20 Essential Strategies for Real Estate Agents to Dominate Listings in 2025.

• We are the experts providing local and national information to consumers.
• Focus on 20 crucial areas to enhance listing potential for 2025.
• Engage with ongoing market data and improve personal branding.
• Master negotiation skills and enhance lead generation techniques.
• Develop emotional intelligence and invest in continuous learning.

We are the experts we're supposed to be those people that the consumer can go to for information, local information, National information, right? The more information we have and the better we can do at interpreting what's happening, the more trust we create with the consumers.

I think I've got to use this background a little bit more. Listen, we're going to be talking about the 20 ways that real estate agents can focus on... no, the 20 things that real estate agents should focus on to get listings in 2025. Gosh, that was a mouthful!

But first, I spoke in Santa Cruz to a great audience out there, real estate agents and a mix of lenders, and the host found out somehow (I’m not sure how) with my background that I love DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and stuff like that. So, he got me one of the original Bruce Waynes. I guess this was like the late 80s or 90s, and it comes with the little Bruce Wayne there.

Maybe these are the '90s—I don’t know! But this is super cool; it comes with Bruce Wayne in there. It even has the Toys R Us sticker on there— do you guys all remember Toys R Us? I thought that was a really cool thing that they did.

But let's get into this: 20 things real estate agents should focus on now to become the best listing agents in 2025. I've got 20, and I'm going to be reading, so I need you to take notes.

If you need this document—which there's not a lot to it—I just outlined it after going back and seeing, well, what have we done well, and where do we need to improve? Because I'm always looking to improve. It's October, and I think we can do a great job here for next year, all of us together.

And by the way, if I don't hit on something you do extremely well or maybe you're exploring and you're excited about, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do me a favor and subscribe!

So here’s number one: master local market trends. I put here, I said stay ahead of the market changes by continually studying and understanding local housing data, trends, and buyer behaviors. I wish that real estate agents would do this a little bit more because we are the experts!

We're supposed to be those people that the consumer can go to for information—local information, national information, right? And the more information we have and the better we can do at interpreting what's happening, the more trust we create with the consumer, specifically our past clients—right?

Those that were calling. And I think here is where there are some great tools out there that you can go to, to continually check every morning. So here are number one:

1. I need you to make a plan to check daily. Of course, you're going to go to the MLS. Check actives, check what's pending, check what's sold, check maybe what's expired.
2. Find that ratio that allows you to see, well, where are we at with the inventory? Is it going up, is it going down? Those things are important to the consumer, right? Not just the rate.
3. The other piece is besides the MLS, you've got Alto Research—if you've got it, please use it! Amazing details on it and super easy to understand and share with other people.
4. And number three is KCM (Keeping Current Matters)—if you don't use them, I would highly suggest them. And then my friend, Lance Lambert—he used to work for Fortune Magazine—he has something called Resi Club. I would take a look at Resi Club as well.

I use them a lot. You may see some of my short videos where I post up behind me the United States map and I show these circles of our inventory being higher than in other areas. Absolutely amazing!

That's number one! Please become a professional in the business here that you chose to make a career in. This is your duty; this is your job.

Alright, number two: enhance digital marketing skills. I put here to get proficient in social media, SEO, and online advertising to maximize listing exposure. I know that we don't have a lot of time knowing that we have to create relationships, we have to prospect, we have to deal with current transactions, and all the different personalities.

But here is one thing that I learned in this long time of being a real estate agent: The better I got at these digital marketing skills, the easier it was for me to be able to showcase these listings that I had to help my clients put their property up for sale and connect to a lot of different agents.

In fact, my digital marketing skills allowed me to grow my social media and my social presence and then connect with agents all across the United States. So I would say, where do you gravitate every morning when you pick up this little device? Where's the first place you go to?

Is it Instagram? Is it TikTok? Is it YouTube? If it's YouTube, right, you're here right now! Do me a favor and subscribe! I really need more subscribers because I provide so much value and we need to elevate this industry, so help me out!

