The NAR Settlement — Is This The End of Real Estate Agents As We Know It?

If you're erring toward the side where there is fear, uncertainty and doubt and it's getting the best of you and you're leaning more toward like, oh shoot, we're not going to continue to exist. I'm not going to know how to get money. This message is for you. If you're already on the side side of like, change is good, I just got to tell me the rules and I'm off to the races. You're going to be good to go.

The real estate industry has failed to create a clear path to time and money freedom. Having helped over 5,000 families in my real estate career, thousands of agents to scale their businesses, I know what works and what doesn't. And my goal on this podcast is to share all with you the good, bad and ugly of building a highly lucrative lifestyle business so you can focus on what truly matters in life. You won't find any hype or fluff on this show, just real world tactics.

And strategies that get results. You just gotta do the work. What is up real estate business builders? There is so much fear, uncertainty and doubt around this settlement. So if you've been living under a rock, you may not have heard that the national association of Realtors finally settled multi year. I don't even know how many years ago it started, but essentially class action lawsuit, major settlement that the net net of it is that you know, as an industry forever. A listing agent goes in, sits down with the seller, negotiates to sell their home offer a co broke to a buyer's agent that potentially brings a buyer and a transaction gets done. The listing agent sitting down with a seller and let's say they negotiate 6% or whatever number 5%, 7%, it's completely negotiable. They no longer want that to happen. So you could still go into a seller's house and this is all contemplated in the settlement. It doesn't go into still has to be approved by the doj, I believe in July. So nothing is in effect yet. But essentially now agents go in and they can list homes. So I negotiate with the seller. You know, we're going to list your home for X percentage. And you know, if you're a smart listing agent, I do think you'll help that seller navigate a choice that has to be made to offer some sort of compensation so it can't be advertising mls, that's the big thing in this ruling that we can't advertise compensation to a buyer's agent anymore in a listing. In the multiple listing service, they're saying that you could still, a seller could still offer a concession so that could cover compensation for a buyer's agent if the buyer has a buyer's agent. So things are still in flux. Who knows what's going to happen. But essentially they just want buyer's agents to sit down with buyers and negotiate their fees independent of what a listing agent might have done with a listing that's on the market. All well and good, really, really strong agents have always done this. I don't know why I was so lucky. I'm sure God had his hand on my business in those early days. The first coach I ever had taught me to never show a home to a buyer unless you had them under agreement. You specifically explained your fees and how you get paid and you and you get a transaction fee. So this is like my first, you know, few deals in the industry. I did it in a way where I was offering a value proposition to buyers and getting them to agree to my fees before I showed them any homes, before I knew what kind of co broke was available. Granted most of the time there wasn't a commission deficiency in what was offered in the MLS versus what I sat down and explained that I get paid. You know, back in my early days when I was working with buyers. This is, keep in mind, I'm new to real estate. I'm asking for three and a half percent plus a transaction fee that started at 295, went up to 3954-955956-95795 and 935 plus 3.5% on the buy side. So and then if there ever was a deficiency, the buyer was responsible to for paying for it. So if I was getting, I had already agreed, I sat them down for buyer consultation, got them to agree to, you know, that I was going to get paid X percent plus a transaction fee and we would ask the seller to pay and any deficiencies. So not a lot changes in the world that I've operated in and the way we've been teaching real estate B schools, 11 years old now, so we've always been teaching that what if there was not a co broke? How would you change the buy side of your business? That's been our fundamental premise on the buy side of how we teach agents how to work with buyers. All that said, I want to just give you a little bit of backdrop. The reason I, I want to chat through this today is there's two worlds that I'm seeing emerge and and nothing has really settled. The dust hasn't really settled on how this is going to hit the local MLs and you know, what forms will be available for buyer agents to use to basically attach to offers saying this, you know, there's so much stuff that still is going to, to come out here. So we really didn't, don't know what's going to happen. But it's really interesting to see and I'm going to tell two, two worlds and specific examples and both of them happened today. We were doing a training in our production mastermind and we had. This is someone who's actively coached in real estate B school and she's got some agents on her team. And I forget this like exact comment, but something like, I am so excited. Me and my agents are so