Real estate agents win in a shifting market by doing three things the moment the shift starts. They run a business plan built to withstand any market condition, not the one they had last spring. They tell sellers the truth about current conditions while their competitors are still pricing like it is the middle of the boom. And they prospect every day while the agents around them wait for interest rates to fix it. Market share does not move in a hot market. It moves in the shift.
I have worked in real estate in North Carolina for more than 20 years, weathering down markets and sailing high in good times, and I still work with buyers and sellers today. Here is what actually separates the agents who grow in a shift from the ones who disappear.
Real estate is not life-threatening. I say that to my own agents when the headlines get loud. Rates go up, buyers pull back, sellers get stubborn, and the agent who panics makes bad decisions about pricing, spending, and their own schedule. A shifting market is a math problem, not a tragedy. Fewer transactions will happen, and the agents who are consistent will get a larger share of them.
Every shift produces a wave of expired listings, and when I talk to those sellers I find the same thing over and over. Nobody communicated market conditions to them. They were dealing with an agent who was still acting like the pandemic frenzy was on. That is your opening. Show sellers what buyers are doing this month, what is actually closing, and what their house has to look like and be priced at to be one of the closings. Sellers can handle the truth. They cannot handle being surprised by it after 90 days on the market.
Same with buyers. Interest rates are the thing making stomachs hurt, so bring a lender into the conversation early and talk about payment, not just price. A buyer who understands their options keeps moving. A buyer who only hears the rate stays on the sidelines.
When a market shifts, the first thing I watch agents cut is prospecting, then marketing, then education. That is backwards. Prospecting is the last thing you cut, because it is the only activity that produces the next closing. Keep your daily execution plan, keep your sphere warm, and get on every buyer lead like a duck on a Cheeto. Access to opportunities is the whole game when the crowd pulls back.
The agents who dominate a downturn already had a plan that did not depend on easy conditions. Know your numbers, know your break-even, know your lane for new listings, and know which expenses are investments versus comfort. I built the How to Dominate Any Recession course at Leigh Brown University around exactly that: a structured business plan you can implement in an uncertain economy so you can thrive no matter what.
A shift feels like the end of something. For a disciplined agent, it is the beginning of the best market share you will ever get.
Cut comfort spending, not prospecting. Prospecting and follow-up are the last things to cut because they are the only activities that produce the next closing.
Show them what is actually closing this month and what buyers are doing, then price and prepare the home to be one of those closings. Expired sellers especially respond to an agent who finally tells them the truth.
Yes. How to Dominate Any Recession is a five-module video course at leighbrownuniversity.com built to help agents create a business plan that withstands any market condition.
Fearlessly real and faith-driven, Leigh Brown is the Disruption Navigator guiding professionals from chaos to clarity with guts, grace, and a good dose of grit.
