Good morning, and welcome to another motivational Monday. My name is Matthew Hodge, executive vice president here at LPT Realty. And I am joining you from LPT headquarters here in Lake Mary, Florida. If we could bring in Robert Palmer, founder and CEO of LPT Realty, who's joining us from Montana. How are you doing this morning, sir? I'm good, man. Still rocking the mountain man beard here. Although, Luna, my three year old, did ask me to shave it. She said, daddy, can you first, she called them wrinkles. She said, can you cut all the wrinkles off your face? I said, I don't think I could do anything about the wrinkles. I said, you mean my beard? She's like, oh, yeah. Yeah. The pricklies. Cut the pricklies off your face, daddy. So I'm you're probably gonna see me next week without the beard, but I've enjoyed growing it up here in there. That's right, man. Well, hey. You look like a true mountain man up there. You are like a a real Montana, hiker. Well, so I hope you enjoyed your weekend, man. Eventful eventful, weekend. But wanna go ahead and jump right in. And so, some of the topics for today was, you know, staying focused on what really matters, through the distractions. And so I I kinda thought that that was a a great topic to discuss because I know that as we're approaching this August, you know, seventeenth deadline where we're gonna have this change in the industry, there's a lot of noise around that, and there's just, you know, a lot a lot of noise in the industry in general. When you experienced that when you were going through the, you know, TRIN laws through the mortgage industry, I know that you were very purposeful on how you approach that period of time. So that when the click over date happened, you were prepared, you had systems in place, your business didn't actually take a hit, you guys actually sped up because you were prepared for the moment. And we always talk about there's opportunity, anytime that there's a major change because some people stumble and some people, of course, leap over that and and make it further. So as we are approaching this deadline, as we have all this kind of, you know, macroeconomic turmoil and just, you know, noise in general, what should we be focused on as we are approaching this August, you know, seventeenth deadline and, you know, to keep our businesses rolling in the right direction? Yeah. Look. I think if if you go back to that very first Motivation Monday we did right after, you know, everything was announced with NAR and the settlement, you know, we came out and said, look. We need to embrace this change. And and if you haven't watched that motivation Monday, it is in the knowledge base. I would encourage you to go back and check it out because I think it has aged very, very well. You know, we go back now, and it's been a couple of months since that. And and it's it's amazing because we are getting closer to the deadline, and there still is a lot of uncertainty. But I think that if if you go back and look at that Motivation Monday, the the kind of principles and philosophy that we laid down about how I would approach this as an agent and about how I approach the mortgage changes that happened, you know, back in twenty ten, twenty eleven. And it really is to to to be different, to to throw away the old ways as much as you can and really embrace where things are going. And I think what's interesting is, you know, we've been following all of the different states, obviously. Right? We're we're in a lot of states. We've built out some amazing tools and things that we're ready waiting to release because we wanna make sure that they do not contradict any of the state rules, any of the the ways the different state boards or state MLSs are interpreting, this settlement. One of the things we saw is, you know, California Board of Realtors came out with a set of documents, and then they basically were challenged by the Department of Justice. And and now they have revised those forms. And on the new set of forms that they've done after this Department of Justice inquiry and, one of the big consumer groups came out against their forms and called them anti consumer, is they're actually removing all language about pre negotiating commission from their contracts. And so, again, this is something that I advocate for. Again, agent choice here at LPT Realty, we're gonna let you do it however you want within legal parameters and state rules. But what California is not going to is they're not going to mention the amount of buyer agent commission in the actual listing agreement. They took that language out completely after being contacted by the Department of Justice. And this is only a a few weeks after releasing a whole set of forms that complied with the settlement, but still had buyer agent commission in there being prenegotiated. And so, again, we're watching this state by state. The most important thing you can do, alright, as an agent, though, is one, be patient. Right? Understand that the sky is not falling, that this is gonna create a lot of opportunity. I know that LPT is here, and we have your back, and we are watching all of these different scenarios in different states. We've kinda dual tracked our internal system. So we've got what we're working on, which is kind of a a standard form that's going to allow you to meet the basic compensation requirements in the shortest form possible. But what we're realizing is that is not going to be allowed in every state. And so there will be some states where we have to fall back to the state specific forms. Maybe because that state specific form is required, maybe