The 80/20 Rule Most Agents Have Backwards

Drive north on I-25 toward Fort Collins and count the billboards. A dentist, a personal injury lawyer, a furniture store, a real estate agent smiling next to a phone number.

You've passed them a hundred times. You have never once pulled over to follow one.

Now open a lot of agents' Instagram feeds: Just Listed, Just Sold, Open House Saturday. It's the same billboard, just smaller and on your phone.

What is the 80/20 rule for realtors?

The 80/20 rule for realtors has two common meanings. In business, it's the Pareto principle: a small share of agents does most of the transactions. On social media, it's a content guideline that says roughly 80 percent of your posts should inform, help, or entertain, and only about 20 percent should directly promote you or your listings.

Both meanings are real, and you'll hear agents use them interchangeably. They're worth separating, because one is a fact about the industry and the other is a choice you make every week.

Is it true that 20 percent of agents do 80 percent of the business?

Close, but not quite. The original Pareto principle is a loose observation that a few causes tend to produce most of the effects, not a law with exact numbers.

When industry analyst Mike DelPrete looked at roughly 3.4 million U.S. home sales from 2024, the top 20 percent of agents handled about 65 percent of transactions. Those top agents averaged 26 deals a year, while everyone else averaged 3.5.

So the spirit holds even if the math is softer. A small group does a big share of the business, and the gap between them and everyone else is enormous.

What does the 80/20 rule mean on social media?

Here, it's a guideline about balance. Marketers have been repeating it for well over a decade: give most of your content to the audience, and keep the self-promotion to about a fifth.

And this is the version most agents have backwards. Their feed is 80 percent promotion, and the other 20 percent is a holiday post.

What is the 70/20/10 rule for social media?

The 70/20/10 rule is a content mix with more than one version. The most common says 70 percent of your posts should be original content that educates or entertains, 20 percent should share relevant content from others, and 10 percent should promote you directly. Another version splits content into 70 percent proven, 20 percent variations, and 10 percent experiments.

The name itself is borrowed. A 70/20/10 model has long been used in leadership development, and marketers adapted the numbers for content.

Which version of 70/20/10 should an agent use?

• The value version (70 value, 20 shared, 10 promotion). Good for keeping your feed from turning into an ad. The weak spot for agents is the 20 percent: reposting other people's content does little to make anyone remember you.
• The risk version (70 proven, 20 variations, 10 experiments). This one came out of corporate content planning more than a decade ago. Most of your posts follow formats that already work, some remix those formats, and a small slice tries something new.
• The honest answer. Neither is a law. Both are useful reminders that a healthy feed isn't one note played over and over.

Nobody follows a billboard. They follow a person.

Why doesn't a feed full of listings work?

Because a listing is only interesting to the handful of people shopping in that price range, in that neighborhood, this month. Everyone else scrolls past, and they learn to scroll past you.

A home is one of the biggest purchases a person ever makes. Nobody picks an agent from a single post, the same way nobody picks a surgeon from a single billboard. They pick the person they've been quietly watching for months.

That's the job of social media for an agent. Not to sell this listing to this buyer today, but to be familiar and trusted by the time someone in Loveland decides it's finally time to move.

So what goes in the other 80 percent?

In our work with agents, a strong feed mixes four kinds of content. Listings are one of them, not all of them.

• The listings. Yes, still post them. They prove you're active and show the quality of your marketing.
• You. Your face, your voice, your opinions about the market. People hire people, and this is how they meet you before they meet you.
• Entertainment for your ideal client. Content your future sellers actually enjoy, like the most unusual homes in Northern Colorado or the best patios in Old Town Fort Collins. It keeps them around between listings.
• Proof. Real clients, on camera, talking about what it was like to work with you. It says what you can't say about yourself.

Notice what that does to the ratio. Your listings become the promotional slice, and everything else gives people a reason to follow.

Should you stop posting Just Listed graphics?

No. Just stop letting them be the whole feed.

A Just Listed post is like a dessert. Great after a real meal, and a little sad as the only thing on the table.

How do you know if your ratio is off?

Open your own profile and scroll the last twelve posts. Pretend you're a homeowner in Windsor who has never met you.

• Can you tell who this agent is? Not their logo. Them.
• Is there a reason to follow if you're not shopping right now? If every post is a house for sale, there isn't.
• Is there proof? A single happy client on video beats a dozen graphics that say "Top Producer."
• Would you watch it if it weren't yours? Be honest.

If the answers sting a little, good. That's the gap between a billboard and a brand, and the agents who close it are the ones people already know when it's time to call.