As AI systems begin interpreting real estate catalogs through both structured data and storytelling, listing copy is regaining strategic importance, not just for marketing, but for discovery and search relevance. Troy Palmquist talks about the narrative shift.
For many agents, listing descriptions are a marketing afterthought: helpful, but second in importance to structured filters, photos and floorplans. With the increasing adoption of AI LLMs, even those who favor thorough and well-written property descriptions may have developed the habit of plugging in a list of features and adding the output as a last-minute bit of marketing polish.
Now, however, with the announcement of Orpi’s rollout of its property catalog, optimized by proptech company Kleio to be natively readable by agentic AI systems, property descriptions are taking on a new importance, becoming part of how properties are interpreted, matched and surfaced in conversational search.
As home search becomes more automated, AI won’t just read the data in your listing. Increasingly, it will read the home’s story.
The shift away from filter-first search
On a recent trip to Paris, I saw firsthand how different property discovery works outside the U.S. Because there is no dominant MLS-style system funneling listings, buyers and agents must navigate a fragmented online landscape to find listings.
No matter which side of the pond you’re on, real estate discovery, whether through U.S.-style MLSs and home search portals or European-style brokerage listings, has traditionally been structured around rigid inputs:
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- Price
- Location
But AI systems are looking for more than that. They’re interpreting intent and nuance, changing what “searchable” means.
According to Philippe Wellens, co-founder and CEO at Kleio, AI agents are looking for more than structured information, so narrative content found in the property description now becomes data the AI can use to satisfy the search.
Philippe Wellens
Wellens gave a concrete example of how AI uses narrative. Say a potential buyer is “looking for an apartment in a very fancy-looking building designed by a specific architect” and “built in the 70s.” A traditional filter search from a portal would have made most of those details irrelevant, but they are meaningful for AI matching.
Now, architectural history, building character, qualitative descriptors and neighborhood context are no longer “color copy.” They’ve become searchable.
The return of the human-written description
In my conversation with Wellens, I pointed out that I’m not a big fan of AI property descriptions. I find them fairly generic and rarely convincing. As AI search becomes increasingly integrated with home search, however, that generic, AI-generated copy simply won’t be enough, since input quality determines output quality.
Wellens said that well-structured input that’s rich in detail becomes a selling point when combined with the personalization potential of AI. Kleio’s system can personal property descriptions for individual users, moving key details to the top because they matter to the potential buyer.
That means description writing is now a hybrid of marketing and data design, and agents who gather and communicate richer lifestyle and intent data improve discoverability inside AI systems. That includes capturing:
- lifestyle intent (distance measures, maintenance and condition, multi-generational or investment potential)
- features that matter emotionally, not just numerically
- contextual detail AI systems can actually use
Amber Tkaczuk
“Hiring a professional copywriter for my property descriptions was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my listings,” Omaha, Nebraska, team lead Amber Tkaczuk said. “It frees up my time to focus on what I do best, and honestly, the quality of the writing shows.”
“My copywriter stays current on compliant language requirements, so I never have to worry about what can or can’t be said in a description,” she added. “The result is listings that are not only legally sound but actually compelling — the kind of copy that makes buyers stop scrolling and start booking showings.”
As AI increasingly becomes the avenue that connects buyer and property, the listing description will no longer be the final item on a marketing checklist. It becomes one of the primary inputs shaping whether a property is surfaced at all in AI search.
That elevates one of real estate’s oldest content disciplines into something newly strategic.
Troy Palmquist is the founder and principal at HomeCode Advisors. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Roomvu, the artificial intelligence video marketing platform for real estate agents and brokerages, recently launched Engage Pages, a landing page tool built directly into its Engage platform that turns social media clicks into booked appointments.
The pitch is conversion over vanity metrics. Most marketing tools optimize for views, but Roomvu is betting that agents care more about what happens after the view.
Engage Pages gives agents and real estate professionals personalized, on-brand landing pages in under five minutes, with the idea that every click from a social post, video or ad should have a clear path to a client.
Inman recently caught up with Sam Mehrbod, Roomvu’s CEO and co-founder, who told us more about Engage Pages, the latest trends in real estate marketing, and what he’s most looking forward to at Inman Connect San Diego in July.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Inman: Can you tell me more about Roomvu’s Engage Pages?
