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REM Bot

Content by REM Bot has been created with the assistance of AI. Audio and video interviews, conducted by our team with real people, are transcribed and repurposed into text for those who prefer reading. REM Bot articles are reviewed by staff before publication to ensure factual accuracy and maintain editorial standards.

The post The Price Change Playbook: How top agents stay in control when listings stall appeared first on REM.

And it’s not just you. We are in one of the toughest economies we have seen in 20 years. Buyers are cautious, sellers are stuck in the past, and motivation across the board is fading. The market’s been frustrating. But none of that changes the fact that the fall market is coming – and what you do right now will dictate how you finish the year.

If you’re feeling behind, stuck, or just tired, this is your reset point. Not next week. Not September. Right now!

Here’s how to take back control, reset your focus, and walk into your fall market ready to win.

Get real about where you’re at

The biggest mistake most people make when they’re behind on their goals is pretending they’re not. They try to catch up without looking at what actually went wrong. That’s not a strategy. That’s avoidance.

So let’s be blunt: if your numbers aren’t where you thought they’d be by now, stop ignoring it. Own it. Audit it.

Ask yourself:

• How many conversations have you had?
• How many appointments have you booked?
• How many listings or offers have you actually written?
• And how much of your day is going toward the things that create those results?

You don’t need to feel bad about where you’re at – but you do need to be honest. Because nothing changes without clarity first.

Action step: Open your calendar and your CRM. Review the last 30 days. What were you actually doing? What made an impact for you? What didn’t?

Stop waiting for motivation – build structure instead

If you’re relying on motivation to push you forward, you’ve already lost. Motivation is unreliable. It’s emotion-based. Some days you’ll have it, most days you won’t.

What you need is structure.

You need a daily schedule that isn’t built on how you feel – but on what needs to get done. If your schedule is reactive, you’re going to burn out. If it’s intentional, you’re going to win.

Start with your priorities: business development, client follow-up, marketing. Block time for those first. Then fit everything else around them.

And no, this doesn’t need to be complicated. You don’t need a 12-step morning routine. You need a system you’ll actually stick to.

Action step: Build your schedule the night before. Know who you’re calling, what you’re posting, and when your lead gen is happening before your day even starts.

Audit your marketing – then simplify it

One of the fastest ways to feel overwhelmed is to try doing too much with your marketing – and most people are doing way too much with zero consistency.

You don’t need to be everywhere. You need to be effective.

So here’s the move: audit what’s working. Cut what’s not. Double down on the things that have actually created leads or opportunities for you.

That might be your email list. It might be social. It might be door-knocking, events, farming, whatever. But pick your lane and get consistent.

Action step: Ask yourself: where did your last five deals come from? If you can’t answer that, you’re not tracking the right metrics. Fix that now.

Get in front of your clients before the market does

Fall is a critical window. It’s the last stretch of the year where people want to make moves before the holidays hit. But they’re not going to do it unless someone gives them a reason to.

That means you need to be the one setting expectations – early.

Your buyers need to know exactly what they can afford. No more guessing. No more “seeing what’s out there.” If they’re serious, they need to be pre-approved and clear on their budget.

Your sellers need to know what their home is actually worth – not what they wish it was worth. That means tough conversations, backed by data. And that means you need to stop being afraid of telling the truth just because you want the listing.

Action step: Schedule five client update calls per week for the next month. That could be active clients, past clients, warm leads – anyone. The goal is to re-engage, reset expectations, and put yourself back in a leadership role.

Focus on inputs, not just outcomes

This is the time of year where agents get stuck staring at their numbers. They say, “I’m behind,” and then start scrambling to make up for lost ground. But they skip the one step that would actually help: looking at what they’re doing every day.

You can’t control how many deals close this week. But you can control how many people you talk to. You can control how many emails you send, how many videos you record, how many conversations you start.

Those are the things that drive results. Not simply the goals written on your whiteboard.

Action step: Track your activities every single day for the next 30 days. Calls made. Conversations had. Content posted. Listings booked. Don’t just track the big wins – track the actions that lead to them.

Final words

You don’t need to overhaul your life to finish this year strong. You just need to stop spinning, stop waiting, and start doing the things that actually move your business forward.

So here’s your checklist to hit the ground running this fall:

• Get real about where you’re at. Audit everything.
• Build a schedule you can actually follow – and stick to it.
• Simplify your marketing. Stop trying to do it all. Just do what works.
• Reconnect with your clients. Set expectations now.
• Focus on your actions. The results will follow.

