZIP code. And when it’s time to sell, they disproportionately receive low-ball appraisals and buyer offers — two more roadblocks in Black Americans’ quest to build long-term wealth.

However, according to a University of Washington research team, Black homeowners have been able to experience better seller outcomes in the iBuyer sphere than in the open market.

What gives?

The Information School team zeroed in on Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, which has 1.1 million residents across six cities: Charlotte, Huntersville, Matthews, Cornelius, Pineville, and Mint Hill. Charlotte accounts for almost 900,000 of Mecklenburg’s 1.1 million residents and has a Black population of 35 percent. IBuyers achieved solid results in Charlotte, reaching 8 percent market share in 2021.

The team accessed 50,000 publicly available property transfer records from 2018 to 2023 for Mecklenburg County and then cross-referenced those records with North Carolina voter rolls, which provide racial data. From there, the team controlled for 50 factors, including home size and neighborhood crime rate, and found the offer gap between Black and white homeowners shrunk from $36,051 on the open market to $4,436 with iBuyers.

The gap shrunk due to the fact that iBuyers paid Black homeowners $4,376 more and white homeowners $27,239 less, on average.

“There’s very little reason for us to believe that there’s some purposeful intervention going on here,” senior author and associate professor Nic Weber said in a prepared statement. “iBuyers are paying Black homeowners a little bit more, but not significantly more. Rather, iBuyers don’t seem to be willing to pay white homeowners what they might be able to earn if they sold through a traditional broker.”

Although Black homeowners are getting better offers through iBuyers, UW’s team said iBuyers are contributing to trends that hurt Black homeowners and homebuyers in the long term. Institutional buyers have an outsized presence in the iBuyer space, with institutional ownership for white-owned homes increasing from 9 percent on the open market to 17 percent in the iBuyer market and 33 percent to 36 percent for Black-owned homes.

Institutional buyer activity is connected to higher housing costs and eviction rates, two factors that disproportionately impact the Black community.

“These real estate investment trusts tend to look for cheap homes that they can buy and convert to rentals so that they can profit over decades,” Weber said. “So this change in conversion rate from people to institutions is troubling because in the U.S., one of the substantial ways that people gain wealth and transfer it between generations is through homeownership.”

Added doctoral student Isaac Slaughter, “iBuyers are offering a service. They’re making the home sale process faster and simpler. While our analysis in Mecklenburg suggests iBuyers are extending some disadvantages that Black home sellers tend to face to white home sellers as well, we don’t know that people are experiencing these sales as generally harmful or whether they’re aware of the tradeoffs that are involved.”

The UW team plans to extend their research to Maricopa County, Arizona, and Orange County, Florida.

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In today’s world, we have specialists for pretty much every aspect of our personal lives: a specialist for cutting our hair, a different specialist for color, then a specialist for nails, then pedicures and then finally someone who does facials. While each requires the same or similar licenses, we choose to go to the person who specializes in the very thing we want to be exceptional.

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In visiting our doctor or dentist, we go to specialists for our particular problem. It’s no longer acceptable to see an orthopedist for a knee issue. Instead, you would seek out a knee specialist — or, even more specifically, a knee specialist who works specifically on athletic injuries.

Today’s consumer is trained and has come to expect specialization in almost every aspect of their lives, but when they go to meet with a real estate agent, they are often disappointed with a generalist who handles buyers, sellers, residential, commercial, rentals, land, ranches, luxury and short-term vacation properties. That description says a lot to the consumer. “I also do knees.” Is that who you want helping you?  

As commission lawsuits and subsequent settlements have upended both buy-side and sell-side transactions, it’s more important than ever to hone your expertise and present yourself as the answer to your clients’ goals and challenges. For homeowners who are navigating entirely new questions about compensation, concessions and pricing, the service of a true specialist is a particularly appealing unique value proposition (UVP).

Specialization is not merely a strategic advantage — it’s the cornerstone of providing unparalleled service and customized, specific solutions for your clients. For listing agents, sharpening specialty skills is crucial for standing out in a crowded marketplace. A listing agent’s primary responsibilities revolve around marketing, pricing and negotiating the sale of properties. Let’s delve into these roles and explore how team leaders can cultivate specialization within their teams.

