Advertise on podcast: The Tom Toole Sales Group Podcast

Rates just hit a 52-week high, and the 10-year Treasury yield jumped to its highest level since 2007. Transactions are down, but they don't go to zero. In this episode of Best Agent Hacks, Tom Toole shares the exact script his team uses to find the people who will move anyway. It's built on Phil Jones' Opening, Fact, Question (OFQ) framework. Here's the call: "Hey Brian, it's Tom Toole with RE/MAX. It's been about 90 days since we last spoke, and I was just curious, is making a move still something you're considering, or have you put that on pause?" Then stop talking. In this video, you'll learn: ✅ How to use your CRM to set up every follow-up call ✅ Why an A/B choice question gets people talking ✅ What to say when a lead says they've "paused" ✅ How to uncover motivation using the D's (death, divorce, relocation, default, diamonds, diapers, downsizing, dogs) ✅ Why you should raise your daily conversation goal from 15 to 20 or 25 in a high-rate market ✅ How to turn the same script into a text and a voicemail follow-up ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Rates hit a 52-week high 0:21 Transactions don't go to zero 0:45 The OFQ script 1:41 When they say "we paused" 2:02 Qualifying questions and motivation 2:56 Why the OFQ works 3:23 Raise your conversation numbers 4:11 Text, voicemail, and property drips 4:41 The plan The best automation out there is still talking to people.

The fourth quarter is when many real estate agents lose consistency—but it doesn't have to be that way. Instead of chasing the one big “trophy” deal, focus on motivated clients, the price points you consistently close, and the daily activities that keep your pipeline full. In this episode, we break down three mindset shifts that can help you finish the year strong and build momentum heading into 2027: prioritize motivation over price point, stay committed to daily prospecting and appointments, and use your own business data to identify your bread-and-butter business. The goal isn't to swing for the fences every time. It's to consistently get on base.

For the first time in three years, the Federal Reserve hiked the key interest rate by 25 basis points on a unanimous 12-0 vote. Here is the part most people get wrong: a Fed hike does not automatically push mortgage rates up. Mortgage rates actually ticked down a few hundredths of a point on Thursday, according to Mortgage News Daily. The hike was widely expected and already priced into the 30-year fixed. What is actually driving rates right now is oil above $100 a barrel and the conflict in the Middle East. Until that resolves, there is not much relief coming. One number worth knowing: strip energy and food out of the inflation data and core is running 2.4% year over year, very close to the Fed's 2% target. Include them and it is in the mid 3% range. That is a big difference, and it explains a lot about where this goes next. If you're selling: Price for reality using the comp-based model. Suburban Philadelphia homes are selling between 97% and 99.6% of list, which tells you what the market will actually bear. Then watch the milestones: are you getting showings in the first ten days, and are you getting an offer after ten showings? If not, it is time for a price adjustment. You have about three and a half to four months before we hit 2027. If you're buying: Focus on the monthly payment, not the rate. Taxes, insurance, principal and interest, and purchase price all move that number, and in this market taxes swing hard from one township to the next. Then shop your financing. We had three lenders this summer beat the Mortgage News Daily quoted rate by two to three tenths of a point on closed deals. On a 7.19% quote, that is 6.89%. Get a referral rather than going online to a Rocket or a Wells Fargo, so you know the rate they quote is one they can actually deliver. Rates in the high sixes and low sevens are not new, and historically they are right in line with the long-run average for a 30-year fixed. This is a recalibration, not a crisis. People are still transacting. Want a plan built for your situation? Click the link in the comments. Tom Toole Sales Group at RE/MAX Main Line serves the Main Line, Chester County, Delaware County, and the greater Philadelphia suburbs.

🆕 Stay up to date on all the latest topics while Tom Toole and Sarah Tymon give our community a place to learn about the real estate market and industry trends on Toole Time Real Estate Radio ... ⏰ 👀 Tune in LIVE on WWDB-AM 860 and this page EVERY TUESDAY @3:00PM! 🎙 👉🏼  This week's topic recap: 📈 🏠 • Highest Rates of the Year, with a 92.7% Chance of a Spike, Housing Market Faces Headwinds, and the Best Week to Buy a Home 🏙️ 🚗 • Main Line News: North Wayne Ave Parking Plan and What is Going to Happen to the Academy of Natural Sciences 🔑 📆 • New Listings and Open Houses this weekend

