📅 How Agents Fill Their January Calendar Before the Holidays Hit

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Somewhere in your office this week, an agent is saying, “Nobody buys or sells during the holidays. I’ll start fresh in January.” On January 2, that agent opens an empty calendar.

Here’s the truth: your January was decided in November. The agents who use these 60 days walk into 2027 with appointments already on the books.

On October 22, the President signed an executive order aimed at lowering homeownership costs. It directs the Federal Housing Finance Agency to pilot dropping private mortgage insurance through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac once borrowers meet equity requirements, make a title insurance waiver pilot permanent and lower rates on USDA and VA loans.

None has a start date yet, and the mortgage insurance pilots wouldn’t help current borrowers. But the direction is good news.

And one lender isn’t waiting. On October 28, Zillow Home Loans launched a program that covers the full 3.5% FHA down payment for eligible buyers. It’s a 0% second loan with no monthly payment, forgiven after five years of on-time payments if the buyer keeps living in the home. There’s no first-time buyer requirement and no income cap, but buyers need a 640 credit score and an FHA loan through Zillow Home Loans, and it isn’t offered in Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont or Virginia. Sell, move or refinance before five years, and it’s due in full.

Cotality’s October 29 market update found that the average homeowner who bought in 2020 has about $256,000 in equity, and a 2022 buyer has about $170,000. Most past clients have no idea how much they have. Make that number your year-end touch.

The S&P Cotality Case-Shiller national index rose 2.1% from a year earlier in August, up from 1.9% in July, with gains in 14 of the 19 metros reported. Sellers who price right this winter can still sell well, though some metros are softer.

Most year-end plans start with a goal and skip the person doing the work. So each of these mindset techniques comes paired with one business move.

1. Set specific, short-term goals. Money move: audit your spokes in the wheel of lead generation. Write down three goals for the next 60 days that you can count, like “take two listings by December 15.” Then list every 2026 closing and where it came from: sphere, past clients, yet to be sold listings, FSBOs, open houses, referral partners, online leads. If 70% came from one source, you don’t have a wheel. You have a unicycle. Put your goals in The REAL Plan in Premier Coaching.

2. Act on your goals every week. Money move: holiday and year-end touches to your database. Goals you don’t schedule are wishes. Plan three touches through December 31: a Thanksgiving gratitude call, an early-December “what’s ahead for you in 2027” call, and a year-end note with their home’s estimated value.

3. Do “glad you did it” activities. Money move: set a daily minimum standard of conversations. It’s anything you rarely feel like starting but are always glad you finished. Pick a minimum you’ll hit on your worst day, say five real estate conversations before you open email. Rate your day on a scale of 1 to 10 afterward. It’s almost never lower than before.

4. Cultivate helpful attention. Money move: choose three decisions for 2027. Where your attention goes, your business goes. Caught scrolling instead of calling? Just come back to the next call. Then decide: What will I do more of? What will I stop doing? What do I want to be known for? Put all three into The REAL Plan. Your AI Business Bot can turn them into a one-page plan, but the decisions are yours.

The moral of the story: rest is not the problem. Disappearing is. Take real time off, but put your minimum standard in place first. That’s the real work of real estate.

Here’s the math. Even with the big holidays off, you have about 40 working days. Five conversations a day is 200 conversations. If 1 in 20 turns into an appointment, that’s 10 appointments. If three close in early 2027 at a $10,000 average commission, that’s $30,000, from about an hour a day.

Name the problem before you try to solve it. “I haven’t taken a listing since August” can be fixed. “My business feels off” can’t. Then ask, “What one fix would solve most of the others?” Usually it’s more conversations. Pick one action for tomorrow morning.

Ask before you agree. “Do you have to sell, or want to sell?” If they have to, the holidays bring fewer competing homes and serious buyers. Sometimes the price needs adjusting, not the season. If they still pull it, schedule the relaunch now. Our seller pre-qualification script in Premier Coaching helps.

Less than you think. A call or handwritten card beats a gift. Save gifts for your top 20 relationships, and check your broker’s rules before gifting lenders or inspectors, because gifts between settlement service providers have legal limits.

Yes, if you plan it. Book your first week of January by mid-December, tell clients who’s covering, then actually rest.

Your January pipeline is built in December. Ask your sphere now, “Are you thinking about a move in 2027?” Then book spring seller consultations in January, and fully pre-qualify every one.

Your challenge this week: Write down your three 60-day goals, list every 2026 closing and its source, and hit your daily minimum of five conversations all five days. That’s 25 conversations by Friday. Email us your goals, spoke count and three decisions for 2027.

Sixty days is enough time to change your whole 2027. Don’t coast. Finish. Opening January to an empty calendar every year? Most of the time it was decided by the conversations you had in November and December. Ask us where to start at PremierCoaching.com.

We built a team of AI specialists that handles the busywork of running a real estate business, from follow-up to market reports, so you can spend your time with clients.

👉 Meet your AI team at HarrisAITeam.com

Ready to stop guessing and start producing?

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📲 Elite Coaching — text Tim directly: 512-758-0206

— Tim & Julie Harris

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