My husband and I got into an argument about the market the other day.

Not a heated one — just one of those conversations where you're both saying words that sound like agreement but you slowly realize you're talking about two totally different things. Turned out we had completely different definitions of "the market." Same word. Different meaning entirely.

It got me thinking about how often this happens between real estate agents and their clients — except most of the time, nobody stops to notice.

We Are the Only Ones at Fault

Here's an uncomfortable truth: when a client nods along in a conversation with their agent without really understanding what's being said, that's not on the client. That's on us.

Real estate agents talk in shorthand all day, every day. Absorption rate. DOM. Contingency. Appraisal gap. Escrow. We use these words so often they stop feeling like jargon to us — they just feel like talking. But to someone buying or selling a home for the first time, or even the third time, these words can land like a foreign language. And most people won't stop you to ask what you mean. They'll just nod, smile, and quietly feel a little stupid.

That's a failure of communication, and it's entirely ours to fix.

What Selling Telecom Taught Me About Real Estate

Years before real estate, I sold telecommunications to Fortune 1000 companies in Houston. When I started, I did what felt natural: I focused on the technical aspects of the product. Routers, servers, packet sizes — I wanted to be the expert in the room, so I led with expertise.

I struggled. Not because I didn't know the material — I did. I struggled because I was answering questions my clients weren't actually asking.

Everything changed when I switched providers and made a conscious decision: I was going to stop trying to learn every technical spec of the new product line. I had engineers for that. Brilliant ones. My job wasn't to out-technical the client or even to out-technical my own team — my job was to understand what the client actually needed, and then bring together the right resources to deliver an exceptional experience.

The moment I stopped speaking in techno-tongue, everything got easier. My clients stopped pretending to understand me. They stopped feeling behind in the conversation. We started actually communicating. And my business got significantly better.

The Real Estate Version of "Techno-Tongue"

Real estate has its own version of this trap, and honestly, we fall into it constantly — often because we think it makes us sound more credible. Using the "right" terminology can feel like a shorthand for competence. But competence isn't about the words you use. It's about whether your client leaves the conversation actually understanding their situation.

Which brings me to the question I get asked more than almost any other:

"How's the market?"

It sounds simple. It isn't. That question means something completely different depending on who's asking:

• To a first-time buyer, it might mean "Can I actually afford something right now?"
• To someone who bought at the top of the market, it might mean "Did I make a mistake?"
• To an investor, it might mean "Where are rates headed and what does that do to my returns?"
• To a seller who's been watching the news, it might mean "Is this still a good time to sell, or did I miss it?"

If I answer all four of those the same way — with a rundown of inventory numbers and interest rate trends — I've technically answered the question and completely failed the person asking it.

Clarify Before You Answer

The lesson from telecom applies just as much here: your job isn't to prove how much you know. It's to understand what your client actually needs to know, and then meet them there.

So now, before I answer "how's the market," I ask a question back. What's actually on your mind? What decision are you trying to make? Because the real answer isn't a statistic — it's whatever helps that specific person move forward with confidence.

It's a small shift. Ask before you answer. Clarify the actual concern before responding to the surface-level question. It takes the ego out of the exchange and puts the client's actual need back at the center of it — which, honestly, is where it should have been all along.

So — how's the market? Tell me what you're really asking, and I'll give you a real answer.

#cristimcgowanrealtor #cristimcgowanwacorealtor #topwacorealtors #topwacorealestateagents #wacorealestate #howsthemarket #realestatemarkettoday

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