Over the years, I’ve been amazed at the various schemes peddled to Realtors to help them increase their unit count. From the ubiquitous Zillow leads to wrapped Lamborghinis, massive billboard ads, brochures delivered by drone, hiring celebrity look-a-likes for open houses — there is no limit to imaginative schemes.
Trouble is, while these may all work to some degree, agents who focus on these at the expense of the fundamentals can easily see their unit numbers go not up, but down — coupled with their bank balance.
Over a 24-year career in real estate, I have fallen victim to various “productivity” schemes more times than I care to mention. I have also wasted untold hundreds of hours generating fancy materials that, quite frankly, nobody reads. While the fundamentals can be — let’s face it — extremely boring, they have been tried and proven over the years to produce the most consistent results.
The problem is that the past few years leading up to May 2022 (the date when interest rates began their meteoric rise) were so hot for many agents that they never paid attention to what was actually working and, conversely, what made no difference at all. As a result, many carried the same tactics into the balance of 2022 and into the present with devastating results.
For those wondering where the truck came from that has flattened their business, I would like to suggest that they KISS their way back into productivity.
Put simply: Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS).
Human beings have a tendency to overcomplicate things. Any encounter with a governmental agency of any kind should bear this out. As a result, many of us are looking for something to add to our businesses to increase productivity rather than seek out things we can remove.
The simpler you can make your business, the more time you will have to focus on the few things that actually matter. Call it the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule — there is no end of data proving that the more you can focus on your 20 percent (some believe that number should be 10 percent), the more productive you will be.
For most of us, this means we need to make some tough decisions. It is important to realize that every component of your business requires two things: time and money. Our team has been amazed at what we’ve been able to get rid of to slash financial outlay, eliminate time wasted on peripherals and focus the newfound assets on the fundamentals.
Part of the issue we had to deal with was pride — when we really analyzed everything, we discovered we were doing some of them because we’d always done it that way. It required us to step away from the pride we had about past successes and look at better, simpler ways of accomplishing the same goals. No lie … after 24 years invested in this business, it has been tough.
Here is a 5-step STRIP PLAN* to get you started
| STEP | QUESTION | EXAMPLE |
| SIMPLIFY | Can this be done in fewer steps? | Take a look at every task you perform, analyze the steps required and ruthlessly seek items that can be eliminated. Figure out which 20 percent of your activities are producing results — get rid of the rest or move them to someone else. |
| TRIM | Is this essential to results? | Question every practice: “Do I really need fancy open house flyers?” Would a simple QR code that visitors can scan be easier and reduce production and paper costs? Would it connect directly to my CRM, increasing connectivity and follow-up? If it costs time and money but you can function without it, get rid of it. Ask yourself tough questions, such as, “Do we really need this, or am I hanging on to it because of my pride?” |
| REFOCUS | Does this align with our goals? | To begin, you need to have written goals that flow from your vision, mission, values and priorities. Every component in your business must pass through this grid. Have you encountered a salesperson offering an incredible platform that will use funds you don’t have and will not integrate with current programs or goals? It may be awesome, but don’t be tempted. Do you have side projects (departments) that suck valuable time from your core business? |
| INTEGRATE | Can one tool replace many? | Instead of using different platforms requiring redundant data entry (CRM, AI, dialer, graphic designer, etc.), find one platform that does it all (for example, Brivity) and get rid of everything else that does not smoothly integrate. |
| PURGE | What adds friction, not value? | Do you have pet procedures and processes that require inordinate amounts of time? Are you spending excessive time with difficult clients who may never buy but who suck up available time and resources? Let them go … Same thing applies to team members, allied resources … |
*Source unknown — believed to have originated in a Harvard Business Review article, no verification found. Shared by Chris Suarez, co-founder and co-CEO of PLACE in a Partner Call, Oct. 31, 2025.
Complexity sneaks up on us unnoticed, and before we know it, we are enmeshed in the mundane, sucking up time, energy and finances with diminishing results. It can happen to anyone regardless of experience.
Years ago, and in a different business, we wanted an info card that included 24 options. We figured that the best approach would be to provide a handy check box in front of each item to make it easy to check off the categories that applied.
Funds were tight, so we decided to design the cards ourselves rather than pay a printer with a graphic designer to do the layout. One small detail that needs to be included: This was before the days of desktop publishers such as Publisher, Canva or even Microsoft Word.
We were using an old version of WordPerfect that did not have a graphical interface with our printer. For each checkbox, we needed to input the vector information for each line in each box … 4 sides x 24 boxes. This required typing the x and y coordinates, the direction of the line, along with the length for each side.
It took hours. In reality, had we given it to a printer, even though they would have charged for the layout, the cost would have been substantially less than the untold hours spent dialing in each line for each box, along with the related text. And the irony? In the end, no one wanted to fill out the forms.
I often wonder what important things I could have done had I given the task to a professional …
The more I think about it, the more I want that time back.
Carl Medford is the CEO of The Medford Team.
