There’s a version of events where the market is the problem. Where rates are too high, inventory is too heavy, buyers are sitting on the fence, and there’s nothing to do but wait it out.
Byron Lazine doesn’t buy it.
At RealtyHack’s fourth annual event in Austin, the BAM co-founder and one of the most recognized voices in real estate delivered a keynote built around one central argument: the agents who are struggling right now aren’t struggling because of the market. They’re struggling because of their skills. And skills are a choice.
He then gave the room three concrete listing plays to run immediately.
What follows is a breakdown of those three plays, the psychology behind each one, and exactly how to use them in your next listing appointment.
Table of Contents
The Market Isn’t the Problem. Your Skills Are.
Before getting into the plays, Byron addressed the narrative head-on. A lot of agents right now are blaming the market. Some of that frustration is understandable. But Byron made a distinction that matters.
What the real stats say
The widely repeated claim that 71% of agents aren’t doing any business is, according to Byron, overstated and sourced poorly. But the underlying truth isn’t far off.
- The Consumer Federation of America reports that 49% of agents sold only one or zero homes last year
- 70% of agents sold five or fewer homes in the past year
- Fortune has run nearly identical headlines about home sales hitting lows not seen since 1995, two years in a row
The pattern is real. Half the agents in the market aren’t running a real business. But Byron’s point is that irrelevant and relevant agents exist at the same time, in the same market, side by side.
“We know agents, teams, offices that were up 35% last year while markets went flat. There are agents whose business went down in 2021. It’s not the market. You control the money.” — Byron Lazine
Why Austin is one of the top markets in America right now
Byron was direct about the opportunity sitting in front of every agent in that room. When asked what he would do if he lost everything and had to start over, his answer wasn’t “make more calls” or “buy more leads.” It was: pick the right market.
“The market we’re standing in right now is probably, if it’s not number one, it’s in the top two or three on that list. Austin, Texas.” — Byron Lazine
The data backs him up. Bank of America research shows Austin among the top cities for large population increases. Inbound migration rankings consistently put Austin at or near the top. The city is becoming a tech hub, attracting millionaires and billionaires relocating from California, and it remains relatively affordable compared to the markets those buyers are coming from.
The agents complaining about the market in Austin have leverage most agents in the country don’t. They just aren’t using it.
The agents winning right now made a choice
Agent compensation actually went up in 2024 and 2025, despite the settlement, despite the headlines, despite historically low transaction volume. Redfin, which Byron noted would not have reported this unless the data forced them to, confirmed it.
What that means: the agents who are operating well are making more money per transaction. The pie got smaller but the best agents took a bigger slice. That’s the position to be in when the market turns. The question is whether you’re building toward that position right now or waiting for conditions to improve before you start.
Strategy 1: The Three-Tier Compensation Model
The first play is about how you present your compensation at a listing appointment. Most agents present one number, sit in silence, and then defend from there. Byron’s framework replaces that entirely.
Stop defending one number. Start presenting three.
When a seller asks what your fee is and you give them a single number, you’ve already lost control of the conversation. You’re defending a position instead of collaborating toward an outcome. Byron’s argument is simple: tie your compensation directly to your marketing and let sellers choose which value proposition works for them.
“Don’t defend compensation. Instead, operate everything on exploding your value and letting them choose which value proposition they want. Tie your marketing directly to the compensation. If you’re going to do more work, get paid more. If you’re going to do less work, get paid less.” — Byron Lazine
The structure is three plans: a premium plan, an anchor plan (the middle), and a basic plan. Each plan has a different scope of marketing services and a corresponding compensation level. More work, more pay. Less work, less pay. The seller chooses. That’s a fundamentally different conversation than you naming a number and hoping they agree. Your listing presentation should be built around this framework from the start.
How to build your three plans
Byron used placeholder numbers throughout (he reminded the room several times that all compensation is negotiable and the numbers shown were not real). The structure is what matters:
- Premium plan: Reserved for properties that need extensive pre-market work. Contractor coordination, deep cleaning, rehabilitation before photography. Most homes won’t qualify. You introduce this first, walk through what it covers, and then establish it’s likely not what this seller needs.
