The agents who’ve been through it before aren’t panicking; they’ve seen markets turn, watched colleagues leave the industry, and emerged stronger on the other side.
What they understand, and what newer agents are only now discovering, is that uncomfortable markets are where real careers get built.
Danny Grant has spent nearly three decades in real estate across every facet of the business.
From property management in Wagga Wagga to selling in Sydney, from business ownership to founding a tech company, he’s watched market cycles come and go. Now working as a real estate coach, he’s seeing two distinct responses to current conditions.
“You’ve got ones that have seen it all before, and they just tend to go get on with it,” Danny says.
“And then you’ve got the agents that haven’t really experienced anything like this that probably got a bit of a false read on what real estate’s about, and finding it really tough to handle.”
Danny believes the story agents tell themselves about what this market means will determine whether they use it as a launchpad or let it push them toward the exit.
The false read problem
Many agents entered the industry during years of rising prices, strong clearance rates, and seemingly endless buyer demand.
That environment rewarded responsiveness over skill, activity over strategy.
“A normal market is not 80 to 90 per cent clearance rates,” Danny points out.
“It’s really sort of around 60 per cent. And in some markets, we’re not actually that far off that.”
The implication is significant because what felt like exceptional performance may have been the tide lifting all boats.
Now that the water’s receding, the gaps in process and skill are becoming visible.
“A hard market really does reveal weak agents and their processes,” Danny says.
“So a lot of it is process-driven. What can we improve in that regard?”
Building a business, not chasing a number
When Danny works with agents, his starting point surprises many of them.
“The first thing I get them to do is build a business plan because most of them don’t do it. They don’t have the mindset of ‘I’m running a business.’ They sort of have a mindset of ‘I’ve got a GCI target.'”
The distinction matters, he says.
GCI targets are binary – you hit them or you don’t. Skills compound. A business plan forces agents to reverse-engineer what success actually requires, including lead generation activities, call volumes, an ideal week structure, and clear KPIs.
“It doesn’t have to be anything magnificent,” Danny explains.
“It just needs to be – what are my lead generations that I’m actually going to do? How many calls do I need to make? What’s my ideal week?”
The communication gap
In busy markets, communication often slides because there’s always activity to report. An inspection, an offer, a campaign update. But what happens when nothing’s happened?
“What about a week where nothing’s happened?” Danny asks. “What do you say to your vendor?”
This is where emotional intelligence becomes a differentiator.
Many agents, particularly those who came up in strong markets, default to avoiding difficult conversations – or worse, handling them through text.
“A lot of young agents don’t necessarily have that face-to-face skill. They’ll do a price reduction in a text message. Don’t do that. Get in front of them.”
The principle applies equally to buyers.
With fewer people actively purchasing, each relationship carries more weight.
Danny suggests approaching buyer conversations through two lenses – logic and emotion.
The logical conversation addresses hesitation directly.
“Why don’t you want to buy now? ‘I want to wait for the market to get better.’ Okay. So what is that going to look like? High clearance rates, a bit more competitive. You’re actually going to be paying more.”
The emotional conversation focuses on motivation.
“What happens when you do find the right property? ‘We need more space.’ Okay. So if the right property comes up, you’re still going to buy it. Don’t worry about what the market’s doing. You can’t control that.”
Standards under pressure
When listings are scarce and buyers cautious, every touchpoint matters more.
Danny encourages agents to audit their entire operation with fresh eyes.
“If I sat on your shoulder and I was there for every aspect of your business – open houses, talking with vendors, with buyers, doing a listing presentation, prospecting – could I find gaps? The answer is yes, I could.”
Open homes should be experiences, not obligations.
Presentation should be impeccable.
Agents should arrive ten minutes early, not two minutes late.
“Even top agents have got that,” Danny observes.
“They get used to things just happening, don’t realise that some of the standards have slipped.”
The irony of difficult markets is they create the space for this kind of work.
When reactive busyness subsides, agents can finally see their business clearly.
“When the market’s really busy and you’re reactive, you tend to not be able to see the label from inside the jar.”
Managing the inner marketplace
Beyond tactics and processes, Danny focuses on something less tangible but equally important – what’s happening between your ears.
“Agents are going need to manage the inner and outer marketplace. You can control what’s in your own head. The outer marketplace – I can’t control what Anthony Albanese does in the budget.”
The solution isn’t positive thinking for its own sake.
It’s recognising that vendors and buyers are already absorbing negativity from every other source.
They don’t need their agent adding to it.
“Vendors don’t need somebody else going in being negative. They need somebody that’s positive and gonna move quickly, and they’ll pick up your energy.”
The data supports this.
Research suggests people attribute only about seven per cent of communication to the actual words spoken.
The rest comes from tonality and body language.
“You have to think about your own psychology and how you’re handling yourself in a hard market. Are you positive? What are you feeding your mind every day?”
The trust premium
Perhaps the most counterintuitive insight Danny offers is that difficult markets are actually a good time to increase fees.
“It’s a great market to increase your fees as an agent because people really need trusted advisers now. It’s a market that is going to be based on trust.”
When prices were rising and properties were selling themselves, the agent’s role felt transactional.
Now, with uncertainty on all sides, the value of genuine expertise and conviction becomes visible.
“Selling is a transference of feeling,” Danny says.
“Everyone’s always testing what your energy is like. And if you’re going in positively – not overpricing properties, just being excited about the opportunity – that’s what people are looking for.”
The agents who lean in now, who treat this period as a training ground rather than a threat, won’t just survive the current conditions.
They’ll emerge with skills, relationships, and market position that carry them through whatever comes next.