Nancy Wallace-Laabs (00:42.75)
Most rail tours think more inventory.
means more business.
in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the opposite might be true.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (01:04.226)
The easy seller market is on its way out.
The easy seller's sprint is on the way out.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (01:27.722)
In 2026, realtors who are waiting for listings to fall in their lap may be
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (01:42.496)
In 2026, realtors who are waiting for listings to fall in their lap might struggle.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (01:59.182)
Price cuts are rising.
Buyers have more options and sellers still think it's 2022. So stay with me.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (02:20.416)
So stay with me, I'm going to show you one off market opportunity that can get you one to three listings per month without cold calling and having sellers call you.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (02:39.618)
where sellers call you competition is low and priority and motivation are high.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (02:52.17)
So stay with me, I'm going to show you one off market opportunity that will get you one to three listings per month without cold calling that's not very competitive and has highly motivated sellers. So let's get going.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (03:47.862)
So if you're a realtor and you're looking for more listings, you probably already know that the market has done a shift in 2026.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (04:00.128)
So agents who recognize that shift and are looking for other opportunities to fill their pipeline will stay tuned for this video.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (04:21.74)
So the market has shifted and the realtors that recognize that and take action, they will own the next chapter. And here's what's really happening and how smart agents are getting and pulling ahead.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (04:45.046)
So the old game is debt. How it used to work where the home sold really fast. Remember just a couple years ago. Sometimes even before the yard hit the sign. The sign hit the yard. Thank you very much. The sign hit the yard.
you were having average agents, you didn't even have to do a whole lot and you would get paid, right? You had low skill agents, low effort agents, they still got results no matter, you know, because of the market. The market was actually helping them make money. So now what's true today in 2026? Well, listings are sitting longer. You can look on your MLS and the days on market are going longer and longer.
There's more agent competition for every opportunity that's out there. So there's less listings. They're sitting on the market more. And you're competing against a whole lot of other agents, right? So your marketing matters. And the marketing that you need to spend your dollars on have to do with trying to find those motivated sellers but in an off-market opportunity.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (06:03.714)
So more inventory doesn't necessarily equate to more business, right? So if there's more competition, there's buyer hesitation, and there's just listing fatigue, like houses that have been sitting on the market. I personally have seen houses that are going on a year sitting on the market. Or there's a lot of price adjustments happening, down, down, down. So the more properties that are out there,
and if sellers are trying to sell, well they're looking at their different options and they keep on lowering the price. So it could have been priced when you first put it on the market, but because the market is shifting, now in order to sell those properties that would have flown off the shelf, your seller is having to, you're having to convince your seller that hey, you need to lower the price. So the overpriced listing death trap. Have you been there before?
So many sellers anchored into the 21, 22 when things were really good. Remember multiple offers, bidding 50, 60, 100 grand over the ass price. So now what we're seeing is price reductions. Sellers are being frustrated because they don't always keep up with the market like us realtors do, right? So their listings become stale and we know the longer the property sits on the market,
the longer it's going to, there's gonna be more frustration with the seller because they don't understand why their property is not selling. And let's just talk about those listings where the seller has pretty much done everything right. There could be lost referral business for you because if a seller feels frustrated, they're not going to, they're gonna blame the realtor. Isn't that what always happens? No matter what, they always blame the realtor. So one bad pricing decision,
doesn't just kill a deal, it quietly erodes your pipeline. So you want to protect yourself by leading with honest and up-to-date information on the market. So we want to make sure that that one overpriced listing doesn't cost you future listings.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (08:22.316)
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there's a lot of things going on in the real estate market, right? You got your new builds. Interest rates, as I'm recording this, are still kind of high, so you're also competing with builders. How many of you have lost clients to builders? Then there's the investors, like myself, we're always looking for a deal, and then you have the luxury segment, so that's slower pays, longer days on market, and it's niche, right?
If you're a new agent and you've never gotten into the luxury housing market as far as selling or listing properties, then you're going to be at a disadvantage right out of the gate. So number one, you have to be able to read the market, know who your competition is, and then how do you fit in to all of that?
