They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. In real estate, it is usually something else entirely. Recently, a less experienced agent I had previously helped asked me for detailed insight into my business model. Not general advice. Not guidance on finding her own niche. She wanted the specifics of how I built and operate my 1% real estate listing model.
This was someone I had recommended for business, brainstormed with, and offered real guidance to, the kind of guidance that most brokerages never actually provide. Brokerages that focus more on recruiting and optics than on teaching agents how to run a real business. I know this because if she had received anything of substance there, she would not have been asking me how I do what I do.
When I declined, I was direct. This is my business model. I built it. It is proprietary. And it exists because I compete as a small business owner against much larger brokerages that regularly tell sellers that trying to save money is a bad idea, without ever being able to clearly explain why.
That argument is convenient. It is not persuasive.
We all know most real estate agents offer the same services. Professional photos. MLS exposure. Open houses. Showings. Negotiation. The services are not the differentiator. The strategy is.
Many agents see my 1% real estate listing model and assume the fee is the model. It is not. The fee is a tactic. The strategy is more than a single tactic, it’s everything else. How listings are sourced, how presentations are structured, how campaigns are designed, how risk is managed, and how negotiations are handled when margins are smaller and stakes are higher.
None of that comes from a brokerage manual. I created it myself, informed by years in advertising and digital media before I ever sold a home, and refined through real transactions, real money, and real accountability.
Over the years, I have watched agents quietly attempt to lower their pricing after seeing my model work. They frame it as offering more value. In reality, they copy the number and skip the system that makes the number viable.
Listings are not interchangeable. Every property has a different buyer, a different story, and a different path to demand. Strategy accounts for that. Templates do not.
Lowering the fee does not lower the work. It increases it. The campaigns must be sharper. The negotiations more disciplined. The margin for error smaller. Sellers gain leverage only when the agent knows exactly how to sell, not simply how to list.
The 1% model works because it is designed intentionally by creating a strategy and a campaign for every listing. Not only do I take special efforts in choosing the sellers I am willing to take on risk with, I invest my own time, money, and expertise knowing that if I fail, I absorb that cost. That is what running a real business looks like.
Copying the fee is easy. Carrying the responsibility that makes it work is not.