The following is based on a conversation recorded on The Leads Are Sh*t podcast. Click here to watch the full interview.

When the real estate world crashed in 2007, Ray Ellen was just getting started. Six months in, listings dried up overnight. He remembers driving past empty fields that already had streets and curbs poured, ghost subdivisions that never made it past the blueprint.

Sellers were showing up to closings in tears. Buyers were grinning ear to ear. Title companies started splitting closings so no one had to sit across from each other.

Most agents working today have never lived through that kind of freeze. Ellen has. And the lessons he learned back then are exactly what agents need now.

 

‘Balance’ on paper still feels like a downturn; price to win early

 

A balanced market doesn’t feel balanced when you are coming off the highs of 2021.

Ellen breaks pricing into three simple pieces:

• Comparables: Figure out a realistic range, not a dream number.
• Absorption rate: Are sales speeding up or slowing down month to month? If they are slowing, you can’t price like it is still 2022.
• Competitive set: Look at what is active right now. If there are seven similar homes and five likely buyers, do you want to be the one who sells first, or the one who cuts the price in 60 days?

“If there are four buyers for seven homes, my question to the seller is simple,” Ellen says. “Do you want to be in the top two that sell, or the five that chase the market?”

 

Do the pricing work with sellers, not for them

 

Instead of showing up with a printed CMA, Ellen builds it live at the kitchen table.

He pulls up comps, adjusts features and lets the seller call out differences. By the end, they land on a number together.

“Almost every seller says, ‘No one has ever done this with me,’” he says. “That is the point. It is their decision, not my opinion.”

It turns pricing into a collaboration instead of a debate, and it sticks.

 

Think 90-day campaigns, not weekend launches

 

When homes sold in a week, agents could throw everything out in the first few days and move on. That does not work anymore.

Ellen plans for a 90 to 120-day arc on every listing:

• Weeks 1–2: make the property look and feel like a premium product with photos, video and strong copy.
• Weeks 3–4: widen the audience, rotate creative and reach new eyeballs.
• Weeks 5–8: change up the hooks, refresh visuals and adjust the price only when paired with a new marketing push. 

That is how he has been able to relist expired homes at the same price and get them sold. The issue usually isn’t price. It is momentum.

 

Win with questions, not speeches

 

In softer markets, hard sells fall flat. Ellen has learned to replace statements with questions that help clients talk themselves into the right move.

• “What would it mean to be in your next home sooner?” 
• “If prices are higher in three years, would waiting still make sense?” 
• “When you divide the equity you are giving up by ten years in the right home, is that trade-off worth it?”

 

He laughs and says, “People trust decisions more when they hear them in their own voice.”

 

Go after the listings no one else wants

 

A lot of agents say they don’t want inventory right now. Ellen’s response is, “Great. I’ll take it.”

Hard listings are where the real wins live. Fewer competitors, bigger stories, stronger referrals.

Recently, he took an expired listing, priced it the same, marketed it properly, and sold it in days.

“That client is now telling everyone about it,” he says. “Those testimonials are gold.”

 

Answer the phone – seriously

 

Ellen tells a story about a couple moving from Germany. They messaged ten agents. He was the only one who replied.

“It wasn’t my brand or my videos that won them. It was that I answered first,” he says.

Responsiveness is the simplest differentiator in real estate, and most still miss it. Second-ring pick-up. Five-minute text response. Same-day appointment offers. That is the baseline.

 

Build Q4 momentum to own Q1

 

Ellen’s big focus this year is finishing strong. His team is running contests, chasing every lead and preparing for a Q4 that could outpace spring.

“Every great first quarter I have ever had came from a busy fourth quarter,” he says. “Momentum compounds.”

 

The takeaway

 

The agents who make it through slow markets are the ones who can show their work, sustain demand and help families make confident decisions even when things feel uncertain.

That is what Ellen took from 2007, and it is why he is still here to tell the story.