Good morning. Okay. Let's get a little DJ happening. This is a request from Tracy.
Here. Let me see. Hold on. Where is it? Where is it?
It is.
Here we go.
Okay. Today's selection.
Feel my Good morning, everybody.
We're gonna get started here in just a minute. We'll get started at nine zero three.
Okay, guys. We're gonna get started in just two minutes. We will get started right at nine zero three. Good morning, everybody.
Alright. Excited to be with you guys today. We're gonna get started right at nine zero three. Give everyone a chance to join. So we will get started in just a minute.
If you could just put into the chat, where are you joining from city and state, where are you joining us this morning?
Love to see the where we are at, Jacksonville, Florida. Okay. It's coming in quick. I'm gonna have to scroll back up here.
Let's see here. Okay. We got North Carolina. We got Virginia.
We've got Asheville. We got Orlando.
Hometown. Tallahassee. Dance moves. I see someone has chair dance moves. That's right. You guys don't wanna see me stand up and get after. Riverview, Florida.
What is that? DeCulump, Georgia? I don't think I've ever heard of that before. Lakeland, Florida. Tampa, San Antonio, Texas, Fort Mill, South Carolina, Miami. Okay.
Bloomstown, Florida, Lexington, South Carolina, Gulf Breeze, Boynton Beach. Okay, guys. So we are Las Vegas, we have a early riser with us. Fantastic. Couple early risers.
Alright. Six AM. Fantastic way to get the day started. Alright. Well, let me go ahead and turn this music off, and let's go ahead and get started.
So welcome. Good morning to another BBA morning coffee. And, today is basically, I don't have my coffee. I'm actually drinking water this morning.
I had the jitters yesterday because I normally don't drink coffee again.
Too much coffee, man. Too much coffee.
Hey. Look. We we went we went long yesterday.
We did.
Ten PM last night. For those of you that weren't with us, we, Christina, Hodge, Lewis, and I did the ten PM last night. We pulled the the full thirteen hour day of nine AM shift to ten PM shift, which was pretty great. Real quick, I do wanna mention this, super important, our state classes.
And so one, if you're in South Carolina, the state classes right now. So if we have any South Carolina agents with us and you have not yet taken your South Carolina, state, education, that's happening at nine AM this morning. So, you may wanna hop over there and jump on that, connect the links are inside of connect. And then we're gonna wrap right on time today with morning coffee because we have a lot of state classes DC is at nine thirty AM.
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are all happening at nine thirty AM this morning. And then at ten AM, I guess, ten AM central time, we have Alabama.
Ten AM eastern time, we have Georgia.
Ten AM eastern time, we have West Virginia.
And then at, let's see where we go from there. We're gonna get over to Louisiana at three PM central time, Tennessee at noon, Texas at noon. And so we've got what was that? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.
Eleven state specific classes going on. So the one we're on right now, this is national. This is agnostic. This is all states.
This is just basic news about what's going on that can cover any state. And then we have those all important state specific classes, which is where the way I put it, you're going to dot the i's and cross the t's. You know, that's where you're gonna learn about the forms that are specific to your state. Your state brokers, your regional brokers are gonna be on there walking you through exactly how to fill out any new forms.
These fifty sessions that we're doing as a part of the BBA marathon are more global. They're gonna be national. They're not as specific. A lot of strategy, a lot of mindset. And this morning, we're gonna talk about some news.
So, again, we we had a full day yesterday. We had five sessions. I was on four out of the five of them. I know a lot of the faces here were on multiple yesterday.
A lot of great information being shared. A lot of great feedback from our agents. But, again, this is not a replacement for those all important state specific, training classes around the new rules. And those are all available in Connect to just go to the knowledge base and search BBA, and you're gonna find everything you need from a link standpoint.