Welcome to Separation Season. The fourth quarter of the real estate year has started, and most agents are already mentally checked out. They're talking about next year. They're planning December off. They've decided they earned it. That's the opportunity. Anything you put under contract after November 15 probably isn't closing this year, which means you have roughly 90 days to get real work done. On our team, September, October, and November account for as much as 31% of the business we close. Quitting now means walking away from nearly a third of your year. The core idea behind Separation Season is simple. Stay disciplined and focused while your competitors take their foot off the gas. You don't beat them by doing something clever, you beat them by still being in the game in December. Here's the whole system. Three numbers, tracked daily, posted somewhere you can see them: Daily conversations. How many people do you need to talk to every day? Weekly appointments. How many appointments are you going on in the next seven days? 90-day pending sales target. How many homes do you put under agreement in the next 90 days? Not closed, because closings aren't in your control. Under agreement. The first two are your lead indicators. The third is the lag indicator that follows from them. Nothing else matters over the next 90 days. That stretch is going to be noisy. Title company events, holiday parties, leaving early for trunk or treat. The agents who protect the daily conversation number through all of it come into January with momentum while everyone else is starting from zero. One more thing on goal setting: set a reasonable goal you know you can hit, then go after it with unreasonable effort. Doubling or quadrupling your business in twelve months isn't a plan, it's a wish. A realistic number attacked relentlessly beats a fantasy number abandoned in March. Credit to Adam Lavin on our team, who put it best in our Mastermind: you can advance a whole year in your business by finishing the fourth quarter strong. They're called holidays, not hollow months.

🆕 Stay up to date on all the latest topics while Tom Toole and Sarah Tymon give our community a place to learn about the real estate market and industry trends on Toole Time Real Estate Radio ... ⏰ 👀 Tune in LIVE on WWDB-AM 860 and this page EVERY TUESDAY @3:00PM! 🎙 👉🏼  This week's topic recap: 📉 🏛️ • Fall Market Outlook, Trump Threatens FED, Buyers Have More Options 🚧 🏗️ • Main Line News: Berwyn Downtown Updates and Academy of Natural Sciences Closes. 🔑 📆 • New Listings and Open Houses this weekend

Property drips are one of the most effective tools an agent has. They work while you're sleeping. They work while you're doing something else. And most agents set them up so badly that they actively damage the relationship instead of building it. I recently reviewed a partner's drip. Square footage filter on. First floor bedroom filter on. First floor primary bedroom on top of that. Their client was receiving exactly one home. I reworked it and sent them 47. Think about how discouraging that is on the client side. Now think about the home they would have bought and never saw. In this one I walk through the three things that separate a drip that wins business from a drip that quietly kills it: The intake conversation, and the two questions almost nobody asks
Why fewer filters beats smarter filters every single time
The conversation you need to have BEFORE you hit send Plus two bonus hacks: where these should actually live, and the one to one follow up that proves you're not just outsourcing the search to software.

Kevin Warsh spoke at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on August 28th, and there were four things in his comments that could directly affect housing as we head into the stretch run of 2026. In this update, I break down what he said, what he pointedly did NOT say, and why the market read his remarks as unexpectedly hawkish. I also cover where the odds sit for a quarter point increase at the next policy meeting, why mortgage rates are inching toward seven percent, and what the conflict in Iran has to do with all of it. Here in our market, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties are still sitting under a two month supply of homes. Philadelphia is running a bit higher. Inventory is up over 13 percent through July across the metro, but absorption rates are keeping supply tight. That combination creates very different opportunities depending on whether you're buying or selling right now. If you're a buyer waiting on the sidelines for rates to drop, you need to hear takeaway number three. If you're a seller trying to time the back half of the year, the inventory picture matters more than the headline rate.

🆕 Stay up to date on all the latest topics while Tom Toole and Sarah Tymon give our community a place to learn about the real estate market and industry trends on Toole Time Real Estate Radio ... ⏰ 👀 Tune in LIVE on WWDB-AM 860 and this page EVERY TUESDAY @3:00PM! 🎙 👉🏼  This week's topic recap: 📉 💸 • Inflation and Interest Rates + Cancellations Hit a 3 Year High 🍗 🏗️ • Main Line News: New Apartments, Raising Canes and Uncle Giuseppe’s in KOP, Bridgeport Development, Delaware County Affordability, and Phillies Mural May Be Gone Soon 🔑 📆 • New Listings and Open Houses this weekend