excited about this change and now we finally get to just have an open conversation. And they were already running our systems. But the days of having other agents, you know, showing around buyers, you know, and like no professionalism, essentially not knowing if these buyers are even clients of theirs, all that goes away anyway. So she was just sharing how like my team is all behind it. And now we're finally like, we, we're sort of doubling down on the systems that you've taught us around the buyer consultation framework and the buyer packets and you know, what do you do when you set consultations and how do you meet with them and run those consultations. And we have a buyer playbook and step by step by step by step on how to manage that side of the process. So that's one world, the mindset that this agent and she's leading her agents through. Really good quote. I want to, I want to pull up here. And it was on the training today that we. It's a quote by John Maxwell and this, this embodies this agent with the, this team leader with the agents that she has under her quote from John, John Maxwell leadership for like 50 years training, kind of like a leader of leaders. The quote here is a leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. And I thought this, this quote didn't even come up. And if you're looking, oh, I can't get it clear. But anyway, a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Powerful. And when you think about like that reaction and I want to contrast it to another email that we received today and I'm not going to reveal any, any names in any of this, but someone. And I err toward this side of like Is this a big deal, this, this NAR settlement and how things are going to be three, six, well, not even three months from now because it doesn't go into effect until I think mid or late July. But let's say like 4, 6, 9, 12 months from now. What's going to happen? I do think a lot of agents are going to get totally freaked out. You know, you guys hear me talk about fear, uncertainty and doubt. Fud. FUD will get the best of you. And it doesn't even have to be like a real thing. You know, you could get yourself so worked up over a something like this where it will. You'll be convinced that real estate, like what I title this. Is this the end of real estate as we know it? Real estate agents as we know it is a better title. And I've received an email today and I'm not gonna, like I said, let me just, I'm gonna pull it up here though because it was really helpful. Let me see if I can. Oh, I probably can't pull it up super quick. I'm gonna find it though. Okay. So this is someone in, in our paid our million dollar agent method program. So million dollar agent method.com because I can't disagree more like we are perfectly positioned as a coaching entity to guide this person through what's going on. But essentially I can't get rid of this gut feeling that agents earning potential is about to change drastically. I don't disagree with that. But it's not all agents, right? First with buyer's agents and then trickling up to listing agents. From a business standpoint, discussing commissions multiple times throughout the buying process is a recipe for decreased income. That statement is actually wrong. The beauty of this is that you get to talk about it once. Once. Right. The way we ran our buyer process at, at scale, like closing, you know, upwards of 150 or more buyers per year. So at scale is that we would just. If it was a yard sign call or someone that inquired on listing or however the lead came in or if they were like in our database and they, you know, we, we ran a CRM that like had spidey sense around. Like when someone popped in and started searching for properties and we reached back out to them. The way that we ran our business is we would just, you know, offer enough value to get them to do the next step of the process. The next step of the process is just to come in for a consultation. But why would you come in for a consultation? It's because we have a gold brick in the office that you want if you're a buyer. And that could be a list of off market properties, or it could be access to listings before even other agents get access to them. You know, proprietary access or priority access to proprietary information. So you're just going to have to up your game and get buyers to meet with you and then you just go through a consultation process. We call it the buyer consultation framework. So, so, so the, the example here is someone that has it in their head that it's the death of buyer agents first and then listing agents, which there, there isn't going to be. You know, for someone who's running their age, their real estate business at the pro level on both sides, buyer agency and listing agency, this really isn't going to hurt you at all. If you have a tough time presenting your services and asking for money and being convinced yourself that you're worth that money, then you will have a tough time. I think on the buyer side, more than ever, we've got a handout in our buyer packet that goes through the 88 types of turbulence. Literally 88 different things that could hit the fan in a buyer transaction. That nails down the fact that you need buyer representation. So it's, it's going to change. Let me see if there's anything else in here. In this email, he says every time you have that conversation, you give the client the opportunity to stop working with