One interesting piece of news that that broke yesterday that I thought we would share that is relevant is, Michigan, realtors are suing, NAR and the state associations over the mandatory NAR membership rules. So this is interesting. You now have a group of real estate agents suing NAR, for antitrust and conspiracy and all the things that the settlement was just about, but about making agents join NAR in certain states in order to get access to MLS. So that's interesting.
That hit the headlines yesterday. I think we're gonna see a lot of stuff happen in the next two weeks. Right? We have this this big sweeping change coming across the industry.
It officially takes place, you know, takes effect on the seventeenth. We are three days away from that. And then again, I think the first week after it takes effect, I think there's just gonna be a lot of moving pieces. And, that's why we're doing five sessions a day with you guys.
So, again, we're gonna kick it off. We've got an amazing panel, here with us this morning for today's morning coffee. And these morning coffees are really just general chat. Hey.
Here's what's going on. Here's what we're seeing. Kinda set the tone for the day. Wake everybody up.
Our our West Coast friends who are up at six AM this morning. Our East Coast friends at nine AM. Just so you can start the day, again, with the right mindset, the right attitude as we go into what is a big change. And, again, to share any any breaking news or any things that we see happening.
So, panel, let's kick it off. Who, who wants to share some insight this morning on this wonderful BBA morning coffee? And, again, we're gonna wrap right a little before nine thirty so you guys can get to those state classes that are kicking off at nine thirty AM.
Yesterday was, yesterday was great.
We had a lot of great classes.
It was awesome seeing, confidence. I got a dog in the background, guys. I apologize. But the confidence picking up, a lot of the the earlier classes were questions around, like, what do I do?
What do I do? What do I do? But by the end of the day, they were a lot more practical. Like, you could see, agent confidence getting better and better by the end of the day the more the more ideas they heard and, the more panels they heard and the more thoughts.
Like, you could just see agent confidence overall increasing throughout the day, which was awesome because that's kind of the point, right, to make sure everyone knows and is prepared.
Awesome. Yeah. I had, I'll share a success story.
Yesterday, we I had someone text me in the evening, and, you know, we had given the advice in the morning. Hey. The the step number one is to go out there and and speak with anyone who is gonna you're gonna have a relationship change with. So if you're currently working with a buyer, let's make sure that they understand exactly what's happening, and let's get those documents signed.
Right? Because they didn't when you started, they didn't have that that document. That document that need to be signed, and now it does. And so that's a change.
So let's start there. And I got a text yesterday evening that said, hey. I got all my buyers signed and for most of them at three percent. So I was super excited to see that proactive approach.
They went in there. They had the conversations. They scheduled their Zooms. They they made the phone calls.
I'm I'm not sure the all the methods that they use, but I was excited to see that everyone they were working with signed the BBA, which means that they were, you know, providing tremendous value, and they had it signed at the three percent, which I thought was also really great because it was starting to take their commission into their own hands and find the first step of that happening. So be proactive in your approach. Go out there. Have your conversations.
Work with, the people have the conversation with the people you're already working with first.
Yeah. Look. And this is one of the things that we talked about last night on the ten PM session. Yeah.
For consumers, signing paperwork before doing business with someone is not that foreign of a concept. Right? I went to the you know, you go to the dentist. I have my teeth cleaned, and and I guess they change their computer system over so they hand me a clipboard full of paperwork and make me fill out a bunch of personal information.
Right? I haven't met the doctor yet. I haven't built a personal rapport with the dentist yet. I'm just, hey.
Let me fill all this paperwork out and sign it. I can tell you the mortgage business is very similar. Before we ever get a chance to meet anyone on purpose, you know, in person or get them approved or really build a ton of report, we gotta make them sign an absolute stack of paperwork. And so I think while in our industry, maybe we have some resistance to the idea of asking for paperwork too soon in the process.
I can promise you that for everything from getting an oil change, to going to the dentist, to getting a mortgage, to all these other things, you are you are presented with a stack of paperwork to read through and fill out and execute before you do business with someone. There's privacy policies, there's terms and conditions. Know, a lot of websites have a pop up that make you agree to terms and conditions. So, again, do not overcomplicate it in your own mind.