"I'm not ready to make calls." "I'm not ready to practice my scripts." That's not a schedule problem. That's a limiting belief, and it's costing you appointments every single week. Here's the truth most agents don't want to hear: when someone says they're not ready, what they actually mean is they're not confident. Fear leads to paralysis, paralysis leads to inactivity, and the next thing you know the whole day is gone and you didn't talk to a single person. You need conversations to set appointments, and you need appointments to sell houses. Everything else is busy work. In this episode of Best Agent Hacks, I'm breaking down four tried and true ways to build call confidence in about 15 minutes a day. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: 1. Pick ONE script and chant it out loud. Not in your head, not silently reading it. Out loud. Plenty of things sound perfect in your head and terrible the second they leave your mouth. 2. Find people who genuinely want to role play, then actually role play with them. Daily, not once a week. Your friend who never makes calls is the worst possible practice partner. 3. Accept the feedback. Don't judge it, don't defend it. Internalize it and implement it. The feedback is the feedback whether you like it or not. 4. Time block the practice AND the call block. If it's not in the calendar, it doesn't exist. 15 minutes of role play, then 9 to 11 for calls. I prefer mornings because it only gets harder as the day goes on. Done beats perfect. Your first rep will be your worst rep, and that's exactly the point. Opportunities don't wait around for you to feel ready. Luck is just preparation meeting opportunity, and it only looks like luck because nobody saw the prep work you put in when no one was watching. WANT THIS COACHING IN YOUR BUSINESS?
Schedule a call with our team using the link in the comments and let's talk about what this looks like for you. Subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss the next episode. Tom Toole III
Tom Toole Sales Group | RE/MAX Main Line
484.915.1090

🆕 Stay up to date on all the latest topics while Tom Toole and Sarah Tymon give our community a place to learn about the real estate market and industry trends on Toole Time Real Estate Radio ... ⏰ 👀 Tune in LIVE on WWDB-AM 860 and this page EVERY TUESDAY @3:00PM! 🎙 👉🏼  This week's topic recap: 📈 🏦 • Interest Rates, AI and Housing, and August Price Data 🚫 🏢 • Save Rock Hill Farm, Uncle Giuseppe’s to KOP, Springfield Mall Value, and Broomall Mansions 🔑 📆 • New Listings and Open Houses this weekend

Real estate agents love referrals, but becoming more referable has a lot less to do with asking for business and a lot more to do with the experience you create for your clients. In this episode, I break down six simple things agents can do right now to earn more repeat and referral business without spending more money on marketing. I cover why you need to make the relationship about the client instead of your commission, communicate consistently, show up on time, prepare before every meeting, know your contracts and transaction process, and understand the market data well enough to confidently answer your clients’ questions. 
At the end of the day, your brand isn’t just what you post online. It’s how you communicate, how prepared you are, how much value you provide, and the type of professional you are every day. Do those things at a high level, and you become a lot more referable. If you got value from this video, subscribe to the channel and hit the bell for more real-world real estate coaching and strategies.

How’s the real estate market in Greater Philadelphia? In this episode, I break down the numbers that actually matter for buyers and sellers across Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. Through July 2026, Greater Philadelphia closed sales are down just 1% year over year, while the median sales price is up 2.6% and active inventory has increased 12.4%. But the suburbs remain tight, with Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties all sitting below two months of housing supply. My biggest takeaway is that the market is stabilizing. Inventory is improving, local sales are showing some growth, prices continue to rise, and mortgage rates have remained relatively steady. I also explain why sellers shouldn’t assume the market shuts down after August, what the typical post-Labor Day bump could mean, and why buyers should focus less on perfectly timing rates and more on finding the right home with a payment that fits their budget. Every neighborhood is different, so if you’re considering a move, make sure you’re looking at the data for your specific township, school district, and price range.

🆕 Stay up to date on all the latest topics while Tom Toole and Sarah Tymon give our community a place to learn about the real estate market and industry trends on Toole Time Real Estate Radio ... ⏰ 👀 Tune in LIVE on WWDB-AM 860 and this page EVERY TUESDAY @3:00PM! 🎙 👉🏼  This week's topic recap: 📈 🏦 • Data Centers and Home Values, Cash Buyer Percentage is Going Down, CPI Data and the FED meeting 🚫 🏢 • Upper Merion Shoots Down Data Centers and Bellwether District Could Add 19,000 Jobs 🔑 📆 • New Listings and Open Houses this weekend

Everyone keeps saying that real estate agents who use AI will replace the ones who don’t — but what does actually using AI in your business look like? In this episode, I break down 5 practical ways I’m using AI and coaching our agents to use it right now to become more efficient, improve their skills, and spend more time on income-producing activities. I cover how AI can help you better understand home inspection issues, quickly research questions that come up during a transaction, create stronger marketing content, analyze your sales calls to improve conversion, and write more professional and empathetic responses to clients and other agents. AI isn’t going to do the work for you. But if you use it correctly, it can save you hours, sharpen your skills, and give you more time to focus on conversations, appointments, and growing your business. If you got value from this video, subscribe to the channel and hit the bell for more real-world real estate coaching and strategies.