7 Fastest Ways to Get Listings in 2026

One of the hardest things that real estate agents ever have to figure out is how to get listings. And in this video, I'm going to break out for you the 7 fastest ways to get listings in 2026, right here, right now, in this market, in this economy, with interest rates where they are, with sellers where they are, all the stuff that's happening. There is a path for you to get listings today in this market that you can take and sell and have a constant flow of listing. See, a lot of agents just think that what they need is more leads, more seller leads. And I'm here to tell you, I've seen agents set 10 listing appointments, get seller leads, and not take a single listing out of it. So it's more than just having leads. It is having a complete system that turns leads into appointments, appointments into listings, listings into sales, and sales into closings. And in this video, I'm going to break down for you this whole thing. When I first started real estate, my first broker was Mike Bowman. He was the founder of Century 21 Mike Bowman in Dallas-Fort Worth. It was the number one Century 21 office in the world.. And I'll never forget that he said to me on my very first day when I showed up, he said, listings are the name of the game. If you want to control your business, you want to control your income, you want to control your time, you've got to control the inventory. When you take listings, you just hired everybody else to work for you on the weekends. Every other agent out there, they got the buyers, they're going to be bringing them to sell your listing. Listings are the name of the game. And I took it to heart. I didn't know anybody. I had just moved from a small town in North Texas to Dallas-Fort Worth. I didn't really have any connections. I didn't have a marketing budget. I didn't have any background in real estate. I didn't come from real estate. I didn't come from money. I didn't come from sales training. Only sales training I had was working at Burger King. And so I was like, okay, what do I need to do? I'm going to master this listing game. And I did. And in my third year, I took 92 listings in one year and had 108 transactions that year. And it just proved to me how powerful winning the listing game really is. So I'm going to lay out for you what I learned and what I have learned and what I've coached now for over a decade that has helped real estate agents all over North America take tens of thousands of listings and make tens of millions of dollars in commissions doing this, mastering the listing game. So here's what you need to understand: leads do not get you listings. Systems and certainty is what gets you listings. And that's what I'm gonna break down for you in the 7 fastest ways to get listings in today's market. So let's break this down. Number 1, the first key to getting listings fast is this, is find motivated sellers. That's your first step. You've got to find motivated sellers. It's the first step. You got to do that. And what happens to a lot of agents is they fall into this trap of getting sucked into chasing buyer leads because buyer leads seem easier. And in some respects, getting a buyer lead is easier, but it's more chaotic, it's more stressful, it takes more time, and a much higher probability you're not going to close and you're not going to get paid. So many agents get sucked into this buyer trap of a buyer-heavy business and they want to take listings. They understand how powerful it is, but they don't ever master the game of this first step, which is finding motivated sellers. Now, buyer leads are awesome. Great buyers are awesome. But here's the real key. If you want to get great buyers, best way to get great buyers is have a great listing that they want. That's the best way to do it, right? So this is the key. So let's talk about what are the 5 best ways to find motivated sellers today. So I'm going to kind of break this over into a little side into a little sidebar here, and we're just going to break down the 5 best sources for seller leads in 2026. Number 1 is the good old— and yes, this is still true even today— and that is expired and canceled listings. Expireds are still the lowest hanging fruit. If you want to get listings fast, this is how you do it. This is how I started my business. I didn't know people, I didn't have a marketing budget, so I was like, My broker said go after expireds and for sale by owners. That's what I did. For sale by owner is going to be number 2. I'll give you that in just a second. But this is still the highest return on investment of being able to get a listing fast. Now, it's not the easiest way but it's the fastest way. And when you understand the process and you learn how to break through their resistance and handle their objections, expired listings, canceled listings, they are amazing. Now, the lead generation strategies Pretty simple. It's like you just send a text message to them the day after their listing expires or is canceled and just say, hey, are you still accepting offers on your property? And you'll get a large percentage of them that will respond to that. Okay, you call them on the phone first thing, call them, they answer, say, hey, this is Kevin, I'm a local real estate agent, are you still accepting offers on your property? If they don't answer, you send them the text. And with that, then you engage them into a conversation, find out their motivation, and then set the appointment. Okay, now I'm going to give you a lot of little tidbits of scripts and so forth. If you want to get my complete scripts for setting listing appointments, for listing lead generation and listing presentation, pre-qualifying and all of that, you can go to a link in the bio where you can go download my free listing power pack. Okay, totally free. Just go there, you'll put in your