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Oct. 7, 2026

More Realtors, Better Realtors: The Strategy for 2027

More Realtors, Better Realtors: The Strategy for 2027
Mortgage Marketing Radio
More Realtors, Better Realtors: The Strategy for 2027

Business is still happening.

Homes are still being sold. Buyers are still getting mortgages. And Realtors are still influencing which loan officers get the opportunity to serve those buyers.

So if you’re heading into Q4 wondering where the business is going to come from, the better question may be: Are enough of the right people in your market aware of you?

In this solo episode, Geoff Zimpfer comes to you from the Momentum Builder event in Dallas with a challenge for loan officers preparing for 2027: stop relying on one-to-one chasing and start building a system that expands your reach.

Geoff breaks down why Realtors remain an important and profitable pillar of business, why many originators struggle to create a predictable Realtor acquisition strategy, and how hosting educational agent classes can help you move from being viewed as another vendor to becoming a valued partner.

You’ll hear how loan officers are using classes to get in front of dozens of agents at once, create new referral relationships, and generate meaningful production without relying on cold calling or constantly chasing agents for coffee meetings.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why the amount of business happening in your local market may surprise you
  • The question every loan officer should ask: Do you need more Realtors, better Realtors, or both?
  • Why traditional Realtor prospecting often keeps you positioned as a vendor
  • How to move from solicitor to partner, peer, and trusted resource
  • Why educational classes allow you to scale from one-to-one prospecting to one-to-many attraction
  • How to become “five-mile famous” in your local real estate community
  • Real examples of loan officers who have generated new partners, loans, and millions in additional production through agent classes
  • Why what you do in Q4 can have a major impact on where your business lands in Q1

Geoff also shares details about his upcoming free workshop, The First Class Method: How to Host Your First Agent Class and Walk Out With 3+ New Referral Partners.

During the workshop, he’ll walk through the system he has used for years to help loan officers fill a room with agents, confidently teach a valuable topic, and turn attendees into potential referral partners—without chasing or cold calling.

Free Workshop: The First Class Method
Date: Wednesday, October 14
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific / 1:00 PM Eastern
Register: agentclassmethod.com

There will be no replay or recording.

If you want to stop being the best-kept secret in your market, expand your Realtor relationships, and build a more predictable source of referrals heading into 2027, this episode is for you.

WEBVTT

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Hey, it's Jeff Zimper, and I'm coming at you live from the Momentum Builder event in Dallas, Texas right now.

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As I'm recording this, the session one is over, and a shout out to both

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Don and Gina and the whole crew here put on this amazing event, lineup of speakers and agenda.

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It's fantastic.

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If you didn't get a chance to come this year, definitely make a plan to come next year.

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Momentum Builder Live.

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And I wanted to carve out a little bit of time real quick and get out this real quick podcast session to you.

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Because we're at the time of the year where it's important and smart to think about your plan for the new year.

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As I talk to loan officers here, talk to loan officers across the country with coaching calls and whatnot, I interact with different leaders.

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One of the things that's definitely a recurring theme is that business is still happening out there.

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I don't know if you heard this, but I shared recently the other day that I pulled the stats in my backyard for the Clark County out in Vegas, Southern Clark County MLS Board of Realtors.

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And if I remember correctly, I remember the exact number.

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I think there was 1,200 or 2,000 and change homes sold in my backyard.

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Those are purchased homes, right?

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Those are not new construction.

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Those are resale.

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Townhome, single-family residence, condo.

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Let's just call it 2,000, right?

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And so I'm in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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It's not that big of a city, right?

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So wherever you're listening to this, I would encourage you to check out some of the data.

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If you're ever feeling like, oh, there's not enough business out there, there's not enough, right, to go around, pull some stats.

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I mean, if I was still originating and there's 2,000 homes that are sold

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within a 30-minute drive of me, I'm going to be asking myself, what am I doing that I'm not capturing more business?

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How many of those 2,000 homes or whatever your number is in your backyard do you need?

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Do you need another three or four or five?

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Do you need 10?

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What is it?

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Because the business is out there, right?

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Business is still being done by the truly motivated people.

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And I don't want you to fall prey to this time of the year, you know, it's October, we're heading into Q4.

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What you do now is what's going to determine where you wind up Q1 2027.

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And as I'm talking to loan officers, look, if you're bullish on realtors, which if you're listening to me, I assume you are.

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Realtors are still a very profitable, very viable pillar of business.

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As a matter of fact, there was a Stratmore report recently that said that approximately 50% of the time on transactions in this market right now, the buyer goes with the loan officer that is recommended by the realtor, 50%.

