In 2024, we entered a "normal" market.

By normal, I mean the market was not being driven up or down. Buyers and sellers, through normal supply and demand, regained control of the market, price growth slowed, neither sellers nor buyers were overly disadvantaged, and days on the market were leveling out.

But we're so used to the Fed steering the ship, how do we adjust to a "normal" market?

Let's quickly look back again:

• 1985- 5 million homes sold, a 15-year high at the time, dipping to…
• 1990- 4.1 million and taking until…
• 1997- to get back above 5 million again.
• 2005- 7 million sold. The most ever! Cratering quickly until the low of…
• 2011- 4.75 million sold. The bottom of the "crash.
• 2021- 6 million sold. The post Covid push.
• 2023- 4 million sold (first time below 4.5 since 1993!)
• 2024- 4.5 million homes sold. This is an average year.  

Yep, 2024 was a historically average year. Hard to believe but true.  

Focus on recreating good habits:

In real estate, what's largely forgettable are normal markets. When we get a sugar high, a remarkable market, we remember it. We remember the big years. We tend to compare everything to those.

Yet, 71% of agents licensed did zero transactions in 2024. Nearly doubling 2023's 48%.

Why? Because habits are stronger knowledge. The agents who are market-proof are the agents who stick to basics and continually focus on habits. Their business is always good.

What habits were formed by the past markets (easier years) that need to be corrected?

• Agents became passive (consumers chased the Agent down).
• We were in a FOMO market. Had to move fast. Harder to stick to our plan.
• Buying leads instead of creating them.
• Most agents became buyer focused - 80% worked almost exclusively with buyers.
• Only 20% are seller centric today; focusing mostly with sellers.
• Spending too much on activities that do not produce income. 

Listings are the answer:

There's a reason one of the oldest sayings in Real Estate is, "You have to list to last."

Buyer sides are far harder to accrue as the competition is fierce. Take 1,000 agents and assume there were 1,000 possible transactions, and 500 were buyers and 500 were sellers last year. In 2024, 80% of the agents were going after the 500 buyers.

If you were buyer focused, by choice, you left 500 sellers to just 200 agents.

Let's say you need 13 listings to get 10 closed. You can get 6 buyers out of this because most sellers buy their next house with their listing agent. That's 16 closed transactions completed. With the right marketing and effort, you should be able to get 3 buyers out of these listings, just from inquiries and open houses. Boom, you are at 19 closings now.

In 2024:

• 90% of buyers and sellers worked with realtors last year (In 1997, it was 77%).
• 6% sold via FSBO last year. More tools available than ever, yet very few do it.
• 88% of FSBO listings listed with agents in 4 weeks or less.

Start on the list side. Always. It's a great way to also get buyers.

Sellers need us and they know it. And there is far less competition for them.