Sam Mehrbod: We saw that agents were spending a lot of time and money on websites that nobody actually visits. A website is really a storefront: you need one, but the cost is high, and the return is low. You’re paying maybe $1,000 a year just to showcase your listings and a bio.
What we wanted to do was make it easy. We started with a mini website, but agents wanted more customization. So we built an MCP that connects to AI models. It pulls in your listings, testimonials, AI portraits, your voice DNA, neighborhood FAQs, everything. We connected that to an HTML creator that builds a beautiful landing page from a simple chat command.
And then we realized hosting was another friction point, so we host it ourselves. It’s free. Agents can just say, “add my team member,” “remove this bio section,” “I’m a first-time homebuyer expert,” and it updates. The goal is SEO, and now AIO, at a price point that works for solopreneurs.
It sounds like another pain point it solves is its intuitiveness. It doesn’t require web design skills.
Exactly. It’s a chatbot. You tell it, “I want a landing page for my open house,” and it builds it with lead capture, email notifications and an AI receptionist. Before this, any change meant talking to a developer. For us as a tech company, one design change could cost 60 man-hours across a designer and developer, maybe $4,000 to $6,000. Now it’s a command.
Where do most agents’ marketing budgets go right now, and where do you think they’re wasting money?
Think of an agent as a mini enterprise. They’ve got a subscription for email marketing, one for video messaging, one for AI avatars and one for ChatGPT. It multiplies fast. The winners in this new AI era are the platforms that consolidate all of that into one super app. The idea is, have one conversation and say, “I want this done,” and it’s done. I think the new era of marketing is more of a marketing butler. “I have a new listing. Just post it for me.”
A couple of years from now, how automated is agent marketing going to be?
We’re already there. Let me show you. So if I go to Claude right now and say, “What are my listings?” it connects to the Roomvu MCP and pulls everything in. Then I can say, “Schedule open house for Sunday from 10 to 12.”
It understands what I meant and schedules it. Then, if I say, “draft an open house social caption,” it creates the content and schedules it directly in my Roomvu dashboard.
That’s the whole shift: Up until now, everything was one-way. You pushed data into a tool. Now it’s two-way. You have a real conversation, and the tool acts on it.
Some consumers seem wary of AI-generated content. Is there a risk that agents lose authenticity if they automate too much?
A few ground rules. First, AI headshots are the safest. Nobody can tell, and agents readily promote them. For video, the key is mixing formats. Use a teleprompter to read AI-written scripts, but also shoot real, authentic stories on camera. That balance keeps it from feeling purely generated.
For avatars specifically — eight seconds max. Under eight seconds, people feel like they’re seeing the real person. Beyond that, they can usually tell, and conversions drop.
The other thing is voice. We ask agents a series of questions to define their tone, their cadence and their phrasing. That way, the content sounds like them, not like a generic AI. If it doesn’t sound like you, engagement falls off.
How important is video marketing for agents right now, and what are the agents who are doing it actually doing right?
Think about the agents producing 19 to 20 deals a year. They’re not doing it through cold lead gen. They’re doing it from their sphere, people who already know and trust them.
Video serves two purposes for that group. One, it reminds people you’re still in business (that’s actually the number one reason people don’t call their agent after five or six years — they assume they’ve moved on). Two, it positions you as a thought leader.
Which social media platforms should agents prioritize?
YouTube is still the most durable. Facebook has become pay-to-play for business content. If you post business-centric content on your personal channel, you actually get penalized. Instagram is still impactful. LinkedIn gets fewer views but higher-quality ones: people with jobs, with purchasing power. It’s a quiet network that quietly drives real leads.
TikTok — we see agents getting a lot of views but fewer leads. The demographic is still getting their lives together, not buying homes. Also, adding branding or a phone number to a TikTok video limits your reach. That said, the “get on TikTok now before it becomes the next Instagram” argument has been around for five years, so I’m not sure that’s landed.
What are you speaking about at Inman Connect in July?
I’m doing a one-and-a-half-hour hands-on workshop: Creating your AI twin.
Attendees bring a laptop, and we build their first avatar together using HeyGen, step by step. They walk away with an actual avatar — it’s no longer a mystery. They’ve made it; they can use it.