because that state requires full buyer broker agency from day one, where our form is more of just a compensate compensation agreement to say, hey. This is what I'm gonna do for you. This is what you're gonna pay me if we land on a house. And so we're trying to juggle all these different things. And so that just adds to more uncertainty. But what I want to assure everyone and I want you to feel confident in is that no matter how this finally falls, and we are now, you know, thirty three days away, thirty five days away from this deadline, states are still making adjustments. MLS boards are still making adjustments. As a state as a national brokerage, you know, we're working to make sure that we protect you on all fronts. But just know that wherever things fall, we're gonna move swiftly just like we did within days of the initial settlement coming out to make sure that LPT agents have the most powerful tools, the most accurate information. Because I really do believe with those two things, we will be positioned to win. Agents who embrace these changes, agents who do take very seriously the idea of negotiating commission directly with their consumer and not relying on the other the other consumer's agent to pre negotiate their commission. I mean, personally, that's something I never loved. Right? As as a salesperson, as a as a professional, the idea that someone else was gonna negotiate my commission, and it wasn't based on how skilled I was or how good I was or how great of a job I did for my consumer, you know, or all the different bells and whistles I have, that that never really sat right with me. And that's the position that buyer's agents have been in in most of this country for a very long time. If your buyer fell in love with a house that was only gonna pay a one percent commission, you were gonna earn a one percent commission. Because in most markets, it didn't make sense to have that pre negotiated commission with the buyer because the listing agent was pre negotiating your commission for you. So, again, I think this is actually a big win for our industry. We're gonna make sure that we position our agents to step up and win under these new rules, but it is a little frustrating because here we sit about a month out from the deadline, and we're still seeing big seismic shifts. So we are staying nimble. We're probably the most nimble brokerage, in the country. Again, if you watch our response coming out and then how we address the changes, again, three days after the NARS settlement being being made public, we came out with what I would say was now the most comprehensive and has aged the best of any of the major brokerages coming out with any type of education around this. We are very nimble. We have your back. But, again, what you can be doing right now, one, keep your mindset and attitude. That that's the most important thing. If you believe that this is some massive hurdle to overcome, if you personally believe that asking a buyer to commit to paying you a commission early in the transaction is somehow wrong or that you're not confident with it or that you don't believe in it, trust me, that buyer is going to feel that. And you're not gonna bring your a game, and you're not gonna bring your communication skills forward and you are going to basically sabotage your entire transaction yourself from the first conversation. So you have to believe that this is the best thing for the industry. You have to believe that this is the best thing for you the way I do. You as a sales professional now having the control and power and ability to enter those negotiations directly with your consumer, I think is the most powerful position this industry has offered in decades. So be proud of that. Be confident in that. If you need to practice those skills, if you need to practice those negotiations, start them now. Right? Be having those conversations. Get up every morning and look at yourself in the mirror and have that conversation with yourself. You need to be so confident in your ability to explain your value and why you deserve compensation and why it is better for the buyer and you to now be working together to negotiate that compensation versus the old way. Because, again, if you believe that and your skills are no matter what the form say, right, no matter what the ultimate words are on that piece of paper, no matter whether it's a one page document or a five page document, whether California has a different form than Florida, all of that becomes irrelevant. If you have confidence in yourself and you're able to adequately communicate to your buyers the value you bring so that they don't have a problem with signing that form and agreeing to compensation. And now once you have that agreement, and again I think the agreement starts with how you communicate and then it moves into the paperwork. The paperwork becomes secondary. But once you have that, you're now in one of the strongest positions that you've been in probably in your career for most people, at least in the last decade to make sure that you're actually paid the amount you negotiated and what you are worth when it comes time to come to that closing table. So think about in hot markets. All of a sudden, in hot markets, we would see listing agents paying less. We would see some of the builders paying less. Well, now if you've already negotiated your commission with your buyer, guess what? Their desire to pay less becomes irrelevant because they have to take care of the contractual obligation that you have with your buyer. So, again, be ready, be excited, be confident, know that we will have