information and I'll email you, I'll send you immediately a free copy of my listing power pack which has all the scripts, processes and all of that. Okay, so this is the first one, expired and canceled listings. Number 2 is good old for sale by owners. Now, here's what's happening with inventory going up across America. Now, there are more and more expired and canceled listings coming up because there's more inventory and homes are still sitting and they're expiring and getting canceled. And they're in most markets now, we're starting to see more for sale by owners, sellers who are going like, I'm going to try it myself. But the reality is still 50% or more of them are still going to hire an agent before they actually end up selling the property. So it is like you want to turbocharge your business, fastest way to get listings right here for sold by owners and expireds. Third, third way to do it is what we call open house events. Now, an open house event is different than just a traditional open house. An open house where you just open the door, put a sign, open the front door, put a sign in the yard and wait for people to come in. It's just traditional open house and not really that effective. If you want it to be effective, you turn it into an event. You can create a flyer, an invitation, go knock 1, 200, 1 or 200 doors in the neighborhood, invite all the neighbors and say, We got a special neighbors-only preview at the beginning of the open house so they can come and see the house. And then once you connect in that conversation, you give them the invitation, you just say, oh, by the way, when do you think you guys might be looking to make a move? And it is one of the best ways to make a connection with somebody and start and engage them in a conversation because you're not actually soliciting, you're actually inviting them to a party. You're inviting them to an open house. Super, super powerful. Again, if you want all the scripts on all this, you can go to get a free copy of my listing Power Pack. The link is in the description below the video. Number 4. Now, this was a little bit of a heavy lift, and it's different. This is something that I usually did not teach, but it has become super, super powerful, and that is hyperlocal targeted, okay, targeted paid ads. Okay, hyperlocal targeted paid ads. Now, this one's a little bit of a heavier lift because one, it's a little bit tech-heavy, And you've got to figure out how to do it. It's kind of like this. It's the FIO factor. Figure it out. You got to figure it out. And that takes more time and energy than a lot of agents are willing to do because you got to figure it out how to build it. You got to do your AI research and figure out your target market. You've got to then build the funnels. You got to build the ads. You got to launch them. You got to test them. You got to tweak them. You got to constantly be monitoring them. So it's a little bit heavier lift. If you're going to do targeted paid ads, here's my best recommendation, and that is get it done for you. Find somebody who is a master of it. My partner Jay Kinder has figured out this incredible machine. If you're interested in that, you can put a comment. And there, and I'll get your information on that. Or you can go— I've got a link in the description of the video as well where you can sign up for my free Listing Domination Blueprint Masterclass that I'm doing this week. And you can sign up for that, and I'll be talking about it more on that as well. But it is a super powerful way to generate highly motivated, qualified leads. Okay, so that's number 4. Number 5. Number 5 is what I call your personal circle. Now this one is critical. Your personal circle. Who is that? That's your past clients, your sphere of influence. That's people that you already know. Now I know a lot of people are going like, I don't want to, I don't want to feel like I'm begging people or bugging my friends and family and all this kind of stuff. In fact, there's a lot of real estate coaches out there today. They're going like, that is so cringe. You don't want to be harassing your friends, harassing your family, trying to get business from them. That's so cringe. I'm going to tell you, anytime you hear a coach saying that, they are not coaching you. They're trying to sell you their product. That is not including talking to people you already know. But here's the brutal reality. The harsh truth is that 80% of all listings go to an agent that either knew the seller before, past client, referral from somebody that they— that knows the agent, okay? Or an agent that's a friend or family member or somebody they already know. It's 81%. According to NAR, this is the facts. NAR's the survey of buyers and sellers in 2024, 2025. 81% of all sellers listed with an agent either that they already knew or that was referred to them by somebody that they knew. So when they say, don't you— that's so cringe. That's 80%. In fact, I was just talking to Russ and Aaron Downs who are one of my long-term coaching members, great friends of mine. They did $60 million in volume last year. And I just asked them, I'm like, what percentage of your business today is repeat and referral business from your personal circle? They said 80%. 