#zebra report

After finding success for over 20 years working as a real estate agent across the greater Seattle area, the time came for Jessica Livingston to build a unified look to take her business to the next level. We are thrilled to have helped her in this chapter of her business journey.

While her previous tools and systems were a little miss-matched due to years of revisions, she knew she wanted to continue with the lovely purple-and-gray palette from her website and the minimal san-serif font used. Her overall goal was to establish a visual that was professional, casual, friendly, but polished – a great visual representation of what she already brought to the table in her established business.

We discussed a variety of logo options, and she shared her vision for a logo that mimicked the beautiful Cascade Mountains. With this hyper-local touch-stone, we brought in a hand-written style font for her name and a translucent marble texture for a touch of luxury without weighing down the design. A polished take on NW vibes!

Since she wanted to target the Mercer Island community, we wanted to make sure that she would stand out from the crowd, but also let the beautiful homes take center stage. That called for a minimal layout with lots of space for photos. With the foundations set, she has a beautiful brand to grow with and we are excited to see where she takes it.

Call us at 360-527-8904 or email [email protected] today!

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This past year I have seen some interesting changes and trends in the real estate industry. One is a rise in what I call pop-up brokerages.

I define these as a real estate brokerage that has decided to open multiple locations in an entirely new market area in a very short period of time. Many of these new companies try to offer a new take or twist on the traditional real estate brokerage. Some are offering turn-key technology solutions in hopes of luring the agent who is overwhelmed and looking for a quick fix to their poor tech skills. Others are trying to lure agents through profit sharing or creative compensation plans. Many of these companies are trying to lure, sell, or entice agents to join their brokerages by dangling a new, bright, shiny carrot in front of them.

Remember that you can't run a brokerage of any kind without the money to cover the costs of the services they are offering, so if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Agents beware! Before you rush out and jump on any new brokerage's bandwagon, you had better cool your jets and do your homework. Without thorough investigation into what is truly being offered you may be getting nothing more than a smooth sales pitch.

A client of mine recently made a move to one of these brokerages because she was offered a one-stop technology solution. They also had an attractive compensation plan. Fast forward three months and she tells me it was one of the worst decisions she has ever made. The technology solution she was offered did not live up to the claims made about it and she was left in a worse position than she was in before.

I am not saying that change can't be a good thing for your business, but I am saying that you need to read between the lines, do your research and ask other agents who have made the move before you. When you decide you need a change you need to STOP before you JUMP. Too many agents allow emotion to guide their decision making and when it comes to changing brokerages you must rely on facts and not just emotion. Don't just speak to the person who is trying to recruit you, of course they are going to put their best foot forward. Gather information from a number of sources.

Real estate is a business where ultimately you are one hundred percent responsible for your success or failure. Anyone who entices you with a promise of a quick fix or instant income when you join their brokerage is not being honest with you. Your business will thrive or die wherever you are. I know agents that are top producers in offices with only one location and very little market share. I also know agents that have switched brokerages four or five times looking for their magic "real estate business building" pill. It's not that easy, this business requires good old-fashioned exceptional client care, the ability to brand yourself and connect with clients and the determination to keep improving your processes and systems.

The median age of a first time home buyer has reached 40 years old, according to NAR's 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. That single data point represents one of the most significant demographic shifts we've seen in decades. It tells us that the traditional picture of a young adult stepping into home ownership early in their career is no longer the reality - and if you're still building your business around that assumption, you're already out of alignment with the market you'll be serving in 2026.

Younger adults aren't skipping home ownership; they're arriving much later. Affordability pressures, rising living costs, and delayed household formation have pushed the starting line further down the road. Today, one-in-three adults aged 18–34 still lives in a parent's home, a historic high that reflects both economic strain and the lack of attainable entry level housing. These aren't temporary conditions - they're structural forces reshaping the buyer pipeline.

THE DELAYED HOUSEHOLD FORMATION ERA

The impact of delayed household formation is already showing up in the numbers. In 2025 alone, 1.82 million Millennial households were never formed due to affordability barriers. That's not just a statistic—it's a missing generation of future buyers, sellers, and move up clients. When household formation stalls, everything downstream slows with it: rental turnover, starter home availability, and the natural progression of buyers through the market. Agents who understand this shift can adjust their messaging and service models to meet buyers where they actually are—not where the industry assumes they should be.