Do not create resistance in your own life that doesn't exist. Go in there with confidence. This is just how we do business just like when you go and again, use these examples. Just like when you go to the doctor, the dentist, they make you fill out a bunch of initial paperwork that explains your relationship together, how they're gonna keep your your data and information private and confidential.
Right? These are normal conversations to have and normal paperwork to have signed. And so now our industry is just catching up with that. You know, I was in the mortgage business when we went through our very similar shift, when Dodd Frank was passed coming out of the financial crisis and the timing of paperwork was moved to the very front.
Now before we could even take someone's credit card or order an appraisal or do all these things we used to do early to kinda build rapport before we went for the paperwork, the paperwork had to come first after Dodd Frank. That was over a decade ago. And I can tell you my company's embraced it. We leaned into it.
We treated it like it was normal course of business. We didn't overcomplicate it. We didn't overthink it. We didn't let our own reluctance get in the way of providing value to our customers and just getting that paperwork in their hands and out of the way.
And and that is the approach that we're encouraging everyone to take. Don't don't overthink it. Don't make it a bigger deal than it is. No one wants you to work for free.
You know, that is not that is not American consumerism, ideal that people should work for free. Now there are the occasional maybe jerk out there that do want you to work free, but but by and large, most consumers do not want you to work for free. They understand the concept of the paperwork, and you just need to go in there with confidence and make it, you know, part for the course.
Yeah. As yesterday's day progressed, I mean, that that's such an interesting point. It it it became like that realization of we've been in the weeds since March. We've been following the headlines.
We've been following the settlement language. You know, we've been you know, now we're receiving all of this content surrounding NAR, but it's that realization that our customers may not have been in the weeds for the last few months. You know, that level of anxiety that we are all facing as agents, our customers are not feeling per se. To them, it's just business as usual.
The example that I received yesterday from one of our agents was, know, he went to a listing presentation. And prior to him going to that listing presentation, other agents had presentations before him. And they were sharing, you know, the sky is falling, doom and gloom, the changes that are happening to that particular seller. And the seller's like, I don't even know where we came from.
Like, that doesn't matter to me. I just wanna sell my property. I just wanna sell my house. And that agent was able to see that as the opportunity to be able to really organize his approach to present the concept in a very different way that it wasn't sky is falling and things are, you know, gonna become a disaster moving forward.
You know, again, guys, we've been in this world for so many months now, but our customers may not know any better or any different. So, you know, finding ways to have these conversations with our customers that it's not the sky and falling doom and gloom is probably the best approach. And I can really foresee, this concept or this, this change becoming no different than how we consulted our sellers, for examples, with seller concessions, or, you know, how many days is reasonable for an inspection period? You know, we're getting the questions now.
Like, I I saw some questions in the chat yesterday. It's like, hey. Like, what if my seller, you know, pre agreed to offer the buyer's agent three percent, you know, if a buyer reaches out to me, you know, should I tell them that my seller pre agreed to three percent? Well, the question to that is, you know, historically, if your customer pre agreed to offer ten thousand seller concessions, would you have come out the gate even if you were not told about seller concessions to the buyer's agent?
Probably not. Like, you would keep that in your back pocket. If the buyer's agent came to you with a contract and it said, hey, I'm agreeable to five thousand in in seller concessions. Oftentimes, you're not gonna look at the buyer and say, Hey, great news, my seller's agreeable to give you five more thousands of dollars.
You're gonna advocate for your client's best interest.
So, you know, when we're looking at this, like, I I really do foresee this becoming just a, you know, standard point of conversations that we historically have had with other places, with seller financing, with financing contingencies, with appraisal contingencies, with I would I would add too, like, let's not be mind readers.