And is it Facebook? Where is it? Or Snapchat? I know a lot of my friends do Snapchat or X. Wherever you go, that's what you're going to get better at. You're going to find somebody out there that can help you.

Say, wow, you know what? I gravitate to Instagram a lot. I wonder what else I can do better? Maybe I can do better reels; maybe I should do stories differently; maybe I should post my feed differently; do lives—I don't know. The point is, you've got to get better at it!

That's number two.

Number three: build a strong personal brand. This goes along with marketing, right? But building a brand means that you need to identify who your audience is. Who is your audience when you're speaking in public, when you're creating content, when you're sending out newsletters?

What are people seeing that you are? Do you cover a specific area? Are you the pickleball king, and people go to you because they can relate to you because of that? Or are you the gardening queen and everyone knows that because you do that and they love it, and they connect with you for real estate?

Right? It's not always about real estate; it's the brand that you have! Or maybe it is about real estate. Maybe you’re so good at this, and you know this area because you grew up here, you live here, you walk here, and you do community events.

Get your brand down! Start with who is your target audience. That's where I would do here: Who is my target audience, and how can I niche it down? It's like Seth Godin says: The more you niche down, the faster you grow and connect with the right people.

Number four: leverage video marketing. I'm not sure that I even had to add this on here, but I did because we can do a lot more with video! In fact, I would love to see you do video for your community.

I would love to see you do more video on the things that you love! If you’re familiar with my STAY acronym, right, that will help you create better videos more consistently because what it’ll do is as you start identifying the STAY formula and how it fits into your world, you’ll just show up better.

STAY is simple; it circulates—right? It’s S-T-A-Y, and then you start all over.

And that’s how you’re going to do video. In this way, you’re going to do S: you’re going to sell with a story. You’re going to tell me a story about the time that you were with a client, and this happened, and this happened, and they ended up getting the home.

It was difficult, but it was worth it, and they love it! Tell me that story; stories connect! Stories go further.

Now S-T: next is teach. I need you to teach me something! You have so much information in this real estate head of yours that you don’t give out, and people are like, "Man, what’s he talking about?"

Look, you have so much information, whether it’s about the community, whether it’s about insurance, whether it’s about home inspections, whether it’s about the process of buying a home, a VA loan, first-time home buyers, downsizing, upgrading, luxury living on the beach, living in the mountains—I don’t know.

The point is teach me something! A is for advice. So, ST, that’s advice on something that you love. We all have hobbies, but sometimes we don’t want to talk about it.

And look, this is an expensive hobby. I got this for free, though, so it’s not that expensive for me. But look behind me; this is the stuff that I bring in. Sometimes I showcase Spider-Man who’s over here, or Batman that’s on my left, or Superman signed, or whatever—the point is jump into your hobby!

Do a lot more video! Showcase that people will connect with you because of it. And then Y is: I need you to talk about you! I need you to showcase what you’re doing, where you’re going, who you’re talking to.

Are you walking the community? Are you at the park? Do you have dogs? Do you have kids? If you want to show your family, what is that?

And then you circulate through it. What happens is, as you do this, you end up going back, and you’re like, “Wow, you know what? That one really worked!” And then you’re going to do more of that one.

So try that STAY.

Number five: optimize lead generation. I would start with where do you lead generate right now that’s been doing well over the last six months. And I would say, can I do a little bit more there?

If I’m already doing great with past clients, well, what can I add to my past clients to lead generate more with them? Should I have more events? Should I send them more note cards? Should I connect with them more authentically?

For me, let's say it’s online leads. Well, how can I do a better job converting them? Do I need to change my tone? Do I need to change my strategy and connecting with them by text, by phone, in the process in general with follow-up? I don’t know.

So I need you to focus on where you get more business from and then go further because I can guarantee you, you’re not doing enough there either!