THE NEW FIRST TIME BUYER PROFILE

A 40 year old first time buyer is not the same as a 28 year old first time buyer. They arrive with different financial realities, different expectations, and different life circumstances. Many have stronger incomes but are more cautious. They're research driven, selective, and focused on long term stability. And they're entering the market after years of watching affordability erode. Meanwhile, half of Gen Z reports they can't afford to rent, let alone buy, signaling that the affordability crisis isn't just delaying home ownership - it's reshaping the entire path to independence.

THE SHIFTING MARKET MOMENT

This demographic shift is happening alongside a market where many homeowners are locked into low mortgage rates and reluctant to sell. That means fewer listings, tighter inventory, and a buyer pool that is older, more financially complex, and more intentional about their decisions. It also means that when these buyers do enter the market, they're serious. They've waited. They've saved. They're ready—but they expect clarity, guidance, and a high level of service.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR AGENTS

This is where your opportunity lies. Older first time buyers need education, strategic planning, and a trusted advisor who can help them navigate a market that has not been built with them in mind. They need someone who understands how affordability pressures have shaped their journey, who can help them evaluate trade offs, and who can speak confidently about long term value. Agents who position themselves as experts in this new buyer landscape will be the ones who win in 2026.

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

The national headlines will continue to talk about affordability, delayed adulthood, and generational divides—but your clients need you to keep the focus local. Real estate is still a local business, and people still need to buy and sell homes every day. Your job is to understand who today's buyers really are, how they're moving through the market, and how you can help them move forward despite the noise.

At State of the Market, we broke down this demographic shift in detail - what's driving it, what it means for your business, and where the opportunities are for agents who adapt. If you missed the presentation, now is the moment to catch up. The full breakdown is available, and it isn't optional reading for anyone planning to compete in 2026. Get the intelligence, study the trends, and position yourself ahead of the agents who are still guessing.

Happy holidays! I am getting into the holiday spirit here in Canada at my sister's home. My sister, I swear, is Santa's little elf. Everything here is decorated and I have never seen more Christmas anywhere. Every window that she has is decorated.

My message to you this week is this: It doesn't matter what you do over the holidays, but it should be something that makes you happy. In real estate we work hard and we all need a break and some time off.

Over the holidays, what we do at The Lones Group is we shut the office down, we take time to be with family, and we eat lots of great food! With my own family I will be cooking Christmas dinner, as always, and we'll sing some carols.

Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, is also a big deal. It gets its name from England: Boxes used for giving gifts to the needy, those who provide services to us. We'll be celebrating that as well and then it's on to New Years. I am so happy to have this time to spend with my family and that my mom is with us for another Christmas this year and doing well.

I hope that you get to be with people that you love and I want you to have a great holiday.

Let's come back in 2026 with some good rested energy. You will need it because 2026 is going to be a year that is very, very busy.

Tell me, I would love to hear what YOU do over the holidays!

I have been very fortunate in my life to have been able to benefit from the wisdom of others’ greatness. When I first started selling real estate, I was young and naïve. I didn’t know much about the housing market or even marketing. I had to rely on watching other agent’s success to try and find clues that I could learn from.

Early on in my career, my first mentor was my trainer, Garth, who taught me early on that good old-fashioned hard work would be my key to thriving and surviving in the real estate industry. He also taught me that doing thing right the first time would save me a lot of time along the way. He had a lot of great advice, but I was hungry for more. I knew that if I wanted to become a true expert, I’d have to watch the experts in action.

There was another agent in my office, a gentleman named Jeff, who seemed like everything he touched was gold. He was the number one agent in our entire marketplace and always on the go, always busy. When I was just getting started, I would rarely see him, but he made an impression, because when I did see him, he was always very intentional. He always had someplace to go, something to do - yet he would always take just a moment to give me little nuggets of wisdom. And I decided to study how he did it, I wanted to know what it was that made him so successful.

So, I said to him one day, "I would love to shadow you," because I wanted to learn from the best. And I remember the words he told me, "Kid, I don’t have the time to babysit you, but if I ever see you following behind me, I’ll know you’re shadowing me."

