Hello everyone
and welcome to another episode of Selling Greenville
your favorite real estate podcast here in Greenville
South Carolina I'm your host as always
Stan McCune Realtor right here in Greenville
South Carolina
you can find all of my contact information in the show
notes if you need to reach out to me
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all right we are in 2026
yeah it
that's a weird thing to say right
I you know
last year was a weird one right
and and I've
I've done enough reflecting
over the past year both personally
but also on the show that not gonna get back into that
but it's still came and went very fast at least to me
right
and and so here we are
this is my first episode that I'm recording in 2026
probably most of you have listened to the prior episode
already after the New Year had already began
but formally Happy New Year
hope you guys did have a great holiday season
it was a good one for me
I got really
really rested as much as I could the
the fourth quarter
in case you couldn't tell from my last few episodes
it took it took a lot out of me
and that wasn't any one person's fault
it certainly wasn't my client's fault
it's just the way
some things ended up just being excessively difficult
and it just
that just kept happening over and over again where
where simple things became difficult
over and over and over again
and eventually that just wears on you and
and I was really looking forward to the holiday season
to hopefully have some time to
just kind of unplug and that's exactly what I did
I unplugged
for as many days as my profession allowed me to
and it was really good
it did exactly what it's supposed to do right for me
I'm very I'm a go getter
I'm a type a personality
I don't take a lot of like true vacations
I like what I do
I you know
even when I go on vacation
I usually I'll you know
if I go with my family
I'll get up a few hours before them
do some work
and then we have our vacation time once every
everyone else wakes up that's just the way I'm wired
it's not a not a problem with my job
that's something that I like that I can do that
but I really just needed a few days to like fully
fully unplug and I got those
and it had the end result of now I'm ready
like I feel fully engaged and I'm
I really feel I'm I'm ready to get back into structure
and that's exactly what I'm doing here today
I'm recording this on Monday
January the 5th and hitting the ground running today
have new client meetings
a potential new client meetings
have a lot of various things I need to get done today
and every day I've got stuff planned out for this week
and I'm excited about it I don't do
I'm not the type of person that would just
like a prolonged vacation
I mean I can fill the
fill the void
in in my schedule with I have a lot of hobbies
I have a lot of things that I enjoy
but I really enjoy having the the
the work structure and here we go
I'm I'm getting right back into it
and I feel refreshed to to go about and do that
there were a few different directions
I was gonna go with this episode
but I think I'm gonna keep this as a
as a short one
and just talking about how I'm approaching 2026
cause every year is a little bit different and you
you I approach every year different
based on what's happening in economy
based on what's happening with
with mortgage rates
based on what's happening with the housing market
if it's a seller's market
if it's a buyer's market you can't in real estate you
you simply cannot
apply the same formula to every single year
every single year is different I've
I've yet to have one year that
felt exactly like another year
every year has its own almost like a personality right
2025 had had a had its own personality
which I've gone through with you guys
80% of my closings outside of Greenville County
first time I've ever had anything like that
that was a complete reversal from my normal 80%
inside Greenville County
we had mortgage rates
kind of fluctuating
but ultimately after going up
coming back down
we we had
new construction
going
going down in price
to the point that it was cheaper than existing
home sales we had all
all these different things
that kind of formed the personality
quote unquote of 2025
and we don't know what the personality of 2026
is going to be yet but I'm
I'm looking ahead and preparing
and that's part of why I do that bold predictions
episode
that you probably
that you hopefully have already listened to
if you haven't go back and listen to that
I do the bold predictions episode
partially to prepare myself
right to actually do the mental math of what
what do I think is going to happen
what do the tea leaves say
if I read them what do they say 2026 is gonna be like
cause that actually does like
that's not just an exercise
to produce content for the show
that actually informs what I actually do
how I actually run my business
and so
I I decided for this episode
we're just gonna go over seven things that I'm doing
slightly different
or a lot different in order to approach 2026
and we'll just start with number one on my list here
and not really in any particular order
but number one on my list here is
I'm planning to improve my processes
so that I can really scale my business
and specifically
I want to reintroduce something I did years ago
which wasmy own internal
like really big task board or workflow board
to make sure that I have maximum
efficiency and accountability
I did this a few years ago within my CRM
it was clunky it wasn't great
and then
my company ended up removing that CRM
