The Operator Brief

Hi friends,

I'm starting this weekly note for a simple reason. A lot of agents are being told to “use AI,” and very little of what they read is tied to an actual market, an actual inbox, or an actual second business.

I work in Bangor, Maine. I sell real estate with eXp Realty, I run SI Associates, a property-management company with about 200 units, and I invest in property myself. I also use AI assistants — Eve on the business side and Marcus on maintenance — so the work can move even when I'm not in every inbox.

Each week I'll share what's happening in this market, what I'm seeing in investing and small-business operations, and which AI uses are actually saving time without creating risk. The goal is useful, not loud.

Maine cooled in October. Buyers have more room.

The Maine Association of Realtors reported today that statewide single-family existing-home sales in October were about 1,500, down 6.58% from October 2025. The median sale price was $402,500, down 5.63%. Judy Oberg, the association's 2026 president, said buyer demand has softened, buyers have more homes to choose from than a year ago, and sellers are facing more competition — which is showing up in sold prices. Move-in-ready homes that are priced strategically are still selling.

That matches the national picture in direction, if not in every number. The National Association of Realtors said existing-home sales fell 5.5% month over month in October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.75 million, and were down 8.8% from a year earlier. Inventory rose to 1.59 million units, a 5.1-month supply. The median price for all existing homes was $416,700, up 0.4% from a year ago. For single-family homes only, sales were down 8.6% year over year and the median was $421,900.

If you work with sellers, this is a pricing-and-presentation market, not a “just list it” market. If you work with buyers or investors, there is finally more to look at, but the cost of money is still doing a lot of the work.

Rates eased again. They're still high.

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released November 12, put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.11%, down from 7.18% the week before. That's the fourth straight weekly decline and the lowest reading in seven weeks. A year ago it was 6.24%. The 15-year average was 6.45%.

NAR's October report is a reminder that the monthly average was still higher than this week's print: the 30-year averaged 7.33% in October, up from 6.86% in September and 6.25% a year earlier. The recent dip is real. It has not taken us back to last year's rates.

One more figure from that same NAR report that's useful if you talk to investors: individual investors and second-home buyers accounted for 20% of October transactions, up from 16% a year earlier. Distressed sales were still only 2%. In a market with more listings and slightly lower rates, the agents who can underwrite a deal — not just write an offer — are in a better seat.

Nearly half of agents use AI weekly. The risk is in the shortcuts.

NAR's 2026 Realtors Technology Report, released in September and discussed again last week at NAR's NXT conference, found that 23% of agents use AI daily and 25% use it weekly. Another 31% are experimenting occasionally. Only 12% said they are not using it and don't plan to, down from 32% who had not yet tried AI in 2025.

Mike Woodward, NAR's director of data science, made the caution plain. Don't put confidential client information into a free tool that may train on what you type. Don't treat the output as fact — he described tests in which several details came back wrong. And don't let image tools invent a fireplace, a window, or a pool. That's misrepresentation. Virtual staging can be legitimate when you disclose it and show the original photo next to the edit. The listing still goes out under your name.

That's the standard we use here. Eve and Marcus draft, file, and flag work. Nothing goes to a client, a vendor, or a tenant until a person has signed off on it.

Specialists beat one giant chat box.

If you try to run a brokerage, a management company, and an investment pipeline out of one AI window, it gets sloppy. We split the jobs.

Eve handles the business-operations side — the inboxes, the follow-up, the scheduling, the drafts. Marcus coordinates maintenance for the management company. Each one stays in its lane. I still see the summaries, and I still approve anything that leaves the building.

You don't need my exact setup to steal the idea. Pick the two or three recurring jobs that eat your week. Give each one a clear role, a place to put the files, and a rule that a human reviews outbound messages. That's how you run more than one business without living in your email.

There's a team seat if you want to talk.

eXp makes it possible to build a team across state lines. I'm recruiting agents who want to use modern tools, keep a human in the loop, and run a real practice — whether that's production, investing, or another business on the side. There's no pitch in this issue beyond that. If you want the conversation, you can reply, book a time, or read the team page at jonhyatt-join-exp.pages.dev.

All the best,
Jon Hyatt
Broker, eXp Realty · SI Associates
Bangor, Maine

P.S. If a colleague is trying to run more than one business at once, forward this issue. If you'd rather tell me what you want covered next week — market, investing, AI, or operations — just reply or email info@jonhyattbroker.com.