Chris List™

We asked 1,000 agents how long their current listing marketing plan lasts.

The average answer: 7–14 days.

When we asked about days on market, the most common answer was 40–60 days.

Regardless of your market, the gap is real.

That's why we are hosting The Ultimate 90 Day Listing Marketing Plan​
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You'll walk away with a specific plan that includes: social, video, email, text, past clients, and buyers.

Every angle. Every channel. Nothing left to chance.
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​RSVP here​

Here's the best Chris List so far this year...

📝 [C]ontent: The "Forest Through the Trees" AI moment

🛠 [H]ow-To: Make A+ videos using NotebookLM + MLS data

🔬 [R]esearch: The goldfish attention span stat is fake

🎨 [I]nspiration: Burger King paid people to go to McDonalds

💡 [S]wipes: Honest agents will admit publicly that they use AI

📝 [C]ONTENT

Viktor Works While I Sleep 💤 🤖

Most AI tools fall into one of three buckets:

game changer​
​nice to have​
​complete waste of time

The problem is that most people have already been burned by the second and third categories.

They’ve used ChatGPT to write a few emails, maybe cranked out some captions, maybe tested a flashy demo or two… and walked away thinking, “Cool, I guess.”

Helpful sometimes. Impressive occasionally. But not life-changing.

That’s why the truly important AI tools are so easy to miss.

They get buried under a mountain of junk.

And I almost missed one.

I don’t usually feature products in the content section of The Chris List. This one earned it.

The reason is simple: Viktor is not another AI tool you open, use, and close.

It acts more like an AI coworker living inside Slack, connected to all your tools, handling work across your business, and continuing to operate when you’re nowhere near your desk.

At first, that sounds like the usual AI hype.

Then the results start stacking up.

It audited my social accounts and surfaced an insight that actually changed my strategy: there was a 190x engagement gap between top-performing and worst-performing content.

Same account. Same audience. Totally different outcomes.

That’s not “write me a caption” AI. That’s analyst-level pattern recognition most people never get around to doing.

Then it became a newsletter research assistant, studying past editions, identifying what actually performed, and pulling fresh story ideas already shaped around the format that works.

Then came the emotional turning point:

It worked overnight.

Instead of waking up on Monday at zero, there were research reports, prospect dossiers, content ideas, competitive intel, and drafted posts already waiting.

That’s the moment this stops feeling like a fun productivity add-on and starts feeling like leverage.

And then came the “wait, what?” moment.

Not the content.
Not the captions.
Not the research.

The financial organization.

​Viktor took a pile of messy documents, parsed them, categorized them, and turned them into a clean, accountant-ready package in a fraction of the time it took me last year.

That's the kind of use case that breaks your mental model, because everyone expects AI to dabble in marketing. Almost nobody expects it to handle operational back-office chaos that cleanly.

Why This Is the "Forest Through the Trees" Moment

Most people are still evaluating AI one trick at a time.

Can it write a blog post?
Can it make an image?
Can it help with captions?

That’s the wrong lens.

The new dividing line is not whether an AI tool can help you do a task faster.

It’s whether it can take work off your plate entirely.

That’s the difference between a tool you use… and a coworker who uses tools for you.

And once you see that difference, you will never look back.
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You can try Viktor for free (no cc required) using this link.

🛠 [H]OW-TO

Google's New NotebookLM Video Overviews (here's the Realtor playbook) ⚡️

Google just rolled out Cinematic Video Overviews in NotebookLM.
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​It makes turning boring source material into a watchable video in seconds.

Here’s the good news for Realtors: you do not need the expensive tier to get value from this.

The flashy Cinematic format is currently limited to Google AI Ultra subscribers, but the two formats most agents should care about, Explainer and Brief, are already in NotebookLM’s regular Video Overview workflow and are plenty useful for turning PDFs, docs, links, and reports into simple narrated videos.