Number six: develop strong negotiation skills. Here’s where you're going to have to train. You're going to have to practice. You're going to have to figure out how to negotiate better, meaning you're going to have to talk to somebody else and say: "Hey, if somebody says this, what can I do here?"

Or how can I get a little bit more creative if I find this situation? I don't want you to leave this to experience. I half left it to experience—half didn’t.

The experience part is a lot longer, and it hurts more, right? Because you're going to suffer through that experience and then learn the hard way.

I would rather you practice. In fact, right here, I put refine your negotiation tactics to secure the best deal for your sellers in competitive markets. That means you can negotiate by having more information.

Get to know the other agents in the area. Get to know your market better. Get to know your listing inventory better. The more you understand the current market—the seller or the buyer—the more you understand all of this, the more leverage you have, and the better you can negotiate.

So practice with other people. Go back and forth. You might have somebody, an agent or an admin, that you can practice with. Worst case scenario, go to ChatGPT and negotiate with them.

Say, “Hey, look, I'm negotiating this request for repairs. Here’s the situation. Can we do this verbally?” Be a little hard on me and say “No” or “I don’t know if I can do that” about five or six times and let’s see if I can go around it and get creative.

Number seven: cultivate a referral network. This one's one of my favorites because there are so many opportunities for us as agents to be able to do this! We've got vendors, like service providers; we've got other agents; right? And we've got our customer database— all three are opportunities for us to get referrals from.

In fact, all three should be in your database for referring you business. I would categorize them and separate them. So, other agents: Where are they located across the United States? I’m in California.

I know where people mostly move to from here, right? It’s going to be from Southern California—they move up to Sacramento, they move to Phoenix, they move to Las Vegas, and they move to Texas. They move to Idaho. So I'm going to connect with agents there and I'm going to make great relationships with them.

This way, it can go back and forth! Please do that. And then the local vendors, when you identify the ones that you're going to use, make sure they know that they’re the only ones. They are the only ones, and let them know, “Hey, I’m only going to use you. I’m going to send you business. Please, I expect the same from you.”

Go through the whole pitch! That is number seven.

Number eight: master communication tools. Use advanced CRM systems and automation tools to stay in touch with clients and ensure seamless follow-up. Oh, this one's easy!

Listen, if you don’t have a CRM and you only have an Excel sheet, I’m not going to say stop using the Excel sheet because I know some people who use it that do incredibly well. But I do want you to take a look at a CRM and say, “What can I use? That’s a contact management system that allows me to leverage the tools better: mass texting, email, maybe even allows me to have AI built in.”

The point is, there is a CRM out there for you. And if you already have one, chances are extremely high that again, you’re not using it to its full potential. You need to set some time; this is a goal.

You need to set some time to be able to understand what it can do because once you understand this and you itemize your database, you’re like, “Great! These are my past clients. This is my core sphere. This is how often I’m going to follow up with them.”

This will get you more listings! You just have to use the tool really well!

Next, number nine: provide data-driven insights. I put, use market data to show potential sellers why your pricing strategy is more effective. When we go on listing presentations, we bring up Altos; we also have RPR as well, and we show them.

We say, “Hey look, here’s what Zillow is saying for your home; here’s what Redfin is saying; here’s what Realtor.com is saying; here’s what Homes.com is saying.”

See how they're all different? And here’s what I came up with. Let me show you the tools I’m using to come up with the price that I have right here, and here are the market trends!

When you show data, then they can gravitate those emotions to a more logical response to what you’re saying. And I think that becomes even more important when it's close between other agents. They’re like, “Man, this person knows what they’re talking about; they sound very professional.”

Because you are, right? You go back to number one: master local market trends because you are, and now you're bringing it to the table and providing data-driven insights. This is important! Please do that; you'll win more listings along those lines.

Number 10: build a reputation for trust and integrity. Cultivate a reputation that reflects honesty, transparency, and integrity. People want to work with people they can trust. So when you're out there in a community, you're out there in an area, and you're transparent and sincere and authentic, people will connect with you.