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And I've seen numbers in the past that's higher than that, but let's just say it is 50%.

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And so while realtors get a lot of bad press, realtors get thrown under the bus easily, yes, there's a lot of bad realtors, there's a lot of bad everything, bad plumbers, bad chiropractors, bad lenders, right?

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And so it comes down to you get what you tolerate.

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And here's what I find is that

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I'm gonna ask you a question.

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If you're gonna have realtors as a pillar of your business, do you need more realtors, better realtors, or both?

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When I ask that question on webinars, most loan officers say I need

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But the frustration that I find with most originators is they don't have a predictable system, a realtor acquisition strategy that takes them out of the chase, takes them out of the hunt, and actually flips the script.

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You know, I'm thinking of my friend Brady Thomas with CMG Home Loans.

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Brady is a superstar performer.

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He exceeded $100 million in production this year.

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And one of the things he shared with me when we were working together was I showed him this pyramid, prospecting pyramid, which on the bottom is you're a loan officer.

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The way you approach realtors, you're seen as a solicitor, right, or a vendor.

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And we need to get out of that approach of solicitor and vendor and get into the partner, peer, mentor level of the pyramid.

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The only way you can leapfrog that referral gap is if you stop chasing, stop showing up like everybody else, and actually build an educational platform that's

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that brings agents to you, that allows you to showcase your value by helping them solve problems and facilitating an informational class that helps them on a particular thing.

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Now, that could be in this market.

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Oh, you can do a class on seller concessions, right?

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Seller buy-offs.

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You can do a class on how do they get found in AI.

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You can do a class on optimizing their Google business profile.

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You can do a class on the cost of waiting, right?

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There's lots of different topics, and by now you know that this is what my specialty is.

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I help loan originators scale their agent reach and referrals without chasing or cold calling, but by building an agent traction machine.

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And this special podcast is coming to you because on Wednesday, October 14th at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 o'clock Eastern,

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I am hosting a free training and workshop.

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It's called the first class method, how to host your first agent class and walk out with three plus new referral partners.

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I'm going to take you through what I've been doing for the last decade, the step-by-step method that I help loan officers implement to fill a room with agents, teach a topic with confidence and turn attendees into partners.

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No chasing, no cold calls.

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You're invited.

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The link is in the show notes.

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I'm only doing this one more time before the end of the year.

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That's going to be on October 14th at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 Eastern.

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There will be no replay, no recording.

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But just imagine for a moment, I'm just going to read to you some of the success stories of originators I've worked with this past year.

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Kevin Watson, Churchill Mortgage.

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53 agents at his first class.

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23 he had never met before.

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Glenda White, Nexa Mortgage.

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Closed $1.2 million from just one agent who attended her class.

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Kevin Dwyer, his very first class, closed a $700,000 loan.

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Then he went on to continue to work with me and over the next 12 months added $20 million to his production.

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I can keep going.

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Here's my buddy Travis Newton and James, the mortgage dads.

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Travis told me that since he and I have been working together, he's probably added about $30 million to his production.

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Tiffany Saxton, four loans closed from her last class.

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Brian Laflame added $15 million to his production in one of the toughest markets we've seen.

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And it's exclusively because he got in front of more agents in less time.

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See, here's the thing.

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You've got to stop being a secret agent.

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I call it becoming five mile famous.

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The biggest challenge of why you're not getting more referrals from realtors or why you're having to work with bad realtors is you don't know enough people.

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enough people don't know you.

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So that's where scaling your reach, going from one to one to one to many solves that problem.

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It's the law of large numbers.

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Succeeding in this business is math.

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My buddy Brady Thomas, I said, the agent class format helped him make the shifts from vendor to partner.

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He stopped chasing, started the tracking, and doing the agent classes was one of the big parts that helped him grow his business 40%.

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I can go on and on, right?

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I got Ori with Cross Country.

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10 out of 11 agents who came to his recent class said they'd be open to working with him.

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So guys, if you want to win, if you want to make it easier to win, sometimes it's not that you're not working hard enough.

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It's just that maybe you're working on the wrong formula, the wrong approach, the wrong system.

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And that can make a big difference.

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And so once again, I'm going to invite you to check the link in the show notes, register for this free workshop.

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where I'm going to go through my whole system.

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Yes, there will be an invitation at the end for you to have a chance to work with me in a small group fashion where I'll help you implement this in your own local community.

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And so you can stop chasing, fill a room with agents, get some of the similar results like you just heard.

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You'll see it all on Wednesday, October 14th, 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 o'clock Eastern.

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You can go to agentclassmethod.com.

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Check the link in the show notes or go to agentclassmethod.com.

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All the details are there.

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I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming workshop.