[T]echnology: Your Phone Is Already Good Enough
[E]ducation: Cooperation, Upon Request
[C]oaching: Order Taker or Sales Maker?
[H]ow To: Decide If You Need Social Media Premiums
Join us for Agent After Hours LIVE on Thursday, January 14th, at Dayton REALTORS®!
Hear from an incredible panel of women in real estate, including our very own Rachele Pence, alongside Katie Slone and Morgan Means! Click the image above to RSVP.
[T]echnology: Your Phone Is Already Good Enough
Every time a new phone comes out, the first question is about the camera. I asked it too when I looked at the new iPhone Duo. It's a foldable, it's beautiful, and it's $2,000… but it has two rear cameras instead of three, no dedicated telephoto lens, and the main camera is the same 48MP one that's in the base iPhone 17.
For most of what we do, that doesn't matter.
If you bought your phone in the last three years, the camera is good enough. Listing teasers, Reels, client testimonials, a quick market update from your car… the lens isn't what holds your video back. 📹
I record Agent After Hours on a DJI Osmo Pocket 3. This week I set it up side by side with my iPhone, and I could use either one. Nobody watching on a phone screen will see the difference.
What tripped me up wasn't the camera. My old wireless mics wouldn't connect to the Osmo. So I picked up the Hollyland Lark M2S this week and they are great! Pair them with either camera and the Ulanzi MT44M tripod. Yes, TikTok made me buy it… but I got tired of swapping out the 1/4" adapter and the phone mount, or forgetting them altogether. This one has both built in.
Here's the funny part… it's probably all overkill. Remember my episode with Nimesh? One camera, one wide shot, and AI did the whole edit… every zoom, every crop, every cut. What I didn't tell you is that my mics weren't working that day either. We ran the audio through Auphonic's new Studio Voice feature, and the sound came out incredible.
Don't let the gear be the reason you never hit record. ⏺️
The phone in your pocket is good enough, and AI can clean up the rest.
[E]ducation: Cooperation, Upon Request
Remember when I said you don't get the cooperation without cooperating? Compass apparently agrees… sort of.
This week Compass made it official. Every Compass agent now has to cooperate with other brokers unless the client says otherwise in writing. They have to share information on all their listings, including Private Exclusives and Coming Soons, with any agent who asks. They have to answer in a timely manner. And they have to let qualified buyers from other brokerages in to see the home. 🏠
For listings marketed off the MLS, Compass is telling its agents to follow Bright MLS's cooperation rule. Read that again. They're following the MLS rule… just not on the MLS.
Robert Reffkin explained why on LinkedIn: "the MLS isn't just a cooperation system anymore." He says 45 of Compass's top 50 MLSs limit Coming Soons in some way.
The timing is interesting. This landed a week after Compass posted record earnings and a little over a month after CRMLS told them to go ahead and sue. Washington is still asking about the "closed information system" Congress flagged back in July. And in October, Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren asked the FTC to look into potentially deceptive industry practices, with footnotes pointing at coverage of Compass and Zillow.
So is this a win? Kind of. The two words that matter are "upon request." The listing still isn't in the MLS. It still isn't on your buyer's app. 📱 You have to know it exists before you can ask about it.
Cooperation you have to ask for isn't the same as exposure.
Here's how you use it. When your buyer has their heart set on a neighborhood and nothing's coming up, call the Compass agents who work that area. Ask what they have coming. Their own policy manual now says they have to tell you.
Now I'm just waiting for someone to build the AI agent for this. It finds an off-MLS listing, pings the listing agent for all the info, schedules a showing so you can preview it, then drafts an email to your sphere telling them you just previewed the property and everything about it.
Kinda like the MLS already does… lol.
[C]oaching: Order Taker or Sales Maker?
Big shout out to my boy Todd Stock and the Success in Real Estate crew in Fort Wayne. It was their third and final event of the year, and this time they brought in real estate coach Travis Robertson. The whole thing is on YouTube, and it's worth blocking off the time.
Todd set the tone before Travis even took the stage: "The market's no longer responding to speed, it's responding to skill."
Then Travis split the room into two kinds of agents. Order takers and sales makers.
From 2020 through part of 2023, being an order taker worked. Buyers walked up to the window with their order… four bedrooms, three baths, a pool… and you rang it up. Then the orders dried up. 🌵
A sales maker still loves a referral when it shows up. They just don't depend on one. Travis says repeat and referral business drops 35 to 85% in a down market. A lot of the people who would have moved this year already moved early, back when rates were at the bottom, and they aren't going anywhere.
So where does the next deal come from? Follow-up. And his three-day plan made half the room flinch. When a new lead comes in, you make two calls, send two texts and send two emails a day, for three days. Leave a voicemail every time. Tell them when you'll try again, then do exactly that. He says his clients reach 65 to 80% of their leads that way.
Still nothing? Keep going at a slower pace. He sees a spike in responses on days 9 through 13… right after everybody else gave up. 🤷
The line I keep thinking about was about objections. Your clients are scared of buying too high or selling too low, and they're looking to borrow your confidence. "They cannot borrow what you do not possess."
Todd closed it out with the line that sums up 2027.
"The market is giving you less. You're going to need to give it more."
[H]ow To: Decide If You Need Social Media Premiums
If you haven’t heard already, social media is starting to offer paid subscriptions like Instagram Pro and Facebook Pro. Before I can even say if it is worth it, what do they offer?
Meta is introducing new paid subscription tiers for businesses, ranging from $14.99 to $499 per month, per account. 💰💰 While some features focus on customization, the biggest benefits for businesses include clickable links in Instagram posts and Reels, competitive insights, advanced scheduling, improved search visibility, and additional account protection. The $49.99 Advanced plan appears to offer the most value for small businesses and real estate agents, especially with the ability to direct potential customers straight from social media content to websites or listings. However, these subscriptions don't guarantee more views, followers, or leads.
To see the exact list of all the features, click here!
So, is it worth it? Right now, I would argue no. Paying for these subscriptions does not mean more visibility; it just means more features that serve as tools to help you. As of right now, you can still add links to Facebook posts on your business page, and you can still add links to Instagram Stories, BUT NOT actual Instagram posts.
Now, I am going to be the bearer of bad news. 😿 I do think they are going to start eliminating some of these features as “free” options to force you into buying subscriptions. Because apparently, we need to have a subscription for everything.
I believe social media platforms are starting to see how willingly people are paying for AI subscriptions, so I think we can kiss the happy days of free social media goodbye within the next five years (at least for business owners).
Do I think the age of organic growth for business owners is over? No. I still think that, at the end of the day, video is king. Organic video content is still performing extremely well. I just posted a video about wearing jeans on Thanksgiving. It was stupid, but it received 290K views.
However, I do think the free call-to-action options on social media will eventually disappear. I'm talking about features like “Call Now” buttons 🤙, “Message Me” buttons, and the ability to link directly to your website.
Should you subscribe now? If you want to be ahead of the game, sure, go for it. Is it a necessity? No.
Personally, I am going to keep utilizing all of these features for free while I still can. I have a feeling it isn't going to last much longer.
If your brokerage isn't providing you with the AI tools you need to save time, generate leads, and grow your business, let's change that.
-Ty Morton + Abby G