This is how I built my business! Right? People can rely on me because I show up; I tell the truth, and I don't put any other real estate agents down—even though I think it in my head, I'm like, "Bad!" But I don't do it!

So have integrity in this business. See, a lot of what you're doing here are skill-building—building skills for yourself. That's what's transferable here; this is what grows because you add on and it compounds.

A lot of the things that we need to be doing are internal too, this is part of it, and we'll get to the other pieces towards the end here.

Number 11: become a hyperlocal expert. Again, this is Seth Godin—in fact, there are a lot of different people, but Seth Godin specifically. Instead of trying to start wide like I did—I'm like, "You know what? I'm going to cover all of Los Angeles County, all of Inyo County. Let's go!"

And I ended up not doing it. I was terrible at it. I ended up just focusing in a small area! But it took me a while to realize that this is the area where I'm going to make the most amount of money and then expand outward.

You see, you’re going to do such a great job with a small niche area, a small community, that they're going to say, “Man, I love this agent!” And they’re going to refer you to business that’s outside because you’re doing such a great job!

So don’t get confused and start thinking that you’re going to cover everything—because you’re not! Start small. Start an area where you can niche down and offer a specific audience exactly what they need so that they can then become your biggest fans.

Number 12: embrace AI and automation. Do I have to tell you more? Listen! This isn’t going away; it's going the reverse. It’s speeding up!

Look at tools like Gamma; don’t just look at ChatGPT—which I love, by the way—but look at Claude, look at Perplexity, use Gemini, and use MidJourney. Use Runway. These are all things that you can use because the more you use them, the faster you stay on top of it and you’re able to understand them.

So when it's changing, you’re like, "Oh, I can use this for this." In fact, real estate content AI is a good company that you can use to help you with social media. Take a look at that one; it’s absolutely great!

And Syllabi allows us to create faceless videos; we currently use that as well. So the idea here is, the more you understand what’s happening, the more you’re using it, the better you’ll do your business!

Because slowly, as this world gravitates and we’re trying to get more business, we can leverage tools to help us get there. In fact, this is what we’re doing: I can build out a listing presentation anytime I need it in approximately 3 minutes, and it can be brand new to the area too—all because of AI! So you want to get more listings, get familiar with AI, please!

Number 13: create a stellar listing presentation. Just talked about that. Continually improve your listing presentation to address seller concerns and showcase your expertise at the end, not at the beginning!

Don't start with all reviews, please, and stand out from the competition. We went over this in coaching just this week, and I outlined how you need to start with questions. In fact, most of the time I don’t even open my listing presentation, but I do send it beforehand, right?

So they have it, and I focus on one page. I think it’s page three, where I showcase what we do for marketing. If you need that single page, I call it my pre-marketing plan, but it showcases what we're going to do.

Just message me or put it in the comments, and I’ll send it over to you. I’ll put it in the comments, I guess I’ll grab that little link.

And by the way, while you’re at it, subscribe! Hit that subscribe button; that’ll really help us grow.

So, listing presentation: Look, you’ve got a few days that are a little slower. Start a listing presentation and outline the things that are important to the seller—not to you!

What’s important to them? Well, you want to sell this home for the most amount of money in the least amount of time with the least amount of hassle! Those are typically the highest three things you're looking for.

So lead with those! How are you going to do that? Show me! Show me the marketing that you’re going to do! Show me the effort that you’re going to put into this!

And, how does this look if our home doesn’t sell? More importantly, once we get an offer, how do you help me negotiate that, and how do you help me and guide me through this whole process while we’re under contract?

A lot of people never go through that in a listing presentation. I want you to do it at the very end of it! Put your reviews, put why your company’s so cool, and maybe put your awards—leave it to the end. Not very many people care about that.

Next one: nurture past clients. You need to create a process to nurture them. A lot of you don’t have one! And if you want to, you know you can message me again.

Man, I’ve got all of this! Message me again or put it in the comments and I’ll drop it in there as well. The past client drip that I have is something that we put into Lofty, so it’s already built in.

