Down 29. Four minutes left. Sound familiar?

I’m not a pro-sports guy.

I’ll root for a few college basketball teams. Mostly women’s. Growing up in the South, you turn on SEC football in the fall because that’s just what you do. But I’ve never been the guy who tracks a season, knows the rosters, or stays up late to watch a game.

My partner Ron is.

He’s been deep in the NBA Finals these last few weeks. So last night we did what we usually do when something matters to him — we went up to the rooftop, popped a bottle of champagne, filled the flutes, and hoped for the best.

It was Game 4. Knicks vs. Spurs. Madison Square Garden. By halftime, the Knicks were down 29 points.

It was already past my bedtime. I almost went to bed. But Ron was locked in. And his energy pulled me back in. So I stayed.

We watched the Knicks chip away. Slowly. A possession at a time. Down 20. Down 16. Down 12.

With four minutes left in the fourth quarter, I genuinely thought the Spurs had it. A commercial hit. Ron and I walked downstairs to the kitchen — and of course, the TV in the living room was blaring, the game was on every screen in the house. He couldn’t escape it. Neither could I anymore.

Last few seconds. A timeout. We rushed back up to the roof. And just like that — BOOM — the Knicks won Game 4 in Madison Square Garden.

I’ll be honest with you: a tear was shed. You could feel the energy. You could feel what it meant to the players, the coaches, the fans, the city.

But sitting on that roof at midnight, watching grown men celebrate a comeback that should have been mathematically impossible — I wasn’t thinking about basketball.

I was thinking about real estate.

Here’s why.

Pull up your local MLS stats right now. Not the headlines. The actual numbers in your market over the last 90 days.

I’ll go first. Here’s what Fulton County looks like in Atlanta as of last month: sold volume down 17.2% year-over-year. New listings down 14.2%. Pending transactions down 13.7%. Closed deals down 7.6% month-over-month.

Now go look at your market. I’d bet good money your numbers are telling a similar story.

Consumer confidence is low. The headlines are loud. Most agents I talk to are exhausted — not by activity, but by the noise. By the constant feeling that the market is moving against them and there’s nothing they can do about it.

That’s halftime. Down 29.

And here’s what I want every agent reading this to hear: the Knicks didn’t win that game by trying to score 29 points all at once.

They won it by getting locked in on one thing: the next possession. The next defensive stop. The next shot. Not the gap. Not the scoreboard. Not the noise from the crowd or the commentators counting them out.

One possession at a time. One stop at a time. One shot at a time. That’s how comebacks happen. Not in moments. In reps.

Here’s what I keep watching the best agents do right now.

They’re not trying to “fix the market.” They can’t. They’re not focused on what the world is doing. They can’t control that either.

They’re focused on what’s happening in the living room across the street. On the phone call their past client got last week about a job promotion that requires a relocation. The family expecting their third kid and quietly outgrowing their starter home. On the empty nester whose spouse just retired and is ready to downsize.

The noise of the market plays a part. But it doesn’t change the fact that life still happens. People still have real estate needs.

The agents winning the second half of 2026 aren’t asking “who wants to move?” They’re asking “who needs to?” Then they’re picking up the phone.

Here’s how to run your comeback this quarter.

Not theory. Five plays you can run this week. Each one has the action, the why, and the AI execution. Read it. Then go do it.

1. Call 10 people from your database in the next 48 hours. No agenda. Just check in.

Not a “market update.” Not a “just touching base.” Not a thinly-veiled lead-gen text. An actual human phone call to ask how they are. Ten of them. Forty-eight hours.

The agents winning right now aren’t running smarter campaigns. They’re having more conversations. The math is brutal and simple: more real conversations → more discovered life events → more transactions. Nothing else compounds faster.

AI execution — copy this exact prompt: “I’m a real estate agent. Here are 10 people from my database I haven’t talked to in 6+ months: [paste names + last interaction]. For each one, give me a one-sentence opener I could text or use to start a call that references something specific about them — not real estate. Just human.”

Run it. Send the texts. Make the calls.

2. Identify the 25 people in your database who are statistically most likely to move in the next 12 months. By Friday.

Not “everyone.” Not “my top 100.” Twenty-five. By name. With a reason each one made the list.

Your database doesn’t need more contacts — it needs more focus. The agents winning the back half of 2026 know exactly who their next 25 transactions are coming from before they happen. Most agents are guessing. You’re going to stop guessing.