Here’s the dead-simple playbook:

1. Create a notebook and upload your sources.​
Add a market report PDF, MLS stats, a CMA, listing links, a blog post, neighborhood info, YouTube links, Google Docs, or pasted text. NotebookLM builds the video from whatever you feed it.

2. Open Studio and click “Video Overview.”​
That’s the button that kicks everything off. You can let NotebookLM use default settings or customize it before generating.

3. Pick the right format.​
Use Brief for a quick highlight reel. Use Explainer for a more in-depth walkthrough.

4. Add a steering prompt.​
Tell it what to emphasize: “Focus on inventory, median price, and days on market,” or “Make this seller-facing and easy to understand.” This is where the output gets much better.

5. Generate, then share or download.​
Once it’s done, you can share the video by link, share the whole notebook, or download the file directly.

The best Realtor use cases are obvious:

Upload your monthly market data PDF and turn it into a narrated market update people might actually watch.

Upload listings plus neighborhood info and create a buyer-friendly video.

Upload your newsletter or blog post and instantly make a second piece of content for social or YouTube.

Upload comparable sales data and create a cleaner, more visual CMA walkthrough before your listing appointment.

Or use the footage that it spits out as custom b-roll in your next YouTube video.

Those are not gimmicks. That is real repurposing.

You do not need to script every line, edit every frame, or pretend to be a video producer before your second cup of coffee.

You just need good source material, which every agent has access to.

🔬 [R]ESEARCH

You Have 1.7 Seconds. That's It. ⏳

That’s the average amount of time someone spends looking at a piece of content on their phone before deciding whether to engage… or scroll past.

That stat alone explains why so much marketing, content, and advertising feels like it’s fighting for oxygen.

And the trend behind it is getting worse.

Research from UC Irvine’s Gloria Mark shows the average screen attention span has collapsed to just 47 seconds today.

In 2004, it was 2.5 minutes.

By 2012, it dropped to 75 seconds.

Now it’s under a minute, and still falling.

The bigger issue isn’t just short attention.

It’s constant interruption.

The average person faces 275 interruptions per day, and once you lose focus it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to fully return to the original task.

Americans now check their phones 205 times per day, roughly every five minutes during waking hours, and 80% of people check their phone within the first 10 minutes of waking up.

The content ecosystem has adapted accordingly. Short-form video is dominating because the data supports it.

Videos under 15 seconds on TikTok have a 76.4% completion rate, while viewer retention on Instagram Reels drops to 33% by the 10-second mark.

And one popular stat you’ve probably heard?

The idea that humans now have an “8-second attention span shorter than a goldfish.”

Completely fake. The number came from a Microsoft Canada report that cited a marketing website, not peer-reviewed science.

The real story is less catchy...and more concerning.

Attention isn’t disappearing.
It’s becoming hyper-selective.

Why This Matters for Realtors

Your marketing lives inside this attention economy.

Your listing photo has about 1–2 seconds to stop the scroll on Zillow, Instagram, or TikTok. If the first image looks like every other beige living room, it’s gone.

Your email subject line has to earn the click instantly, or the 47-second attention window never even begins.

And those three-minute listing walkthrough videos?​
Most viewers decide in the first 5–10 seconds whether they’ll keep watching.

The agents who win in 2026 won’t just produce more content.

They’ll produce content that breaks patterns immediately.

Unexpected listing photos.
Hooks in the first sentence.
Videos that open with the most interesting moment, not the introduction.

Because in a world where attention decisions happen in 1.7 seconds, the first frame matters more than the entire rest of the message.

🎨 [I]NSPIRATION

Burger King Paid People to Leave McDonald’s. It Worked. 🍔

Burger King’s Whopper Detour geofenced more than 14,000 McDonald’s locations, unlocked a 1-cent Whopper inside the BK app when users got close, and then routed them to Burger King for pickup.

The result: 1.5 million app downloads in 9 days, $40 million in earned media, and a reported 37:1 ROI.

The audacity was the story, but the deeper genius was this: Burger King used its competitor’s physical footprint as the top of its own funnel.

