How to Survive High and Low Markets

By Justin Stoddart

The real estate industry has always been cyclical, yet when transactions slow and uncertainty increases, it’s easy to become so focused on current conditions that we forget how many successful professionals have navigated similar challenges before.

I recently sat down with my longtime friend Joelle Lewis on the Built on Referrals podcast. Joelle has spent nearly 40 years serving the Lake Oswego, Oregon, real estate market, beginning her career when mortgage rates were 16%. She’s experienced the dot-com bubble, the 2008 housing crisis, and the many fluctuations in between, all while building an impressive business and a reputation for exceptional client service.

What I appreciate about Joelle is that her approach to navigating difficult markets isn’t built around waiting for conditions to improve. Instead, she’s consistently looked for ways to expand her opportunities through relationships, both with other real estate professionals and with the broader network of people who serve homeowners.

Adapting to the Market Requires More Than Maintaining Your Effort

There’s a familiar saying that if you continue doing what you’ve always done, you’ll continue getting what you’ve always gotten. I’ve challenged that idea for years because it assumes that the circumstances surrounding your business remain constant. In an industry like real estate, maintaining the same activities doesn’t necessarily produce the same results.

Joelle recalled organizing a collaborative group of real estate professionals during the 2008 housing crisis, when agents were struggling to adapt to a dramatically different environment. Their guiding principle was straightforward:

“If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’re going to get half of what you got.”

That observation is particularly relevant today, when many professionals are experiencing declining transaction volume without a corresponding reduction in their business expenses. Preserving profitability requires reconsidering where opportunities originate and how we position ourselves to participate in them.

I found Joelle’s decision to collaborate with other agents during that difficult period especially instructive. While some professionals become more guarded when business slows, she recognized that exchanging ideas with peers could create opportunities none of them might have identified independently.

Her recommendation of 25 meaningful contacts per week, or five each business day, offers a manageable starting point for agents who need to become more proactive. The larger lesson is that the quality of those conversations and the willingness to engage with others often matter as much as the number.

Expanding Your Referral Network Beyond Past Clients

When most professionals think about referral-based business, their attention naturally turns to past buyers and sellers. Those relationships are essential, but limiting your referral strategy to former clients overlooks an enormous network of professionals who regularly interact with homeowners and often become aware of real estate needs long before an agent is involved.

This is a concept I’ve explored extensively through The Upstream Model, and Joelle’s career provides an excellent example of how it works in practice.

Over the years, she’s developed relationships with trust attorneys, estate planning professionals, and family law practitioners whose clients frequently encounter circumstances requiring real estate expertise. Many of these opportunities arise from life events that aren’t particularly sensitive to market conditions. Families still need to settle estates, navigate divorces, and make housing decisions during periods of economic uncertainty.

The same principle applies to the many service providers who work in and around people’s homes. Contractors, painters, electricians, and other tradespeople often have established relationships with homeowners that extend well beyond a single project. Yet real estate agents frequently view these professionals only as vendors to recommend, rather than as potential partners in a reciprocal referral network.

I believe there’s a substantial missed opportunity here, particularly when professionals focus so heavily on purchasing leads from third-party platforms. Instead of competing for the attention of strangers who may be speaking with several agents simultaneously, we can invest that same energy in developing relationships with respected local professionals who already have the trust of the people we hope to serve.

Of course, those relationships need to begin with a genuine interest in helping the other professional succeed. Understanding their business, introducing them to potential clients, and connecting them with complementary service providers establishes the mutual value that makes referrals a natural extension of the relationship.

It’s precisely this opportunity that led us to build ProInsight, creating the infrastructure for professionals to develop and maintain these relationships more intentionally.

Becoming a Resource Clients Continue to Rely On

Another aspect of Joelle’s business that deserves attention is the consistency with which she maintains relationships after a transaction has closed.

During our conversation, she shared a story about a longtime client who contacted her following her mother’s passing. Joelle had helped both women purchase homes on the same street 25 years earlier, and the family discovered that the mother had kept Joelle’s postcards throughout those years.

While consistent communication certainly keeps an agent top of mind, its greater purpose should be to reinforce the client’s confidence that they have someone knowledgeable and dependable to turn to when circumstances change.

Joelle approaches this by making herself a resource for needs that extend beyond buying and selling property. Her network of trusted professionals allows her to help clients find contractors, address maintenance issues, prepare properties for sale, or connect with specialists who can assist with estate planning and other important decisions.

I think this is where the connection between client service and professional networking becomes especially powerful. An professional who has invested in relationships with reliable service providers can offer clients a level of assistance that would be difficult to replicate independently. At the same time, each successful introduction strengthens the relationship with the service provider, creating additional opportunities for everyone involved.

Rather than treating referrals as something to request periodically, Joelle has made connecting people and solving problems an ongoing part of her value proposition.

Building a More Resilient Business

What I took away from my conversation with Joelle is that market resilience has less to do with predicting the next economic shift than with developing a business model that creates opportunities across different market conditions.

For professionals reconsidering their business strategy, I’d encourage starting with the professional relationships already within reach. Identify people who serve the same homeowners you do, learn more about their businesses, and look for specific ways to contribute to their success. Over time, those connections can become an important source of both referrals and greater value for your existing clients.

If you’d like to build a more intentional referral network around these principles, I invite you to learn more about ProInsight and how we’re helping real estate professionals grow through trusted relationships rather than purchased leads.

And I encourage you to listen to my full conversation with Joelle Lewis on the Built on Referrals podcast. Her experience is a useful reminder that while market conditions will continue to change, the investment we make in people can serve our businesses for decades.

At ProInsight, we help professionals build a referral engine for their business. Apply here to see if becoming a Homeowner Concierge™ Select Professional is available in your area.