KGCI: Real Estate on Air - 6 Reasons Why Most Real Estate Agents Will Fail in 2025

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Morning Primer is your weekday boost from Mindset & Motivation Monday—quick, focused, and made for agents by KGCI Real Estate On Air. Give yourself a daily mindset reset for the daily direction you need to show up sharp and ready to win.Start your morning ahead of the market and ahead of your competition every day with KGCI Real Estate On Air. This episode of the Real Estate Business Builders Pordcast, Lars Hendenborg issues a tactical wake-up call for real estate agents, outlining the most common pitfalls that lead to failure. It covers critical topics such as the lack of a clear business plan, poor time management, and the failure to consistently generate leads. The discussion emphasizes that success in the industry is not accidental but is a direct result of a committed, disciplined approach. This episode is a must-listen for any agent who wants to avoid common mistakes and build a thriving, long-term business. Ready for more? Subscribe now and tap into our Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android, where you’ll find our complete archive and 24/7 stream of proven real estate business-building strategies and tactics. 

Built by KGCI, Real Estate on air, power by the mindset and motivation Monday. Here's your morning primer. I'm going to dive pretty deep into six reasons why agents will fail in real estate, not only in 2025, mostly in general. There are less commission checks, let's say, available for the number of agents out there. 2024 was a massive unit recession. So it's not that home prices didn't increase. The real estate market in one way was.

really good. If you own a home, you're in a good position. I know the home that I bought in 2017 has doubled in price. The real estate industry has failed to create a clear path to time and money freedom. Having helped over 5,000 families in my real estate career and coach thousands of agents to scale their businesses, I know what works and what doesn't. And my goal on this podcast is to share it all with you, the good, bad, and ugly of building a highly lucrative lifestyle business so you can focus on what truly matters in life. You won't find any hype or fluff on this show, just real world tactics and strategies that get results. You just got to do the work. So let's get into the six reasons. And the backstory here, the backdrop is that albeit a different

time in some ways, when I look back to my journey and I got into real estate in March 2007, in June 2007, and this is like a year or a year in three or four months away from the real onset of the great financial crisis. But when I looked back on June 2007, that was the month where inventory started shooting straight through the roof. So you don't ever want to go back to a time like that. We went from 15,000 agents to 5,000 agents in my market. So these are six reasons. And I'm going to go through them in a way that is as tactical as possible. The focus here is to give you guys as much goods as I possibly can to help you tactically. And if you ever get to the point in your journey where you want to have a conversation about

our implementation program, it is a 90-day build-out essentially of all the lead generation systems and conversion systems, all of our sales frameworks, even our leverage client care systems. That's million-dollar agent method.com. But the first reason why I think agents will fail is that they don't have a clear. vision. And this is like it's easy to dismiss something like that. So no clear vision. And I'm talking like three to five years. Most agents are worried, obsessed, stressed about either no business or the deal that's blowing up in front of them. And so they're not, they don't have like their eye on the prize.

And so an example of this is, you know, as I'm recording this, we're early 2025. And I have two other businesses that I do all of these in. So I'm constantly looking at, and this is on the daily. So if I open, I'm obsessed with this app, tick, tick, T-I-C-K, T-I-C-K, personal habits and goals for 2025, real estate B-school, 2025, that's the annual. I'll get to that in second. Then RevShare, my vision for 2027, and then how I want to show up and lead. So I'm reviewing these, constantly tweaking them and reviewing these daily. Having a clear vision, for me, it's very specific targets for revenue and profit for my coaching business, top line and number of agents in my organization for RevShare. The hours that I'm going to work, you know, focus work Monday through Wednesday, 11 to 4.

I only work Monday through Thursday, 11 to 4 now. I want to keep up my sabbatical. I do a four week now. In three years, I want to do a six week. Eight plus weeks unplug vacation. I weigh 176, 16, percent body fat. I'm only focused on leadership content and systems. No debt at all. So I have my home equity number. I've got whole life cash. I've got I trust capital. I've got a target for liquid cash in the bank, a vision for each of my kids and my wife and all of that. So I'm reading this on the daily. And so if you don't have a clear vision of what you want your business and life to look like three to five years from now, the chances that you end up in a good place, I'm not saying it's impossible, but it decreases dramatically. And this is not rocket science, right? In this app, it's not,

complicated. You can do it in like if you have an Apple, like a notes app on your phone or whatever. Don't overthink it. Just do it. The second reason I think agents are going to fail in 2025 and beyond is there's no goal that can be measured. And this is where you get into the annual, the quarterly, and even the monthly, the weekly, and the daily. If you sold, let's say, for example, you sold 10 homes or 12 homes last year, one home per month. And you wanted to get to the point where you were consistently closing three homes per month. So 36 closings versus 12 closing. So you want to triple your business. If you don't break down that goal into the actual numbers, how many meaningful conversations would you have to have every day, every week? And leads are another

part. I'm going to get into lead generation systems. But just meaningful conversations, Appointments set, appointments met, appointments held, new clients signed, homes under contract, and closings. Right. So we like to say that I want 36 closings, which is the last of those seven numbers, but we really don't want to break it down into, you know, how many conversations do I need to have to settle consultation by lead source. So 36 deals, let's say a 10,000 average commission check. That's 360,000 top line GCI. you can deduct reasonable expenses and you can say, all right, I want to net 300,000 on 360 GCI, and that's 36 deals, right?

