Recently, I got bounced off my routine. A minor workout injury forced me to slow down, the kids were on spring break, and I was dealt a quick bout of norovirus (thankfully the worst of it was just 24 hours), all while the market kept moving without any real pause. I found myself going from one thing to the next without ever really getting back to baseline.
Coming back into everything, I could really feel how much more effort it all required. Workouts felt harder than they should have, my energy wasn’t as predictable, and even the more routine parts of my day took a little more attention than usual. Nothing major, but enough to recognize that the way I typically push through things wasn’t going to work in quite the same way here.
That’s been sitting with me, because I’ve been seeing a similar pattern in the market. I don’t think what’s required right now is more intensity. If anything, that tends to work against the outcome. It feels much more like a stamina play, where the ability to stay measured matters more than reacting quickly.
The market is moving quickly and remains highly competitive, and there’s very little room to step away without missing something. In that kind of environment, there is a constant pull to stay engaged, move faster, and keep pace with what’s happening, even when that pace isn’t aligned with the right decision.
I saw this recently with a buyer I’ve been working with. We had been tracking a property that, on paper, checked every box, and when it came to market the level of competition escalated quickly. Strong terms became table stakes, pricing moved beyond expectations, and within a matter of days it was clear it would land at a level few would have predicted.
There was a point where it would have been easy to stretch further and try to secure the outcome simply because of how quickly everything was moving, but my clients chose not to. They stayed within the parameters they had set and allowed the situation to play out, and while the property ultimately went in another direction, the decision itself still felt correct.
That distinction matters, especially in a market like San Francisco right now, where activity is not fully aligned with the broader national trend. While many markets are slowing or softening, things here continue to move in the opposite direction, with values at the top end increasing in meaningful increments and well-positioned properties trading quickly and competitively across the board.
That kind of environment creates pressure, whether it’s explicitly acknowledged or not, and what I keep coming back to is that the strongest outcomes I’ve seen recently haven’t come from forcing timing, but from maintaining position long enough for the right opportunity to present itself.
It’s a different kind of stamina, one that requires staying engaged without reacting to every shift, and being prepared to act when it matters without feeling the need to act at every turn. It’s something I’ve had to recalibrate personally over the past few weeks, and it’s exactly what this market seems to be asking for.