AI execution — copy this exact prompt: “I’m going to paste a list of contacts from my CRM with names, ages, family situations, jobs, last interactions, and any notes. Identify the 25 most likely to have a real estate need in the next 12 months. For each, give me: (1) the life event that signals readiness, (2) a specific opener I could use to start a real conversation, (3) the right channel — call, text, in-person.”

Then build a 25-person spreadsheet. One contact per row. Touch each one every 14 days until they transact or tell you to stop.

3. Set up a weekly “comeback dashboard” you check every Monday at 8am. Track 3 numbers only.

Not deals closed. Not pipeline value. Not GCI. Those are outcomes — and outcomes are what scoreboards measure. You’re done watching the scoreboard.

The three numbers you actually track: conversations had (real ones — not texts, not emails; voice or in-person), appointments set, and listings or buyer agreements signed.

That’s it. If those three numbers move every week, the closings take care of themselves. The Knicks weren’t tracking “points in the bag.” They were tracking possessions. Same principle.

AI execution — copy this exact prompt: “Build me a simple weekly tracker for a real estate agent. Three metrics only: conversations had, appointments set, agreements signed. Weekly target columns. Variance from goal. Running 4-week average. Then write me a 6-question Monday morning self-review I should answer every week based on the numbers.”

Drop it into Google Sheets. Open it every Monday. Fill it in. Don’t skip a week for 90 days.

4. Write one piece of content this week that answers a real question your last client actually asked you.

Not “5 tips for first-time buyers.” Not “is now a good time to buy?” Not anything you could have written in 2019.

A specific question. A real question. The kind that came out of a real conversation with a real person who was confused, worried, or curious about something nobody on Instagram is talking about. That’s the content that lands. That’s the content that travels. That’s the content that pulls the next lead.

AI execution — copy this exact prompt: “I’m a real estate agent. Here’s a question one of my recent clients actually asked me: [paste the question]. Write me three versions of the answer: (1) a 90-second video script in plain spoken English, (2) a 4-slide Instagram carousel breaking down the answer step by step, (3) a short email I could send to my database with the answer and a soft CTA to reply with their own questions.”

Pick the format that fits your week. Post it. Then save the prompt — you’re going to use it every week from now on.

5. Block 90 minutes on your calendar tomorrow for outbound only. No inbox. No social. No notifications.

Phone in the other room. Door closed. Calendar blocked. Ninety minutes of one thing only: reaching out to people. Calls, texts, voice memos, handwritten cards — whatever channel fits the relationship.

The agents winning right now aren’t more talented. They’re not in better markets. They’re not paying for better leads. They’re just doing the one thing every other agent avoids: consistent, unprompted outreach. Most agents will spend their day reacting to email and putting out fires. You’re going to spend 90 minutes a day creating fires that turn into deals.

AI execution — copy this exact prompt: “Build me a 90-minute outbound block plan. Here are my top 25 priority contacts: [paste names + context]. For each, recommend: the right channel for today (call/text/voice memo/handwritten card), the exact message or opening line, and the expected outcome of the touch. Order the list from highest-leverage to lowest so I work through it in priority order.”

Print the plan. Sit down. Set a timer. Run the reps.

Here’s what I keep thinking about.

At halftime, that game was over. Mathematically, the Spurs should have won. The probability of coming back from 29 points in an NBA finals game is somewhere around 1 in 200.

But the Knicks didn’t know that. Or if they did, they didn’t care. They just kept running plays.

The second half of 2026 isn’t going to be won by the agents who got lucky or caught a hot listing. It’s going to be won by the ones who refused to watch the scoreboard — who put their head down, ran the next play, made the next call, had the next conversation, and trusted that the math would work itself out.

The market doesn’t decide who wins. It decides who gets tested.

What you do in the second half decides everything else.

Building with you, Austin Sizemore

P.S. — That tear on the rooftop wasn’t really about basketball. It was about watching a group of people refuse to quit when every reasonable signal said they should. If you read this and something in you needs that reminder right now — this email was for you.

P.P.S. — Knicks in five. See you in San Antonio.

Austin Sizemore is the CEO & Founder of Austin Sizemore Companiesand CEO & Team Leader of Keller Williams Realty Metro Atlanta — a market center, a producing sales team, and the operating systems behind them.