What conversations are you most looking forward to at the conference?
I think we’re going to see SaaS consolidation in real estate marketing similar to what we’ve seen with brokerages. Marketing budgets are shrinking, and the tools that survive will be the done-for-you ones, not the complicated platforms that require agents to learn a new interface.
The new version of software looks like a chat or voice assistant that acts like a human working for you — a listing assistant, a transaction coordinator, a marketing manager. AI agents aren’t just a buzzword anymore. We’re closer to that reality than we’ve ever been.
The biggest negotiation mistake in real estate has nothing to do with price. It has everything to do with ego. Negotiations fall apart because agents make it about themselves.
In this episode of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered, Lisa Lippman, the No. 1 broker at Brown Harris Stevens for 11 consecutive years, unpacks one of the most overlooked skills in real estate: negotiation.
Lippman explains why the best negotiators remove their own emotions from the process, keep clients focused on the end goal and never let ego derail a transaction. It’s a simple lesson, but one that separates average agents from elite professionals.
Highlights
From working alongside Barbara Corcoran to building one of Manhattan’s most respected real estate businesses, Lippman shares the habits, mindset and professionalism that have kept her at the top for more than a decade.
The conversation also explores:
- The No. 1 negotiation mistake agents make
- Why luxury real estate isn’t nearly as glamorous as TV suggests
- What Lippman learned working alongside Barbara Corcoran
- Why first-time buyers remain some of her favorite clients
- The daily habits that create long-term success
One of the most fascinating moments comes when Lippman shares that younger clients are now finding her through AI, not because AI can replace an agent, but because it recognizes the value of her experience and advice. As she puts it, clients tell her they chose her because she provides insights they couldn’t get from AI alone.
Whether you’re a new agent looking to improve your negotiation skills or a seasoned professional wanting to sharpen your approach, this episode is packed with practical advice you can use immediately.
Connect with Lisa on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and online at bhsusa.com/agents/lisa-k-lippman.
Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered is now exclusively on Inman. Tune in for agent- and team-focused content on Mondays and leadership interviews on Wednesdays each week. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
James Dwiggins is the president of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
Keith Robinson is the president of strategy at NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
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After more than 20 years of experience in the real estate industry, I’ve seen more predictions than I can count. And today, agents are surrounded by questions about what’s going to happen.
Will interest rates go down? Will inventory open up? How will AI impact operations? What part of the cycle is this?
These are valid questions, and as I speak to different agents around the country, the uncertainty behind them is real.
But the problem is when the uncertainty pulls focus away from what actually helps drive results in any market.
Instead of trying to forecast the future, effective agents should concentrate on what they can control right now, no matter what happens next.
Consistency beats reaction
When things feel unpredictable, it’s easy to become reactive. But scrambling to adjust messaging or chase the loudest headline can create noise instead of momentum.
Instead, it’s important to build an ecosystem that creates consistency across all aspects of the business, because consistency builds trust. And trust is what makes agents stand out against the competition.
The strongest agents operate with clear systems, so clients know what to expect regardless of conditions. That means showing up across all aspects of the client journey from preparing for a presentation to marketing a listing to keeping a relationship warm post-closing. Across every stage, make sure your system is working for you.
Local expertise cuts through national noise
Most market narratives are built at a national level to explain broader trends or impacts. But as you know, real estate is local. It’s personal.
What works in one market can fall flat in another. Sometimes even from one neighborhood to the next.
The most effective agents don’t try to compete with headlines. They treat the headlines as context, not direction. National headlines explain trends. Local expertise drives results.
Clients don’t need more commentary. But they do need to know how trends will impact them specifically. Ground the big-picture trends into what’s happening in your own neighborhood for more local, better informed decisions.
The right technology simplifies, not distracts
Rapid market shifts can push agents toward the fastest fix. When things feel chaotic, it’s tempting to chase the next tool, platform, or AI-powered solution. But the agents who perform best invest in solutions that work together without adding complexity.
Technology creates an advantage only when it’s integrated into how an agent actually works. The agents performing best right now aren’t chasing technology for technology’s sake. They’re choosing solutions that work together. They’re using technology to help them understand local demand, respond faster to consumer interest, and stay consistent in how they communicate value, even as conditions change.
