This market rewards advocates, not volume.

Low interest rates, rising prices and a digital marketing boom did most of the work. Property sold quickly, often above expectation, and agents looked like magicians. A great deal of that business ran on autopilot. Very little of the result actually came down to the agent.

That market has gone. Clearance rates are down, buyers are cautious and finance is harder to get across the line. In these conditions, a brand name and a high sales count add nothing to the price you achieve. What adds to it is the work — knowing every serious buyer, staying across the detail, reading where the market is genuinely moving, and holding a position through a negotiation that now runs for weeks rather than a weekend.

I have sold through several markets like this one: booms, corrections, rate cycles and flat years. A flat or falling market rewards the agent who advocates for the vendor, because it demands more time, closer knowledge of the buyers, and someone prepared to argue your position rather than manage you toward the first acceptable offer.

The other thing that changed is where buyers look. Every buyer now starts online, and the portals are open to every agent equally — they do not rank a listing by the brand behind it. Weiss Real Estate is powered by eXp Realty, the largest independent brokerage in the world, with more than 80,000 agents across 25-plus countries. eXp has grown by attracting established agents out of the traditional brands — people who wanted to work independently and had the technology to do it. Look it up and judge it on its merits.