The year 225 has been a constant roller coaster, with regulatory and market changes shaking the industry up and down. Some struggled to overcome the steep drop, while others hunched over and enjoyed the opportunities afforded only by the chaos.
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Wendy Forsyth |Credit: LinkedIn
Wendy Forsythe, eXp’s chief marketing officer, said no matter where you sit in the ride in 2025, it’s time to take the lessons of this year and go bigger, better and more focused.
“This is a year to reset, refocus the business and move forward,” she told Inman. “When you think about regulatory changes, market changes, integration changes, this is a very good time to reset.”
Days before his appearance on Inman Connect New York, Mr. Forsythe shared his thoughts on artificial intelligence, building trust and resilience amidst disruption, and what seasoned and new agents need to do to succeed.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Inman: Last year was a whirlwind. To be honest, I still don’t understand everything that happened. But I think the stage is set for a very interesting 2026. What conversations at ICNY do you think will set the tone for the next 11-12 months?
Forsyth: The word for 2026 has been reset. I think a lot has changed in 2025, but as we move into 2026, I think it’s going to be a great time for all of us, regardless of our role in the industry.
That’s the idea I’ve been discussing with my agent. So that’s what I want to focus on and approach next week with the lens of the conversations happening on Inman’s stage and in Inman’s hallways.
I have your list of sessions in front of me, and one that caught my eye was “Culture Wins Loyalty,” which explores how to build and sustain strong cultures amid litigation, integration, and other challenges. How can we reset our industry with so much noise and uncertainty?
Looking at it from a broader perspective, I think one of the things that is really important is trust.
Especially when it comes to artificial intelligence, consumers really want to know, “Is this really my agent?” Is this really the leader’s opinion? ” This all goes back to trust, but with AI playing such a big role in online communication, we don’t know if that translates into trust. [deep fake] in the video or it [actual] The person in the video. Is that it?
Was it written by humans or by AI?
This is an important thing we all need to think about as we strategize this year.
I did a series of interviews at the end of the year, and no one mentioned AI without discussing how it would complicate our digital lives and relationships. At one point, finding AI-generated content was easy, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult. I too have been fooled several times and have taken steps to sharpen my radar.
yes. That’s one of the things we’ve talked about within the team. We called it the Year of Experience. That face-to-face experience is becoming extremely important. We use AI to leverage operational efficiencies and infuse the benefits into the direct experience, especially from a cost savings perspective. Being able to build those relationships in real life is more important than ever.
What does a reset look like for an agent? How do agents who have been in the industry for 20-30 years approach a reset? And how will new agents approach the reset? Many people rushed into real estate when it was hot, but now we’re seeing a situation where deals are becoming harder to come by.
I think veteran agents who have been in the industry for 15, 20 or 25 years have experienced so many different market cycles. Because they’ve experienced these resets at different times, they understand different market conditions and have the stamina to pivot their business to suit what’s going on. So to speak, I have a lot of confidence in our veterans understanding the necessary axis.
For new agents entering the business [more recently]they have to learn some new skills. They often rely on a team leader, a more experienced agent, to join the team and teach them their skills.
We teach them how to prospect, we teach them how to follow up, we teach them how to pivot based on market conditions…and we actually see agents who join our team more likely to thrive in a changing market and succeed in business.
This is one of the reasons why teams remain such a dominant force in the industry. These are some of the things that have been confirmed as part of the reset.
How will eXp be reset? We know that we have spent the past few years building a more professional agent base. Therefore, the tagline “A place where professionals grow” was born. How are you thinking about pushing the envelope on this this year?
We know that our team can ultimately provide an environment for new agents and agents of all experience levels to be more successful and productive. Ultimately, our job as an intermediary partner is to provide the infrastructure and platform on which businesses operate, and that’s what we do best.
We do things like offer a team leader academy. This is one of the eXp University programs that help team leaders bring operational efficiency to their teams. Because teams are truly a business within a business.
Team leaders want to run their businesses as efficiently as possible, and they are trying to find the right staffing, the right systems, and the right growth strategies. We work with them to make the most of these opportunities and develop their business plans, and we also offer programs such as AI accelerator courses.
This course will help you understand how agents can use AI to create efficiency, understand the immense power that AI has to understand vibecoding, and what it can unlock from a marketing perspective.
That’s why we continue to leverage cutting-edge tools. Services and programs to support our team and assist individual agents as well.
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