The truth is no one can consistently predict the housing market.
But the goal isn’t to be right about what happens next. It’s to build a business strong enough to perform in any market.
When conditions change — and they always do — the agents who succeed are the ones who invested in their systems, their skills, and their tools to excel in any market.
REMAX was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger, with an innovative, entrepreneurial culture affording its agents and franchisees the flexibility to operate their businesses with great independence. Nobody in the world sells more real estate than REMAX, as measured by residential transaction sides. To learn more about REMAX, please visit www.join.remax.com.
The text came in a little after 7 a.m.
I’d already finished my workout and was standing in my kitchen, halfway through my second Americano. Quad shot. No sugar.
Ding.
“New group iMessage,” Siri announced through my AirPods.
Before I could stop her, she rattled off the participants. Four phone numbers. Only one name was saved in my contacts. Siri read it aloud.
One of the most influential leaders in residential real estate.
She had my attention.
“Take the article down, or there will be consequences. We will pull all support immediately.”
I smirked.
Somehow, a threat sounds different when it’s delivered in Siri’s impossibly calm voice. She has a remarkable ability to make everything sound both pleasant and urgent. She’d probably make an outstanding CEO.
I took another sip of coffee.
The article was an op-ed we had run the day before, a hard look at how one of the largest players in the industry is perceived by some. It found its mark.
What happened next is the part worth telling. My editorial team went back through the piece line by line, re-verified the facts, checked the sourcing again, and looked hard at whether the sharper commentary was fair. They corrected only one inaccuracy the company called out, and they concluded the rest of the work held.
The reason matters. Running a flattering profile of a powerful company is easy and worth nothing. The harder test, the one that shows what a publication is made of, arrives at 7 a.m. when someone important wants a story to disappear.
Inman does not work for the biggest brokerages, the loudest portal or whoever is writing the largest check this quarter. We work for the agents and brokers who do the job, the people sitting across the table from a buyer or seller, trusting them with the largest financial decision of their life.
The industry is consolidating quickly. A few players are now large enough to assume that what serves them serves everyone, and they are not always wrong. Whether they are right in a given case is a question someone has to be willing to ask in print, without checking first whether the company also sponsors a conference.
Concentrated power makes independent coverage harder and more necessary at the same time. Without it, an industry settles for stenography, where the largest players narrate their own story, and everyone else applauds on cue. A demand to delete a story before breakfast is a tell. No one confident in their position asks you to erase it.
None of this is naive. I have covered enough of this business, and enough industries before it, to know how the machinery runs. Every beat has its dark corners, and the line between sponsorship, influence and editorial integrity is a tightrope I walk in daylight.
Sponsor Inman Connect and want your executive on a panel? If the executive is interesting and has something worth hearing, sure. Run it by the team first. That is a trade I will make any day of the week.
Select costs an agent $200 a year instead of $2,000 because $200 keeps the work within reach of the people who need it and keeps our lights on. Commerce pays for the building. It has never set the editorial line, and it never will. The day a check can buy a verdict is the day the subscription stops being worth anything to the person who paid for it.
If an organization would rather take its support elsewhere because we would not unpublish a true story, that is its call. We will wish them well and keep reporting. The story stood yesterday and will stand tomorrow, with or without their support.
To the agents and brokers reading this: The text was, in a backhanded way, the best feedback we could have gotten. It meant the work reached the people it was meant to unsettle. Telling you the truth when that truth inconveniences someone powerful is the job, and most of the trade press will not do it.
There is a Springsteen song I have come back to for most of my life called “No Surrender.” It is about people who hold their ground when folding would be easier, who keep the promises they made when nobody was watching. That is what my team did this week.
You can trust this publication because it cannot be leaned on, and that holds regardless of who is on the other end of the phone or what time they call. We cannot be bought, and we will not be bullied. We work for the people reading this.
No surrender.
Support our mission to hold power to account by becoming an Inman Select subscriber today.
Thomas M. Bohn
CEO, Inman.com
Google’s home listing ads program is beginning to take shape for agents and brokers, with Bright MLS preparing to make active brokerage listings eligible to appear in mobile Google Search results this week.