Marketing: The art of selling homes

There are only three things a listing specialist should focus on. First, prospecting for listing appointments; second, going on listing appointments; and third, negotiating contracts. That’s it. The rest of the activities should be done by different specialists on the team, including the marketing of the homes, showings of the homes, holding the open houses, etc. Those activities that are not directly related to the first three should not involve the listing specialist.

Pricing: The science of valuation

Accurate pricing is a delicate balance that can make or break a sale. Listing agents must specialize in pricing strategies that reflect the true value of a property while remaining competitive in the market.

Specializing in pricing

• Comprehensive market analysis: Provide agents with tools and training to conduct thorough market analyses. Understanding the nuances of the local market is essential for setting the right price.
• Dynamic pricing strategies: Teach agents to be flexible with pricing strategies, taking into account factors such as seasonality, economic shifts and inventory levels.
• Communication of value: Train your agents to effectively communicate the rationale behind pricing to sellers, building trust and setting realistic expectations.

Negotiating: The art of the deal

Negotiation is where the listing agent’s expertise is most visible. It’s about advocating for the seller’s interests and securing the best possible terms.

Mastering negotiation as a listing agent

• Understand the buyer’s perspective: Train agents to understand the buyer’s motivations and constraints, which can provide leverage in negotiations.
• Finesse and diplomacy: Encourage agents to practice finesse and diplomacy. Negotiation is not just about being firm; it’s also about finding mutually beneficial solutions.
• Legal acumen: Ensure your agents are well-versed in the legal aspects of real estate transactions to navigate complex negotiation challenges confidently.

Specializing as a listing agent in practice

Creating a team of specialized listing agents means fostering an environment where continuous improvement is the norm. Here’s how team leaders can achieve this:

• Role specialization: Assign roles based on individual strengths, whether it’s marketing, staging, pricing, or closing deals.
• Invest in education: Provide ongoing training and professional development opportunities in advanced marketing techniques, market analysis and negotiation skills. 
• Collaborative culture: When working on a team of specialists, buyer’s agents refer listing leads to the listing team, and listing agents create opportunities for buyer’s agents to show and represent buyers. Specializing means you stay in your lane and provide exceptional client services based on your specialty.
• Performance metrics: Set clear goals and metrics for each specialization area to measure success and guide improvement efforts. An example would be, if you want to earn $1 million a year in gross closed income, then all you have to do is understand what has to happen from a listing appointment perspective to accomplish that. Here is a hypothetical and I will use numbers for demonstration purposes only. Commissions are negotiable and the average sales price in different markets is just that, different.   

Let’s say the average listing is $500,000.00. You charge a listing or sales commission of 2.75 percent. That means your average commission is $13,750 on each sale. So, if you don’t do anything else but focus on listings, you need 73 listings a year to earn a gross commission of $1 million.  

If you close 50 percent of the appointments you go on, then you will need 146 listing appointments in a 12-month period to accomplish this. That’s just over 12 appointments per month, three appointments per week and less than one listing appointment per day. If you wake up every day broke and hungry and focus on prospecting until you set and go on one appointment per day, you will hit or exceed your income goal.

Let me ask you this: If you go on 146 appointments per year, do you think you will get better at listing homes, at the listing presentation, at pricing and at prospecting? Would you be better than an average agent who is a generalist who does seven transactions per year? The answer is, simply, yes. As you specialize, you become a true expert at the part of the business you focus on.

Specialization within a listing agent team is about more than just improving service — it’s about building a well-oiled machine where efficiency and expertise lead to outstanding results. By focusing on marketing, pricing and negotiating, listing agents can sharpen their skills and deliver unmatched service to sellers.

We know by tracking the performance of hundreds of high-performing teams that the ones who specialize in each area of the business outperform teams or individuals who are generalists and the teams are more profitable because they create compensation that is consistent with the position and the work required at their level of specialization. 

As a team leader, nurturing these specializations can transform your real estate practice into a more profitable, esteemed business. Each listing you generate should create 1.5 buy-side closings, and your buyer specialists will be amazing at converting and closing those opportunities.

Empower your agents to become specialists in their respective roles, and watch as they become invaluable assets to your team and clients. Remember, in the world of real estate, “Most agents create jobs for themselves; very few create a business.” As the market becomes more complex and consumers have more questions than ever, let’s build a business where specialization is the foundation of excellence and success.

Verl Workman is founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Instagram.