April Update

George Laughton
Apr 30
6 min read

Hey team,

Oh man...April flew by! We're deep into spring selling season and I know the pace is relentless right now. Before I get into this month's update, just wanted to acknowledge this is a grind-it-out market, and the agents and staff on this team are showing up every single day. Thank you.

This month I've got two things for you: where the market actually stands right now, and a vision we've been building toward that we're ready to share.

The Market Right Now

I'll keep this direct. The data from Tina Tamboer & Sarah Perkins tells a clear story: supply is nudging up and demand has flattened.

Active listings in Greater Phoenix are at 23,612 — down 4.2% year over year, but trending upward. Under contract sits at 8,804, which is flat (0% YoY). What that means in plain English: we have more homes available than we did a few months ago, and buyer activity hasn't kept pace.

Here's what that means for your business:

Pricing is everything right now. Of the 6,718 closings over the last 30 days, 73% closed below original asking price. The median sales price is $453,000 against a median asking of $475,000. That's a 5% gap. Homes that sold in under 30 days retained 98.22% of asking. Homes sitting past 120 days? They're losing nearly $50,000 off list price. The message is the same as always: price it right from day one, or the market will price it for you.

One more stat worth knowing from the 2026 NAR Generational Trends report: 80% of sellers only contact one agent before listing. And the #1 factor in choosing a listing agent? Reputation (35%), followed by honesty and trustworthiness (22%). Not commission. Not technology. Not designations. Your reputation is your listing presentation. Every interaction, every closing, every follow-up call is building (or eroding) that reputation. This is where your stable of stories comes into play. Share your reputation through reviews and stories of past clients.

The Next 30 Days

Stop Using AI Like a Toy

Last month I told you we'd go deeper on AI. Here's where we are.

Billy and I have been running real test sessions with agents on the team over the past few weeks…real listings, real prep, real problems. We've learned a lot. We're ready to show you what's actually possible when AI stops being a toy and starts being a teammate.

Here's one example from this month.

Carlos Hidalgo and I worked together on a pricing analysis for a Morrison Ranch listing 3497 E Sierra Madre. 5-bed, 3,500 SF, original finishes, no pool, on a property that already failed to sell at $949,900 back in 2022. The kind of listing where pricing is the entire game.

This was a seller that wanted to dive deep into the comps and asked the question: Why did you use this comp and not that one?

Most agents make those calls intuitively. We see a comp, we know why we selected it but don’t always do a good job articulating why. The seller wants the why. When we can't articulate it cleanly, we look like we're guessing even when we're not.

This is where AI earns its keep. Not as a replacement for our judgment, but as a thought partner that pulls the reasoning out of our head and structures it for the seller.

Here's the workflow:

I dumped my raw notes on each comp into Claude — short, messy, the way I actually think:

"Used 8 comps. The Mesquite is closest — same builder, same SF, refreshed, sold $883K in 32 days but has a pool. Rawhide is the condition-match anchor — similar finishes, took 99 days, dropped $65K. Marlene closed full ask in 34 days, fully dialed, pool — that's the ceiling, not the target. Morrison Ranch took 8 months even with a pool — that's the warning..."

Claude turned that into a clean, defensible breakdown — every comp with a one-line role in the analysis. See that attached analysis:

4115 E Linda Ln — Top-of-market ceiling (full remodel, pool) 4126 E Rawhide St — Anchor / condition match 3938 E Morrison Ranch — Model match — but took 8 months 3847 E Marlene Dr — Top-of-market benchmark (fully dialed, full ask) 3945 E Mesquite St — Best case with refresh + pool

That's the level a seller can engage with. No more "trust me, I picked the right comps." Now it's: here's exactly what each comp is doing in this analysis, and here's why it's in or out.

Want to see the full prompt I used? Linked here → AI as Your CMA Partner

One detail worth your attention. The seller on this deal is an engineer. He thinks in frameworks, assumptions, and clean logic. Before I built the analysis, I fed Claude the transcript from our Zoom call so it could pick up how he communicates. That's why the final document is structured in three pricing tiers with explicit assumptions and supporting rationale — because that's how he processes information. AI didn't just organize my reasoning. It spoke his language.

This works because Claude has context about me, my market, how I think about deals, the seller I'm presenting to. That context is what Billy calls your Soul file. Without it, you get the same generic AI every other agent gets. With it, AI becomes the most patient, capable teammate you've ever had.

This is where you should start if you’re new to Claude. We’ll give you the playbook in the coming weeks on how to build your soul file.

Hackathon — Wednesday, May 27 · 1:00 – 4:00 PM

Half-day, hands-on, build-something-real working session. You walk out with three things done:

Paid Claude active and ready — your pre-work, see below
Your personal Soul file written — Also, pre-work so AI sounds like you from day one.
Something real built — your choice: an investor-ready ARV analysis, or a full week of social content. Done before you leave the room.

This is not a lecture. It's a build session.

Pre-work — before May 27: Get on paid Claude. It's $20/month and it's worth every penny. The workflow I walked you through above doesn't work without it. Memory, projects, file uploads, longer context, that's all on the paid tier. Billy will be sending out more steps on how to build your soul!

The CMA walkthrough above is one of five places AI is changing how we prep listings. The pre-appointment email. The listing presentation customization. The seller activity report. The IG ads. We'll get to all of it as we go.

May 27 is where you stop watching and start building.

Full Bloom Challenge — Top 10 Leaderboard

The Full Bloom Challenge is in full swing and these 10 agents have been lighting up the phones. A reminder: to count as a conversation, there needs to be at least 2 minutes of real talk time. This isn't dial volume, it's actual conversations with real people. And it's showing up in the numbers. This top 10 group is currently averaging 4 deals in escrow per agent.

Plant the conversations now. Watch your business bloom.

Data as of April 30, 2026. Challenge runs April 15 – May 15.

Congrats to Ikaezia and Jake for leading the way with 108 conversations! The challenge still has two and a half weeks left. There's plenty of time to get on this board. Pick up the phone.

Post This to Social

Check out this carousel post by @brianinmsp. 47k shares! Want to create similar content?? Anytime there is a viral reel you want to duplicate just load a screenshot to ChatGPT(much better than Claude for image creation) and ask “What prompt created this?” Then input the prompt along with your pic and info and boom you have a similar post that takes 2 minutes!