80%. So if you're going after every other lead generation strategy that you go after, including these which work great and are the fastest way to get more listings, but you're literally fighting for the bottom 20% of sellers who are going to go with somebody they did not already know. So if you're not leveraging your relationships, here's the simple way you do it. You just ask. You ask your personal circle, hey, who do you know is looking to buy or sell that I can help in the next 3 or 4 months? Very simple question, straightforward. And if you believe in what you are doing and you believe you're great at it and you are skilled at it, then why would you not want to help them or help somebody that they know? Because you know that there's so many incompetent agents out there, you don't want them to get stuck with an incompetent agent. So why don't you put the word out? Why don't you create some top-of-mind awareness, right? Turn your personal circle into your best word-of-mouth marketing team. It is insanely Powerful. So those 5 strategies, if you want to generate listings, get listings fast in 2026, those are the 5 best lead sources. Now, there are other niches that you can also get great seller leads from, okay? So there's probate, there's distressed sellers, there's downsizers, people that are downsizing, and you can do a lot of search for that. AI is a great tool for all of that. But what the key is, number 1, I gotta find motivated sellers. That's key number 1. Okay, the 2nd key to getting listings fast in 2026 is you have to set a qualified appointment. Okay, I know this sounds kind of— you're like, well, that's kind of a no-brainer. It is, but it's not. But it's the way you get them. You want to get listings fast, you've got to become a master of setting appointments. Okay, it's not enough to say I want listings and even getting seller leads. If you don't know how to set an appointment, you're not going to get listings. So the faster you are, the better you are at setting appointments, the better you're going to be at getting listings and making sales. Right? You got to master this game. Now, when I say this, I want to tell you one thing real quick, real important. Set a listing appointment, not a preview appointment. There's a dramatic difference. So a lot of agents will just kind of like, I'm going to just get my foot in the door, and they'll just say, I just want to come preview your property. Okay, especially with for sale by owners and expireds. I just want to come preview your property. And the problem with that is you're going to get there and you can't get the listing because they don't expect that. They don't think that's why you're there. And if you do try to get the listing, now you're bait and switching them, and people do not like bait and switch. They're like, that's BS, I don't want it. You don't need it, they don't want it. So learn how to set an actual listing appointment, not a preview appointment. There is a huge difference. Now here's one of the problems is a lot of agents get on the phone with a prospect and they talk too much. They talk themselves out of a listing appointment instead of into it by trying to answer every question and trying to convince the seller how good you are and how much you know. Don't do that. You just do just what you've got to do to get the appointment. Again, you can click on the link in the description to download my free listing power pack. It'll give you the scripts of exactly what to say and how to say it. In a way that will help you get qualified appointments. Now, once you set the appointment, step number 3, and this is critical. Remember, our goal is not getting appointments. Our goal is getting listings and getting sales, right? So number 3 is once you set the appointment is you have to pre— you have to pre-qualify the appointment. Okay, you pre-qualify the seller, and this is where you find out everything that you need to know to be able to lead them to a decision. Now, this is critical. Pay attention to this. My job when I get at the appointment is to lead them to a decision to hire me, right? So how do I do that? I've got to be able to have a conversation with them. The tool we use for this is the seller sheet. Again, that's in the Listing Power Pack that you can download for free and ask them the right questions so I can understand their motivation. I can understand their situation. I can understand their pricing expectations. I can understand where they want to move, when they want to move, how soon they want to move, how bad they want to be there. I learn all about housing details. And all of that. I do that, and as I'm doing it, I'm building credibility and trust. So the pre-qualifying conversation with a script that we call the seller sheet is super, super important. And here's the most important thing: if they are not qualified, if they are not motivated to sell their house, don't go on the appointment, okay? It's not a listing appointment. If they're not selling their house, you can't get a listing, okay? So why would you go? Well, I'm just going for practice. No, no, no, we don't go practice How many times you want to practice not getting a listing? It's kind of like going to the basketball gym and say, "I'm going to practice missing shots today just because I know I'm going to miss some shots, so I'm just going to practice." No, no, we practice making shots. So we only practice on pre-qualified sellers that are actually motivated to sell their home. Now, why the pre-qualifying is so important is so that when you actually walk into their house, when you walk in their front door, you have the right information, you're prepared, and You know their situation, so you have everything that you need to be able now to lead them to a decision to hire you because you know their circumstances, you know their situation, you know their needs, wants, and desires, and you know that you can help them get it. Okay, number 4, before I show up, is I want to build credibility. I want to build credibility and trust. Okay, because here's what a lot of agents do. Big mistake is you finally get an appointment, you call somebody, maybe you're for sale by owner, it's like, I got the appointment. As soon as you get the appointment, you're so excited you get appointment, you hang up, and I'll say, okay, I'll see you tomorrow at 4. And then you hang up, and then you just think you're going to show up at their house tomorrow at 4 and