So not every client that you sign will go under contract and close. So we have a way in Real Estate B school with our custom proprietary business tracking system that breaks down all of this. But if you're not doing this, the chance, again, that you actually achieve what you're setting out to achieve this year in terms of your GCI. and your unit goal decreased dramatically. All right, that's number two. Number three, the third reason why I think agents will fail in 2025 and beyond is no time management

system. I don't think there's any way to succeed at a crazy high level. So I'm not talking about just getting by. Even one transaction per month is in the top, probably 10% of agents. I'm talking about only 1% of agents sell two homes per month. I'm talking about getting to two to three plus homes per month consistently. You cannot do that and still have a life. And I'm talking about a time management system that encompasses all the areas of your life

and allows you to focus on all your priorities. Most agents that are selling two to three plus homes per month, they're not very intentional about their time management and productivity. They're all over the place. They're totally out of bounds on all of it, working evenings and weekends. for sure letting family members down or they're missing kids events or they're at kids events and they're just not present, they're working deals or whatnot. So we call it in B-School, we call it the time freedom system. So it's a very intentional way that we go about time-blocking weeks and

then we have weekly planning sessions and the activities we do every day. There are only five things that pay you a ridiculous amount of money in real estate. And if you've been around this community for a minute, it's P-L-A-N. And I'm not going to do a deep dive training on it, but it's prospecting, which we call new business development, lead follow up, which we call lead follow up. A is appointments, which we call consultations. Those are first time you're sitting with a buyer and seller. N is negotiating deals, not repairs or appraisals. And S is systems. Those five things are worth $1,000 plus dollars per hour. And the goal here is to construct your time where you're spending as many hours as

possible in a week doing those five things to the point where you will have to automate or delegate some of the lower dollar tasks that you're doing in your business. If you want to make a ridiculous amount of money and a not ridiculous amount of time, that's the backstory to all of this. If you want to put an extra 20,000 in the bank every month towards savings or towards investments, that's the level of focus that I'm talking about. All right. Number four is, and this is a big one, probably the biggest one. Reason that agents will fail. Reason number four, no lead generation systems. And you may say, you know, yeah, but I pay for this lead source or, you know, I pay for that lead source or we talked to over a hundred agents a month and a million dollar, like,

looking to come into our million dollar agent method, probably 95 percent, if not more. Their problem is that they've either paid for a bunch of lead sources that suck and don't work, or they're looking to pay for to buy a lead source. When I say lead generation system, so reason why agents fails that they have no lead generation systems place, I'm not talking about paying for leads or paying at closing a referral fee or cold calling or even door knocking. I'm talking about you've got your database dialed in where referrals are coming in like clockwork without you begging for them. Your social media is dialed in, highly engaging, deals are coming from it. And then we've got an awesome expired program, a FISBO program, but I'm not talking about cold calling expires and

FISB. I'm talking about sending information out and they call you. So more direct response marketing. We've got a motivated seller campaign. We've got a new construction campaign. We've got a social proof campaign. So I'm talking about doing things, installing systems. We call them lead gen levers in your business. And once they're installed and operational, they're good for one to two plus transactions per month. So the big promise there is that at a 10,000, $1,000 commission check, you only need eight closings per month to get pretty close to a million in GCI top line. Without paid leads, without cold calling, without referrals, that only requires that you install four lead gen levers and get them to two transactions per month. Is it conceivable that

you can construct a database and get two deals per month out of it? 100%. We had a community member, 250 people in her database, and she closed 42 deals using a Google sheet. No tech, no tech at all. No call calling, none of that. So yes, on the database. Is it conceivable that you could get systems around your social media to put out content that's engaging and sell two homes for month? Is it conceivable? Yes.

Is it conceivable that there are other lead gen levers that you can install in your business without you paying for leads that can lead to multiple closings per month? 100%. Expires and FISBOs will always be there in every market. We've got members coming through our 90-day program and within 30 days taking FISBO listings, but there are systems and they're highly leveraged. That's what we call them leverage lead generation is the overarching pillar for our lead gen levers.