everything in place when the time comes, even if it's at the buzzer because we're having to react to third parties. And you've got a lot of different third parties around the country trying to get things together, but we're here to have your back and we're gonna win together in this change at LPT Realty. Yeah. I like that you, have taken the time to explain it that way because you're right. And and Nick put into the chat, the people who are entering the industry now who this is all that they've ever known, it won't be an obstacle for them. It's only us who have been used to a certain workflow and now have to change that. It can feel a little bit different. But the reality is is that some people are gonna come here. It's always gonna be the way that they've you know, it's that's all I know. It's just gonna be fine for them. And so about getting our minds there today from that change is gonna be so important. And, you know, when you think about it again, the confidence of knowing, we add so much value to the transaction. I know that there's been attacks on the industry which are like, oh, the agents aren't worth anything. Like, we know that that's not true. From negotiations to to mental counselors, to the laundry list of things that we do that are not necessarily, you know, tangible things that you can, you know, put on the resume. We know that that's part of the transaction and so be confident in what you bring to the table. You know, know that that is truly valued And so you walk out there with confidence when you go out there to to negotiate that piece. But one other thing, Robert, that I wanna kind of hone in on and and something that you had talked about is when that trade law was happening, there were so many people who thought that the industry was gonna fall apart. They thought that transactions were gonna go from, you know, you were able to close loans in ten days. And they're like, you're you're not gonna be able to close loans for sixty to ninety days. And so they were looking at all these things that could be potential hurdles and none of them end end up coming true. Right? So everyone who invested their time and their energy being scared of that, you know, was missing out on the actions that they could have been taken to, you know, to to take their business forward. So how do you see that for the landscape of real estate? Do you think that that's going to change at all? Are we gonna see any seismic change in behavior? Or is it just gonna be bring your value, do what we do, but be confident in the way that you talk about our our value proposition? Yeah. Look. I think at the end of the day, I do not see the seismic shift. Again, I watched it in mortgage. And, again, I did watch a lot of people overreact. I watched a lot of people who are independent mortgage brokers close down their brokerages because they listened to the fear and the hype, and they went in and worked for, big banks because banks thought they had an exception. And now you fast forward a decade, and it's completely flipped. And now the broker channel and the independent mortgage company channel has grown faster under those laws, which is the exact opposite of what anyone predicted. So when all the talking heads and the experts were saying, oh, this is gonna be great for the banks and this is gonna hurt the the little independent mortgage broker, little independent loan officer, and everyone believed them, and they made a bad choice. And then lo and behold, the exact opposite happened over time as we saw how consumers actually reacted to the law. And so I think the same thing is gonna happen here. I I think this is actually going to strengthen our position as professionals in the industry. Again, I I think you've got to think about both sides of this. Right? This is really just this idea of decoupling, which is the word I like to use the most or this idea of not pre negotiating the other person's commission. Right? The the buyer's agent now negotiates with the buyer on the amount of the commission. The listing agent negotiates the listing agent's amount of commission. And then when everyone comes together to actually negotiate the final contract and offer, that's where all the i's get dotted and the t's got crossed and and decisions get made. Is the seller gonna contribute the full amount? Can the seller not agree to contribute the full amount? Does the sales price need to be adjusted because of closing costs and commissions? If you think about it, guys, we've almost always done this. Right? We've had to ask sellers to help pay closing costs. We've had to ask sellers to do other types of things. We've negotiated things like, hey, I want you to to cover a home warranty for my buyer or, hey, I want you to put a new roof on the property. We've been doing these types of negotiations for years. The problem is previously, NAR actually had a prohibition on our ability to negotiate commission during that contract negotiation. So NAR said, hey. You can't make your offer contingent upon someone changing the amount of the pre negotiated listing agent commission. That's gone now. NAR has backtracked on that. So I think really what this has done is it's taken some of the guardrails off the industry. And so when you're sitting down with your seller, this is exactly how I would explain. I would say, you know what? Seller, mister and missus seller, in the old days, we would guess how much commission we think the buyer's agent needs to make. We're now we're not saying we're not gonna pay it. We're absolutely going to be prepared to pay a buyer's agent commission. I believe it is an