Record months feel good. When buyers are paying over asking and making offers at first inspections, it’s easy to think you’ve got it all sorted.

But here’s what happens in most agencies. The market’s running hot, so the discipline drops off. The systems that built your success start gathering dust. The processes that keep vendors aligned and listings moving get replaced with “she’ll be right” thinking.

Then the market shifts.

Interest rates climb. Cost of living bites. Buyer behaviour changes overnight. And suddenly you’re scrambling, making excuses about conditions you should have seen coming.

I’ve watched this pattern repeat for years as a real estate mentor. About half the agencies out there aren’t ready when the market changes. They’ll blame everything except the one thing they can actually control – their systems.

The other half? They see market changes as an opportunity to grab market share while their competition panics.

The difference comes down to preparation. Agencies with proper systems for managing vendors through softening conditions maintain momentum regardless of external factors. Those without systems scramble and lose listings to better-prepared competitors.

That’s what separates the two groups.

When agencies join our coaching program, we run them through eight specific assessment areas. These aren’t theory. They’re the frameworks that keep agencies performing regardless of market conditions.

Let me walk you through them.

1. The Planning Meeting

This is about having eight key conversations at the start of every campaign. Not just taking the listing and hoping for the best. Actual conversations that position your vendors for sale from day one.

Most agents skip this. They get the listing signed and move straight to marketing. Then wonder why vendors get difficult three weeks in.

2. Structuring Stock

You need to understand what’s actually saleable inside your business right now. Not what you hope will sell. What will actually sell based on current market conditions.

From there, you drive weekly game plans. Every listing. Every week. No exceptions.

This is where agencies fall apart in changing markets. They stop planning and start reacting.

3. Preview Process

Here’s where most businesses drop the ball when markets heat up. The pre-marketing phase gets lazy because listings are selling fast anyway.

Then the market changes and you’ve got no process to fall back on. No realignment framework. No way to properly prepare buyers before inspections.

This is the difference between agencies who maintain momentum and those who hit the wall.

4. Price Feedback

We use a two-tiered approach. First is the 80% price feedback rule – getting quality intel from 80% of every buyer who comes through. Second is the 80/20 rule of positive and negative comments.

Without this framework, you’re having vendor conversations based on gut feel and guesswork. Good luck managing expectations in a falling market with that approach.

5. Factual Vendor Meeting Framework

Before you even sit down with vendors, you need a framework. What facts are you presenting? How are you structuring the conversation? What’s the agenda?

Too many agents wing these meetings. It works fine when everything’s selling. It falls apart when you need to have harder conversations about price or strategy.

6. The Vendor Meeting Itself

This is where you deliver the feedback. But it’s not just about delivering information. It’s about having critical conversations that move vendors from emotional to factual thinking.

Your framework from point five is what makes this meeting productive instead of defensive.

7. One Offer Per Week

This process moves vendors from excited to taking responsibility. In a falling or changing market, this is gold.

When vendors understand they need to be receiving an offer every week – even if it’s not the right offer – their mindset shifts. They start taking ownership of pricing decisions instead of waiting for the perfect buyer who isn’t coming.

8. Sales Road Process

Every listing needs a weekly game plan. Not once at the start of the campaign. Every single week.

What’s the plan for viewings? What’s the buyer follow-up strategy? What’s the vendor communication schedule? What are the specific actions for the next seven days?

This keeps momentum. This keeps vendors engaged. This is what systems for real estate actually look like in practice.

Here’s what I know from working with agencies across Australia and New Zealand. When markets change, about 50% of agencies panic. They blame external factors. They lose listings to competition with better systems. They watch their market share shrink.

The other 50%? They see opportunity.

While their competition is making excuses about interest rates and buyer sentiment, prepared agencies are taking market share. They’re winning listings that others can’t manage. They’re growing.

The difference isn’t market conditions. It’s preparation.

The best agencies don’t wait until they have to change. They prepare for the change before it happens.

Go through these eight areas right now. Do an honest assessment of where you’re actually at. Not where you think you are. Not where you were six months ago when the market was easier.

Where are you actually at today?

Find the gaps. Find them for your market. Find them for your business.

Because when the market changes – and it will change – you’ll either be prepared or you’ll be making excuses.

The agencies with proper systems and accountability frameworks don’t just survive market changes. They use them to dominate.

Ready to build these systems into your agency? Book a free real estate business assessment brainstorm call and we’ll map out exactly where your gaps are and what your 30-day implementation plan looks like. Click here to book your session.