Your past client wants to sell their home

We have a small favor to ask.

At the end of May, we are releasing the 2026 State of Real Estate Marketing Report.

What Hubspot does for marketing and what Salesforce does for sales, we want to do for our industry.

Please take a minute to fill out the survey right now, and as a special thank you, we will send you an exclusive invite to attend the live unveiling of the data and trends later this month.

Click here to fill out the survey (no email required; answers are 100% anonymous, takes less than 5-minutes)

If you appreciate our contributions to the industry and all the advice we provide for free, we would appreciate it if you could do this in return.

Here’s what is on this week’s B.I.T.S. agenda:

🏆 [B]est in Class: Zero to 200 sides (the million dollar mom’s method)

💡 [I]deas That Work: Stop forwarding feedback. Start translating it.

📈 [T]raffic & Attention: $400,000,000. 140,000 views. Six days.

🔔 [S]eller Signals: Sellers who want to move but can't get past one number

Let’s dive in 👇

There's a seller in your sphere right now who has the equity, the reason, and the life circumstances that would normally make a move a no-brainer.

But they bought at 3.1% and today's rate is hovering near 6.8%.

That gap (roughly $600–$700 more per month on a comparable home) feels like a wall.

So they wait. And watch. Quietly hoping rates fall enough to make the math feel acceptable.

Some of them have been waiting two years.

The data confirms this isn't a fringe feeling. A recent Bankrate survey found that 54% of U.S. homeowners wouldn't feel comfortable selling at any mortgage rate in 2025.

Meanwhile, FHFA research found that each additional percentage point of rate lock-in reduces a homeowner's probability of executing a sale by 18%.

Do the math on a seller sitting 3–4 points below current rates, and you start to understand why your sphere is quiet.

Here's the nuance worth paying attention to: the lock-in effect is slowly loosening, not because rates have dropped significantly, but because life keeps moving.

More homeowners are deciding it's worth moving even if it means giving up a lower rate. People get new jobs, grow their families, downsize after retirement, or simply want to live somewhere different.

Those needs are starting to outweigh the financial benefit of holding on.

The agents earning these listings aren't promising rate relief. They're reframing the calculation entirely.

Not: "rates might drop soon."

Instead: "Let's look at what staying in this house is actually costing you in equity you're not accessing, in space you've outgrown, in the life you keep saying you want. Sometimes the rate is expensive. But so is waiting."

That's not a sales pitch. It's a different kind of math. And sellers who feel heard on the rate anxiety are far more likely to have the real conversation about timing.

The Takeaway

Don't try to solve the rate anxiety. Name it first.

Sellers who feel understood lower their guard. Sellers who feel sold to shut down.

The agent who says "I know that number feels impossible" before offering a single solution is the one who stays in the room long enough to change the conversation.

Thursday ✅

Don’t forget to please take a minute to fill out the survey right now.

Click here to fill out the survey (no email required; answers are 100% anonymous)

The 2026 State of Real Estate Marketing Report is going to provide invaluable insights on what is working right now for content marketing, video, social media, AI, and getting listings.

Monday: Zero to 200 sides (the million dollar mom’s method)

Tuesday: Stop forwarding feedback. Start translating it.

Yesterday: $400,000,000. 92,975 views. Two days.

Today: Sellers who want to move but can't get past one number

See you next week,

- Chris Smith and Jimmy Mackin