That’s the Realtor lesson.

The big team with 40 open houses this month?
The new-construction sales center with constant traffic?
The luxury condo building every buyer is touring?

Geofencing inventory

And this is where agents usually get stuck: they hear “geofencing” and think it sounds cool, but have no idea what tool to use.

Here are the practical starting points:

​Google Ads is the easiest entry point. Google officially supports location targeting by radius, so if you want the beginner version of this strategy, you can run ads around a neighborhood, ZIP cluster, or a radius near a competing open house or farm area.

It’s the simplest place to test the idea without needing enterprise software.

​GroundTruth Ads Manager is the better next step if you want a more true self-serve, location-based ad platform. GroundTruth positions it as an easy-to-use self-serve tool built to drive website visits, in-store visits, and local results with location-based advertising.

For an agent, that means you can think beyond “run ads in my city” and start thinking: “show ads to people who were physically near this event, this brokerage, this building, or this listing.”

​Waze is the one many agents think of for “nearby driver” ads, but there’s an important caveat: Waze is now owned by Google, so you get the best of both worlds.

Burger King saw 14,000 McDonald’s and thought, “perfect...14,000 places to intercept intent.”

A smart Realtor should look at a vibrant neighborhood, a busy builder model, or a massive home decor event and think the exact same way.

💡 [S]WIPES

“I Use AI” Transparency Templates NAR Should Require 😇

Most agents still think admitting they use AI will make them look lazy, fake, or less professional.

The data says the opposite.

57% of consumers say they trust brands more when those brands are transparent about how they use AI.

That changes the playbook.

The opportunity is not to pretend you’re doing everything manually. It’s to show clients that you use modern tools responsibly, thoughtfully, and in ways that benefit them.

That’s the positioning sweet spot:

“I use AI for speed and efficiency. I do not use it to replace judgment, strategy, or human care.”

These templates help you say that clearly.

📨 Email Swipe

Subject: How I prep for your listing in 2026 (yes, AI is involved)

Here’s what most agents won’t tell you:

I use AI.

Not for the parts that actually require judgment, strategy, and emotional intelligence. Not for pricing your home. Not for negotiating on your behalf. Not for the late-night call when you’re stressed about inspection issues.

I use it for the stuff that used to eat hours of my week so I can spend more of that time on you.

This week alone, I used AI to:
→ analyze dozens of comparable sales faster
→ turn market data into a simple video update
→ help draft marketing ideas I then rewrote in my own voice

That’s the part I think matters most: AI helps me start faster. It does not replace my brain.

The agents pretending they don’t use AI? A lot of them do. They’re just hiding it.

I’d rather be transparent about my tools and obsessive about my results.

[Your Name]

📘 Facebook / IG Carousel Swipe

Hot take: I use AI in my real estate business. 🤖

Not to replace the personal stuff.
To remove the busy work so I can be more present for my clients.

Here’s what that looks like:

1️⃣ Research faster​
AI helps me sort through market data, comps, and trends in minutes instead of hours.

2️⃣ Make updates easier to understand​
I can turn dense reports into cleaner, simpler content like video updates and client explainers.

3️⃣ Draft faster, then rewrite better​
AI helps me get a rough draft on the page. Everything still gets reviewed, edited, and personalized by me.

The result?
More time advising clients.
Less time buried in tabs, spreadsheets, and admin.
​
Here’s how I don’t use it:
– pricing strategy
– negotiation
– reading the room
– handling emotional conversations
– giving advice without human judgment

If your agent says they don’t use AI in 2026, they’re either hiding it… or falling behind.

Questions about how AI actually works in real estate? Drop them below 👇

The big idea here is simple:

Transparency is no longer a liability. It’s an advantage.

If consumers trust brands more when they’re honest about AI, then the winning move is not secrecy. It’s clarity.

The agents who win won’t be the ones pretending AI doesn’t exist.

They’ll be the ones who explain exactly how they use it, where they don’t use it, and why the human parts of the job still matter most.