- Anchor plan (middle): Your target. Maximum marketing push, full photography and listing preparation, everything you do to get maximum eyeballs and maximum net dollars for the seller. This is where you want most sellers to land.
- Basic plan: Reserved for sellers who prioritize speed over net proceeds. Estate situations, emotional circumstances, people who need to be on market fast and aren’t focused on maximizing price. Less work upfront, lower compensation.
The Starbucks anchoring principle
Byron referenced the pricing psychology in Alex Hormozi’s $100M Offers to explain why the three-tier model works: people can’t make decisions when presented with more than three options, and when given three, they reliably gravitate toward the middle.
“Starbucks makes just as much money on the medium as on the large and the small. They know people can’t make decisions outside of three and they get the best of both worlds with the medium. It costs more than a small.” — Byron Lazine
The play is to anchor sellers into the middle plan. You start with the premium plan, establish it’s not for them, then talk about the basic plan and establish when that’s appropriate. By the time you get to the anchor plan, it’s the obvious choice. You’ve already ruled out both extremes for them.
How to handle objections without discounting
The most common objection is the seller wanting the marketing scope of the anchor plan at the price of the basic plan. Byron’s response:
Align first. Agree that you both want the same outcome: maximum eyeballs, maximum net dollars, minimum hassle. Then walk through what they get in the anchor plan and offer to roll down a premium feature from the top plan as a bonus for moving forward today. That creates urgency without pressure and adds value without discounting.
“I don’t discount. I just change the work. If you want to invest less, we can remove X and Y. But if you want the maximum push, I’m asking for the anchor plan with the premium bonus.” — Byron Lazine
If they continue to push back, remove deliverables from the plan rather than reducing compensation. You’re not giving away margin. You’re adjusting scope. That’s a professional negotiation. For more on handling these moments, the principles behind strong objection handling apply directly here.
Three rules for running this play
- Always show your top plan first. That’s where their eyes go. Starting with the premium plan sets the anchor for the entire conversation.
- Never go beyond three options. More than three and you lose them. Keep it to premium, anchor, and basic.
- Value stack in bullets with concrete deliverables. Fluff fills space and gets ignored. Concrete deliverables, specific services and specific outcomes, are what sellers remember and respond to.
Play 2: Stop Pricing Homes. Start Labeling Them.
The second play is about how agents talk about price at a listing appointment and throughout the listing period. Most agents present a CMA, suggest a number, watch the seller emotionally attach to it, and then spend months trying to talk them off it.
Byron’s framework prevents that pattern entirely.
The Reddit post that says everything
Byron showed the room a real post from a real agent: 300 days on market, seller refusing to lower the price, agent venting publicly on Reddit about holding open houses every weekend and redoing photography three times.
“This sounds like a seller,” Byron noted. “But this is an agent.”
That post is what happens when an agent doesn’t have a pricing language framework. They set a number, the seller anchors to it, and the conversation about adjusting price becomes a confrontation instead of a strategy update. The agent ends up stuck, frustrated, and publicly asking strangers on Reddit for help.
The three pricing strategies every agent should know
Byron credited industry speaker Tom Ferry’s team for popularizing this framework. The core idea: there is no single “right” price for a home. There are three pricing strategies, each designed to produce a different outcome.
| Strategy | Also Called | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Aspirational pricing | Above market | Sellers who want to test the ceiling and have time to wait |
| Perceived market value pricing | Comp-based pricing | Sellers who want a predictable, appraiser-supported outcome |
| Event-based pricing | Below market | Sellers who want maximum buyer activity and a fast, competitive close |
Why the language matters as much as the strategy
The shift Byron emphasizes isn’t just strategic. It’s linguistic. When you call something the “selling price,” the seller hears a commitment. When you call it the “invitational price” or the “launch price,” you’ve built a natural pathway for adjustment into the conversation from the start.
“We are not settling the closing price at the listing presentation. We are settling the presentation price.” — Byron Lazine
When you launch at aspirational pricing and it doesn’t produce offers, the follow-up conversation is framed correctly from day one: “The market responded to aspirational pricing strategy number one. Where do we want to go from here? Event-based pricing to blow the door open, or comp-based to align with the appraiser?” That’s a strategy conversation, not a failure conversation. Understanding how to price a home to sell in this market starts with having this framework ready before you walk in the door.
