Coach Var Workman writes about making homeownership a reality for more people by giving renters options they don’t even know currently exist.
Every market creates its own horror stories. At the moment, the story is one of affordability and uncertainty. Buyers are petrified, sellers are cautious, and the average agent is paralyzed wondering, “Where did the opportunity go?”
Opportunities never disappear. It will shift. And now we’re moving directly to a segment of the market that most “experienced” agents are too arrogant or too lazy to touch: renters.
If you are a leader, you don’t ask for activity. You want pressure. Renters are more than just a lead source. They are a pressured population facing impending, inevitable monthly financial decline, and they are paying virtually 100 percent interest, literally paying off someone else’s mortgage, and creating wealth for their owners.
While your competitors are waiting for a “ready-to-go” buyer to fall from the sky, you need to develop leaders who know how to step into that pressure and create movement.
Please stop trying to convince me. start to clarify
One of the biggest mistakes in this business is believing that opportunities come from persuasion. it’s not. It comes from clarity.
The average agent waits for someone to raise their hand and say, “I’m ready to buy.” Leaders recognize decisions long before clients do.
Renters are feeling the volatility of rising costs, but lack a roadmap to get out of it. Your job is not to “convert” them. Because it provides a diagnostic comparison that makes it appear as if maintaining the status quo is actually a huge financial risk.
Understanding creates movement. When renters finally understand the long-term implications and the “rent cycle” formula, the conversation changes. They don’t act because they are convinced. They act because they finally understand the cost of their inaction.
The myth of efficiency
Established agents often brag about being selective. They seek efficiency. They only want low-hanging fruit.
Often, efficiency just masks inconsistency and a lack of desire to do difficult things, so they pretend to be busy but aren’t actually doing the activities that some people might find difficult.
In a changing market, selectivity is the path to lower profit and loss. True leaders understand that the “Ready-Now” market is the most crowded and most expensive market. Real wealth is built through engagement before certainty exists.
By guiding your clients before urgency peaks, you’re not just closing the deal, you’re owning the relationship. It creates a “relationship moat” that cannot be touched by flashy advertising or discount intermediaries. While your competitors are looking for transactions, you are building a momentum engine.
A database is not a file cabinet
Most agents are sitting on a goldmine that they refuse to dig into. Their database is full of renters and prospects who are labeled dead because they are not ready to sign a contract within 30 days.
This is a failure of leadership. Opportunity is not new. It already exists in CRM, misunderstood, under-involved, and waiting for someone with enough vision to approach it differently.
Renting is not a shortcut. These test your ability to recognize where the market is creating pressure and step in with real solutions.
Leadership is the ability to change direction.
Leaders who adjust their perspectives first will have an advantage in this market.
Enthusiasts wait for the market to “get better”. Leaders identify where the pain is and build systems to solve it.
Not all renters should or even want to buy right now. But every renter represents a future buyer or property, a future referral, and a current opportunity to demonstrate your expertise.
Stop looking for new leads. Start leading those who are already there. The market will not expand for you. You must be the one who knows how to navigate through the narrow sections of the river.
Share your rent vs. your own real-world calculation worksheet, build a simple custom GPT that lets renters enter their numbers and calculate the cost advantage of buying over renting, or schedule a live event for first-time buyers in your clubhouse to show lenders what they can buy with the cost of renting while getting full pre-approval from lenders.
Doing all of this will give renters options they don’t even know exist right now. Stop selling, start serving and help more people achieve homeownership.
In June, Inman takes a deep dive into the real estate team. What it takes to join a team, how to build a team worth joining, and yes, when to quit. For Teams Month, we invite some of the best team leaders in the country to bring you insights, frameworks, and hard-learned lessons that don’t typically make their way onto highlight reels.
Verl Workman is the founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems and author of Raving Referrals for Real Estate Agents. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Instagram.
