Real Estate Training When the Office Classes Don't Fit You (2026)

The problem: Office training is built for the average agent in the room, and you're ahead of it or behind it, so the classes never touch the one thing costing you deals.

The fix: Your next round of training is sitting in the last five deals you lost. All it takes is one person and a phone.

What changes: You'll know the exact skill to fix and have a way to practice it this week, and you stop waiting for someone to train you.

By D.J. Paris, president of sales and marketing at Kale Realty and host of the Keeping It Real Podcast. The fix is below. If you want to talk it through, there's a 10-minute option right after it.

What's really going on: the class has to fit the whole room

Office training has to work for everyone who shows up, so it's built for the average agent in the room. That's a fair way to run a class. But you're ahead of it or behind it, so the hour never touches the one thing costing you deals. You leave with good notes on a topic you didn't need.

Your next round of training is already written. It's sitting in the last five deals you lost. Those losses name the exact skill. After that, all it takes is one person and a phone. Keep going to the office classes if you get something from them. This is the piece you add yourself.

Move 1: find the skill in your last five losses, then ask one of them

Look at the last five deals or clients you lost and mark where each one died. Don't have five? Use what you've got.

• Lost the listing appointment?
• Buyer went quiet after three showings?
• Offer came in second?

The stage that shows up most is your curriculum. One skill, 60 days. Then text one person who picked someone else.

No hard feelings, and I'm not asking you to change anything. I'm trying to get better. What's one thing the agent you chose did that I didn't? To one person who chose another agent

Send it once. Check with your managing broker first. Ask them: "Is it okay if I send one feedback text to someone who went with another agent?" If the person answers, say thanks and stop there. Don't defend yourself and don't pitch. The mistake that ruins this move is picking the skill you'd enjoy working on over the one your losses point to.

Move 2: look up the one person, and ask for something small

Don't guess who's best at your skill. Look it up. In connectMLS, pull the closed sales in your area for the last 12 months and see whose name keeps showing up. Don't ask "will you mentor me?" That sounds like a job and gets a no. Ask this.

You closed [N] listings in [area] last year. I looked it up. Can I buy you coffee and ask five questions about just that? To the agent whose name keeps showing up

Start with this one.

What do you do in the first five minutes that most agents skip? Your first question at coffee

It works because you did the homework, the ask has an end, and it's about the thing they're good at. Write your five questions before you go and keep every one on your one skill. If they're slammed, ask: "Would ten minutes on the phone be easier?" The mistake is showing up with twenty questions about everything.

Move 3: rehearse the one moment you lost, not the whole pitch

Don't run the full presentation start to finish. Take the exact moment from Move 1, like the fee question, and drill only that. Open ChatGPT or Claude in voice mode and say this.

Play a seller who just told me another agent will do it for less. Here's roughly what they said: [their words, no names or addresses]. Don't go easy. After each try, tell me where I lost you. Say this out loud in voice mode

• Do ten in a row.
• Record yourself on your phone for the last one.
• Listen once.

Record only yourself. Recording a real call or meeting in Illinois takes everyone's permission. If your moment isn't the fee question, swap the first line for yours, like a buyer who went quiet after three showings. Don't write an answer and read it. Say it out loud, a little different each time. Reading is the mistake here, because nobody reads to a seller across a kitchen table.

Do this today

You stop waiting to be trained

An agent who does this knows the one skill they're working on and can say it in a sentence. They've got one person to learn it from and a way to practice it without a client in the room. The office classes become a bonus. Your own losses become the lesson plan.

Who this works for, and who should read something else

Frequently asked questions

Still stuck on this one? Book 10 minutes with D.J. No strings, not a recruiting call. I'll call you, and I won't bring up Kale unless you do.