Right? Let's not enter into a conversation with our sellers, with our buyers, and make assumptions about what they've heard, how they're feeling about the news. When we do that, we put ourselves in this defensible position, and like Lewis said, they may not even know any differently. It's really important to connect, to make an effort to listen to what your client needs and meet them where they are. What's going to save your client time, money, and stress? That's what they care about. That's our job in representing our client.
I think it can be a very positive thing. I have seen agents give positive feedback. Like, I actually love working with this agreement because now the expectation is clear. I know that I'm going to get paid. My buyer understands that they're working with me exclusively, and they're not gonna call Zillow and just go tour with a John Doe randomly. Like, there's a commitment level there.
I would just say the sooner we can embrace the change and move in with a positive attitude toward these forms and craft our, you know, our speech and how we connect and be more intentional, we're gonna put ourselves in a better position for sure.
I think it's a great point, Natalie. And one thing I also wanna highlight, is that, you know, I I was speaking with someone else, and they were tired of talking about the approach with the sellers. And they were, you know, saying, hey. Well, what happens if someone doesn't want to pay the commission?
They're not open to it. And so, you know, of course, you've heard us talk about and given the advice of saying, hey. We don't wanna pre close that door. We wanna just make sure that they're open to the concept.
We're not gonna lock in on any particular amount. We're just gonna say, hey. Most offers may come in with this. This is something that we are gonna wanna have negotiable so that you don't, you know, you don't deter people.
And, you know, we kind of we're talking through that concept, and I said, hey. You also gotta imagine if someone's going out there and they're trying to sell their home, let's say, five hundred thousand is is the top of the market for them, that's that's full value for their property, And then they're asking someone else to pay additional commissions for the representation. They're basically making their house more expensive. So they need to understand that process of saying, hey.
What you're really doing if someone's having to also pay for representation, you're making your house five fifteen or five twenty or whatever that that commission number is. So it's important for them to understand and start thinking about the mechanics of that from a net perspective from the buyer side as well too. Not just like, hey. I wanna sell my house for the same thing it was before when we had a predefined number.
Now I wanna, you know, pull that value in for myself and, you know, eliminate the person. Like, that's not gonna work. You're essentially making your house more expensive, which makes it less competitive and hurts your overall goal, which is selling for the most amount of money. So really just having those conversations to start breaking that traditional psychology because, again, people are gonna muscle memory their way into the existing, you know, seniors that they've always had.
Hey. I've never had to sign this paperwork before when I purchased the house. I've never had to think about this conversation before when I've sold a house. Those are the things that you're gonna be kind of going through as we're transitioning into this making it a normality.
So, but all great all great points, and I love to hear, you know, how people are creatively talking through this and how they're walking their buyers and sellers. I did this this community has been really great with sharing information, so thank you for all the support you guys are providing for each other as well.
Robert, say something.
Give us some guidance.
Always comes up to me. Yeah. Hey. I love it. Yeah. Look, guys. I mean, these are the exact thing.
I mean, this is why we're doing this. Right? We're doing this to just have open, transparent dialogue, you know, to we have looks we have certain classes that are structured, like the the, the BBA one zero one that's coming up is gonna be very structured where these morning coffees, it's it's meant just for an open sharing of ideas. You know, we're paying attention to what you guys are talking about in the chat.
We're here to add our insight. Again, I think a lot of this is just, again, it's it's the it's the mindset. Right? It's it's the morale piece of this.
It's we are going through changes and knowing that, you know, you've got you've got six folks here from your leadership team at your brokerage at nine in the morning. We're doing this fifty times over two weeks. Again, we we know that this extra level of comfort I think David made a great point when we kicked off this morning, and we saw it too. The confidence level is already moving.
Yeah. We had agents who took all five classes yesterday, and we saw that confidence level increase from class to class to class. And that really, I think, is what this is all about. We took, I would say, a different approach.
You know, most brokerages are like, hey. We're gonna do, like, one or two trainings and try to smash everybody into them. We said, you know what? Let's hold fifty sessions, five a day for two weeks straight so that everyone can get what they need as much as they need to plug in.
