A lot of agents thought 2026 was going to be the year everything turned around. Rates were going to come down, more homes were going to sell, and the market was going to do the work for them.
The reality is 2026 has been a lot like 2024 and 2025, and agents are sitting there right now saying, “I need more business. My business isn’t where I want to be.”
The stat going around that 71% of agents didn’t sell a home last year is a skewed number. I wouldn’t put too much stock in it.
What I would pay attention to is this: nine out of 10 consumers are still using real estate agents, according to NAR data. People want to work with agents.
So, the opportunity is there. The question is whether your strategy is good enough to capture it.
The 3 Real Estate Strategies Agents Are Using Right Now
Every agent right now is operating from one of three strategies, whether they know it or not.
Two of them can actually build a business. One of them is a dead end.
Here’s how to tell which one you’re using.
1: The Bluebird Approach (& Why It’s Killing Your Business)
The first strategy is what I call the bluebird approach. You’re waiting for a bluebird to fall out of the sky and land in your lap.
In practice, this looks like waiting for laydowns. Those easy deals where you show one home, the buyer is already ready to go, and they choose you because they happened to find you. You didn’t really earn it. It just came to you.
This worked in 2021. It does not work now.
The passive approach, relying on a referral that comes out of nowhere or a lead that arrives ready to transact, is unpredictable by nature.
When those leads show up, they’re great. High close rate, low effort. But you cannot build a business on luck. You can’t put luck in your calendar. You can’t forecast it or scale it.
And when it dries up, which it will, you’re left with nothing.
If you’re sitting around waiting for that Goldilocks unicorn lead, I’d encourage you to seriously look at the next two strategies and start using both of them.
2: The Snare Strategy (Attraction Approach)
The snare strategy is a content marketing and attraction approach. Instead of chasing business, you’re building systems that bring people to you.
This includes:
- Social media content that keeps you visible and top of mind
- Direct mail campaigns that put your name in front of your farm
- Email marketing to your database on a consistent schedule
- Networking and relationship nurturing with people in your social circles who are going to transact at some point
We use this approach in our own business. We have a full marketing department whose entire job is to generate appointments. The snare strategy is how you stop being a secret agent and start being the obvious choice when someone in your world is ready to make a move.
Here’s the thing about snares, though. They take time to set, and they take even longer to trigger. The leads you get from this approach are warmer and more trusting, but the results are delayed.
If you need something to happen this month, the snare strategy alone is not going to get you there. What it does is create long-term health in your business, and that’s worth building even when you’re also doing the harder work of strategy three.
To make the snare strategy work, you need to be consistent. These are not one-off activities.
Put them in your calendar and execute them every week, every month, every year. It compounds over time.
3: The Hunter Strategy (& How to Use It Every Day)
The hunter strategy is the active approach, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. You are proactively going out and finding business every single day. No waiting. No hoping. You’re in your CRM, you’re on the phone, and you’re having real conversations with people who have a real estate need.
This is not something you do on Mondays. This is a Monday through Saturday strategy. I make phone calls on Saturdays. The agents who are winning right now are doing the same.
A few things to understand about how the hunter strategy actually works in practice:
- One call is not enough. You need six or more attempts per lead before you move on.
- A solid follow-up sequence looks like 10 calls and 6 texts over 14 days.
- You’re reaching out to people who don’t know you yet, which means you have to be comfortable with rejection.
- High rejection is part of the job. High energy is what gets you through it.
When you commit to this strategy, you control your own destiny. You’re not waiting on the market. You’re not waiting on rates. You’re going out and creating your own pipeline.
Snare + Hunter Strategy Combo for the Win
When you put strategies two and three together, that’s what’s actually working right now.
- The snare strategy builds your brand and warms up your market over time.
- The hunter strategy fills your pipeline today.
You need both.
The specific metric you’re trying to hit is 15 two-way conversations per day. It takes roughly four to six dials to get one real conversation, so you’re looking at somewhere around 90 to 100 dials a day to get there. Structure those conversations across three categories:
- 5 conversations with people you know
- 5 conversations with people you don’t know yet
- 5 follow-ups with people already in your pipeline
This keeps you moving new prospects through the funnel while also maintaining the relationships you’ve already built with closed clients.
Get both strategies working for you. Neither one works as well without the other.
If You’re Behind on Your 2026 Goals, Now Is the Time to Act
We’re in May. If you’re not on pace to hit 60% of your goal by the end of June, you need to make a change right now.
Not next month. Not after summer. Now. Because if you wait, you’re going to find yourself at Thanksgiving and Christmas looking back at a year that didn’t have to go this way.
Pick up strategies two and three. Schedule them. Block the time. Then go execute.
This business is not about being the smartest person in the room or having the best marketing materials. It’s about hard work and putting up the numbers. The numbers lead to the results.
Get on the phone. Do the work. And stop waiting for that bluebird to fall out of the sky.