There’s still time to hit your goals. There’s still time to grow your pipeline. But only if you take control right now.

This market isn’t going to wait for you. So stop waiting for the perfect plan. Show up consistently. Stick to the system. And finish the year the way you were meant to – with momentum.

Remember, MindShare = market share!

David Greenspan

David Greenspan, CEO and founder of #MindShare101 is a nationally recognized keynote speaker, trainer and coach who helps sales professionals and businesses improve their sales and marketing efforts by bridging the gap between online and offline marketing to achieve a higher ROI on every marketing dollar spent. His direct, raw, and real approach is designed to motivate you and give you the advice you need to know.

David’s goal is to help you build MindShare, creating a top-of-mind intuitive, instinctive reaction so when people think of the product or service you offer, they think of your name first, always putting you in the right place at the right time to take your business to the next level.

The post From chaos to control: How to reset, refocus, and win your fall market appeared first on REM.

Realtor.ca is bolstering its board with expertise in technology, marketing, customer experience, and more as the platform finds its legs as a standalone, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Canadian Real Estate Association.

On Tuesday, Realtor.ca announced the appointment of business leaders Peter Lukomskyj, Sheila Morin and Sarah Miller Wright, bringing the board to six members.

Board chair David Oikle said the new members were chosen for their proven track records of driving revenue growth. Since transitioning from a not-for-profit to a taxable subsidiary of CREA this year, Realtor.ca has prioritized making a viable business model for the platform.

“We thought it was incredibly important to get a diversity of experience around the board table,”  said Oikle.

CREA moved to spin out Realtor.ca into its own entity to maintain its dominating market share as competition heats up and consumer expectations rise. This enables the platform to pursue new revenue streams, some of which have already begun, said Oikle.

Who are the members? 

Lukomskyj is a technology leader currently serving as the CEO of Radiant Health. Previously, he held senior leadership roles at ride-sharing company Lyft, where he launched new markets and oversaw expansion into Canada and across the globe. He is a Professional Engineer and CPA.

Morin is the chief marketing officer at Coveo, an enterprise software firm based in Quebec. She is recognized for her contributions to growing major brands and her talent for creating modern, sustainable strategies. 

Miller Wright has scaled organizations at every stage. Miller Wright led customer experience strategy, operations, and digitization on a global scale in her previous role as COO at Manulife. She also served as a senior executive at Shaw Communications. 

The board also includes CREA CEO Janice Myers and immediate past chair James Mabey.

The board’s top priorities

Oikle said the board will have its first meeting in two weeks. 

Among the first action items is initiating the process of recruiting and hiring a permanent CEO.

Patrick Pichette currently serves as interim CEO.

“I expect (Pichette) will express interest in the position. He’s doing a terrific job,” said Oikle.

Board members are compensated for the position, said Oikle, adding that their pay is confidential. 

He said they are recruiting three more directors and he hopes to have a nine-person board by the end of the year. 

Oikle pledges to keep commitments 

A huge element of CREA’s case for Realtor.ca’s independence was the ability to capitalize on revenue opportunities. 

Some initiatives are already being piloted, said Oikle, such as banner ads and referral buttons to mortgage professionals. 

Oikle said the board intends to honour its pledge to maintain Realtor.ca’s status as a market leader and ensure it remains a trusted resource for Realtors and consumers. 

“We’re not out to do something that is not going to be a positive representation of the brand,” he said.

Courtney Zwicker

Courtney Zwicker is a digital reporter and associate editor for REM. Based in Atlantic Canada, she has over a decade of experience covering daily business news.

The post Realtor.ca appoints tech-savvy board to drive next chapter appeared first on REM.

Buyers are chasing homes they can’t afford. Sellers are living in the past—stuck on 2021 prices. And agents are burning time, energy and emotional bandwidth showing properties that were never realistic from the start. It’s a recipe for frustration – not for closings.

If you want to move deals forward in this market, you need to lead. And leading means having the tough conversations—early, clearly and without sugarcoating it. These conversations aren’t optional. They’re the difference between spinning your wheels and actually doing business.

Let’s break down the three conversations every Realtor needs to be having right now.

1. The buying power conversation

Before you show another home, your buyer needs to know exactly what they can afford. Not what they think they can afford, and definitely not what they hope they can afford. With mortgage rates changing, renewals looming, and affordability stretched thinner than ever, most buyers don’t actually know where they stand.

Here’s a real example:

One of my coaching clients had a buyer with a budget of $1.2 to $1.3 million. Solid budget. Then they walked into a listing at $1.69 million—and the buyer loved it. Called it a 12/10. Checked every single box and then some.