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (09:17.004)
So winning agents, what are they doing right now? So there has to be a price, what winning agents must do now, right? So number one, you have to get pricing intelligence. And there's so much data out there. You can actually use ChatGPT to help you kind of, if you aren't familiar enough with the numbers, you can run different scenarios through these different AI platforms to help you with.
scripting to talk to sellers. So you wanna use active comps, absorption rates, price reduction trends, and really just what is the buyer's psychology all about, not wishful thinking. Then there's gotta be an incentive strategy. So you have to, you know, could lead with the rate buy down, because that does help with the interest rates. You know, there's always seller concessions, there's warranties, repair credits.
to move listings faster. So you're always having to kind of think outside the box when you take on a listing, right? And then you might have to get into better marketing. I talk to so many agents that they rely on just their sphere of influence. That's it. They don't have any other marketing tool belt, if you will, tool chest to drive from. And a lot of times what I talk to agents about is off-market opportunities. They don't even know, well, where do you go to get that?
and I'll talk to team leads and I'll say, do you provide leads for your agents? They're like, no, we don't do that. They have to go out there and scrape it. So think about that. Every investor, every new realtor, they're taught the same tools. Go where the low-hanging fruit is. Foreclosure list, probate leads, of course your sphere of influence, networking, but you are competing with every other realtor out there.
for this, and investor for the same opportunity. So you might have to think about better marketing, you know, as far as, you know, who you're targeting and how you're doing it. And then you have to be the go-to agent in a micro market. You really have to niche down, and the agents that are doing that, that can provide local information, they really know the stats inside and out, they're very familiar with.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (11:31.426)
you know how HOA works and things like that. I just saw a post on Facebook where somebody was getting ready to list a lot of acreage, like over 25 acres in an area that they did not have geographic competence. And they literally said that in the Facebook post. So they were asking people in the Facebook group, hey, what can you tell me about this area? I'm getting ready to list it for a family member. Okay, so yes, I get it. We have our connections with our family.
Would it be better for you to partner with somebody that actually knows the geographic competence of the area so that you can help sell that property, whether it's a relative or not? So you always have to think about professionally, where do you want to be?
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (12:25.42)
Now in my experience, what I have found is that most listing agents, and this can work for buyer's agents as well, but beyond the MLS, cold calling, there's a quieter pipeline that you may not be familiar with or maybe you don't feel that you have the skill set to market to those folks, right?
So I deal a lot with distressed sellers. And there's a couple things I know in life. Number one, we all have to pay taxes, right? Whether it's property tax, income tax, taxes are going to be here until there's some big shift, right? And then people pass away. And when people pass away, because we're all going to go there one day, they normally sometimes have property, real estate property, real property that they need to dispose of.
and the real estate agents that can get familiar with the process of inherited properties, of probate process, with working with families when the death has just occurred. All of these things can help build an opportunity pipeline, if you will, because you become a niche realtor in that area. So let's talk about inherited property solutions. Families trying to navigate. Now if there's wills in place, so in Texas,
we can buy and sell properties without a will, right? Without, and going through probate. So that can happen. There's some paperwork that you have to, you know, work with an attorney on and that kind of thing. So in other states, all the properties have to go through probate. However, there's no reason why you shouldn't be reaching out before that process happens because you could be...
the resource that that family needs to actually move that property through the selling process. So homes likely to sell, but they're not listed. So this is where I find a lot of motivated sellers. People that have, a loved one has passed away, there's a property or two that they need to get rid of. And we're talking about single family, multi-family land. It could be a bunch of apartments. It could be anything.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (14:44.302)
but the family is unfamiliar with what the value is. They're unfamiliar with even how to find a buyer for that property besides throwing it on the MLS. So you could be that person that could help them navigate that journey. And I always say with these types of folks, whether it's any type of relation-based where you're working with distressed sellers, whether that's divorce or foreclosure, inherited properties, you have to lead with your heart.
Lead with your heart first, your wallet second. Because if you become that person that can solve the family's issues in a very stressful time for them, they're gonna remember that and you're gonna end up getting more referral business from learning how to work these types of leads. So the pre-probate advantage, now you're probably going, Nancy, I have no idea what pre-probate means. Okay, so pre-probate literally just means when a property owner passes away,
But before probate is actually filed, it's that window of time that I can start working with a seller or the family to help them sell the real estate. Now, why would they want to do that? Well, in Texas, the probate costs can be $3,500 on up. It doesn't work in every single situation, but it works in a nap that I've been doing these type of opportunities since 2018.