So that's the reason why agents fail is they're constantly looking for someone else to be better marketer than them. All right, number five, the reason number five why agents fail. 90% of the battle is on the conversion and the longer-term nurture of those leads because 90% are not ready to transact on your timeline. You want them to meet, become a buyer-client, become a seller-client right away. That's not how it works.

So the lead conversion systems, that's a reason why agents fail. They're not building a pipeline of ready, willing, able buyers and sellers because they're just like one and done. I have no way of nurturing you and adding value over, you know, two, three, six, 12 months

where when you are ready to go, you're going to have received so much value. You're going to perceive me as the only agent that you would ever use because I have those lead conversion systems in place. These are all the emails and text sequences and the market reports and the video marketing. We highly recommend and we help agents do it. Video marketing that you put out over time that nurture your buyer and seller leads. So that the only agent they will choose when they buy or sell is you. And even if they're not ready to buy or sell, they'll refer business to you. Even coming in as a cold buyer or seller lead, as you nurture them, put them in your lead conversion systems, they will refer a business to you before they even earn you a commission check. So that is a big one.

I would say that's almost, man, that's almost, you know, all agents want leads. So the reason for lead generation systems, I put that one first, but really close second are the lead conversion systems. And even like the lead management protocol and how to best handle leads so that you can maximize conversions, all of that stuff. So reason number six. And this one definitely. So as I started with vision and, you know, annual goals and quarterly breaking down time management system, lead gen lead conversion, I got more clouds to dirt. I'm going to bring you right back up to the clouds for reason number six is not thinking like a business owner. So reason six why agents aren't going to be successful long term.

This business is not getting less competitive. You know, commission rates are not going to be, you know, with more technology, always massive competition because the barriers to entry to become a real estate agent are so low. This industry is not going to become any easier. So thinking like a business owner, agents that don't think like a business owner, they're really just haphazardly going about their business. It encompasses all of these reasons, right? they don't have a clear vision. They're not goal setting and breaking that down, that annual goal

into the daily activities. They're not managing their time. And even if they are selling a lot of homes, they're out of bounds on their time. So they're burning out or, you know, divorce or their physical body suffering. They have no lead gen systems in place. Maybe they're 15, 20 years in the business and they just, oh, people just call me up, right? That was proven in 24 versus 23 versus 22 that that was not a sustainable business model. And they have no lead conversion systems in place. So as a business owner, you're constantly working on the today. And this is true of me.

I am in my coaching business, I am constantly doing like, I'm in the dirt tinkering and optimizing workflows. And that's kind of the stuff I like. I'm working on like marketing messaging and on the delivery. How can we make delivery of a million dollar agent method even better than it is now? So I'm constantly in the dirt. But every morning, I'm looking at my 2027 vision about where it's going to be and the number of members that are going to come in and my role and what the team looks like and how I need to show up and how I need to develop. So that's how a business owner thinks, even though today might be hard and you're not where you want to be.

The business owner mindset is like, I'm going to carve out time today and this week to work on the things that's going to bridge the gap between maybe not where I want to be. now to where to wear that vision that three to five year vision is going to be and that's the essence of like being an entrepreneur is that you're not satisfied where things are today and with the clear vision of where you want things to be you get to work you're diligent you prioritize you have projects that are you know you're focusing on not all of them you're not changing CRMs you know every every year a quick quick story about that had a member struggle tremendously and this was at a live event, 150, 200 agents at the live event, raise his hand and said, I'm struggling. Last five years. I get up at 4 a.m. I go to bed at 1 a.m. I go and get three hours sleep. My marriage is strained.

My, you know, and he shared with the whole group. That is not how a business owner thinks. A business owner is not chasing squirrels. You're distracted by anything and everything that takes your eye off the straight line path to where you want to be in the future. We stuck with one CRM for over a decade. Not because it was the best one. At the time, when I started with this one CRM, I'm not going to tell you what it is. I was their ninth client ever. And it was the best platform. In the 12 years that we used that one platform, dozens of platforms came out. Some were a third or 25% of the cost of this platform. But I knew the switching costs were so high and it would lose momentum that I wouldn't dare switch because that's not the reason you're going to be successful.

So a real estate agent thinks that tech is going to get them there. A real estate agent is probably looking at AI and signing up outbound calling from AI to expires or FISBOS. That is real estate agent thinking. That's not business owner thinking. Business owner thinking are building legit systems that are going to withstand the test of time and they're going to be unshakable no matter what happens in the market. So these will always be the six reasons, at least for the next decade.

maybe in 2032, 2035, I will have taken over the world and none of us will be here. And I will be AI at that point if I'm still doing content. But for now, you've got to dig in. Really think about these six reasons. Are you falling prey to some of these? If you are and you want us to come alongside you and help you implement all of this, go to million dollar agent method.com. That's million dollar agent method.com.

And we'll see you over there. Be good.