you. So you're not going to ever have to talk about. And it's not even how we run the process. And you know, you not having a buyer under contract and just knowing that there's a co op in the future and being so sheepish or not thinking you're worth what you'll get paid. So reading this almost thinks that like a lot of agents probably don't think they're worth what they get paid. If it's a $700,000 home and there's a 3% co broke and you're getting paid $21,000 and you're like, how is this even possible? I could never sit down with a buyer in the first part of the process and tell them I'm worth X percent and this is my value proposition. These are the services I offer. I get paid at closing X percent plus a transaction fee. And all I'm asking is for your loyalty. Let's go ahead and sign. You know, so there's a whole process that we follow. But so it's just, it's wild how in the same day I can have someone say, I am so fired up for this change. It's going to elevate, you know, me and my agents and the industry and then have someone say I'm out, you know, so that's really the point I want to impress upon you here as you're navigating this change and this person's like, I want to get out of the program I signed up for, you know, you know, I. And it says, I don't feel that better presentations or any other, or any other tactic or strategy that has worked in the past is the answer to succeeding in this new environment. So it's like this person has like put the nail in their own coffin in this industry. And I just think it's wild and it's not picking like I actually know this person. And they're like a really great agent and they're like a solid, like just a solid individual. They, they've succeeded at a high level in other industries. Super articulate, you know, like a real pro level agent. I suspect most of their business has been buy side and they've leveraged a single. They use open houses to essentially meet buyers and then show them homes and that that's how they get paid and, and probably didn't ever present their services. So for them their entire world is imploding and changing. So I get it. So I think it's going to make a fundamental shift to an entirely new model to succeed big in this industry. And I'm undecided if I even want to take that journey with all the intense regulations agents are already under. So this specific person, this isn't about them. It's just the nature of the mindset here. One is fired up and ready to go and one is leaving the industry. And there's no actual certainty around how this is going to settle out in the local mls, what forms are going to be available. The same agent that was fired up also gave a story about, she went to take a listing and that seller brought up the NAR settlement. She was equipped. She had been to one of our trainings, knew exactly what to say and how to navigate it and took the listing and you know, now the way she navigates a co broke is going to be different than the way she does it three months from now, but had no problem even joking about it. And like, yeah, everybody and their mother has an opinion about what's going on with this settlement. Let me just explain exactly what happened, you know, so again, going back to this, a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Obviously my job with this message is hopefully I have some level of influence in a good way, in a positive way and a leadership role. I know the way we are going the way and we're going to show you the way and exactly how to navigate this. So encouragement. If you're airing toward the side where there is fear, uncertainty and doubt and it's getting the best of you and you're leaning more toward like, oh shoot, we're not going to continue to exist. I'm not going to know how to get money. This message is for you. If you're already on the side side of like change is good. I just got to tell me the rules and I'm off to the races. You're going to be good to go. This is a 90% mindset game so you're going to be just fine. But the encouragement, if you're fearful, if you're uncertain, if there's any doubt and it's just continuing to plug in and, and what I would offer you and of course there's always a very soft sell into our world. If you do not know how to navigate this change, you must align yourself with an organization that will give you not just most of the coaching in the space is honestly productivity coaching. Did you make your calls this week? You know, that's all well and good, everyone needs accountability. Our million Dollar Agent method, that program is specifically designed toward implementation where it's a 90 day period, 13 weeks, we get to work together and help you implement, actually build out the systems in your business that will have you bulletproof on the other side for sure. The buyer consultation framework, our listing consultation frameworks, all the lead conversion, lead nurturing, you know, you've got access to 12 lead gen levers. We help you install four in the time that we work together. Massive, you know, 40k GCI guarantee inside of the 13 weeks. So go to Million DollarAgent Method.com that's Million DollarAgent Method.com and we will see you on the next training or podcast and just stay in there, hang in there. Know that this is a mental game that you're playing. It's not. The business is not going to, you know, radically change and you'll be just fine. So keep plugging in and we'll see you in the next training.