If, you know, they need to grab something at the last minute. Hey. I've got a listing appointment happening tomorrow. I need some reassurance.
I need some confidence. Let me go jump on to one of these calls. And I I think it's a really creative approach, and I think it is accomplishing exactly what we wanted it to accomplish, as we're moving through this. One of the other concepts that we've talked about a lot is this idea of the other bad drivers on the road.
You know, you're gonna you are taking the time to educate yourself. You are here. You are learning. You are plugging in.
We know there are so many agents that are not. You know, there are out of one point five million agents, there are a large percentage that are not plugging in. And and maybe they're getting their their advice on the change from Facebook posts or news articles, which is an absolutely terrible place because there is so much misinformation or slanted information floating around out there. And we have to be defensive drivers.
We have to be ready for that. We have to be ready for someone to swerve into our lane. You know, I saw someone put in the chat earlier, a listing a listing agent demanding a copy of the buyer broker agreement. That is not a proper thing to do.
That is not a right they have to request. Now we gotta deal with it. Right? If they wanna dig in and not let you see the house because they wanna see the buyer broker agreement, or I think in this case, even worse, they want Natalie personally to sign the buyer broker agreement before they'll let your agent in the house.
Like, that is not a right a listing agent has. They have no liability. They are not subject to MLS fines. And a lot of ways, they have no right to know what your buyer is under contract with you for.
Like, that that's none of their business. That is your relationship with your client, but that's a bad driver on the road. They're swerving into your lane, and now we have to react. And where I think over time, you know, you're going to see complaints filed against folks.
You're gonna see brokers having to get involved and educate their agents. But during this transition period, the bad drivers are on the road, and we have to adapt. And so, you know, you've got a decision to make. Do I do I share the form or not?
Do I jump through these hoops or not? It may not be right. It may not be, something they have a right to. It may even violate, you know, some some ethics and rules, but we're trying to do what's best for our clients and help them navigate this period as well.
And so these are things we have to be aware of. I know there's some builders that are asking for that documentation. Listing agents, again, this is not something that we believe from our legal interpretation, they have any right to look at. Just like we can't request a copy of their listing agreement.
Right? Imagine if if you're calling to schedule appointments, say, well, hey. Before I show the house, I want you to send me a copy of the listing agreement. The listing agent isn't gonna do that, but now they're gonna try to exert power over buyer's agents.
And I think some of this just comes from the history of listing agents are used to being able to dictate buyer's agents commission. You know, that really is what the old system was. If a listing agent went in and said, hey. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna get a listing agreement signed for five percent, and I'm gonna go four percent to me as the listing agent and one percent the cooperating broker.
They got to set the terms for the buyer's agent, and now that power is gone. You as a buyer's agent can set your own terms now, and then you get to negotiate directly with the seller, basically. I mean, it's through the listing agent, but the seller is the one ultimately saying yes or no to your request for concessions, for your request for dollars to help pay those commissions. This this really does balance out the power.
And I would say for the most part, most listing agents were respectful of the power they had before. Most listing agents were fair and balanced, but we did have ones that were not. And now I think we're gonna see those same agents again try to figure out how they can wrestle some power back. And over time, these things are gonna work themselves out.
But just be ready for that. Be ready for the driver who is gonna swerve in your lane, who is gonna, you know, stop short, who's gonna run a stop sign, run a stoplight, and we have to be defensive drivers in how we protect our clients and how we protect ourselves. But then too, that creates opportunity, as Lewis mentioned, because some of these bad drivers, they're gonna embarrass themselves. Right?
Their clients are not dumb.
Their clients are going to pick up on the fact that maybe they're not doing things correctly, and that creates opportunities for us to stand up and be that beacon of doing it the absolute right way.
Yeah. I love that, bad driver analysis because, yeah, during during this transition period, there's gonna be a lot of bad drivers. And what I would recommend is don't be the bad driver also. You know?