everything's going to work out. So you're going to be doing your CMA, and you're going to drive over there, and you're going to drive 25 minutes to get to their house. You're going to walk up to the front door, and you're going to knock on it and ring the doorbell. And guess what? Nobody's going to answer. Okay, when you don't build credibility, when you just set the appointment and then just show up, you're going to get a ton of no-shows. You'll get a ton of cancellations, or you'll just have somebody that's going to waste your time. Okay, you get there and then they're going to go like, well, you know, thank you, we want to think about it because I mean, after all, this is the first time we've met. So what you want to do before you go on the listing appointment, from the time you set the appointment, you pre-qualify the appointment, to the time you get there is you're doing a pre-listing process where you're building credibility and trust. You're sending them a personal intro video, you're sending them a gift, you're sending them a pre-listing packet that's going to give them like some great stuff to think about. Send them to an online, what we call seller online vortex, so they get to find out more about you and your plan, your system that's going to help them get the results that they want. So by the time that you actually show up at the house and you're going to communicate with them, so then when you show up at the house, they feel like they already know you. And if you do it right, they already have basically said, yep, you're the one we're going to hire. So this building credibility, but from the time you set the appointment, okay, to the time you actually show up is critically important. But I don't want to be showing up at their house like it's our first date. When I'm talking to them on the phone, that's our first date. And then I'm doing the pre-qualifying or the pre-listing process. I'm kind of dating them. I'm getting them to know me. I'm getting them to like me. I'm getting them to trust me. So when I show up, they feel like, oh, it's great to finally meet you face to face. They've already fallen in love with you. And it's so, so powerful and so important. So number 4, build credibility and trust. And then when you get there, number 5, and that is deliver a master listing presentation. Okay, I'm just going to put a listing presentation here, but here's the key, is the type of listing presentation you deliver. It's got to be a gold medal performance. Okay, you want to win the gold medal, you want to get the listing, it better be a gold medal performance. Because if you just show up with a PowerPoint or something that your brokerage gave and you're going to come in and you just talk about yourself and talk about your marketing plan and talk about how great you are and talk about your company statistics and all that, that is the fastest way on the planet to turn off a seller. Okay, a listing presentation is a guided decision architecture, meaning the whole process From the time we set the appointment, even from our first conversation when we find them as a lead, every conversation and every step is designed to lead them progressively to choose you, to lead them to a decision to hire you so that when you get there, you're not just talking. It's not show and tell. It's not a resume dump. It's not you talking about how great you are. It is you focusing on their— what their goals are, their motivation, and helping lead them to a decision to hire you to help them get get what they're motivated to get. And this is where most agents lose it, okay? Preparation is everything, and they don't go in prepared to actually deliver a rockstar listing presentation. They go in and they wing it. They talk too much. They let the seller take control. They're just trying to answer all the questions the seller has, and the seller is going to lead you everywhere. And as they lead you everywhere, they may like you, but they don't trust you because they're like, this— I don't know that this agent even actually knows what they're doing. They're just Answer my questions. Your job there is not to give them information, it is to lead them to a decision. This is the fastest way to get listings is go on a listing appointment that you pre-qualified, that you've pre-dated them, that you show up and you deliver and lead them to a decision and you leave with a listing. That, my friend, is the fastest way to get a listing and that is the process. So, it's not just one little thing that you need to figure out, it is an entire process that you must master. I'll say one more thing on this. It is not about you going in and delivering this beautiful marketing plan. Sellers do not hire a marketing plan. They hire certainty and they hire a system. They hire their certainty that they know you know how to get them the results so they can know that when they hire you that they know they're going to move, they're going to get their home sold for the best terms and price. Which then leads us to step number 6 is you deliver and then execute your selling system. Okay, my friend, taking a listing doesn't make— get you paid. Until you sell it. So the way you get it sold is you need to have a proven, bulletproof selling system that guarantees them that they're going to get their home sold in the best amount of time for the best terms and price. That's what they want, right? It's what they want. This is what you must deliver. So if you're going to win and you want to master getting listings fast, you've got to be able to deliver results. Because every time you deliver a result to a seller that hires you, guess what? It's easier to get the next listing because now you got a track record. Now, you got case studies. Now, you got proof of success. And that actual amazing success is what makes more sellers want to hire