as one of the company benefits
and replacing it with a different CRM
that didn't have the same workflow capabilities
I simply wasn't able to replicate what I did
so I moved to a different system
and that system has worked just fine for me
the past few years but I've come to realize
cause I know that this is gonna be a busy year for me
I can I can see that from a variety of of different
perspectives as I as I look at my pipeline
look at some other things
I know it's gonna be a busy year for me
and I can see
that there's going to be chinks in the armor
of my of my current
system that I have in place
and so I am already in the process of reworking
all of that to create
essentially what I'm going to do is I'm going to have
each client is going to have their own task flow
where every single task every single thing
that can happen in a real estate transaction
I'm going to have laid out
with deadlines and everything
in just in order to consolidate right right
you know you're probably wondering well
how are you doing that currently
well currently I have
I have a different system that I'm not gonna get into
and like I said it works just fine
I'm able to keep up with everything without any issues
but that's worked for the past few years
with business not being you know
as hot as it could be
and without me doing a lot of travel
this year I have some travel
I think I've mentioned to you guys
the South Carolina Association of Realtors I'm on
I'm one of the 15 realtors on the state leadership team
we're gonna be traveling some
and just when
you start adding all these different things together
and it's like okay
I need to
even if my system has worked for the past several years
without any issues I mean
this is a system I've basically been using
for the past like 5 or 6 years
even if that has worked just fine
through multiple different markets
buyers markets sellers markets etcetera
I need to get more organized
which if you know me well
you're probably like
aren't you already pretty organized
yeah and the answer is yes
I'm pretty organized
but I feel like
my organization can be taken to the next level
and I feel like if I do that
that's going to be like
tremendously powerful for both me and my clients
so I'm really excited for that
I've already started working on these workflows and
and I think it's gonna be
I think it's gonna be really fantastic once I
once I get all of that completed
once I get all of that figured out
it's it's gonna be great
No. 2 on this list I plan to network more with builders
specifically the
the the
either large or medium
and maybe even some small builders that are
that are building production built style homes
and there are some smaller builders doing that
but the the reality is
and I've told you guys this multiple times on the show
a lot of my clients start a
a search for a new home
or start a search for a home thinking
I'm gonna find something
that's out there in the market
that's already been built
that someone's selling
and that's gonna be the home that I buy
and they start looking
and they realize it's cheaper to buy new construction
and yeah there are sacrifices that you have to make
that the construction quality might not be as high
although in some instances it might
at least in terms of like the trim work and
and things like that
might actually be a little bit higher
you you've got these
all these builder incentives that are baked in
you've got all these different things
now you have to sacrifice lot size
you have to sacrifice as I've already said the
the some in some instances the build quality
dealing with builders
is not the easiest thing in the world
so there are some
some quirks to doing that but long story short
I plan to do a lot more networking
with builders this year because my clients are
are frequently ending up with new construction
because it just makes sense
given the state of the market right now
and and so one thing I Learned many
many years ago is the little phrase
your network is your net worth and
a more cynical way of saying that is
it's it's not what you know but who you know
and and there are some other
other different ways of saying it
but I like that your network is your net worth
and the reason why I like that is because I've
I've Learned that over the years
that actually so much of where I've gone in
in work has simply been
as a result of me having a robust network
as a result and
you know
a lot in real estate they're always telling realtors
you've got to
you've got to network with potential clients
and that's you're always hearing that
you know spend all this time
contacting you know
texting people every day calling people every day
emailing people every day trying to get
trying to get them to to join you at a coffee shop and
and obviously there is value to that right
but there's a lot of value in networking
with other people in this industry
and that's what I plan to do
specifically with the home builders
so that I'm more knowledgeable about these communities
and about these builders for my clients
I'm already pretty knowledgeable about them
but you can always increase your knowledge right
and so that's
that's one of the things I plan to do as
as I approach 2026
No. 3
if you guys know me well
you know that I usually do a few house flips per year
some years more than others
some years I've made it a big focus
a few years ago I told you guys
I'm going to really focus heavily on house flipping
and that worked really well
this year I'm going to defocus
deemphasize that
