GROW WITH LIBERTAS & EXP REALTY
By Tim & Julie Harris · October 15, 2026
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Nearly 14 million homes are about to change hands over the next ten years, and most of them are the family homes your buyers are dying to get. It's the biggest listing opportunity most of us will see in our careers. And most agents are going to miss it, because they don't know how to talk to a 75-year-old homeowner and their grown kids.
You're not going to be one of them. Today you'll see who's selling, who's buying, why the luxury market matters even if you never list a mansion, and exactly how to build a business helping older homeowners and their families the right way. Who in your database bought 20 years ago?
1. 13.9 million homes are coming, and most of them are family homes
What happened: Realtor.com projects that baby boomers and the generation before them will free up 13.9 million homes between now and 2036. About 7 in 10 are three- and four-bedroom family homes. Only a small slice are starter homes. Turnover is happening fastest in the Midwest and Rust Belt. Realtor.com's Jiayi Xu says the scale of this transition is "unlike anything we've seen in the past decade, and it's accelerating every year."
Why you care: Every one of those homes has a seller who needs an agent they trust, and a family that's going to remember how they were treated. Many of these homeowners are "orphaned," too. The agent who sold them their house 25 years ago has retired.
What to do: Look in your database for anyone who bought 20 or more years ago. Those are your people.
2. Starter homes are getting harder to find
What happened: Realtor.com says homes priced in the bottom tier of their market now make up 36% of listings, down from 38% in 2019. The "starter home" price has climbed from about $260,000 to $340,000. And more of those starter homes are condos and townhomes.
Why you care: Your first-time buyers are increasingly going to start in a condo or townhome. If you don't know how to read HOA documents and explain HOA fees, you're going to lose those buyers to someone who does.
3. The luxury market is running on its own track
What happened: Redfin says U.S. luxury home prices, the top 5% of each market, were up 5.3% from a year ago in July. Separately, NAR says the national median price for all existing homes was up 1.6% from a year ago in August. In Redfin's numbers, Miami luxury prices jumped 18%, and in the three months ending July, luxury sales in West Palm Beach were up almost 44%. In August, the most expensive sale in the country was a $70 million estate in Hillsborough, California.
Why you care: Even if you never list a $5 million home, this matters to you. Coldwell Banker Global Luxury estimates Gen X and millennials will inherit $2.4 trillion in U.S. real estate over the next ten years. Many of the families you'll help with Mom and Dad's house are going to walk away with real money, and they'll need an agent for their next move too.
What to do: When you help a family sell a parent's home, don't treat it as one transaction. Ask the adult children:
"What are your own plans over the next few years?" That's how one listing turns into three deals.
4. The AI tools keep coming
What happened: Realtor.com launched an AI assistant for agents that summarizes what your buyers are searching and suggests your next step. At eXpcon last week, eXp announced up to $50,000 in pay-at-closing funding for sellers to fix up their homes, a way for agents to hire each other to cover showings, and a way to connect AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT to their business data. (We're with eXp, and our opinions are our own.)
Why you care: AI can take the busywork off your plate. But no tool is going to sit at the kitchen table with a 78-year-old widow deciding whether to sell the home she raised her kids in. That's you. Use the tech so you have more time for that.
How to build a business helping older homeowners, the right way
Let's get this out of the way. These sellers don't care about your marketing plan. They don't care about your sales numbers. They care about safety, family, health and peace of mind.
Lead with service, and the listings follow. Lead with a pitch, and you'll never get invited back.
Start with people who already know you. Make a list of 50: past clients who bought 20 or more years ago, and people in your sphere whose parents are 70 or older.
Offer help, not a listing presentation. "We put together a simple guide on the options for staying in your home, downsizing, or moving closer to family. Would it be helpful if I dropped one off?"
Invite the family in, with permission. "Who else would you like to be part of this conversation?" Many of these decisions involve two or three generations. But remember who your client is: the homeowner.
Build your team of trusted partners. An estate attorney, a CPA, a move manager, an estate sale company, a handyman. When you can solve the whole problem, you become the first call.
Be patient. These decisions can take six months to a year. Stay in touch every month with something genuinely useful, not "just checking in."
Script for your sphere:
"Can I ask you something personal? A lot of my clients are helping their parents figure out whether to stay in their home or move. Is that something your family is thinking about? If it ever is, I'd love to be a resource, even if it's just to answer questions."
Your challenge this week: Call five past clients who've owned their homes 15 years or more and ask, "Have you given any thought to where you want to be living five years from now?"
Listener question: "How do I work with adult children pushing their parents to sell?"
"How do I work with adult children who are pushing their parents to sell?"
Carefully. And with the parent at the center of every conversation.
Your client is the homeowner, not the kids. Make sure Mom or Dad is in every important conversation and makes the final decision.
Be the calm voice in the room. Lay out all the options, including staying and making the home safer, with real numbers.
If the family isn't on the same page, don't push. Give them time and stay in touch. The family that feels respected will call you when they're ready.
Listener question: "Should I be using these new AI tools?"
"Should I be using these new AI tools, or are they just a distraction?"
Use them, but be honest about what you do with the time they save you.
If AI saves you nine hours a week and you can't tell us where those hours went, it didn't help you.
Pick one tool and one job this month. Your daily follow-up list, your listing descriptions, or your market updates. Master that before you add anything else.
Then take the time you saved and spend it face to face with people. Your clients don't hire your software. They hire you.
What to do this week
Five concrete moves:
One: pull everyone in your database who bought 20 or more years ago.
Two: make your list of 50, adding people in your sphere whose parents are 70 or older.
Three: call five past clients who've owned 15 years or more and ask where they want to be living five years from now.
Four: line up your partners: an estate attorney, a CPA, a move manager, an estate sale company and a handyman.
Five: pick one AI tool and one job, and spend the time it saves face to face. We help members build this business step by step in Premier Coaching: $1 for a 7-day trial at premiercoaching.com.
The bottom line
13.9 million homes are going to change hands by 2036, and about 7 in 10 are family homes. The sellers care about safety, family, health and peace of mind, and their kids are going to need an agent too.
The agents who earn trust now are the ones those families will call. Go call five homeowners today. We'll see you tomorrow. Get to work.
Want help building your downsizer business step by step? Join Premier Coaching. And if this issue helped, forward it to an agent who needs it. They can subscribe free at HarrisRealEstateDaily.com.
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If you called five long-time homeowners every week, built your bench of an estate attorney, CPA, move manager, estate sale company and handyman, and treated every parent's home as the first of three deals, how many family listings would you have by this time next year?
— Tim & Julie Harris
Founders of Tim & Julie Harris Real Estate Coaching | Publishers of Harris Real Estate Daily | Hosts of PowerHouseTalk | eXp Realty Sponsors at Libertas
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