The real estate industry is no stranger to pressure, but since agents have entered the Roaring ’20s, the demands placed on agents and brokerages feel almost impossible to juggle. It’s real estate agent budget and business planning season, and everyone has their calculators out. Brokerages and agents across the country are sipping their pumpkin-spiced lattes, wondering how the heck they are going to cold-foam-fund another uncertain year.
Five years deep into unpredictable, unprecedented, and let’s face it, unfun marketing conditions, agents must narrow their focus to two things. Am I relevant? Is my business profitable?
Here are three key areas my team is focusing on this fall as we prepare for next year, specifically targeting the leasing of high-end senior assisted living rentals in the suburbs of D.C., which have been particularly impacted by the events of 2025, but I feel strongly that many of the strategies are solid and universal for 2025’s fall budget season in many parts of the housing industry.
Relevance right now
In a recent interview at Blueprint Las Vegas, NAR CEO Nykia Wright put it bluntly: “We’re trying to outrun irrelevance.” That statement cuts to the heart of our current situation.
NAR’s “turn around CEO” recognizes that consumers and real estate agents are at a crossroads, and she feels her personal mission is to help consumers know that real estate agents are still relevant to their needs.
Wright detailed in her Blueprint Inman interview that her primary focus to restore trust was critical to the brand’s survival. Wright echoed that it’s not only NAR that needs to do a better job of being relevant for real estate agents, but Realtors also need to continue pushing relevance for consumers.
“Restoring trust among Realtors and among consumers. That’s the baseline,” she said. “If I did everything else and not that, then I did not achieve what I was expecting.”
Agents are asked to raise the bar of professionalism, educate increasingly skeptical consumers, nurture deeper connections with their database and still manage a business that is constantly evolving. If that sounds overwhelming, it’s because it is. Don’t let any coach, broker or guru tell you otherwise. They are doing you a disservice.
Wright believes that some of the disconnect between Realtors and consumers stems from unrealistic personas and scenarios presented in reality TV shows like Selling Sunset.
“The problem with [that portrayal] is that at the bottom of the screen, you would always see the 6 percent commission, and people would be drinking champagne, stepping out to brunch,” she observed. “And so we took the consumers for granted, and the consumers took for granted what exactly Realtors are doing to eliminate friction in the transaction.”
1. Building a trustworthy brand
Your brand is how people recognize you, and what they expect when working with you — your most important mission. Working in the housing industry means you are not working with small dollar amounts; you are working with a significant amount of someone’s personal wealth, and it’s your job to respect that and add value.
Part of our team’s fall preparation is to ensure that we tell the story of our brand and team in a meaningful way to our clients and prospects. Maintaining relevance means updating the story of your career and consistently demonstrating how you bring value to your clients. In other words, we are determining the story of B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) and refining our focus.
Action step
Review your brand and bio. Create a new marketing campaign to reintroduce the team and brokerage, ensuring that it is up-to-date and functional for lead capture. The “window” to your business needs to look fresh, not like you have not updated your profiles since you started in the industry. Build recent examples of how you solved problems or added value for your clients.
2. Build authentic relationships with education and community
Relevance doesn’t come from chasing the next transaction. It comes from staying educated and being visible in your community. When you thoroughly understand your market conditions, you can bring clarity to buyers and sellers who feel overwhelmed by headlines and uncertainty.
Authenticity is also about connection. Instead of “checking in” with your database only when you need a deal, find ways to provide consistent value.
Action steps
- Our team has identified additional ways to engage with our database on a personal level. One of my favorites? Fun digital cards and handwritten cards.
Example: JacquieLawson Cards, LeaninTree Cards - We preplanned 12 intentional events for our database and allocated a budget for each event.
Example: Each month has a “theme” for us to market and educate around. In 2026, we are focusing on “decades.” Still, you could easily incorporate homeownership education, pop culture, HGTV fun, trivia, animals, parks, crafts, recipes, and build your hobbies into this space again. Hence, people get to know you and your brand. This can be fun, and not always about housing. People live in houses, and people need a little fun and levity in 2026. - We identified our top 30 referral partners and created 12 intentional monthly touchpoints, as well as four in-person networking events.
Example: We may stop by, go to lunch, send a funny email, host a contest or simply drop off a yummy lunch. (Make sure to review RESPA regulations around this one.) - Using the calendar as our guide, we planned four community educational events.
Example: On-site open house, Safety demonstration, Support group, Learn more session. - Using the calendar as our guide, we planned four charity/community fun events.
Example: Parade, golf tournament, charity walk, booth at garden show
Simply, it’s already on the calendar, and all of these will work together with our marketing campaigns and regular holidays to enhance our reach, nurture essential relationships and help our team time-block ahead of time for a better work-life balance.
3. Worth vs. value
The most significant part of the budget planning and business planning season is reviewing what happened each month of the past year, comparing it to previous years, and making reasonable projections for the baseline and growth.
We are also working to understand our current market position. Are we the least expensive or the most expensive to work with? Market shares and transactions can reveal an essential story about relevance to the consumer and the value gained or offered over the past year.
Action steps
- Break down your leads and closings by month.
- Understand your market share and your ranking in the market.
- How many personal referrals did you get each month? Who gave them or where did they come from?
- Review all paid digital and physical tools and systems and make sure the team is still using them, that they are not outdated and that they have a strong ROI.
Always relevant? You have to pay attention
Building relevance isn’t a one-and-done exercise. Wright was correct in making that statement. To lead yourself, your team and this industry out of outdated practices and stereotypes, it will take discipline.
Years ago, there was an agent in the local market who had “My way works” on the license plate of his flashy sports car.
It was a bold statement, but let’s be real. Is that attitude relevant to consumers or staying in business?
Fall is the end-of-year review that requires reflection on what happened, what worked and what didn’t. Don’t be afraid to say your way didn’t work.
Make adjustments, take notes and maintain a running calendar. Above all else, don’t be so busy or so confident that you ignore what is essential.
If you’re intentional about your brand, your relationships and your systems, you’ll find that relevance isn’t something you’re chasing — it’s something you’re creating.
Rachael Hite is a senior housing counselor, writer, and thought leader in real estate and aging. Follow her work on Instagram and LinkedIn.