I am only going to be flipping houses
if the numbers are really neat and tidy
I'm kind of tired
the market has not been good for house flips
the past couple of years I've had some that have
have worked out really well and some that
quite frankly haven't
but regardless it's a
it's a time drain it's an energy drain
and I'm I
I've got one that I'm working on right now
it's out in Piedmontnear
not too far from Powdersville
so if you have someone interested in that
it's gonna be a nice fully remodeled no HOA cul de sac
large backyard despite being on a cul de sac
and it'll it's really nice 3 bed 2 bath house
if you know anyone interested in that sort of thing
let me know
but at the moment once I'm done with that
I don't care if I don't do another flip this year
quite frankly now
I'm not going to pass up on an opportunity
that's too good to pass up on
that is the important detail but
in the past I've really
I've really spent a lot of time trying to
trying to find
flips at work
and that's because it's been a
quite frankly a big part of my income
but I'm taking a not a full break from it
but I'm just backing away from that because it's
it's just been like I said
very tiring the market has not been predictable
I think that that's the hardest part right
flipping houses
you need a degree of predictability
in order for house flips to make sense
you need to be able to be able to
to look at
at comps
for the house that you're purchasing as is comps
etcetera etcetera after repaired value comps
and and be able to get within a certain range okay
here's what this house is
going to be worth
the reality is that the data right now
just often times doesn't exist
I I've
I've seen multiple instances where people flip a house
and they've got all of their data lined up
like here is what this house should be worth
and it just doesn't end up playing out the way
the data said that it should play out
and that's because the market
we're in a rapidly evolving market and
and one that is it
it's it's just volatile at the end of the day
and so what the market looked like you
so let's say you get
you get a home under contract to purchase right
and you're basing all your numbers off of
comps from the past six months
you purchase the home within a month right
and now you start the rehab
rehab let's say takes 2 to three months
now you are
if some of your comps that you were looking at
were five to six months ago
those comps are now 9 to 10 months old
those comps are useless at this point and
and functionally because the market is so volatile
that comps from nine to 10 months ago
kind of don't matter
and and so
this is where it becomes so difficult to be like okay
well now what
how how do we move forward
when the market is volatile like this
and and seasonality is not acting in
it's not acting in the normal seasonal ways
etcetera etceteralong story short
I I'm kind of out kind of out on the house flips and
and and again I
I'm not going to say
I'm not gonna do any more than this one that I'm
wrapping up
but it's going to have to be something that I simply
can't refuse in order for me to do it and
I don't know that
we're going to see any of those this year
but but time will tell
I'm also I also have clients
that are looking for those types of properties
and you know what
I've had I've gotten this question before Stan
if you flip houses
why would you send house flips to your clients
right
why would you let them buy something that you could buy
you know what there
there's a really simple answer to that
and that's a lot more a lot less headache
I can get a less money by just getting a commission
it it yeah
it's probably less money
it it should be less money right
cause I want
whoever
flips the house to make a whole lot more money than
whatever the commission amount is
but it's it's guaranteed money
I don't have to deal with the headache
I don't have to deal with
you know with the anxiety and all of that
and I can just keep moving
keep that forward momentum going okay
got that closing boom
move to the next closing got that one boom
move to the next one
and and so that's a big part of how I'm prioritizing
this year
number four
I plan to focus heavily on actively adding buyer
clients and not simply
letting them come to me via word of mouth
the way I have done my business for many years
has been heavily informed or
or heavily built by word of mouth
referrals and that's not
certainly
not been the only way that I've built my business
built my business through open houses
I built my business through direct mail marketing
I've even bought leads before
butfor the most part I have been more
I've approached my business more of the standpoint of
I'm going to put myself out there
I'm going to do a good job for my clients
and I'm going to let those clients refer to me
other clients and I'm gonna keep
basically keep
spreading that good work to as many people as possible
who can then refer me to other people
and then over time it just becomes a
an engine in it of itself
and it has become an engine in it of itself
but it's it I need to do more
it's too passive I'm not happy with
with what the end result has been for me
I'm now I've now been a realtor for almost 10 years
my 10 year anniversary
is coming up here in a couple of months
and I'm I'm just reflecting back and
and looking at all the different strategies I've taken
just you know
what I need to actually really double down on
specifically finding buyer clients
specifically because this market
buyer clients are quite frankly
more valuable than seller clients