In fact, we’re adding the monthly different ones to our brokerage because we use Lofty. We call it Lofty Plus because we’re putting in all of our drips in there.

But if you need a drip for past clients, let me know! I'll gladly show you the one I have, and you can just tweak it and use it for yourself. Just make sure that you automate it in some way, right?

Look to maybe even make it better with AI, or you can create your own from scratch. The point is, nurture your past clients! Don’t make the same mistake I did, which I started door knocking and I started cold calling back in 2004.

My first year I did pretty good; my first and second year, and then I kept on going for the new clients and I didn’t nurture my past clients, which I wish I did! I wish I did, but I didn’t, so please nurture your past clients!

You’ll get a lot more business; you'll build an actual career out of this. And if you nurture them now, at the rate things are going, you'll get a listing faster than you thought you would!

15. stay updated on legal changes. If you're following me, you're following all our channels. You know I do a lot of webinars with John, Riley, Saul, Klein, and in lab code agents. We're always bringing you the changes of what's happening.

It’s important because some consumers want to know what are the changes. And if you’re not able to explain that, or at least say, “Hey, you know what? Let me get back to you; I'm not too sure on it,” and have a place to look or have someone to call, it’s not a good look.

Your job is to stay on top of this stuff. Your job is to be that professional that can explain what’s going on and how it affects the consumer, specifically the person asking: seller, buyer—who are they? So stay up to date with that!

We do every two weeks, so follow us! It’s called the Update with me, Saul, and John.

16. offer value-added services. Provide sellers with corner services like staging consultation or pre-inspections to make the selling process seamless.

Look, the more value you can add here, the easier it's going to be for the seller to decide to work with you, right? And if you're putting it out there or you're doing short videos, or you put it in your email newsletter, or you’re door knocking saying, "These are the things I do," or at an open house you’ve got a flyer that you hand out:

“Listen, if you’re looking at listing, these are the things I do.” Or maybe somebody used you, and you were the agent they hired to sell their home and you did such a great job because you did these things— which were corner service, listing staging, pre-sale inspection, whatever it is.

I have a friend who does this, and it’s absolutely genius. His name is Brett Baker. I learned it from him. He says, “Tristan, I’ve got this whole thing. Have you ever heard of the Lexus pre-certified car? Right? It’s the used car they sell.”

They just came up with a name; I think it’s the pre-owned certified—that’s what it’s called! Pre-owned certified Lexus. And I don’t know if they came up with it, by the way—if you know, just let me know in the comments!

But you could do the same thing with homes. You say, “Hey, look, Mr./Mrs. seller, I’ve got a great certification or we've got an awesome thing that we call—I don’t know—Tristan's pre-owned process.”

So we make sure that your home is absolutely amazing, and we put it up there, and everyone knows that it’s been certified! So we’ve done the home inspections, whether it’s termite, a home inspection, we’ve checked the plumbing, we’ve done this, we’ve done that, we have all the disclosures set. We make it easy for you!

In fact, if you need staging, we’ll connect to the right person, or we’ll virtually stage it for you. We’ll rearrange it; we’ll bring in a stager to kind of use the same furniture if you want. Whatever it is, we’ve got you, and here’s how it works!

That’s what people are looking for, right? That’s what I’m talking about: offer value-added services.

Number 17: stay curious. Be adaptable to emerging real estate tech: blockchain AI—transactions through blockchain—or whatever it is—new tech!

The point is, I want you to stay curious! When you see something out there, don’t knock it. When you see somebody do amazing, don’t be like, “Why did they get it?”

It’s like, don’t knock it! Be curious! Be like, “I wonder what they did? I wonder what I need to do?” If you see something that’s working for somebody else, say, “Man, I wonder what they did differently? What can I do to get there? Maybe I should give them a call and text them.”

The point is, the more you stay curious, the more you approach this business and life in general with the ability to look at what’s actually working instead of saying, “Oh man, nothing ever works for me!”