Bright — the country’s largest MLS by subscriber count, with 101,000 members — announced this month that it has partnered with HouseCanary to display active listings in Google Search through HouseCanary’s ComeHome platform. The integration is expected to become available on June 30, with listings expected to display shortly after, according to Bright.
The announcement offers one of the clearest looks yet at how Google’s HouseCanary-powered home-listing experience may work in practice. For agents and brokers, the program appears to have two distinct components: free listing exposure through participating MLS and brokerage feeds, and paid lead opportunities through Google Local Services Ads.
Listing exposure depends on MLS and brokerage participation
Bright told subscribers that active listings will be eligible to appear in mobile Google Search property carousels, where the MLS said they may be positioned above traditional portals. Bright said the display comes at no additional cost to brokerages and will prominently show the listing agent’s name, brokerage and contact buttons.
But Bright also cautioned that display is not guaranteed. Listings are surfaced based on Google’s algorithm and the consumer’s search parameters, meaning agents should not assume every listing will appear for every relevant search.
The integration is not a direct feed from Bright to Google. Bright said the connection is powered through HouseCanary’s consumer platform, ComeHome, which has been supplying listing data for Google’s home-listing ad experience.
Participation appears to depend first on MLS and brokerage-level decisions, rather than individual agents simply uploading listings to Google. Bright said brokerages can opt out of the program through the Bright Syndication Dashboard.
A solo agent can advertise through Google Local Services Ads, but getting listings into Google’s home-listing display appears to depend on whether the agent’s MLS or brokerage is participating in the listing feed.
HouseCanary’s own FAQ makes a similar distinction. Listings in the program are exclusively sourced from participating MLSs, according to HouseCanary. Brokers who want listings available for the Google program must join a participating MLS or coordinate with their existing MLS to establish a feed. Agents, in turn, need to be licensed with a broker in a participating MLS.
HouseCanary says eligible listings include active listings and, in some cases, pre-market listings, while commercial, rental and land listings are generally not included. Depending on each MLS’ rules, brokerages can either opt in or opt out of the feed.
Even then, display is not guaranteed. HouseCanary says all eligible listings from participating MLSs are available for display in active markets, but Google surfaces listings based on relevance to consumer queries.
Agent leads come through Google’s Local Services Ads
The paid side of the program runs through Google Local Services Ads. Bright told subscribers they will not be required to pay for leads as part of the listing-display program, but agents who choose to advertise alongside listing content through Local Services Ads will pay for leads.
Google’s Local Services Help page also offers more detail on how that side of the program works. Home Listings Ads display for-sale listings directly on Google Search and include listing agent, price, images and neighborhood data alongside promoted buyer’s agents, according to Google. Potential buyers can engage with the ads to call or message a local buyer’s agent.
As with other Local Services Ads, Google said agents pay only for leads, not clicks or impressions. To use Home Listings Ads in Local Services, agents need a verified Google Business Profile, a Local Services Ads campaign linked to that profile and must opt into Buyer’s agent or Seller’s agent job types.
Google said the format is available in U.S. markets on mobile and requires agents to have an active Local Services Ads account and pass the company’s standard verification process.
The listings themselves are provided by ComeHome, powered by HouseCanary, according to Google. Google said Local Services Ads automatically surface the appropriate ad format for searches such as “homes near me” or “real estate agent near me.” Pricing varies dynamically by market, and the Home Listings Ads format does not serve on Google Maps, according to Google.
The distinction between listing display and paid lead generation is likely to matter as more MLSs and brokerages consider joining the program. For agents, getting a listing into Google’s home-listing experience may depend on whether their MLS or brokerage participates. Getting themselves surfaced as a promoted agent, by contrast, runs through Google’s Local Services Ads system.
More feeds are expected
HouseCanary has said the broader program is continuing to expand. In prior conversations with Inman, the company said it was working with additional MLSs to coordinate more feeds so more brokers and agents can have listings displayed in the program.
The company also said it expects more partners to be announced in the coming weeks. Bright’s integration appears to be one of the first examples of that broader expansion becoming visible to agents and brokers.
