Most agents dramatically underestimate the amount of business inside a single listing.

It’s not the online leads you’re missing.

It’s the downstream opportunity: the neighbours, the unrepresented buyers, the rebound clients and the referral circles that never get activated.

On a recent episode of The Leads Are Sh*t, Andrew Fogliato and Taylor Hack broke down what actually moves the needle. What follows is a full, practical recap, so even if you don’t have time to watch the episode, you can still apply the ideas.

This is your Listing Multiplier Playbook for 2026.

1. Know your listing multiplier (most agents don’t)

Your listing multiplier is the number of transactions you generate per listing. Most agents sit between 0.8 and 1.2. This means a listing either results in nothing or one more deal at best.

Top performers target two to three.

To calculate yours, give yourself a point for each of the following for your listings from 2025:

• you sold the listing
• you represented the buyer on the listing
• picked up a buyer who bought another listing
• listed a neighbour’s home for sale
• referral from the seller

Take the total points, divide them by the number of listings you calculated it for and that gives you your listing multiplier.

2. Prioritize with the ICE method

Agents come out of planning season with far too many ideas. Taylor uses the ICE framework — impact, clarity, ease — to decide what gets done.

Score each idea from one to 10:

• Impact: Does this meaningfully move my business?
• Clarity: Do I clearly understand the steps?
• Ease: How easy is this to implement?

Your highest total score gets done first.

Everything else waits.

3. “Play the rebound” — the easiest win most agents miss

A surprising insight: many of the easiest conversions happen after someone loses out on your listing.

If they liked your listing enough to offer, they’re usually:

• emotionally engaged
• actually qualified
• motivated to buy soon
• unrepresented or loosely represented

Hack’s team converts a large portion of these buyers by:

• following up immediately
• offering to help them find something else
• booking showings quickly
• clearing obstacles (lender, paperwork, timelines)
• taking them through a real buyer consultation

Most agents never follow up after “Sorry, you didn’t get it.” You should.

4. Optimize open houses for conversion, not traffic

There are two types of open houses:

• Traffic open houses (which most agents run)
• Conversion open houses (which top agents run)

To run the latter, apply these steps:

Start at the door

Use a greeter.

Make sign-in normal and friendly:
“Our clients ask us to track everyone who comes through, and we can send you updates if you’d like.”

Guide or strategically station

Don’t hide in the kitchen.

Be visible, conversational and helpful.

Add information stations

Set up branded, framed sheets in key areas:

• Kitchen: pre-listing inspection summary, upgrades, warranty information
• Utility room: age and expected lifespan of furnace, A/C, roof, etc.
• Living room: neighbourhood stats, recent sales, school information
• Backyard: lot size, zoning notes, potential uses

Make the open house feel professionally curated, not improvised.

Control the senses

This includes music, lighting and even a signature scent. People remember how a space made them feel.

5. The VIP buyer list is still underused — bring it back

Taylor’s team built a substantial email list of buyers who want early access to listings.

You can replicate this with:

• a simple page on your website
• a QR code at open houses
• a call to action on social stories
• a prompt during sign-in: “Do you want early access to listings before they hit the market?”

Then create a simple sequence:

• new listing announcement
• coming soon alert
• open house invitation
• sold price follow-up

This list becomes one of your strongest revenue assets.

6. Help your sellers promote the listing correctly

Most sellers want to post their home online, but they do it poorly (raw MLS links, no call to action, no branding).

Fix that by giving them a seller promotional kit:

• pre-written social posts with your branding
• Instagram Stories
• Canva graphics
• a friends-and-family email template
• instructions on who to send it to (“people you’d invite to a wedding”)

This increases exposure and reinforces your professionalism.

7. Win the neighbourhood, not just the listing

Neighbours are your highest-probability future clients.

But they won’t call you unless:

• you’re visible
• you’re memorable
• you’re responsible for a good experience

Here’s what actually works:

A. Neighbours-only open house

Host it on a Thursday evening before the weekend rush.

Invite:

• direct neighbours
• your VIP buyers
• anyone who opted in early

B. Handwritten or typed letters

Hand-delivered beats mailed. Handwritten beats typed.

They both outperform postcards.

C. Smart, legal sign saturation

Temporary visibility matters. Use:

• coming soon signs
• new listing signs
• open house signs
• strategic arterial placement
• reflective tape or distinctive branding
• features that make your sign recognizable immediately

If regulations allow, swap entire sign panels instead of using riders.

8. Improve your referral system (it’s about feeling, not gifts)

Most agents send a standard gift card when someone refers business.

Andrew’s take: it rewards the moment but doesn’t build loyalty.

Instead:

• match the reward to the person
• document their “love language” in your CRM
• use personalized gestures
• call them
• send thoughtful gifts
• create memorable experiences
• acknowledge the hero moment:
  “You helped your friend avoid a bad agent.”

Loyalty is emotional, not transactional.

9. The small fixes add up fast

You don’t need to overhaul your entire operation.

You need to fix:

• how you follow up
• how you run open houses
• how you communicate with neighbours
• how you onboard unrepresented buyers
• how you leverage seller enthusiasm
• how you extract insight from what’s already happening

This is how top agents turn one listing into three.

Final thought

The biggest mistake agents make is chasing more leads while stepping over the opportunities already sitting in their own inventory.

Fix your listing multiplier, and 2026 becomes a very different year.

If you want the deeper conversation, you can watch the full episode, Everything you need to take action is right here.