When the market tightens, sellers get nervous and agents get desperate. The desperate move is to win the listing by telling the seller what they want to hear: a price that is too high, or a fee that is too low. It feels like winning. It is not. Overpriced stock sits, the seller blames the agent, and the listing dies anyway. A discounted fee just means you did all that work for less.
The agents who come through a buyer's market in good shape do the opposite. They win the mandate on honesty and process, not on the biggest number. They price from real evidence, not hope, and they can show the seller exactly why. They qualify hard, so the buyers they bring are real and the viewings count. And they work to a rhythm, so nothing slips through the week.
None of that is glamorous. It is discipline, and discipline is exactly what falls away first when people are anxious. That is the opening. While the rest of the market is chasing listings with promises it cannot keep, the disciplined agent is the one who actually closes, and the seller who was told an honest price is the one who refers the next deal.
The market does not reward the loudest pitch. It rewards the agent who can price it, sell it, and be trusted to do it again.