The program has already drawn attention from major portals and brokerages because it sits at the intersection of listing distribution, agent advertising and lead generation. Zillow previously told Inman that it does not view Google’s expansion into home listings as an immediate threat to its business, arguing that Google is moving into a pay-per-lead model Zillow says it has been moving away from.
From the brokerage side, eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja had also previously framed the program less as a portal threat and more as another place to display listings. Pareja previously told Inman that eXp is sending all active and coming-soon listings for eXp Realty and NextHome into the program.
For agents, the more immediate takeaway may be simpler: Google’s home-listing ads are not a single switch they can flip. Listing exposure depends first on MLS and brokerage participation. Paid lead generation depends on Google Local Services Ads. And the value of either side will depend on whether consumers use the new experience to find homes and contact agents.
No shortcuts. No complicated funnels. Jimmy Burgess shares your no-fuss guide to becoming the most visible, valuable and trusted person in a specific area.
One of the biggest mistakes I see agents make is trying to be everything to everyone. They want to market across an entire city. They want to work every ZIP code. They want to be known everywhere. The problem is that consumers rarely think that way.
When homeowners are deciding who to trust with one of their largest financial assets, they often look for someone who knows a specific area. They want the neighborhood expert. They want the person who understands the homes, the people, the businesses and the market dynamics better than anyone else.
Recently, I asked AI a simple question: “What should a real estate agent do to dominate a specific neighborhood?” What was interesting wasn’t just the answer. It was what AI didn’t say:
- It didn’t tell me to buy leads.
- It didn’t tell me to spend thousands on advertising.
- It didn’t tell me to chase every opportunity in every direction.
Instead, it focused on five foundational strategies that, when combined, create a powerful neighborhood domination plan.
Become the resource for everything
The first thing AI suggested was becoming the resource for everything related to the neighborhood and surrounding area. Notice I didn’t say becoming the real estate resource. I said becoming the resource.
That’s an important distinction. Most agents focus exclusively on housing information. Although posting real estate-related content is important, the best neighborhood experts understand that homeowners have questions that go far beyond real estate.
They want to know:
- Who is the best plumber?
- Which landscaper can be trusted?
- What coffee shop just opened?
- Which local businesses are worth supporting?
- Who fixes pools, roofs or air conditioning units?
Years ago, we created refrigerator magnets with trusted service providers for our area. Today, we’ve expanded that into a much more comprehensive resource guide for clients and homeowners. The goal is simple: when someone has a question about a specific area, you want them thinking of you first.
One practical step every agent can take immediately is creating a trusted vendor list and sharing it consistently via direct mail, social media and email with your database.
Another is highlighting local businesses through social media, video content and community spotlights. Not only does this provide value to homeowners, it also creates relationships with local business owners who often become referral partners.
Show up more than anyone else
The second recommendation from AI was visibility. The reality is that familiarity breeds trust. People tend to trust the people they see most often.
That visibility can come through:
- Direct mail
- Community events
- Social media
- Walking the neighborhood
- Sponsorship opportunities
- Local involvement
One recommendation I’ve shared for years is budgeting approximately $2 per household per month for a neighborhood you want to dominate. In a neighborhood of 500 homes, that’s approximately $1,000 per month. This budget could include, but is not limited to, monthly mailers and supporting community activities like a food truck for a special occasion, family or pet photo days in the neighborhood or even a back-to-school bash in the neighborhood park.
A community activity I particularly like is creating a scholarship for graduating seniors who live in the neighborhood. Ask applicants to share what they love most about growing up there. Not only does this create goodwill, it demonstrates a genuine investment in the people who live in the community.
Many agents immediately focus on the cost. The better question is, what happens if that neighborhood produces just one additional listing because of your efforts? Most agents underestimate the long-term return that comes from consistent visibility.
The key word is consistency. Not occasional mailers or involvement. Consistent and ever-present involvement in the neighborhood.
Have more conversations than anyone else
This was perhaps the most important point AI made. The agent who has the most conversations with homeowners will almost always have an advantage. At a minimum you should have at least one conversation per day with a homeowner in the neighborhood, and for the agent looking to dominate a farm area, four conversations with owners in the neighborhood per day, four days a week will almost guarantee success over time.