it's great if you can have both if a
if a buyer client is also a seller client great
home sale contingencies a little tough in this market
as they are in just about any market
but long story short
I'm gonna be setting aside a lot more
than I've done in the past
a lot more actual dedicated lead generation time
generation time
in order to try to find buyer clients
and listen if you guys know of any
buyers that are looking for a realtor in this area
please put me in touch with them no
no pressure to anyone
but I want to have those sorts of conversations
and if they don't
like the conversation they have with me
no harm no foul
but this is something you know
this is something that I've decided OK
I need to I really
the theme of 2026 for me is being more intentional
right if I can find like an actual theme
I didn't really sit down and
do all sorts of brainstorming and journaling
and what not meditating to try to come up with that
it just kind of happened
I just kind of realized I've had a lot of things that
like I've built my business kind of in a not
I don't want to say passive way right
because I'm I've been recording this podcast for
for six years
and I've been doing all sorts of things to
to try to build my business
but I've avoided some of the things like cold calling
like door knocking things like that that
that nobody enjoys doing
and some of the things you just have to do
I'm not gonna be doing door knocking
I did that for a stretch that that is not for me
but in terms of cold calling in terms of
in terms of really tracking down potential buyer leads
definitely going to be focusing more on that this year
No. 5 I'm gonna be doubling down on Zillow now
if you're a realtor hearing this you're probably like
what
a lot of realtors we
we have a love hate relationship with Zillow
they have a stranglehold on real estate information
throughout the United States
and they deserve that right
they earned that they did not
they did not they
they got that through a very
very intelligent and intentional strategy
and there was a a stretch where I was just like
I'm going to try to avoid Zillow at all costs
because ultimately
what they do is they use the information that we
Realtors
are giving to them via the Multiple Listing service
right we input our listings
Zillow then purchases those listings not from us
they purchase those listings from
the multiple listing service
and then the Multiple listing service
well and then Zillow then takes those listings
basically hides the listing agent and then sells buyer
potential buyer
leads to people that are purchasing them on Zillow
so if you go on there and you click schedule a showing or
or you know button to talk to an agent
you're not talking to the listing agent
you're not scheduling a showing with the listing agent
you are getting sold to another buyer
agent somewhere out there
that's unaffiliated with that listing
maybe has never even seen that listing before
and so so for me as a listing agent
to get the leads from my own listing
I actually have to pay Zillow
so they're
they're taking the information I put in there for
they're taking it without paying me
and then I have to pay them to get the
the benefit from them publishing that listing
that's a a
that's something that's been frustrating for Realtors
for years but it's illegal
they're not doing anything illegal
at least not the way I just described
there may be some there
there are some lawsuits right now that about Zillow
I believe
hiding the listing agent and
and brokerage information
too much
and and there's plenty of other lawsuits against Zillow
as well I think they've got like 50 lawyers
so who knows
whether they win or lose some of these lawsuits
that's neither here nor there that's between them and
and their attorneys and and the plaintiffs
but I I have stopped
pretending like I can just avoid zilla
and so
I'm focusing more on getting those Zillow reviews
you know in the past we've
my company's used a software testimonial tree
I I
that's still going to be sent out to
to my clients
but I'm also sending them links to review me on Zillow
and if you are a past client
you haven't reviewed me on Zillow
please let me know
either try to do it or if you can't figure it out
let me know I'll send you a link
as well for my listings
I'm doing at the moment
I'm piloting using Zillow Showcase for all my listings
if if you're someone that's ever been on Zillow
and you see you know
listings that are showcase it
it looks like those listings are like more important
then the others like maybe they're getting more
more views or something
they're not all they're getting is more money
that's that's it we're we as realtors
we're just paying more money to to zillow
to to make our listing showcase
we also have to pay more money to our photographers
in some instances as well because the showcase listings
they have a 3D tour associated with them
the photographer has to use a special camera for that
there's all sorts of elements to that
but but basically
and now I will say this at the moment
I'm not planning to buy leads from Zillow
that
I don't care for how they approach that specifically
I feel some people do that
I know an agent
that their entire business is about buying Zillow
I shouldn't say their entire business
but a huge portion of their business
is buying Zillow leads and good for them
I there is a gazillion
ways to make money in this industry
and any way that someone figures out how to make it
good for them I do not look down on them in any way
