When You Observe Excellence, Model It
As we head into the holiday season, now is a great time to reflect on your takeaways from 2025 and what steps you plan to take to improve your business in 2026.
One of the best strategies to become better at what you do is to look for mentors or successful people from both inside and outside the industry.
For example, if there is a top-notch agent you admire, take him or her to lunch to discover how they became successful. Better yet, shadow that person for a day. Observe what they do that you could incorporate into your business to increase your success.
Don’t stop there, however. You can learn just as much by modeling the habits of people who are successful in other industries. If you haven’t tuned in to the TED Talks, now is a great time to take a look. Only the best-of-the-best make it on to the TED talk stage, so this is a great place to discover new resources from outside of real estate.
Excellence is all around you if you just look for it. When you do find it, learn from it!
Is the Government Shutdown Finally Over?
Late Sunday, November 9, 2025, the Senate struck a deal to reopen the government. In truth, however, what they really did is kick the can to January 30, 2026, by keeping current spending levels where they are until that date. While the
House and President must approve the deal, this will bring relief to many people who need it the most.
Last week I wrote about the window of opportunity over the holidays due to the reduction in mortgage interest rates. With the shutdown ending, there’s even a greater opportunity at this moment since everything could go sideways again on January 30, 2026.
Seize the Day—Mortgage Rates Are Dropping
The big news this week was the quarter point reduction in interest rates. Between now and the first few weeks of 2026, you have the best opportunity of the year to pick up motivated buyers as well as sellers who may be willing to step
back into the market.
Also, if your clients have decorated their home beautifully for the holidays, why not update your listing photos? If the weather is still nice, grab updated photos before the short, gloomy days of winter arrive.
Finally, rather than slowing down over the holidays, gear up to spend extra time. I almost always worked more through December and had a lot of good deals to show for it. Better yet were those first of the year commission checks.
The $1,440 Cup of Coffee and the $7,500 dinner
Most real estate agents focus on revenue, but what really matters most is how much you net AFTER expenses. To retain more of what you earn, begin by examining your expenses. Moreover, they often justify unnecessary major purchases by rationalizing that all they have to do is “sell just one more house a month.”
One of the best ways to increase your profitability is to identify small, daily, or weekly expenses that add up to significant costs over the course of a year. For example, if you spend $4.00 per day for a latte, for 50 weeks, that comes to $1,440 per year. If you dine out three times per week and spend $50.00, 50 weeks a year, that comes to $7,500. Those two expenses alone come to almost $9,000 per year.
There are hundreds of places where you can save money by purchasing in bulk, buying products online, not eating out so much, or just being conscious of where the money goes.
Another tip is to go through your credit card statements each month and note anything that ends in 99 cents or $99.00. These are almost always subscriptions, which in many cases you may not even remember ordering.
Another easy way to spot these items and to cancel the subscriptions is to use the app from Truebill.
The next step is to cancel any subscriptions that you’re not using and then identify at least one place in your business spending and your personal spending where you can save money. These three simple steps can literally save you thousands of dollars.
Three Client Questions You Should Never Answer
It’s common when you’re showing property for your clients to ask about the condition of various aspects of the property. Some common examples include:
- The roof looks terrible. Do you think we would have to replace it?
- Is that wall located on the property line?
- Is that a water stain on the ceiling?
For each of these questions, there is only one right answer. 
I don’t know. Would you like the name of a specialist who can give you an answer?
To be more specific:
- Roof: I don’t know. Would you like the names of three roofers you could contact about inspecting the roof?
- Property Line: I don’t know. Would like the names of three surveyors who could determine the exact location of the property line?
- Brown stain on the ceiling: I don’t know. Would you like the name of a roofer or an inspection service to determine the nature of the problem?
In case you’re wondering what that brown spot could be other than water, I’ve seen several houses with brown spots on the ceiling that resulted from bee hives in the attic.