These conversations, over time, will lead to owners recognizing you as an active member of the community. Those conversations can happen through:
- Phone calls
- Door knocking
- Open houses
- Community events
- Neighborhood gatherings
- Local sponsorships
- Social media interactions
Conversations create familiarity. Familiarity creates trust. Trust creates listings.
Become the source for neighborhood real estate information
The fourth recommendation was becoming the neighborhood’s most trusted source for real estate information.
This includes sharing:
- Market updates
- New listing details
- Recent sales information
- Neighborhood trend reports
- Community developments as they happen
One of the easiest ways to accomplish this today is through video. Create neighborhood overview videos. Share monthly market updates. Highlight notable sales and trends. Produce content that answers questions homeowners are already asking.
When people consistently receive valuable real estate information from you, they begin associating your name with expertise. Over time, that association becomes incredibly valuable.
Become part of the community
The final recommendation AI provided may have been the most powerful. Don’t just market to the community. Become part of it. There’s a big difference. The agents who truly dominate neighborhoods aren’t viewed as salespeople. They’re viewed as contributors.
They’re involved in:
- Schools
- Local charities
- Festivals
- Community projects
- Neighborhood events
They’re present. They’re participating. They’re serving. When you become a trusted member of the community, people stop seeing you as someone trying to earn business and start seeing you as someone who genuinely cares about the place they call home.
That’s when everything changes.
The most interesting thing about AI’s recommendations is how simple they are. No shortcuts. No secret hacks. No complicated funnels. Just a commitment to becoming the most visible, valuable and trusted person in a specific area.
If you can become the resource, show up consistently, have meaningful conversations, provide market expertise and truly become part of the community, you’ll eventually become the person people think of first when real estate comes up.
And that’s what neighborhood domination really looks like.
The LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance’s sixth annual report reveals the impact of workplace and housing discrimination on Gen-Zers’ financial futures.
Although Gen-Zers are currently a small part of the housing market — they accounted for only 4 percent of sales in 2025 — real estate leaders have already identified the generation as the next tastemakers. However, there’s a divide between heterosexual and LGBTQ+ Gen-Zers, with the latter group’s homeownership and wealth trajectory at risk due to a lack of family support and discrimination.
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The LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance‘s sixth annual survey revealed that 28.8 percent of respondents expect LGBTQ+ Gen-Zers to buy their first home by 39, which is roughly the median age of first-time homebuyers overall. That response reflects waning sentiment among LGBTQ+ respondents toward homeownership, with only 16.8 percent saying it is still part of the American dream.
Tommie Wehrle
“There has been so much discussion about the wealth gap that exists in our nation and the potential lack of access to homeownership. As the number of young adults self-identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community has risen to nearly 25 percent of the entire Gen Z population, we wanted to explore how this group may fare in the future,” LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance President Tommie Wehrle said in a public statement. “Our report makes it clear that LGBTQ+ Gen Z adults will likely fall behind in the workforce, acquiring wealth, gaining financial stability, and entering homeownership.”
The Alliance asked heterosexual and LGBTQ+ respondents to define what the American Dream meant to them, and heterosexual respondents ranked homeownership at the top of their list, followed by financial independence, marriage, a stable career, the freedom to pursue personal passions, and living in a safe community.
However, LGBTQ+ respondents put homeownership last — prioritizing safe communities, financial independence, freedom to pursue personal passions, marriage and equal access to career opportunities ahead of becoming a homebuyer.
The ranking reflects escalating worries regarding LGBTQ+ rights, as community members highlight a rising trend of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation mainly targeting transgender and gender-expansive (TGX) individuals. More than half of respondents said heterosexual Gen-Zers have a career advantage, with 68.1 percent saying heterosexual professionals will reach a senior leadership position before their LGBTQ+ peers. Another 66.1 percent said heterosexual professionals are more likely to receive promotions of any kind first.
Workplace and housing discrimination are putting LGBTQ+ Gen-Zers on a potentially harrowing path, with roughly half of respondents expecting them to have less wealth than their heterosexual counterparts in 20 years (56.6 percent) and have less long-term financial stability (49.1 percent).
Wehrle said the survey’s findings “should concern everyone involved in housing, real estate sales, and public policy.”