And that gave me the permission I needed to drive and follow him where he went. I watched what time he came to the office. I watched how many listings he brought. I looked at every piece of marketing he did - I would tour every one of his listings just to see what his flyers looked like. I watched this man like a hawk. I wanted to learn his patterns and figure out what made his business tick. He was focused and on a mission. He’d be in neighborhoods straightening up signs, going into the MLS, going to Chamber of Commerce meetings, city council meetings, stopping by the business planning department. Maybe that sounds a little creepy, but I was just getting started and it was one of the best things I ever did.

And what I learned about him was the same thing that I learned from Garth, and that was that Jeff was a good old-fashioned hard worker. He started early and stayed longer than most. Most of all, he was not afraid to try new things. This was one of the most important lessons that I ever learned in business - how to combine hard work with innovation.

Innovation comes from learning new things, being the first one to be at that new seminar, the first one to learn new information, a new system, a new piece of software. The first one to see market trends - like being the first to dig into middle housing even before Washington State had started drafting bills.

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For example, today, I'm studying AI and how AI will change real estate. I'm studying the latest building technology so that I can stay ahead of the learning curve. I am adding learning into my daily routine every day and I have done that throughout my career for over 30 years.

Even if it's for 20 minutes, I'm going to learn something new every day. I'm going to read something that I don't know enough about. I'm going to grab a paper and read an article. I'm going to go to a class. I'm going to go on YouTube and watch somebody teach me something about something. Having a learner's mind, being a hard worker, and being ethical along the way has absolutely been my key to success.

Today, I pass on that moment from early on in my career. I stop when somebody asks me a question. I answer a call when somebody needs to talk to me. If there's a text message and somebody's hanging off the phone because they need some advice, I'll answer it. Just like my own path many years earlier, I had people that were there for me and that’s why I give it back.

How many times have you nurtured a lead only to be met with silence? Or tried to stay in contact with a past client only to be ignored for months?

Now think about this - how many times have you been surprised when a lead DID reach back out and indicate they were ready RIGHT NOW after months of silence and feeling like your communication was going into a black hole? OR how many times have you learned that someone you had discounted as a lead actually DID move forward, but with someone else?

Outward communication with no response can be discouraging and the current headlines about housing affordability, rising costs, interest rate gridlock, and entire generations being priced out of housing only makes it worse. Sometimes it feels like no one wants to sell, buy, or move at all.

But these are the lies we tell ourselves! We give ourselves an "out" and not follow-up consistently. Agents do it all the time and it is not serving you - or your potential clients - well.

The truth is, housing is not an optional purchase like a new pair of shoes; people still need a place to live. They'll still buy their first home, upsize, downsize, invest, or relocate. They may be more cautious right now, but the need for housing hasn't gone anywhere - and neither has your opportunity to help.

So, what's the key to converting those silent leads?

Persistent, consistent communication.

CREATING THE RIGHT CARROTS

When we talk about "carrots," we mean the valuable things you can offer to draw a potential client in. A carrot should be visually appealing, relevant, and unique to your market. It should be something they can't get from a general internet search.

You may need more than one carrot. Examples include:

Tailored checklists for different moving stages

Hyper-local market reports (not broad national surveys)

Custom neighborhood newsletters

Investment strategies

Free webinars or in-person real estate classes

Your personal real estate passion topic!

The best part about building your "carrots" ahead of time is that it takes the stress out of follow-up. Instead of scrambling for what to send or say every time, you've already got a toolkit of resources ready to go. You can still personalize your approach for each client's situation, but the foundation is in place, which means less work for you and a smoother, more consistent experience for them.

A Follow-Up Expert on Your Team

Let us do the market research, content writing, and mailer creation for you! Our LeadMagnet service puts your own personal real estate expert to work creating fresh mailers to build your business.

DELIVERING YOUR CARROTS

The key to staying in front of your leads is to change it up by sending information in a number of different mediums. For example, if you only send emails, they may primarily check emails for work and it isn't an appropriate time to deal with a response for a personal matter. The result, your email may get deleted. BUT, what if you then followed up with a text or a phone call? Layer your communication style!

