While Andy Florance has been grilled in the press for his losses from Coster’s acquisition of Homes.com, the hottest topics at Inman Connect in New York City have been the merger of Compass and Anywhere into Compass International, the fight over a private listing, and the knock-down drag-out battle between Compass International and Zillow. The big question facing agents today is how to stand out in a vast sea of sameness.
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A winning formula that has worked for decades
The simple answer is something that hasn’t changed for decades: a unique value proposition (UVP) that is hyper-local, cutting-edge, and customized to the client’s specific wants and needs. Add to this a clear written outline of the services you provide, provide the customer with more than promised (under-promised and over-delivered), and move on.
That’s what it takes to build real connections that will lead to repeat and referral business for years to come.
Unfortunately, as Next Home CEO James Dwiggins said while sharing his experience searching for a home to buy in Danville, California, “there were more private listings than listings on the MLS.”
If Mr. Dwiggins hadn’t had his friends at Compass to share what was available, all of these sellers would have missed out on the chance to have their homes shown to incredibly talented buyers. To make matters worse, the agents listing him in MLS wouldn’t even call him back.
Incompetent agents cannot survive in today’s cruel market
Jimmy Burgess pointed to the growing trend of pushing part-time workers and incompetent agents out of business.
“This is the season of separation. More than in a decade, we are seeing more agents who are treating this as a full-time profession, who understand contracts, negotiations, market changes and customer psychology. Consumers want advice, not guesswork.”
Short attention span vs. deep customization
Previously, people’s attention spans were significantly longer. In old books and movies, you can see creators weaving complex plots filled with complex characters. In contrast, today’s consumers click, skim, and scroll at lightning speed. Josh Reese nailed it in a recent column when he wrote, “Attention is measured in seconds.”
The current disconnect occurs when agents acquire leads and overwhelm them with detailed CMAs, luxury property reports, and even information about themselves and their companies, when all the agent wanted was a short, simple communication.
The top of today’s prospect funnel requires short and frequent brand exposure in both print and digital media. This may also include old-fashioned strategies like open house signs, yard signs, and brochure boxes.
The equation changes when you are ready to trade
When a buyer or seller is ready to make a deal, that’s when they want more information about how deals work, the negotiation process, and assistance in transitioning from one home to another.
The process begins with an interview with the buyer or seller. Use these two tools to determine what is most important to your client in terms of their lifestyle and how they spend their time at home.
Also, dig deep into their wants (what they want) and needs (what they need to make a deal decision). After doing this, present them with detailed information about the services you offer and their benefits.
For sellers, include a premium marketing plan. This approach has worked for decades. The premium marketing plan below was drafted by me in 2024 and is as valid today as it was then.
The way to use this is to determine which of the three to five features listed above are most important to your client. Next, highlight three things that all brokers do that make your company unique compared to your competitors, and that most other agents don’t.
You should also factor in their “must-haves” whenever you discuss this.
Buyer interview
If you don’t conduct at least a 20-30 minute buyer interview to determine the following, you’ll likely end up showing buyers a property they don’t want.
Whether the buyer is pre-approved Whether they qualify for down payment assistance Where they live and how they spend their time when they are home How many family members they have Whether they have pets (including their names) What they do for fun What are the top five real estate buying essentials?
More importantly, you’ll be missing out on the opportunity to build connections that will earn their trust and future referrals.
Winning AI secrets you need to implement now
This is how you stand out in a sea of sameness. We recommend using the paid versions of ChatGPT and Grok for this process. Use AI to tailor marketing and other collateral to your client’s unique situation. Here’s what you do using the master prompt and meta prompt methods outlined in the previous article.
1. Master Prompt
This is all about you and your business. The more detailed you can be, the better the results will be. (Minimum length should be at least 3-5 pages.) Examples of what to include:
Your name and personal bio (your LinkedIn bio is a good place to start) Your company brand, name, and its unique selling points The types of clients you serve Team composition: Even if you’re an individual, list title agents, preferred lenders, transaction coordinators, etc. Markets: Where you operate and your typical client profile Products and services: Do you do condos, probate, short sales, land, luxury goods? Systems and workflows: Steps for open houses, listing launches, buyer onboarding, etc. Brand culture and values: What do you believe in? How do you show up? A step-by-step system for completing tasks such as registering a property, conducting viewings, making offers, and maintaining contact while the property is under contract.
This gives the AI context about who you are.
2. Meta-prompts based on information from buyer or seller interviews
Meta prompts allow you to customize your marketing, search, and strategy based on your customers. Be careful never to give out personal information about your clients. Instead, describe them using different names, decades of life, types of occupations, etc. Give the AI enough details to work, but client privacy must be maintained at all costs.
To do this, you take the results of a buyer or seller interview, remove any personally identifying information, and load it into the AI. Specifically, identify it as a meta prompt. For example, you can include the type of property involved, general location, price range, motivation for moving, and what you like to do recreationally.
Give the AI as much information as possible about their lifestyle, top five requirements for a deal (like neighborhood and type of school, if applicable).
Use ChatGPT for more conversational and emotional types of clients. Grok is great when you need large amounts of data. What I recommend is offering both to your clients. This doubles your customization.
The secret sauce here is that old-fashioned strategy is a starting point, but to truly beat the competition, you need to let AI make recommendations about how best to work with these clients, what to expect when negotiating with them, and other factors that you, as an agent, need to be aware of.
Old-fashioned methods combined with AI customization are the secret to success in today’s new and competitive marketplace.