“There are approximately 70 million people in Gen Z, with approximately 16 million who self-identify as LGBTQ+. We cannot afford to leave such a sizable number of people behind,” she added. “Today’s policies attacking our community by the current administration and in statehouses around the nation will have severe consequences down the road if there is not a course correction.”
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A single just-listed postcard after a single sale is a coin toss, not a campaign, coach Darryl Davis writes. Marketing works on the principle of effective frequency.
If you have some budget for marketing and you want a farming system that runs almost on autopilot, this is the one I recommend. It is inexpensive to produce once it is built, it takes almost no creative energy month to month, and it quietly positions you as the expert in your area. But it only works if you respect one rule first.
It has to be consistent.
A single just-listed postcard after a single sale is a coin toss, not a campaign. Marketing works on the principle of effective frequency: People generally need to encounter your name and face several times before they act. One mailing is not a system. Repetition is.
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The 3 letters
Forget designing something new every month. You build three templates once, and rotate them forever. Letters, not postcards, and I will explain why in a moment.
- Letter one introduces you. A short, warm letter on your letterhead with your photo: Hi, I just listed a home in the neighborhood. That is it.
- Letter two shares new inventory. All the new homes that just came on the market in the area. It does not claim you listed them. It simply presents them on your stationery.
- Letter three shares recent activity. Every listing and sale in the area over the last 30 days, again on your letterhead with your face.
Then you loop. Month four is letter one with a fresh address. Month five is letter two with current inventory. Month six is letter three with updated sales. Same three templates, new addresses, around and around. Keep the cycle inside 30 days between drops.
Why it punches above its weight
Letters two and three are the quiet geniuses of the system. They never claim you handled all that activity, but arriving on your letterhead with your face on them, they create the impression, consciously or not, that you are the professional behind the neighborhood’s movement. You become the local name without ever bragging.
Letters or postcards?
Postcards are cheaper and easier, and that is exactly their weakness. A postcard is a glance and a toss. A letter asks for a small commitment: open it, unfold it, read it. That tiny investment buys you attention, and attention is the whole game. Industry direct mail research has consistently shown letter-format mail performing strongly on return on investment, and that engagement is the reason.
How to make each letter actually land
The system is only as good as the pieces moving through it, so a few content rules matter.
- Keep it personal, not corporate: Write like a neighbor, not a brochure. First name, friendly tone, your real photo. People respond to a person, not a logo.
- Give one clear reason to keep it: A local market snapshot, a quick tip on prepping a home to sell, a short list of recent neighborhood sales. Usefulness is what keeps your letter off the discard pile.
- Make contacting you effortless: Cell number, a simple call to action, and ideally a way to see what their home is worth. Remove every ounce of friction.
On budget, start with a farm size you can actually sustain for a year, because quitting after two drops wastes everything you spent on the first two. It is far better to mail 300 homes faithfully for 12 months than 1,500 homes twice and then disappear. Track it simply: Note where every call and lead comes from, so that a year in, you know exactly what your farm is returning and can scale with confidence.
You can also layer the system. The letters do the consistent heavy lifting in the background, and when you list or sell in the farm, a quick door knock or a hand-delivered note to the immediate neighbors amplifies the same message in person. The mail keeps you familiar, and the personal touch converts that familiarity into conversations.
A note on patience, because this is where most agents quit and most farming campaigns die. The system rarely produces in the first 90 days, and that is exactly when discouraged agents stop and conclude that mail does not work. It does work, but it works on the timeline of recognition, built one repeated impression at a time.
Decide up front that you are committing for a full year, budget accordingly, and judge the program at 12 months, not at three. The professionals who win their farms are simply the ones who were still mailing when their competitors gave up.
One last tip: Stay in your lane geographically. A tight, well-defined farm you dominate is worth far more than a sprawling area where your name appears once and vanishes. Pick a neighborhood you can own and own it.
Setup is easier than you think. A mailing house does the heavy lifting. You build the three templates once, then each month you simply hand over the new addresses and say drop them in. Yes, letters cost a bit more than postcards. I would rather pay a little more for a piece that gets read than save pennies on one that gets tossed. Build it this month and let consistency do the rest.
Darryl Davis, CSP, is a nationally recognized real estate speaker, bestselling author and coach with more than 40 years in the industry. Learn more at darrylspeaks.com.