important part of how the industry works. Most of the buyers who come look at our property are going to have representation. We're probably gonna have to help the buyer pay for that representation just like we help them pay for closing costs, just like we may cover a home warranty, just like we may put a new roof on the house, but we don't have to guess anymore of how much money that is. We now get to wait, mister and missus seller, until the contract comes in. And then as your professional, as your guide, as your expert real estate agent, I will walk you through the offers that come in, and we'll decide which offer is less for you. It may be an offer with a lot of commission because it's a very high price or there's no other requests. It may be an offer with very low commission. We just don't know until the offers come in. And so we're under the old rules. I had to sit here with you, and I had to pull out my magic crystal ball and say, I think we need to pay two and a quarter, two and a half, two seven five, three, one point five. We were guessing. We were throwing darts at a dartboard. Now we get to work together at the time of the actual offer coming in to decide which offer is best for you. Now buyer's agent commission is not a bad thing. It's just one more number on the piece of paper. Right? You're gonna pay things like title insurance, and you're gonna pay things like, you know, doc stamps on your deed here in Florida. You're gonna have costs and there is gonna be some type of buyer's agent cost. I want you to be ready for that. We may get the rare offer where the buyer says, you know what? I'm gonna pay all my own costs, which even used to happen under the old system. Right? I'm gonna pay all my own closing costs. I'll pay everything as the buyer. That rarely does come in. That can happen. But more than likely, the offers that come in will ask for us to pay some type of amount to the buyer's agent's commission to help the buyer out. But we don't know what that is today, and we're no longer going to guess. So what's important today is this is the amount of commission that you and I are going to agree to for my services to help you market your home, sell your home, and to help you navigate all of these offers so we can pick the absolute best one. And then when the offers come in, don't worry. I'm gonna break it down for you in simple language to show you exactly how much each offer means to your bottom line in your pocket, but be prepared. Most of those offers will be asking for some type of buyer's agent commission, but that's okay because it's just one more number on the page that we're gonna work through together to make sure we get you the best offer on your home that meets your time frames, that meets your financial needs, that meets your goals, and that's what I'm here to help you do. And, look, that is a a conversation I would much rather have as a listing agent right now versus going in the old way and saying, I need you to give me six percent or five and a half or seven, but, hey, part of that doesn't come to me. Right? Part of that's for the other agent, and I really believe, like, we got so used to doing it that way that that doesn't feel complicated to us. But I actually think in reality, the idea of pre negotiating someone else's commission probably is was the more complicated way to do this. I think we're gonna look back in two or three years and say, man, it is so much easier to just go on these listing appointments and negotiate for myself and prepare the seller for the fact that we're gonna pay a buyer's agent most likely. Right? But not have to try to pre negotiate both sides and then go over to the buyer's side. And And now that everyone has to have some type of agreement signed, you're not the outlier. I know a lot of our agents who have been getting buyer's agents agreement signed, you know, for years now, but I do think newer agents were at a disadvantage there because when everyone isn't having to do it, it can be a little scarier to ask for that commitment upfront from your buyer. We're now under the settlement because everyone is having to ask for some type of written agreement. Right? It may not be a full exclusive buyer's agreement. It may be a touring agreement. It may be whatever, but everyone is having to get some kind of document signed before they can start taking agents on showings. That levels the playing field. So now when you do negotiate the commission with the actual consumer who you're actually representing and have the relationship with, you're not the outlier by asking for that document. And I do believe that that, again, maybe within six months, a year, once the dust settles, I think we're all gonna look back and say, why did we ever do it the other way? Why did NAR come up with such a crazy way for us to do this for so many years? This is so much better. I love this so much more as a listing agent. I love this so much more as a buyer's agent. I believe that's the conversation we're gonna be having with this. And then I when you couple that with the tools and resources that we're bringing forward as LPT, I really do think we're all gonna be in amazing position. And I think all of that comfort and all of that getting used to it is gonna happen in my mind right as the market starts to turn around, and we're all gonna be in a great ride together where we control our own destiny, we negotiate our own compensation with our client, and we go into a market that starts to recover in a big way. And we see bigger existing home sales numbers, we see more buyers coming to the table, and we have more opportunity