From left, Thad Wong, Nykea Pippion McGriff, Jason Mitchell, Mike Miedler and Todd Sumney. Photo by AJ Canaria.
In a panel discussion at RISMedia’s CEO & Leadership Exchange in Washington, D.C., this past September, industry executives addressed the evolving real estate landscape. With real estate luminaries coming together to focus on the importance of leadership for agents in navigating changes, particularly in marketing, technology and training, the discussion honed in on a world beyond the “Y2K moment” of the settlement.
Titled “The 2025 Playbook,” panelists looked at the shift from using the term “commission” to “compensation,” emphasizing the noble service of real estate professionals and the need for transparent communication with consumers.
Panelists included moderator Todd Sumney, chief industry officer/chief marketing officer at HomeSmart International; Mike Miedler, president and CEO of CENTURY 21 Real Estate; Nykea Pippion McGriff, regional vice president at Coldwell Banker; Thad Wong, co-CEO of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate; and Jason Mitchell, founder and CEO of The Jason Mitchell Group.
Sumney asked each panelist to detail what they have been doing in the areas of training, technology and marketing in the last 90 days to equip and empower their agents, and what they are going to be doing in the next 90 days with the industry changing so fast. Miedler began:
“It’s all about the service that we provide the customer,” he said. “Everything in real estate is negotiable, including the fridge in the garage. But what is not negotiable is compliance to the law and the ethics, which we all abide by. We looked at every one of our training courses. We audited all of our scripting, all of the things we do to train our agents and get them up to speed. We’ve created resource hubs and really used the power and scale of our network.
“I think now we are past that Y2K moment of August 17 that we were all waiting on. Now it’s all about us as leaders providing coaching on the front line every day and really executing what we’ve been able to talk about and what we’ve been able to put together from a process and legal standpoint.”
Mitchell emphasized the significance of training loan officers and managing agent expectations, particularly focusing on the middle-performing agents.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time training and coaching loan officers in our industry because the reality is whoever gets to the consumer first needs to be teeing up the experience that’s about to come,” he said. “There’s always a (agent) leaderboard. And that leaderboard is always managed by not the top (ones) because they always find their way at the top. And it’s not the bottom because the bottom is the chopping block. Managing the middle is what becomes important because when you’re in the middle, those are the people who are either going to make it or they’re not.
“Those are the people we’re not sure of yet, because they always find themselves somewhere in that 70th percentile or 60th percentile, which can be great agents, but those are the ones we need to be coaching. Those are the ones we need to be looking at and saying, ‘Let me listen to your pitch. Let me listen to your initial call. Tell me how you tour. Are you showing the best home first?’ Because you should be educating them on the proper way throughout the entire experience.”
McGriff next stressed the need for agents to articulate their value and use technology like generative AI to enhance their services. She also highlighted the importance of leadership in guiding agents through industry changes.
“We feel confident, and want our agents to feel confident,” she said. “So when we look at tools available for our agents to help them communicate their value, because it’s about the communication and the transparency and truly building a partnership with the consumer through the process. We’re training our agents to have a conversation about articulating their value in a 30-second elevator pitch, a three-minute conversation and a 30-minute presentation.
“For the next 90 days we’re going to focus on buyer agency workshops. Everyone’s a little concerned about the forms. Our agents got stuck on the forms, but really the conversation is how do you and the consumer bridge the gap so that we’re moving through the real estate process as partners.”
Wong emphasized that while technology is great and must be embraced, old-school can still win out, especially with something like marketing.
“I still believe something you can touch and feel is a great way to differentiate yourself,” he said. “So we’re distributing a full buyer presentation, which is a beautiful magazine that mimics our international magazine, all around the value of homeownership and the process of buying a home. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or buying a $100 million home in Beverly Hills, you are all treated with the same white-glove service. Digital is important, but I still think physical is just as important today.”
Sumney provided thoughts along the same lines regarding marketing.
“We created a special piece intended to complement every agent’s listing presentation,” he said. “It’s a printed piece but also electronic. Inside the piece we created diagrams that show the home-buying process. We also created a diagram that showed how things worked prior to August 17 and how they work after. What we found out with our agents was that they would have clients and customers who had heard something in the news, and 90% of the time it was wrong.”
Finally, Sumney asked each panelist to make one salient point going forward.
Miedler: “If you haven’t gone out and talked to every single buyer that’s in your pipeline or in your sphere, and explained to them what’s happening now in the marketplace and that they shouldn’t be signing paperwork or a five-page agreement when they want to walk into an open house, you need to do that today.”
McGriff: “It’s not just about, ‘Oh, this is the compensation that I require.’ It’s about how I have provided this buyer information they didn’t even think they needed throughout this purchase process.”
Wong: “When you think of all the franchises that we have, the cost of those franchises over the past four years, that has to change like everything else in the market these days. All of those costs have to change. Everybody in every industry has to provide more for less.”
Mitchell: “Mindset’s super important right now, and what we’ve been stressing is if you’re still here and you’re still making a living, even if maybe you weren’t making what you did in 2020 or 2021 or 2019, but you’re in the business, you’re at it every day. I believe you’ve weathered the storm.”
