– Unnamed Real Estate Podcast, Episode 289 Hi there, I’m Charles Ray Dawson, Associate Broker and Residential Sales Manager at ProStar Realty. Welcome to the Unnamed Real Estate Podcast, episode 289. Hope you’re having a good day. It’s already August 20th. Time flies—especially as we get older. Days can drag while weeks and years zip by. Funny how July 4th already feels distant when it was only a few weeks ago.
Ego, Relationships, and Reputation in Real Estate
This episode is about personalities. Our commercial manager called me recently wanting to talk about “male ego.” She was mentoring a young man through his first commercial deal. The other side was someone she’d worked with before. Negotiations went sideways, and she attributed it largely to the young man’s need to win and extract the absolute best terms.I pushed back a bit. I’ve seen the same aggressive, “boss” energy from female agents too—especially younger ones who spend a lot of time on YouTube channels preaching alpha behavior, domination, and breaking glass ceilings. That mindset gets carried into transactions. A big part of the problem is a lack of solid leadership and mentoring from senior agents. My advice: Sit the newer agent down. If possible, do a postmortem with the other side. Make it clear they’re burning relationships that took decades to build. In commercial real estate especially, reputation is everything. Warren Buffett has a line about how people can cost him money, but they better not cost him his reputation. Live only for the next deal and treat everything as pure competition, and you’ll torch people along the way. Last week I talked about an agent whose client was going crossways. I told him to call the other agent, work out a solution together, then present it to the clients. We’re advocates for our clients, but we’re not in a permanent adversarial war. Think of it like a boxing match or football game—you compete hard, then respect your opponent afterward. Plenty of opposing players slap each other on the back when it’s over
.VFW Drama and Carrying Grievances
Speaking of personalities, we’re dealing with drama at the VFW post again. One individual has spent much of the past year burning bridges with almost everyone. Now it’s come to a head, and finding an impartial group to review the incident is tough because everyone already has strong opinions. We have to stick to the four corners of the actual incident report instead of dragging in every past slight. If he hadn’t alienated so many people, a bad day might have been easier to overlook.
What relationship baggage are you carrying? Are you nursing old grievances, watering them with resentment, waiting for the perfect moment to cash them in? (I joke that I have a whole flower bed of grievances—but I’m only half-kidding about how easy that mindset is.)AI, Visibility, and the Limits of Algorithms
A couple weeks ago I talked about AI in real estate. An Inman piece just crossed my feed noting that 91.5% of top-producing agents don’t show up in AI searches. Who does? The ones skilled at self-promotion.Google (and the AI tools built on it) favors people with strong online footprints—Google Business profiles, YouTube channels like this one, consistent content. If I happen to be the only person who addressed a niche topic in an earlier episode, the algorithm may point people my way even if I’m not the best specialist. There could be a quiet 75-year-old expert who knows exactly how to legally affix trailers to lots so owners can borrow against the property, but if he never talks about it publicly, AI won’t surface him. Visibility doesn’t equal expertise.
I’m using AI more myself—uploading long documents (procedure handbooks, Robert’s Rules) and asking targeted questions instead of reading hundreds of pages. It’s a powerful tool. Just don’t outsource your thinking to it. I refuse to name my AIs or give them voices; they’re bots, not people. Real estate is still a person-to-person business. Use AI as a companion, not a replacement for judgment.
Market Snapshot (as of August 19, 2026)
- Active listings: 23,472 (up 59 week-over-week)
- New listings: 2,022 (up 154)
- Contracts: 255 (down 9)
- Closings: 1,370
- Coming soon: 543
- Supply: 98
- Demand: 78.8
- “Cromford report” number: 80.4 (essentially flat from last week’s 80.5)
I’d rather see that number climb into the low hundreds. Nationally, we’re in one of the slower periods in years. But national averages mask local differences—Massachusetts prices may be softening while Florida keeps rising. Locally, areas like Goodyear, Buckeye, Maricopa, and San Tan still have plenty of stale inventory. A buddy called last night about a seller in Goodyear who’s been on the market 180 days with mostly lowball offers. If she needs to get out, it’s time for OpenDoor or Offerpad and accepting the hit. Agents should set realistic expectations early: some locations are simply tougher right now (drive west at 5 p.m. and you’ll understand why many people prefer closer-in spots like Tempe or Mesa). Client timelines also shift—people who say they can wait often start panicking two weeks later. Personality and communication matter a lot here.
Closing Thoughts. Watch your personality conflicts. Sometimes the healthiest move is simply walking away. Work your circles every day. And with the monsoon we just had—trees down, flooding risk—please watch kids and pets around water, don’t drive through flooded areas, and keep an eye out for debris in the road. Have a great weekend. Talk to you later.