The problem is, they couldn’t afford it. And now what? Keep looking at houses that are way out of range? Try to manifest an extra $400,000? Waste more time?

No. I told my client to stop everything. Send that buyer back to their mortgage broker or bank. Get the actual number. Get the truth. And then move forward—strategically.

If the number comes back lower, great. We stop chasing. If it comes back higher, maybe we’ve got room to negotiate. Maybe we can write an offer. Maybe we actually get a deal done.

But none of that happens without clarity first.

Action step: Don’t show another property until your buyer has updated numbers from a lender. Make it your standard. Buyers need facts, not fantasy. Clarity saves everyone a ton of frustration.

2. The seller expectation reset

Sellers still believe their house is worth what it was in early 2022. They think it should sell fast. They think they can name their price.

But that’s not how this works—not anymore.

Markets shift. Values move. And your job isn’t to tell people what they want to hear. Your job is to tell them the truth, backed by data, market insight and your experience.

This is where most agents lose the listing, or worse, waste six months trying to sell a property that was never priced to move. If you want to protect your time and your reputation, this conversation has to happen at the very beginning.

Action step: During the listing presentation, talk about expectations. What do they expect from you? What do you expect from them? And what can they realistically expect from today’s market?

Even better—include a “seller expectation sheet” in your process. Something simple. Something they sign. This gives you documentation that the conversation happened and puts everyone on the same page from day one. Selling is not emotional. It’s strategic. And setting that tone early makes all the difference.

3. The motivation check before lowering the price

When a listing isn’t moving, the gut reaction is often, “Let’s just lower the price.”

But price isn’t always the issue. Motivation is.

Before you make a move, ask the hard questions. Why are they selling? What’s their timeline? What’s the number that actually matters to them?

Then, look at the data:

• How many showings have there been?
• What’s the feedback been like?
• What else is available at that price point?
• How does this listing actually compare?
• Is the seller really ready – or just testing the market?

Sometimes, the seller isn’t ready to sell. They just want to see if they can get “their number.” Sometimes, it’s an emotional decision, not a financial one. But if they don’t need to sell, why are you hustling so hard to force a deal?

Action step: Don’t drop the price just to chase a sale. Talk to your seller. Reassess their motive. Make the right move based on facts—not fear.

This is about protecting your client’s best interest, not just protecting your next paycheque.

Here’s why all of this matters

This article isn’t about one buyer or one overpriced listing. This is about the state of the market right now.

Buyers are unclear about what they can afford. Sellers are unclear about what their homes are worth. And too many agents are afraid to have the tough conversations that would clear all of that up.

Here’s the part that too many people forget: avoiding these conversations doesn’t protect your clients; it hurts them. It hurts your business, too.

When you skip the buying power talk, you waste time showing the wrong properties. When you avoid the seller reset, you waste months on listings that won’t sell. When you slash the price without a strategy, you hurt your client’s equity and your credibility.

These aren’t small things. They’re the reason deals stall. They’re the reason agents burn out. And they’re completely avoidable if you’re willing to lead.

Lead or lose

The agents who are getting deals done right now aren’t promising miracles. They’re not tiptoeing around the truth.

They’re leading.

They’re guiding buyers with hard numbers, not hopeful guesses. They’re educating sellers with real data, not inflated dreams. And they’re asking the tough questions before making big decisions.

This market demands clarity. It demands leadership. And if you want to win, you need to step up and own that role.

Final steps to put this into practice

1. Before your next buyer showing, confirm their financing.
2. At your next listing appointment, reset expectations—and put it in writing.
3. When the thought of lowering the price comes up, reassess their motivation first.
4. Track how many of these conversations you’re actually having. If the number is low, you already know why the results aren’t there.

The agents who lean into these conversations right now will win this market. The rest? They’ll keep spinning their wheels, chasing listings, and wondering why nothing’s closing.

Lead the conversations. Lead your clients. And you’ll lead the market.

David Greenspan

David Greenspan, CEO and founder of #MindShare101 is a nationally recognized keynote speaker, trainer and coach who helps sales professionals and businesses improve their sales and marketing efforts by bridging the gap between online and offline marketing to achieve a higher ROI on every marketing dollar spent. His direct, raw, and real approach is designed to motivate you and give you the advice you need to know.

David’s goal is to help you build MindShare, creating a top-of-mind intuitive, instinctive reaction so when people think of the product or service you offer, they think of your name first, always putting you in the right place at the right time to take your business to the next level.

The post How to have conversations that actually get deals done  appeared first on REM.