Email: A friendly introduction and offer the carrot and a consultation to help them determine options.

Phone: Check in with a personal touch. Invite them to a community event or share a relevant update.

Snail-mail: Send a hand-written note card. Make it feel genuine and tailored.

Sphere Mailer: Add them to your regular sphere mailer. (Many agents set up a mailing service with us to streamline the process and achieve consistency without the stress.)

Different demographics respond to different touchpoints. For example, Boomers and Gen X often appreciate well-crafted mail. Millennials and Gen Z may be harder to reach by phone, but they'll respond to clear, helpful digital touchpoints.

WHEN THEY DON'T RESPOND

Don't let them slide. If you don't hear back, try another communication channel.

Space things out. Don't overwhelm them, but don't assume silence means "no."

Avoid over-investing too early. Some leads need time. Offer 6 months of consistent, value-driven support before retiring them.

Here's an example of a contact schedule:

ASAP

1 Day

3 Days

5 Days

1 Week

10 Days

2 Weeks

Monthly mailer (a regular mailing program keeps this on autopilot)

Monthly call, text, email

Someone who is just starting their search will be more reluctant to commit than someone under an urgent deadline. Consistent follow-up is how you cut through the noise and stay top-of-mind when your clients are finally ready.

THE LONG GAME

Most of what you send will echo into silence—until one day it doesn't. And remember, silence rarely means "no." More often, it means "I'm not ready," "I'm overwhelmed," or even "I'm afraid of making the wrong move." That's why steady, value-driven touchpoints matter.

Especially in uncertain markets, consistency builds credibility. A consistent trail of carrots (whether it's a quick text, a mailed market update, or an automated mailing program that keeps your name showing up month after month) reminds people that you're a safe, reliable guide when the noise dies down.

Middle Housing is going to radically change real estate as we know it. Here in Washington State and in more and more places across our nation, many residential sales are no longer just traditional residential sales. We will be seeing more Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), more sales that are influenced by the potential for an ADU, and more kinds of middle housing like duplexes, four-plexes, townhomes, cottages, and more. We are going to see the influence of middle housing change the way that we value, market, and assess a property's buyer pool - where previously that property may have only allowed the building of a single-family residential home.

Right now - There is a big, growing opportunity for agents who have grown their middle housing knowledge and skills to have a clear market advantage, but there is also a big learning curve that agents need to overcome in order to stay out of legal trouble.

Today, I'm providing you with an overview video of how middle housing is going to impact our real estate markets. It covers 10 essentials that every real estate agent should know about ADUs and Middle Housing. Middle housing is a big topic and even with a video like this one, we can only really scratch the surface. Toward the end I'll share additional tools and resources that you can use to develop your expertise further, so make to stay for the full presentation.

As a member of your Washington State Legislative Committee for the Building Industry of Washington, I've been an advocate for and at the forefront of educating how these changes are affecting our industry - and I am so excited to share this video with you and hear your questions and comments.

We are coming into August and today I want to discuss selling and time-of-year. A lot of times, agents think that August is not a great time to be out there working with clients, but I could not disagree more!

If you go back in time and look at the last ten years of September sales in many markets, they are really comparable housing markets to those April-May months of sales. The reason is simple: people are away during the summer and then in September they come back, the kids are back in school, and they have some time during the day to look at homes.

Don't think that just because it's September that they will be all about just back to school and work. There's more to it than that. That means that August is a great time for you to be connecting with your potential clients that may be in that mode and have a discussion with them that September is a great time to buy and a great time to find deals!

The deals will be out there because you have summer sellers who were hoping to get their home sold in July or August, but that didn't happen and they are still listed in September. They want to be done! They want to finish the year out with a closing and be in their next home. That makes September a perfect time to sell and have that mid- or even late-October closing that sets them up for a fabulous holiday season.

Reasons like this make September one of the best months for real estate agents, but you have to start laying the groundwork for a great September right now. That means being in touch with people, sending people properties to look at so that they can start thinking in the direction of what they want, get some feedback about what they like and don't like about their home or what they are looking for.

Simplify Your Outreach This August!

Let us do the market research, content writing, and mailer creation for you! Our LeadMagnet service puts your own personal real estate expert to work creating fresh mailers to build your business.