And you have that victim mentality that nobody likes.

Number 18: don’t be too serious. Have fun! And when you mess up, don’t hide it! Learn from it and make fun of it if you want!

You know what this reminds me of? Because we all screw up! Mark Twain. I loved how he put himself in the middle of things and was like, "Yep, yep! You know what? I screwed up just like everybody else!"

I like that—not being too serious. Look, we’ve all screwed up—at least I have multiple times in this business! I thought something was going to work, or I thought I was being smart over here, and I wasn't, and that didn’t go well.

The point is, relax! If somebody does some crap to you that you don't like, just move on! Laugh about it! Think of the time that you screwed up, and you either got yelled at or you didn't. I know I did multiple things, and I had the grace of some amazing agents that were just like, “Uh, you’re new at this; it makes sense!”

“Tristan, listen! It's okay; just don’t do it again,” right? Or the time I was door knocking, and I put the little flyer inside of a post with a little mailbox, and the owner called me and said, “Hey man, I’m not sure, you know, but um, you're not allowed to put it inside.”

And I was like, “You’re not? I didn’t know!” I was in my early 20s!

So, you know, you learn things! I don’t know everything; I'm going to screw up again! So relax! You're going to screw up too—don’t take this too seriously; it’s okay! In fact, I'm probably going to screw up tomorrow, and so are you!

Number 19: develop emotional intelligence. Geez, I think this comes with practice. Talk to more people! Just be more aware of what other people's body language is saying—how they’re talking, their tonality—whether or not they even want to talk to you!

Have emotional intelligence to stop and listen and understand where people are at. The better you do this, the more you’ll connect with people, and you will get more business! This is how we’re able to pivot so quickly when we’re listening to people and we’re asking questions at the listing table.

I’m listening, and I’m like, “Okay, I think I need to pivot based on what I’m watching—the husband or the wife, or whoever I’m looking at.” Right? And it’s the same thing when I’m listening to people on the phone, whether it’s a buyer or a seller.

The point is, you need to improve these skills! And I don’t know that anybody’s going to tell you this, but you’re not doing enough! You’re just not! You can do better at this! You can get better at this!

We all need to improve this piece! This is core to our growth as real estate agents and as humans. The more you work on this, the more people around you will like being around you.

20. invest in your mind daily. This is the last one, by the way, because we’re rounding up 20. Read! Read! Learn! And read some more! Attend real estate conferences, seminars, and courses to stay updated on the latest listing techniques and market strategies.

Look, you’re doing it now, and if you are, if you’ve listened to this, amazing—congratulations! You don’t win anything. I might send you a virtual cookie if you comment below or you subscribe. I don’t know but you’re not getting anything else.

The point is, you’re learning! That’s key! You might be listening to a podcast; you might be listening to an audiobook! By the way, if you are, great! If you can pick up Real Estate Prospecting, that’s an audiobook that just came out for me about 3 weeks ago. That’s an amazing book.

If not, let me know what you’re reading! The point is: read, read, read, learn! You can’t ever stop! This world and the business that we're in are continually going to change.

If it’s not that settlement, it’s going to be COVID; if it’s not COVID, it’s the economy! If it’s not the economy, it’s war! If it’s not war, it’s something else. A natural disaster—who knows?

The point is, you need to continually adapt. And the more you work on yourself, the better and faster you'll get to where you want to get to. Because all of these things right here, combined slowly over time will work so well that you can get to where you want to get to, and that’s for most of you listening in—to get more listings!

Look, I could have just said go to Realtor.com, go to Zillow, go to Homes.com, get more listings, or go to these little silver bullet places. But at the end of the day, I want you to invest in you because these are skills that once you've got them down and you continually sharpen them, nobody can take them away from you!

The ROI is massive on this! If you need this, I’ve got it for you. If you need anything I talked about, please message me or put a comment in the YouTube chat thingy. Subscribe! Thanks again; we’ll talk to you again!