Lead Generation Will Lead To Success In A Slow Market: Gary Keller

Although the Federal Reserve may be facing the quagmire of rising inflation and unemployment, Keller Williams co-founder and executive chairman Gary Keller still believes that real estate agents and brokerages can have their best year ever. 

“There are empires being built right now off of the bones of the individuals that won’t get out of bed and do the work,” Keller said from the stage at his firm’s annual Mega Agent Camp. “One of the things you are going to hear over the next day and half is that people are treating real estate sales like a J-O-B. They have a plan and are executing.”

Despite his optimism, Keller acknowledged that the current economic environment is not creating the most straight forward market for agents and brokers. 

“What the Fed is looking at right now is that they are seeing a trend with both unemployment going up and inflation going up, and they have to pick which one they are going to battle,” Ruben Gonzalez, Keller Williams’ chief economist, said. “The policy you enact for one versus the other are opposites.”

Gonzalez added that the dialogue surrounding tariffs since the Trump administration came into power in January has also made things difficult to predict and accurately assess where the economy may be headed, especially when it comes to GDP, which is projected to come in at 1.4 this year, lower than the sweet spot of 2.0.

GDP is primarily made up of federal government spending, which was cut back, consumer spending, which is hampered by high interest rates — people are not buying as many homes as they used to — and net imports and exports.

According to Gonzalez, quarterly GDP fell by 0.5% in Q1 and grew by 3% in Q2 and that was driven by the balance of trade as companies stockpiled inventory in Q1 in anticipation of tariffs going into effect. However, much of that inventory was burned through inventory in Q2. With the tariffs now in place and that stockpiled inventory gone, Gonzalez feels that we should get a clearer picture of the effects in Q3 and Q4.

In part due to this uncertainty and the continued elevated mortgage rates, the number of existing home sales in 2025 is projected to come in at 4.2 million, but home prices are still rising and experts are anticipating it to be the third best sales volume year on record. 

“But the quagmire is the number of deals done per agent is still below six,” Keller said. “With that volume though, if you are hitting your normal number, you are making more money than you’ve ever made, and I think that can get lost sometimes,” Keller said. “But there are less deals out there, so there will be polarization — those that are good at lead generation will be on one side and those that don’t like it and are not making contacts will be on the other side, that is just how it goes.”

If agents want to succeed in this environment, Keller said they need to look at it as an opportunity. He said agents and brokers should be using this time to get ahead of expenses and to be prepared for when the market does come back. However, he said the most important thing is lead generation.

“When you are in a market shift, the most important tactic is to get up and go lead generate,” Keller said. “If it took two hours and talking to 20 people a day in a good time, it may take four hours and talking to 40 people. But these are people who tell you that it is a good thing when the market is bad, because they will put in the work and go out and get their unfair share. Any of you can have your best year this year.”