to win together. That's right, man. I love that. One recap thing I just wanna say that you said earlier, you said practice the conversation. You know, in our industry, we know it as role playing and people run away from that phrase. Oh, role playing is so scary to me, but practice the conversation. It will put you in position to win. It will put you in position to explain this. Robert, you talk about it so smoothly now. I know the first time that you were explaining it, even you weren't explaining it as clearly as you do now, but you've done it so many times, you can just naturally talk about it, and everyone should, you know, aim to try to do that same thing for for their customers. So, thank you so much for explaining that. I wanna actually click over real quick, and talk about the luxury preferred network. Last week, we tried to talk about it. My audio died at the end for whatever reason. And, you know, we We know the reason, Matt. Yeah. I was trying to yeah. We do know the reason. But, so I wanna talk about Luxury Preferred Network because, we have just we just finished completed our training, our second annual train sorry, monthly training, yesterday. And, it was a great class. And one of the things that we talked about and that we're gonna be going forward talking about is some of the outside projects that people don't know are are available. And so some of our agents went out and they used the luxury preferred network box. When you subscribe to the the the discipline, you receive a prospecting box for luxury, And, they utilize that to get thirty two million plus dollar listings, from a builder. And so with nothing other than just the box and the prospecting tools there, they were able to secure that business. And so, we came back and, you know, did some additional packages for that, which is available to all agents. But we're gonna be covering that through luxury preferred network. And so if you're thinking about, you know, as we're getting to this place where you're like, hey, maybe I wanna, you know, think more about listings. I want that to be a bigger part of my business. I will maybe wanna elevate my price point. We're gonna be covering that project specifically in luxury preferred network as it continues to go. If you're not part of luxury preferred network and you would just like to follow the project, you can do that on social media. On Instagram, the handle is live aqua reserve. But if you want to watch closely on how we develop the marketing plan, how we sell out the phases, what that project is exactly like because you would like to do that in your area, that's available. And Dave, I think we have a graphic that can show the project. But it was exciting because this came just from the luxury preferred network tools. This is what our, artists have done, and so this is available for all agents to partner with the brokerage, to do. But the the builder was so excited to have all these tools. There are other brokerages who specialize in just new construction and development, but they don't do anything close to what LPT has available. So they were so excited to see what we did. Again, those agents were able to take full commission at thirty two units starting price point at a million dollars, so super excited for them. Again, we're going to be covering this all the way through Luxury Preferred Network in detail. And if you're not part of that, you can follow along on live at aqua reserve, on Instagram handle. So, Robert, with that being said, I know that you have thought about additional tools and you think about things differently. As you hear this, what makes you what you know, how do you think about this opportunity that's available for these agents? Now, look. You know, I love it. We when we built the the luxury collections and the luxury preferred network, I think we were very much envisioning the use on existing home sales. You know? And so for GrooveR agents to be creative and recognize and say, you know what? I can take these tools, and I can go I can go land a big development. I can go land a multi unit, you know, condo complex. And I don't think you mentioned this, Matt, but the the developer on that actually has, some high rises in New York. And when we get there, he's like, hey. I want I only wanna use LPT agents who have the luxury preferred network in order to to market my properties because of how amazing this is. And so I I think it just it's very it's interesting to see the tools, you know, I guess, evolve. You know? Yeah. We we sat down, and we spent probably close to a year developing the luxury collection, the luxury preferred network, and getting everything perfect. And then, again, to see our agents figure out a way to use it that we didn't originally think about, you know, and to just take what we built and use it to go walk in and land what is now a massive transaction for them, and that's really exciting to me. You know? And, again, this this specialized discipline concept, we started with the luxury preferred network. We started with the luxury collection. We have so many goals there, you know, around ranching land and waterfront and what we can bring to commercial there. There's just so much for us to do. And, you know, sometimes I get a little frustrated because, hey, we are barely a two year old company, you know, just past our our two year mark as a company, and we've accomplished so much and we've built so much, but there's so much more that we can do. And and as we see, you all take things and go out there and win with the tools. You know, seeing agents win with the active marketing plan is what led