Play 3: The High Inventory Market Share Play
The third play is the one Byron said has the most long-term upside. It’s also the one most agents will instinctively resist.
Why high inventory is an opportunity, not a problem
Byron built his entire career in a high-inventory market. After going bankrupt early in his real estate career, he had no money, nothing was selling, and there was inventory everywhere. That’s the exact market he used to turn everything around.
“This is the exact type of market I turned my entire life around in. Just think it’s 2028 and you own market share and everything has turned. To acquire that type of market share, to become the dominant listing agent when the market turns, it’s going to cost stacks of cash to invest in all those listings — or you can use other people’s money.” — Byron Lazine
The agents who are pulling back on listings right now, worried about carrying costs and long days on market, are ceding ground that will be very expensive to reclaim when the market turns. The agents who are stacking inventory now, even at cost, will be positioned as the dominant listing agents in their market when buyers come back.
The lifetime marketing launch credit retainer
Here’s the mechanism Byron used to fund his listing inventory without burning through his own cash:
At the listing appointment, after aligning on price strategy and compensation structure, he offered sellers a special arrangement: a marketing launch credit retainer. The seller pays an upfront marketing retainer, which becomes a lifetime credit against the final compensation at closing. No matter when they sell, six months from now, two years from now, when their kids inherit the house, that credit lives with the property until it closes.
The pitch to the seller frames it as a limited opportunity:
“I’ve got a couple spots left. There’s a lot of inventory in the market. I’m going to offer you something special and unique. It might not be for you, but you can take it if you want or leave it. Sound fair?” — Byron Lazine
This creates soft urgency without pressure. The seller knows an offer is coming. They’ve already agreed on price and compensation. Now they’re being offered something additional that benefits them, a credit against future comp, in exchange for committing now.
The 3X communication guarantee
The natural objection to the retainer is: how do I know you’ll hold up your end of the deal? Byron’s answer is the 3X communication guarantee, which also serves as the mechanism for locking in a long-term listing agreement.
The guarantee covers three commitments, delivered weekly while the listing is active:
- A personalized call or video report from the agent every week
- A showing report every week
- A marketing report every week
If the agent breaks any one of those commitments in any active week, the seller gets two things automatically: the right to cancel the contract immediately and a full refund of the retainer.
This flips the risk entirely. The seller is now in a no-lose position. If the agent performs, they get the full retainer credit against the comp at closing. If the agent fails to perform, they cancel and get their money back. The only person carrying risk is the agent, which is exactly how it should be structured when you’re asking for a long-term listing agreement in a slow market.
“I’ve put you as a seller in a no-lose situation. We sell the house, you get the full refund against the comp. If I don’t hold up my end, the whole retainer comes back to you immediately.” — Byron Lazine
The practical effect: sellers resign with you at the six-month mark because they want the credit back. You’ve built a long-term contract without calling it one. And you’ve funded your marketing investment with the seller’s money, not yours. For more on building the kind of listing pipeline that creates long-term market presence, the principles behind winning expired listings complement this play directly.
Build Now. The Market Will Catch Up.
Byron closed with a challenge to the room. The agents outside that room are blaming the market, validating bad headlines, and choosing to lose. The agents inside are making a different choice.
Here are the three plays to run immediately:
- Present three service tiers, not one compensation number. Anchor sellers into the middle plan. Roll premium features down as a bonus to create urgency and close at the appointment.
- Label the price, don’t set it. Use aspirational, perceived market value, and event-based pricing as named strategies so every price adjustment becomes a planned move, not a concession.
- Build listing inventory now using other people’s money. The lifetime credit retainer funds your marketing. The 3X communication guarantee earns the long-term contract. The agents who own market share when this market turns will be the ones who were stacking listings when everyone else was pulling back.
The market will turn. Austin’s upside over the next decade is real. The question is whether you’re positioned to capture it when it does.
Do more. Earn more. Build now.
For more on building a listing-focused real estate business, explore agent growth resources at RealtyHack and check out the full RealtyHack event recap for more keynotes and panels from Austin’s top agents.
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