but I'm I'm not gonna be doing that
I'm gonna be focused on making sure
that I'm visible in Zillow as much as possible
and that
that my showcase listings are visible and I'm
I'm as kind of a side note to this
I'm also focusing on trying to make sure that I am
integrated with AI
in a way that if people are searching for me on AI
that they get the information that they need
and so that's a whole separate thing
that I'll probably be having my virtual assistant
working on Ian
if you're listening
we're gonna be talking about this soon
and so there are some
some elements to that too
that kind of are all feeding into all of this
No. 6 I will be
focusing more on mentoring other agents
and ultimately with
with the goal of adding more people to my team my
my real estate team we currently have three of us
I'd really like to to build that out
I love the small team
I I don't care to
to have or be a part of a of a super large team
but we'd like to
we'd like to add some people to the team
and specifically for me like it
it's not a big money maker
adding more agents to the team
but for me to be able to actually mentor to be able to
to help to raise up another generation of Realtors
you know I've been doing it for 10 years
I have a lot that I can share with other people
and that would be very energizing for me
I would love to have that opportunity to
do one on one mentoring I mean
we're talking about down to the level so of
of things that typically broke
brokers are doing for their agents right
helping them work through contracts
helping them work through due diligence issues
these are the sorts of things that
that are that I'm good at
and I enjoyed getting those phone calls
I mean I've helped a lot of agents
the past year that weren't even with my company right
there was one
that I I was negotiating with and
and this person didn't know how to write a contract
I had to teach him how to write a contract
because they couldn't reach their broker
you know what I enjoyed it
and I think I would enjoy it a whole lot more
if it was someone that actually worked
within my team the Morgan Group
so
so that's something that
that I really wanna focus more on and
and again if you're a realtor
new to the business
or struggling or whatever the case may be
you need some help please reach out
we just have no pressure conversation
and and just assess personalities
culture fits all of that
and I would love to do that and
and if it turns into something where you're like
you know what maybe I need to
to to join your team
that would be awesome if it doesn't
that's also awesome as long as you're successful
alright and last but not least here
but also probably the probably the
the least from the standpoint of
like importance to you but not least to me
and that is I wanna create more funny content
the there
you know there is a
an old crusty realtor that I heard
years ago that said something like
is there a way that I can sell real estate
without having to create stupid videos of myself
dancing on Instagram and
and I understood what they were saying right
they they
it's not always fun
creating content in order to get clients
and I'll say this for this show
there's sometimes that this show is stressful
stressful for me you know
I produce this show every Wednesday
that means that I have a a
I have to have all the content done by Tuesday
at the very latest
there have been some times where it's been like
Tuesday at four PM
and I don't even know what I'm gonna record
and I'm just like overwhelmed
stressed out
really struggling and
and and sometimes the creative juices you
you just enter into a funk
and you just don't feel creative
and anyway long story short
I fully understand those that are just like I
I want to stay out of the content creation game I
I just want to sell houses unfortunately
that's just not reality
that is not how you build a business in 2026
you have to create content
all of my content has been informative
it's been
you know
stuff like this right
now this is less informative than
than normal this is just me sharing what I'm doing
but you know we go through market stats in the show
we go through
nitty gritty on what the Federal Reserve is doing
what's happening in the local political scene
I go through a lot of I I've
I've covered a lot of very informative
things for you guys but I want to start getting into
without sacrificing any of that
I want to get into more funny content
more things that will simply make you laugh
that will simply
draw eyeballs that that aren't
into all the nitty gritty content that I produce
all the statistical content
things that will show my my human side right
not just my robotic statistical
gotta go through the market stats
side and
and so that that's a huge goal of mine this year
it was a soft goal of mine last year didn't
did not work out for a variety of reasons
it is a it is on my goal
it is sorry
it's on my goal list 100% as a firm goal for 2026
so I'm really hopeful for that and
and I hope that you guys will be around for that
so I'll certainly let you guys know if I do that
I've hinted at it in the past again
it just didn't work out the past year
but this year I'm going to do it at some point okay
so stay tuned for that
so thank you guys so much for listening
appreciate all my listeners
it's gonna be a great 2026
I hope you guys are along for the ride the entire time
to make sure that you do please like rate review
subscribe the show if you need a realtor in Greenville
my contact information is in the show notes
and we will talk again next time!