Part 1 laid out the hard math. The housing market is at a 30-year low, more than a million residential real estate sales have vanished against a normal year, and roughly 250,000 real estate agents are on track to wash out by 2027.

That post was the warning. This one is the other side of it.

Because in that same brutal market, a group of agents is still booking appointments and still closing deals. Same interest rates. Same thin inventory. Same headlines everyone else is hiding behind.

If the market were the real problem, it would sink everyone equally. It doesn’t. So the market isn’t what decides this. What a real estate agent does week after week is.

Here’s what that group does differently. We’re not handing over the tactics here — those belong inside the training. This is about the habits underneath them. The few things the people still winning keep doing while everyone else waits for conditions to improve.

1. They Generate Leads Every Week, Not in Panic Bursts

Struggling agents prospect in bursts. They go hard when the pipeline runs dry, coast the moment a few deals come in, then look up weeks later to find nothing behind those closings. The cycle resets, and they start cold all over again.

The ones who keep producing prospect on a set schedule, strong weeks and slow ones, motivated or not. For them it isn’t the chore they reach for when things go quiet. It’s what keeps things from going quiet in the first place.

They also aren’t hunting for a new platform every month. We’ve covered the lead source trap before: most agents scatter themselves across too many channels and never give any one of them a real shot. The real producers commit to the source already paying them and work it deeper rather than jumping ship the second it gets hard.

As the field shrinks, this is what divides the agents who last from the ones who quietly fade out. The leads haven’t disappeared. Somebody is going to keep working them. Make sure that “somebody” is you.

2. They Sharpen Their Skills to Convert More in Fewer Conversations

It’s important to always keep the numbers in mind. If booking one appointment takes you ten conversations today, then getting that down to seven conversations gives you a third more appointments off the same effort. No extra leads required.

In a housing market where one real conversation can take dozens of dials and texts to earn, that kind of gain is huge.

This is the lever many struggling agents overlook. They keep reaching for more — more leads, more volume, more hours on the phone. The ones still closing understand that how you handle the conversation counts as much as how many people you reach.

They don’t coast on skills they picked up years ago. They keep raising the ceiling, because when inventory is tight, the agent with a sharper conversation wins the lead that a weaker agent lets slip.

3. They Stay Close to Other Agents Who Are Producing

Almost nobody brings this one up, and it might carry the most weight.

The people you spend your days around set your baseline. Surround yourself with agents who complain about rates and inventory, and that fog settles on you too. Quitting feels reasonable when everyone nearby has already quit in their head.

Top agents engineer the opposite. They work around people who are booking appointments and eager to constantly improve. Their circle helps hold them accountable instead of providing excuses, and it gives them somewhere to talk about a hard week that isn’t a pity party.

That’s why I created a tight-knit Inner Circle group that meets weekly — not to grumble about the housing market, but to keep active producers focused and motivated. But the first step is being honest about whether the people closest to your business lift it or weigh it down.

What Ties the Three Together

 None of these three habits requires a better market. They don’t need you to have more money, a bigger team, or some tool you haven’t bought yet. Each one of them is something you can start this week.

Prospect on a rhythm. Get sharper, so more of those conversations turn into appointments. Keep agents who actually produce in your corner.

That’s the playbook on the surviving side of 2027. The shakeout will thin the ranks no matter what you do. These three habits settle which side you’re standing on when it’s done.

What Is Your Next Move?

You don’t have to sort out all three alone. The quickest way to see which one is quietly costing you the most appointments is to put another set of eyes on your business.

Click here to apply for our private 60 Minute Real Estate Troubleshooting Session.