Get ahead before Christmas: Why December sets up your 2026 success

CRE Success Principle: Discipline in December delivers momentum in February. While competitors slow down, top agents warm their pipeline, tidy their database, and secure three to five launch-ready listings. This prevents the new-year scramble, shortens the sales cycle, and provides a head start in the new year.

In commercial real estate, the work you do before Christmas often determines the strength of your first quarter.

When I looked at the 2026 calendar, the compressed selling window became clear: Easter arrives in early April, school holidays follow, and we have Anzac Day on 25 April.

That means the nine and a half weeks between Australia Day and Good Friday is all we get in Australia.

Why December Matters

If you wait until late January to begin prospecting, your listings will not hit the market until mid-February.

You can still run a campaign, but you will be rushing. I would much rather see agents enter the new year with momentum instead of pressure.

Secure Listings Before the Break

My recommendation is simple: have three to five listings ready to launch in late January.

They do not need to be big. They just need to be ready. This visibility builds confidence, energy, and competitive advantage.

Warm Your Pipeline Now

Plenty of owners will no doubt say, “Let’s talk in the New Year.” When you hear that, your job is to lock in the meeting now, even if it is set for late January or February.

The point is that once you are in their calendar, you are far more likely to convert that opportunity.

Finish the Year Purposefully

If your deal activity slows a few days before Christmas, use that time to tidy your database and send thoughtful end-of-year messages. A handwritten note always beats a generic card.

If you want to start 2026 with clarity and momentum, this episode will help you map out the steps. Listen to or watch Episode 248 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership to get the full strategy.

Episode transcript:

This episode is being released on the 26th of November. And that means there are only four weeks until Christmas.

Now, most commercial real estate agents here in Australia will be taking a break, a well-earned break, I might say.

They're probably going to have their last day on Friday, the 19th of December. Maybe some will come back for Monday the 22nd, or even Tuesday the 23rd.

I doubt many will be there on Wednesday the 24th, and then they'll come back on either Monday, January the 12th or the 19th, or perhaps after the Australia Day long weekend for the lucky ones on Tuesday, the 27th of January.

And that's when the real work begins for most.

But you can get a head start. You can make sure that you are more likely to have a Q1 which is successful by the groundwork that you lay now.

Because I was looking at the calendar and I realized that in 2026 Easter is in the first weekend of April. And after that we've got the school holidays, and here in Australia we've got Anzac Day on the 25th of April.

So that means April's going to be very much interrupted. So, the nine and a half weeks between Australia Day and Good Friday is the runway that we have to get deals done and to build real momentum in the first quarter of 2026.

So, if you don't have listings to launch and ready to go on the 27th of January, your potential for a strong Q1 is probably over before it begins.

So, let's talk about what you can do now to make sure that you have a fantastic start to the new year.

This is episode 248 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership. My name's Darren Krakowiak. I'm your host. I'm here to help you lead better, grow faster, and stress less.

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I want to talk to you right now about the two types of agents that are out there in December.

There's Agent A. And Agent A is probably the more commonly seen commercial real estate agent. They're ready to check out as early as possible.

They might close out a couple more deals before year-end, but really their plan is to coast, to go to every Christmas party, and they tell themself it's going to be okay because they believe that everyone is switching off. So, there's no point in pushing, and there's sort of some truth to that.

But then there's Agent B. Agent B uses December as a competitive advantage. They know that people are a bit more relaxed because it's the end of the year and people are starting to slow down, and there's also a lot less noise from competitors.

And when there's less competition in December, they're the ones who are actually able to get through to the people who are the most likely to help them be able to fill their pipeline with opportunities in early 2026.

So which agent are you? Are you Agent A who's just going to coast by over the next four weeks and wait until whether it's Friday, December the 19th, or Tuesday, December the 23rd?

Or are you going to use the next three - four weeks to really build up your competitive advantage and set yourself up for success in 2026?

I think these last days of November and the first few weeks of December really, really matter because the stock you line up now becomes your early 2026 income.

Now, you might already know this, and if you do, this is just a timely reminder, and also, I'd encourage you to tell your colleagues and perhaps people who are less experienced who don't know this: the work that you do in the final few weeks of the year really sets yourself up for success in the new year.

And that is undeniably true when we consider that deals take time. We've got to generate the lead. We've got to prospect the lead. We've then got to have a meeting with them. We might have to appraise the property or deliver a listing presentation or submit a proposal. We've got to get the listing paperwork done. We then need to get all the marketing collateral set up to launch the campaign. We then need to actually market the property. We then need to generate some offers from buyers and from lessees. We then need to negotiate terms between our client and the buyer and the potential lessee. And then finally, we need to get the deal. And all of that takes time.