Right? So the bottom line is that while most agents wait for all the public information, which who else is looking for all of that? Investors, other realtors. So what I have found is this opportunity in this window of time is less competitive. And also, I have found that people don't know how to market to these folks. They don't know what to say. And that's where I come in. Right? So they are very motivated sellers, generally. And you can be the
first move to their advantage, right? So you can build trust before they have to go, before that property even becomes public. So whether you're in a state that they have to go through probate or you're not, like in Texas, you can still contact the family and be a resource for them to help them facilitate the sale of the property, even if they have to go through probate.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (17:07.744)
Now, 2026, this is my prediction. This is what's going to reward agents in a very competitive market, right? So the louder you are, the more you're on social media, you know, that's not really going to cut it, right? I mean, social media and I'm saying, you know, I'm doing YouTube videos, you know, I have an Instagram, I was just talking to somebody about how they're going to try and do more TikTok. Well, I'm going to take some of that information.
and say, you know what, I'm going to double down on really learning how to work with families where they're in a distressful situation and it's an opportunity because if I can become more of an expert in that area, I'm already ahead of the game, so to speak. So data, strategy, and trust. So the next generation of top agents are gonna combine all of these off-market opportunities with pricing intelligence.
you know, with their expertise of local markets and hidden opportunity pipelines. So that's kind of what I'm talking about right now. So old school prospecting has a ceiling. I mean, there's only so many calls you can make in a day. There's only so many people in your sphere of influence. And it's very repetitive over and over making those cold calls. So wouldn't it be nice if you could get a system where you could get one to three listings a month and have the seller call you without doing cold calling? So yeah, I like that.
So I'm also talking about listings with less competition. Now of course the more people find out about this, but you know what, I've been doing this like I said since 2018 and here's the thing. These leads have been around for a long time, but it took me time, my time, delving in and what works for marketing, what works when I'm reaching out to the families that have lost a loved one. And when I say reach out, I'm saying that when I get my
list, I am talking to people about 10 days to 2 weeks after someone passes away. So very, very recent. And that's not for everybody. know, you might, and yes, along the way I have been called some rather nasty names, but that's a very small percentage. Most people find it very welcoming that somebody is actually trying to help them solve an issue that they didn't even know they were going to have. So that's what happens. A lot of times when someone passes away, the family left behind does not
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (19:30.07)
understand how the real estate system works doesn't understand what the wishes of the deceased person were, especially if they didn't put it in a will.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (19:47.438)
Off market listings, off market opportunities. So these are people that not very many people know about how to reach, right? They're hidden seller opportunities. And if you can become an expert in this field, you will be amazed, because everybody knows somebody that passes away. I mean, that's just given, right? It's like taxes. It's just a given. There's low competition for the listings. There's so many things that you can do when you know where to look.
for the opportunity. Now, maybe this is something you're like, hey, Nancy, I really want to know more about that. So you can always reach out to me anytime and either text me at 469-430-9885 or just call me up and let's chat.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (22:34.594)
So if you're ready for listings that have less competition, then I have actually created a preview, if you will. It's a free preview of these types of opportunities and listings that I'm talking about. And so you can find it in the description below. This kind of goes over off-market listings, these hidden seller opportunities.
And if it's something that you think that you might want to move forward with, know, you can always schedule a time with me. You can also book a call with me. Well, schedule a time, a call, but or you can reach out at 469-430-9885.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (23:24.942)
So one of the things that I really want to leave you with is in 2026, how can you move forward and be prepared for 27, 28 and so on? So finding how to market to off market opportunities and creating a pipeline of these types of opportunities will set you up for future so that you don't have to continue cold calling or
you know, buying lists from Zillow and realtor.com and basically kind of throwing away your money. But the main thing I want to leave you with is that this type of marketing is very niche. It takes a certain skill set. Also, it's less competitive, meaning that people are not afraid, but it's like, well, not everyone can be successful at this. So are you going to be that person that's going to be successful at this? I hope so. So.
Again, download the free preview. It's in the description below. And then stay tuned and watch the next video that I have about should you be buying a rental property in 2026. I do work with lot of investors and you might pick up some tips. I have another video about the three.
Nancy Wallace-Laabs (24:50.22)
Make sure you check out the next video where I literally go over the three numbers that talk about what you should be aware of if you want to work with investor clients. So, hey, thanks so much everyone and I will see you shortly.
