Key Takeaways
In a buyer’s market, pricing still has one job: create turnout.
Zillow views, likes, and saves can show that a listing is getting a real response before it sells.
Buyer Premium is not just a commission tool. It can solve other deal problems.
Buyer compensation pressure after the NAR settlement makes structure more important, not less.
Senior transition work could become a serious lane for the right EZ Agent.
Pocket listings still lead back to the same problem: less exposure, less transparency, and less fair access.
Buyer’s Market Pricing
Robert described the market as buyer-slash-neutral. Inventory is still ahead of buyers, and interest rates are still holding things back. In that kind of market, the list price has to do more work.
Because of the Buyer Premium structure, an EZ listing can often be priced lower. In a slower market, that may mean pricing roughly six to ten percent lower to create activity. That lower price is there to pull in more buyers, get them through the house in the same window, and give the seller real competition.
The question is not just what the home is worth. The question is what price gets buyers to act.
Get 100 people through the open house, and you usually get real offers to compare. Robert’s rough math here was the same as in other trainings: a hundred people through can turn into ten offers.
“The objective is to get a hundred people into an open house.”
Price drives turnout. Turnout creates competition. Competition gives the seller leverage. If the price does not create turnout, nothing else on the listing has much room to work.
Zillow Views, Likes, and Saves
A listing can be getting a strong buyer response before it sells.
Zillow response is early market feedback, and it is something you can show a seller easily. Views, likes, and saves are not the sale, but they are proof that buyers are noticing the home and proof that the listing is getting activity.
Robert used a Minnesota home as the example. The seller wanted to pull the listing after the platform time was up. When they checked the numbers, that home had ten times the views, ten times the likes, and ten times the saves of other homes in the neighborhood.
Those numbers do not close the sale by themselves, but they do show whether buyers are engaging with the home.
“Just because somebody’s not buying it doesn’t mean that it’s not gaining traction.”
An agent needs to check the views, likes, saves, and how the listing compares with nearby homes priced at retail. In a slower market, those numbers may tell the seller more than days on market alone. They give the agent real data to use when guiding the seller instead of just offering another opinion.
Agents who stick with the process, show sellers the response, contact agents, and use Buyer Premium to help with objections are still selling in about 45% less time than the average days on market.
Buyer Premium Flexibility
Buyer Premium can solve more than a commission problem.
Some homes are harder to sell because another problem is attached to them. Sometimes it is solar debt. Sometimes it is buyer affordability. Sometimes it is another cost that keeps the buyer from moving forward.
Agents had already handled the solar issue by using a higher Buyer Premium and then rolling that back to cover the cost of the solar panels. That is one example of using Buyer Premium to solve a real deal problem, not just a commission question.
“It’s not just a one dimensional offer platform.”
Buyer Premium is part of how the deal gets structured. It is a disclosed part of the structure that can be used to solve a real deal problem, as long as the total price still makes sense in the market. An agent who only understands it one way will get stuck fast. An agent who understands how to use it has more room to solve the actual problem in front of the buyer and seller.
Need a refresher on Buyer Premiums? Jump into this Buyer Premium Mini-Course.
Buyer Compensation After the NAR Settlement
By the Monday after the NAR settlement change took effect, Robert had to tell a buyer before showing homes that he needed a compensation agreement in place. She could barely afford the down payment. When he explained the new requirement, her heart sank.
A lot of buyers are not sitting on extra cash.
Then he asked a different question. If there were a way to roll that commission into the cost of the loan, what would she pay? Her answer was immediate. She would pay the 3% without even blinking.
The issue was not whether she valued representation. The issue was cash. That is why structure matters more now, not less. If the industry is pushing buyer compensation into the open, agents need to know how to talk about it and how to solve for it. Buyer Premium is one of the ways that can happen.
Knowing the EZ Program and Process
An agent has to understand what EZ Real Estate Platform can make possible well enough to explain it to sellers, buyers, and buyer agents.
This doesn’t mean over-explaining the nuts and bolts of the platform. Rather, you should be showing the seller how the sale works from pricing to closing.
If an agent understands what a buyer premium structure can do, the objection usually gets smaller. If the agent does not, small objections start sounding like the program itself is the problem. In a slower market, that weakness costs more because buyers and sellers have less room for confusion.
Further Learning: Buyer Premium Mini-Course
Senior Transition Sales
Senior transition sales are a great fit for an EZ Agent who can offer the speed, transparency, and 0% EZ option.
The real estate side of a senior relocation is often tied directly to the care decision. Some facilities will let a family move someone in without bringing money up front if they are allowed to control the real estate sale.
That creates a clear opening for an agent who understands both the transition side and the home-sale side.
Robert Climer’s goal is to build an EZ Senior Transitions lane with one EZ agent per county and train them to be the person families call when they need help.
EZ Agents can solve the problems families face during senior moves because lowering or removing listing-side commission can leave more of the sale proceeds available for care, housing, and transition costs. That gives the family more room to make decisions without as much financial pressure or regret over level-of-care.
Pocket Listings/Private Listings
Pocket listings shrink exposure and make steering easier to hide. This isn’t helpful for sellers who want to attract a complete buyer bucket pool. Buyers have difficulty finding homes that aren’t easily accessible.
What Agents Should Take From Episode 2
In a slower market, following proven processes is more important than ever. And not only do you need to know the process yourself, but you need to know how to explain the process to someone else.
That means getting better at pricing for turnout, showing sellers the Zillow response and why it matters, using Buyer Premium as a flexible negotiation tool, and explaining buyer compensation after the NAR settlement.
If buyers do not show up, nothing else matters.
Select replays are available on YouTube. EZ Agents can join live sessions. Become a Certified EZ Listing Agent and join future sessions.