If you start prospecting after Australia Day, which is when business officially starts in Australia, your listings will probably go online if you're lucky in mid-February.

So, you could still run a four- to six-week campaign before Easter, but it's going to get tight and you might find yourself starting to hurry.

And when you hurry, you compress your sales cycle and you're not following your tried and tested process. Far better to front-load it, to have part of your process followed now so you can continue to follow the process that you know brings you results.

There's a few things that I'd recommend agents achieve this side of Christmas rather than waiting until the new year to do these things.

The first one is to have three to five listings ready to go to launch in late January. You don't need 20—just three, maybe five—just enough to come in with some momentum, to have some visibility in the marketplace.

You want your competitors saying, "How did you get these listings all ready to go so soon and so quickly?" And I think it's also going to bring you into the new year with energy.

So, some questions to ask yourself: How many listings do you already have lined up and ready to go for, let's say, Tuesday, the 27th of January? How many do you think that you could secure if you had three—yeah let's say three—three real conversations every single day between now and the 12th of December? How many of those would lead to listings?

And have a think specifically and strategically about who are the people in your pipeline that you've been speaking to recently that just need a little nudge before the end of the year, who can then be ready to go in the new year?

So have those three to five listings ready to go in 2026. Get them ready now.

The second thing that you can do is just start to warm other people in your pipeline. These are the owners that will become the stock that comes online in February or maybe even in March.

These are the owners that have said to you, "Let's talk after Christmas." Or maybe that will be the line that you hear from them.

But then if you hear that, let's lock in the time to have a meeting or to have the conversation now.

If they've said that they don't want to talk until the new year, hold them to their word and say, "Let's talk in the new year," and schedule in the time. Lay the groundwork so they're ready to go and convert in the new year.

And the other thing that I'd recommend that you do if you have a little bit of downtime—let's say you stop your prospecting on maybe the 16th or 17th of December—you might say, "Oh, a week from Christmas, I'm going to take my foot off the pedal a little bit," which I will accept.

That is the time, if you're still in the office, to be tidying up all your databases, and when you do that, you're going to start to identify opportunities that you weren't perhaps aware of or weren't top of mind—new opportunities that you can then start to lay the groundwork for in 2026.

A few other things that I want you to be mindful of as we approach the end of the year: This is relevant if you are Agent A or Agent B from the example before, and this is a quick PSA about your conduct at Christmas or end-of-year parties.

Just remember that your reputation is an asset, and clients notice, peers notice, and certainly the powers that be notice your conduct at these events.

So, by all means, turn up, be social, have fun, be festive—but if your professionalism maybe goes away at a certain point, make sure you've left the function at that point, or preferably before that point.

The other little reminder I want to give you about things to do before the end of this year is your end-of-year messages or Christmas cards if they're not so politically correct.

Sending out your Christmas cards and Christmas messages—I recommend getting it done early if you've got the time. Handwritten notes really, really are better than just printing out Christmas cards and sending generic corporate Christmas cards that don't say anything or are just signed with your name.

If you can write a short message, handwritten, that is way better. And that is again laying the groundwork to build your pipeline in 2026.

I think thoughtful always beats generic, and it's a simple way that you can stay top of mind or at least have some recency bias in your favor when people are thinking about what they want to do in 2026. It's also a great way to be top of mind for people who can possibly send you referrals.

So just a quick reminder before we wrap up: What you do over the next few weeks is going to determine the type of Q1 that you have. Make sure that you are lining up at least, hopefully, three listings that you can launch when you get back to work in January. Book some of those mid- to late-January meetings before the break—get them lined up. Once you're in someone's calendar, there's then a little bit of friction that exists that means that for them to cancel that meeting, they've got to do something. Let's not just verbally get the commitment—let's lock it in.

Identify your 2026 opportunities. Prepare your marketing and admin for January. Stay really consistent with your prospecting until maybe a few days or maybe a week before Christmas.

All your competitors are probably already checked out or will check out very, very soon. And have a think also about your personal goals and your income goals for 2026. We'll do an episode about that to help you before the end of the year as well.

My final little bit of reflection for you, or question for you, is to think about future you and have a think about February you.

What would ‘February you’ want you to have done in December?

What will ‘January you’ hate you for forcing you to scramble over because of what you didn't do in December?

And what can you do now that's going to make your return to work on, let's say, Monday the 19th of January feel effortless?

You don't get paid in 2026 only for the work that you've done in 2026. You get paid for some of the work that you've done now. So, now's the time to do that work to cash in in 2026.

That is our episode for today. Thank you so much for listening. I will speak to you soon.