Tech with Ty

[T]echnology: Yes, Claude Again…Sorry Not Sorry
[E]ducation: The Most Balanced Market in a Decade
[C]oaching: Wrong Room, Wrong Results
[H]ow To: Farm A Neighborhood

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[T]echnology: Yes, Claude Again…Sorry Not Sorry

Four out of the last five weeks.

I know. I hear you. "Ty, we get it. You like Claude."

But here's why I can't stop talking about it. I'm not just using it anymore. It's working while I work.

Let me explain. ⬇️⬇️ 

There's a feature called Cowork that essentially lets Claude operate in the background like a second version of you. Not answering questions. Not drafting emails. Actually doing the work…clicking, navigating, building, executing…while you're off doing something else entirely.

Here's what I've done with it in the past two weeks:

Google Ads. I hadn't touched my Google AdWords account in two years. Two. Years. I kept telling myself I'd get to it. I never did. I pointed Claude at it and told it to audit the campaigns, clean up the mess, and rebuild. Done. While I was on calls. 📱 

Facebook Ads. Same story. I'm using it to regenerate my entire Facebook ad strategy from scratch. New campaigns, new targeting, new creative direction. It's doing the heavy lifting 🏋️ while I focus on running the brokerage.

148 pages of 1099s. This one blew my mind. I had 148 documents and needed just the first page from each one pulled into a single file. That's the kind of task that would've taken someone hours…or I would've just never done it. Claude handled it in the background while I was working on something else entirely.

Reviews and SEO. I had reviews scattered across one platform that needed to move to another. But I didn't just want them transferred…I wanted every page optimized for Google SEO and AI search at the same time. So I told Claude to do both. Transfer the reviews. Optimize the pages. Done and done. ✅ 

The beautiful thing? All of this happened while I was doing other work.

That's the shift. 

This isn't a chatbot you go to when you have a question. This is a background operator that handles the stuff you've been putting off for months…the AdWords account collecting dust, the 1099 task that would take hours, the SEO you know you need to fix but never have time for.

Most agents have a list of "I'll get to it eventually" tasks that never get done. Claude just became the person who gets to it. 

I genuinely believe this is the future of how we'll all work. Not asking AI for help. Assigning it work and walking away. 👋

If you're not experimenting with this yet, you're leaving hours on the table every single week.

Now excuse me while I go find more things I've been procrastinating on.

PS. Yes, Claude wrote this section. Here’s what I told it after I told it to research topics for me:

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[E]ducation: The Most Balanced Market in a Decade

January sales dropped 8.4%.

I know you saw the headline. Your clients saw it too. And if you didn't get ahead of it, they're already Googling "is the housing market crashing" while you're reading this.

Deep breath. Here's what's actually happening. ⬇️⬇️

According to NAR's month-supply data, the housing market is the most balanced it's been in almost a decade. That means we're finally moving away from the insanity of 2021 where every listing got 47 offers and buyers were writing love letters to sellers they'd never met. 

January brought 3.91 million in annualized sales, a median price of $396,800, and 3.7 months of inventory. Yes, sales were down from December. But December hit a 3-year high. And January had the worst weather in years. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said it himself…below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation make it almost impossible to read the underlying demand.

Here's what matters more than the headline.

Housing affordability is the best it's been since March 2022. Wages are growing faster than inflation for the first time in a while…average wage growth is around 3.5% versus 2.6% inflation. The typical mortgage payment is projected to fall below 30% of median household income this year. That hasn't happened since 2022. 💰

NAR still expects existing-home sales to jump 14% this year. Prices aren't crashing…they're expected to grow about 2%, which is actually below the inflation rate. And inventory is up 10% year over year, giving buyers more options and sellers a reality check. 

So what does "balanced" actually mean for you?

It means not every seller is getting what they want. Some are coming down on price. Some are walking away. That's not a crisis. That's a healthy market. 🍎

It also means buyers have leverage they haven't had in years. They're not waiving inspections. They're not offering $50K over asking with tears in their eyes. They're making informed decisions with actual negotiating power.

Here's what you need to be telling your clients:

For buyers: "This is the most affordable the market has been in almost four years. Rates are steady around 6%. Inventory is growing. You have options. You have negotiating power. Waiting for some magical rate drop to 4% means waiting while prices keep climbing."

For sellers: "The days of throwing a sign in the yard and getting a bidding war are behind us. Pricing matters again. Condition matters again. Marketing matters again. That's not bad news…that's the market rewarding agents who actually do their job." *Note I know this doesn’t apply to every market! 

Stop waiting for 2021 to come back. It's not coming back. This market is better. It just requires you 👉 to be better too.

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[C]oaching: Wrong Room, Wrong Results

A few months ago I talked about Codie Sanchez and a principle that hit me hard: lazy is not the problem. Wrong environment is the problem.

I want to build on that because the data is backing it up in a big way.

EY just reported that 75% of employees are concerned AI will make their jobs obsolete. And the primary driver of that fear isn't AI itself…it's a lack of guidance from leadership.

Read that again. ⬆️⬆️

People aren't afraid of technology. They're afraid because nobody in their organization is helping them understand it, use it, or see where they fit in the future.

Now think about your brokerage. Or your team. Or even your own circle.

How many agents around you are scared of AI? How many are ignoring it? How many are pretending it doesn't apply to them while quietly panicking about their relevance?

That fear doesn't come from AI. It comes from the room they're sitting in. 

Research from Deloitte shows that purpose-driven organizations consistently outperform their competitors in employee retention, customer loyalty, and long-term financial results. DDI found that 71% of leaders are feeling increased stress, and 40% are thinking about quitting.

Forty percent. 🤯

The coaching and leadership world is screaming about this. It's not a skill gap. It's an environment gap. When people are surrounded by fear, uncertainty, and zero direction, they either freeze or leave.

But when people are surrounded by clarity, ambition, and someone who actually shows them the path forward? They perform. They grow. They stay.

I see this at RE/MAX Victory + Affiliates  every day. Our agents average over $120K a year. That's not because we recruit superhumans (kidding - they all are). It's because ambition is contagious. High standards are contagious. Winning is contagious. 🤒

When you walk into a room full of people who refuse to settle, you stop settling too. 

And here's where this ties directly to AI.

The brokers and team leaders who are going to win the next five years aren't the ones who adopt the most tools. They're the ones who create environments where their agents aren't terrified of the future. Where learning AI is normal, not intimidating. Where asking questions is encouraged, not embarrassing.

Your job as a leader isn't to adopt AI.

It's to build a room where people aren't afraid of it.

So ask yourself honestly. Look around. Are you in a room that's pulling you forward? Or one that's holding you back?

Because the room you're in determines the results you get.

If the room is wrong, the results will be too. ❌

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[H]ow To: Farm A Neighborhood

Lately, I’ve had many agents ask me about ways to farm neighborhoods and whether postcards actually work. I do think postcards work, but it depends on what the postcard consists of. If the card doesn’t have any sort of call to action or way to track responses, there is almost no point in sending them out because there’s little reward to reap from it. 

Some calls to action you can use include: ⬇️⬇️

Or you can use:

Always include a QR code to make it easy for homeowners to submit their information. Even better, use a QR code that directly links to each individual home you mail to. 

How do you do that? ⬇️⬇️

I’ve used thanks.io many times before, and it will tell you exactly which homes scanned your QR code. So even if they choose not to provide their information, you’ll know which households are engaging—and you can continue marketing to them to hopefully push them over the edge when they’re ready to sell.

I’ve also used Wise Pelican a number of times. It’s user-friendly and allows you to include QR codes as well.

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-Ty Morton + Abby G