to the creation of the seven home buyer strategies. You know, seeing agents win with with the luxury collection and figuring out how to take that on a new construction opportunity is now going to evolve how we think about these products. And so, you know, this really is a partnership, between us as the brokerage and you as the agents. And our our goal and our our responsibility to give you that unfair advantage that I talk a lot about, in the video on our website is for us to be able to adapt like this to make sure that our tools are the absolute best possible to help you go out there and win new business. Because, look, at the end of the day, while while it is your responsibility as an entrepreneur brokerage we shouldn't try to help. And I think a lot of brokerages kinda took themselves off the hook and said, oh, it's not our job to help you actually get business. Like, we're just here to process your checks and do your paperwork. And, again, I there is no replacement for you as an entrepreneur building your own business. And I I do not believe any brokerage can make you successful if you were not going to be successful of your own accord. But I do believe we have a responsibility as your brokerage to bring forward the tools and the concepts and the marketing and the strategies and the education and interactions like this one that we're having today on motivation Monday to help you win at a higher level. And I think a lot of brokerages kinda took themselves off the hook for that, and I think it's a massive mistake. And I think it's one of the reasons that LPT is winning so much right now is our our commitment is to help you be more successful as an agent, not just to sit back and wait for a check to show up and then do some paperwork. You know, we we take that responsibility very seriously, and I think the luxury preferred network and the luxury collection are an absolute amazing example of that. Yeah. That's right. We are just about out of time, but I wanted to just say, yeah, when, their New York project, they said, hey, are you guys in New York yet? We're not not quite yet. Ended up finding out that, the the project that he was talking about, he gave to Sirhint, Ryan Sirhint, and that's actually where they, shot their first episode of of, you know, Owning Manhattan. So Lewis and I actually went and toured the penthouse so that he was like, hey, man. We'd love to give this to you guys. We're like, hey, we're not here quite yet. But, you know, so just a testament to say that our our tools are powerful. And if you use them and you have confidence in them, then you literally can can accomplish anything. So I know we are right at time, Robert. Any final word that you have for us, this week? Now so, look, next week we're gonna be back with more updates on where we are. We've got a lot of big stuff coming out of the ground. You know, LPTX, has launched, kinda broadly to the brokerage working out bugs there. The open house, collaborative marketing are both, about to get pushed out here soon. The commission concierge screens, the LPT plus updates. So tune in next week on motivation Monday. We've got a full laundry list of stuff to bring you guys up to speed on. A lot of things happening behind the scenes as we get into the third week of July here and get towards some of those deadlines that I set for us earlier in the month. A lot of hard work going on behind the scenes right now to make sure that we're bringing forward. We got a lot of projects in the fire, you know, a lot more happening at once, than what we planned on, but we have to be able to react what's happening in the market. So know that we're here working hard behind the scenes. We're gonna do a full update next week on kinda where we are across the board. Other than that, you know, stay focused, stay committed, keep your mindset right, keep your head in the game. You know, we are in a tough real estate market. We are making it through as LPT agents together. You know, be be having those conversations with yourself. Be having those those practice conversations, rewatch this motivation Monday in the way that I thought about and the way I kinda explained that I would talk to a buyer and a seller. All these things are gonna be very valuable as we get closer to this deadline. And then as we do get there, we're gonna have lots of trainings. We're already starting our state level trainings on the state forms As we get a clearer picture on making sure that our national platform that we're building doesn't conflict with any state rules, we're gonna start trainings around that. But right now, the most important thing you can do is is your mindset. Make sure that you are ready and that you believe and you're ready to embrace where we're going as an industry because those are the agents that are gonna win. If you don't believe it, if if you're too busy trying to fight for the old ways or worrying about the changes, those are the agents that are gonna get left behind. Those are the mortgage companies that I saw get left behind when TRID happened. It was the ones who refused to adapt. They refused to look for the good in the new way, and they had been doing it the old way for so long. They wanted to hang on. I saw a lot of those companies get left behind, and it's so important for me that none of our agents get left behind. And that's why talking about this topic is so important to us. So stay committed. Stay focused. Watch the earlier part of this again if you get a chance this week. We'll see you guys next week for some big updates around our technology improvements back here on Motivation Monday.