you, gives you more confidence, gives you more certainty. So, when you know that if I can lead them to a decision to hire me, I know exactly what to do to get them the best results and to get the house sold for the most money, the best time, best terms. If I know that I know how to do that, then I have the certainty to give them the certainty to say, "Yes, we want to hire you. We want to hire you right now. Where do we sign?" sign. And you literally get the listing on the listing appointment the very first time. There's no preview appointment, there's no two-step process. It's like we pre-qualify, we date, we show up, we deliver a listing presentation that gives them certainty that we know how to deliver a result, and we lead them to a decision. This, my friend, is the key to how do I get listings fast. And then step number 7, step number 7 is kind of actually goes back a little bit, but step number 7 is critically important, and that is follow up, follow up, follow up. Now, here's why I say that. I put it here at the end, but it could actually go up here before— actually, before set appointment. And that is that a lot of times when you get a seller lead and you have a conversation with them, you're not going to get the listing appointment on the first conversation. In fact, less than 70% of the time are you actually going to get the listing appointment on the first conversation. So when do you get the listing appointment? On the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth conversation. So you must master the game of consistently following up with seller prospects who may not be ready to make a decision yet and may not be ready to meet yet. But if you continue to stay in touch with them, it's professional, they see that you're on top of the game, and you build that credibility and trust and build that relationship. So many agents quit too soon. They have a conversation, it goes, ah, it didn't go well, and I'm afraid to call them again. And so we drop the lead and And when you drop the lead, you lose the listing. Okay, well, I don't want to bug them. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be too pushy. Here's the reality. You'll never lose a listing because of excessive lead follow-up. When you lose the listing is because of a lack of lead follow-up. So you got to have a system, you got to have a schedule, you got to have a lead follow-up system that I train. You can again sign up for my free masterclass on Listing Domination Blueprint Masterclass, and I'm going to go more into this. But this, my friend, is a key. Over 70% of your business successful listings will come through your effective lead follow-up. So that's it right there. It is, you got it. These 7 fastest ways to get listings in 2026. Now I'm going to give you the most important part right now, this entire video, and it is the one master switch that turns on the pipeline for listing domination. And it's this: you must learn this entire process, learn the system, and Master it. This is one of the things that agents are like, they're, I'm so busy trying to figure everything and everything. I was like, here's what I figured out. I'm like, I want a listing, so what do I need to do? Well, I know if I'm prospecting every day, I'm going to find motivated sellers. But when I find a motivated seller and set appointments, like, oh no, man, I'm freaking out, like, what do I do? So I've got to learn how to do CMAs, right? I've got to learn how to do CMAs. I've got to learn how to follow up. I've got to learn— once I set a listing appointment, I was like, holy crap, I've got to have a pre-listing package. So, my friend, what do you do? You do all of this in preparation. Now, this is on-the-job training. If you want to get listings fast and you've not been a listing agent, even if you've been a mid-producer, you've done, you know, been a full-time buyer's agent doing 10, 20 deals a year, but most of it's buyer heavy and all that, and you want to dial this in, here's what you've got to do. You start right now focusing on seller lead generation, getting appointments and all that. But as you're doing that, in the morning, in the afternoon, what am I doing? I'm working on my systems, I'm working on my pre-listing packet, I'm working on my pre-qualifying, I'm role-playing, I'm practicing the scripts, I'm practicing the listing presentation so that when I actually get the listing appointment, I'm able to walk in there and I am able to with confidence and certainty and power lead the sellers to a decision. Without that master switch, if you have not done the preparation work, if you have not mastered the skills and mastered the process and completed the entire system, your listing success is going to be Slim, if at all. So I'm curious, what part of the listing process intimidates you the most, or do you feel like you need help with the most? Put it in the comments because I'm going to be shooting more videos on this so I can take and create videos that answer your specific questions on this because I really want to help you. The best thing you can do right now if you want to master listing domination and you want to master taking listings fast in 2026, in the link below, go to yesmasters.com/ live, just links in the description, and register for my free Listing Domination Blueprint Masterclass where I'm going to break down this more, go much deeper in it, and talk about exactly how you can implement this in your business and start taking more listings in 2026 and beyond. So if you've liked this video, make sure you give it a thumbs up. Make sure you subscribe to the channel if it's your first time here. Post any comments or questions you have in the comments so that I can go in, I'll read all those, I'll answer them. And it'll also help me know what videos I need to shoot next to help you get more yes and more success.