If you’re still treating marketing like “post once, hope it works,” Darin Germyn has a blunt assessment: that isn’t a strategy, it’s gambling.
On this week’s episode of The Leads Are Sh*t, a Real Estate Magazine podcast hosted by Edmonton team lead Taylor Hack with REM owner Andrew Fogliato, Germyn laid out how he uses YouTube and short-form video to generate business without the “chase” model that leaves many agents burned out.
Germyn, a Surrey, B.C.-based agent and a member of the Canadian Real Estate Association CREA)’s board, said the most common failure isn’t that agents don’t work hard. It’s that they don’t commit long enough, or at enough volume, to find what actually works.
“Anything good with marketing comes with consistency and really testing,” Germyn said. “Marketing is testing.”
The core idea: Stop being a “secret agent”
Germyn described a familiar pattern: experienced agents who are exceptional at negotiation, process and market knowledge, but are invisible to the public.
He compared it to a tradesperson who knows everything about the craft but can’t generate opportunity. Where he says many agents fall down is assuming that simply putting content “out there” is the work.
“There’s so much more to it than that,” he said, arguing that agents should treat content like a live experiment: publish, measure, adjust and repeat.
Farming vs. hunting
A big portion of the discussion centred on what Germyn called “farming vs. hunting.”
- Hunting is a proactive effort that can generate conversations today. From calls, door-knocking, open houses, outbound and paid media.
- Farming is building an environment where business comes back over time. Content, community expertise, reputation and a database that produces predictably.
Both can work, he said. The mistake is choosing only one or choosing farming without enough runway.
“People like the idea of farming… but they don’t have the scale to make it work quickly,” he said. “And they fail to do that hunting part of the business.”
Hack echoed the point with a common example: agents who buy high-visibility ads (like bus benches) without the frequency required to make them effective.
“If it’s part of a strategy that has people in your desired community see your face four or five times a day, that’s amazing,” Hack said. “But if that’s your only marketing effort… you very likely could use the money in a better way.”
Why “repeat and referral” can stall in a colder market
Germyn said hot markets create a hidden advantage: consumers self-select.
In rising conditions, buyers and sellers often raise their hand quickly, motivated by affordability fears, equity gains, or urgency. In slower conditions, those same consumers hesitate.
“The conditions we’re in… it’s the season of winter,” he said, describing a market where self-selection drops and agents have to be more intentional about generating new opportunities.
He cautioned against relying exclusively on a database and assuming it will always produce growth.
Even a “gold standard” repeat-and-referral business, he said, tends to sit around a 20 per cent annual return on a database list and that return can dip when sentiment changes.
More importantly, he said, agents often confuse repeat clients with new introductions and underestimate how little “new blood” they’re adding each year.
“A really healthy business is one where you’re doing 30 per cent repeat, maybe 30 per cent referral, but also 30 per cent new blood coming in,” he said.
The YouTube strategy: Become the community expert first
Germyn said his shift away from a phone-heavy lead-generation model came from a simple decision: stop hiding, and build public trust at scale.
His approach is rooted in becoming the “community expert” by publishing videos that help people understand neighbourhoods, housing types, schools, lifestyle tradeoffs and the real decision-making process.
The goal is not to produce only “real estate content.” The goal is to produce information that makes you the obvious local guide and then “sprinkle” real estate expertise on top.
That combination, he said, works like a “dog whistle.”
“When you put your information out there, these people start putting their hands up,” he said. “You get phone calls from all over the place because you’re showing up in a different medium where they’re loving what you’re giving them.”
The content angle that gets clicks
The trio also discussed the reality of what draws attention online: negative framing.
Germyn said “avoid” angles typically outperform purely positive titles. For example, “the worst” properties or areas versus “the best.”
Fogliato referenced another agent’s approach: using a negative hook to earn the click, then flipping the message to something constructive once viewers are watching.
The principle: earn attention without turning cynical and don’t become a promoter who only talks up your favourite area.
“People want to know… you’re going to share with them the good and the ugly,” Hack said.
Turning online trust into offline conversations
Once you have attention, the next challenge is conversion, moving from “viewer” to “conversation.”
Germyn said agents lose opportunities by either never asking for the next step or offering too many options.
“If I give you six options, you’ll pick none,” he said, adding that a clear call-to-action matters.
He described a “date vs. marriage” approach: not everyone is ready to hire you today, but many people will accept a smaller next step if it feels safe. He emphasized that the tone matters.
“Nobody wants to be sold,” he said. “Let’s not prescribe the problem before we’ve diagnosed it.”
Fogliato shared one of his go-to openers with new followers: a simple question that invites clarity without pressure. Essentially, are they just curious, or are they actually planning a move?
Hack added a similar qualifier he uses at open houses: “Did you come from far?” It helps distinguish neighbours browsing from people actively considering the area.
Tools: calendar links, boundaries, and why it matters
In the second half of the episode, the conversation turned tactical.
Germyn said booking links (Calendly, TidyCal, or even Google Calendar appointments) do more than reduce admin. They protect your time by making your boundaries non-negotiable.
“You set buffers and boundaries… They don’t know why you’re not available at 6:30 on Wednesday night,” he said. “But they will find a way.”
Hack framed it as a competitive advantage: newer agents often compete on availability because they can’t compete on expertise yet. Established agents can design a business around high-value activities and protect family time.
Fogliato summarized the trajectory bluntly: early in a career, you say yes to everything to get established; later, you say no to most things to keep growing.
The bottom line
Germyn’s method is not about a “viral hack.” It’s a compounding system: consistent community content, clear positioning, a single next step and a conversion process that feels like help, not pressure.
Or, as he put it: lead with value and the rest gets easier.
“If you lead with value, you’re never going to go wrong,” Germyn said.
Watch the episode below.
Guest: Darin Germyn
YouTube: Living in Surrey & White Rock
Instagram: @thegermyngroup
Website: germyn.ca
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Content by REM Bot has been created with the assistance of AI. Audio and video interviews, conducted by our team with real people, are transcribed and repurposed into text for those who prefer reading. REM Bot articles are reviewed by staff before publication to ensure factual accuracy and maintain editorial standards.