Like, really, you know, embrace, you know, what we are discussing in all of these classes and modules and and not go out there and be that bad driver on the road. Because if you are that good driver and you are paired with with another good driver, it's gonna feel so refreshing. And slowly, you know, we will transition to the point where it's gonna all become, you know, normal and equalize. But during this transition period, we do gotta be defensive, and we gotta be prepared.
And I would also recommend that at all times, we look, you know, at any scenario that comes in front of us through the lens of how do we advocate for our client's best interest. Right? Like, if we represent a buyer and the listing agent is requesting for the buyer broker agreement, and it's getting to a place where it's going to jeopardize your buyer's ability to ultimately secure that property, now you're going to be at that crossroad, right? Like you recognize you have a bad driver on the other side.
You also understand that it's not required for you to share your retainer agreement that you have with your customer. Like, look at it like this. Like, if you, you know, represent a if you hire an attorney and the other lawyer says, hey. Before we go to court, I gotta see what you, you know, are ultimately paying your lawyer.
Like, that's not how it works in the so there's there's not that requirement. Right? But now you're at that crossroad of, if I don't share it, I can hinder my client's ability. Or if I do share it, like, we can, yes, it's against what's required, but it will increase the likelihood that my client can secure the property.
So we're gonna be faced with those challenges, but I would always recommend again, like, we gotta look at it through the lens of, you know, how do we advocate for our clients' best interests within the confines, obviously, of the rules.
Yeah. One one quick point. I I saw somebody asking, hey. If if, if I do have, say, two and a half percent negotiated in my offer, you know, can I tell that should I tell the buyer that?
And look. Absolutely. I mean, you you control the information you wanna share. The way I would phrase it is, I would say, hey.
Look. Our listing price already includes two and a half percent of buyer's agent commission. However, my seller is willing to entertain all requests for buyer's agent commission. Right?
Because, again, we don't wanna close the door. Like, we're not gonna lie. We're not gonna misrepresent it. And that that's what's happening.
Right? Say, hey. The price we published in the MLS, that price already includes a planned concession of two and a half percent. However, my seller is still willing to entertain any request.
Right? Because if the right offer comes in asking for an extra half percent in buyer's agent commission and that's the best net to your seller, they're absolutely going to entertain that. And so, again, I think the language we use, the goal is to make sure that agent on the other side absolutely, shows our home. Right?
That they're not gonna cross it off the list because they're looking for three and we only pre negotiated two and a half or whatever. So that that's the language I would use. And I'll put that in the chat. The listing price includes two and a half percent of buyer's agent commission.
However, my seller is willing to entertain all requests for buyer's agent commission. So if you need more than that, include it in the offer, and we're happy to consider that as we are looking at all the offers that come in. Right? I mean, that then that really is the honest truth.
Like, that is what's happening here. And I think over time, agents will start to realize that. You know? Like, hey.
Yeah. Just because they only built two percent into the price, I can still ask for another percent. Right? I can still make a deal work.
This is a negotiation. It's all part of the contract now. Just like inspection periods and roof repairs and seller concessions and all these other other things that we have always dealt with, you know, financing contingencies, you know, having to sell your other home, like, all these different things. And so I think we're gonna get there.
But I think us using the right language to help the bad drivers or maybe just the newer drivers or less educated drivers understand, hey. Don't close the door on my listing just because we only pre negotiated two and a half percent. Right? The the the the list price includes two and a half percent, but we're willing to entertain whatever you need.
So please submit it with your offer. That, I think, is the best way, to create language that gives your seller and yourself the most opportunity.
Awesome. Awesome. Alright. Well, guys, we are just about at time. I know we wanna promptly end at nine thirty to give everyone an opportunity to make it to their state specific classes.
And, again, those classes are going to go over your forms. And so this is the overall form as Robert mentioned in the very beginning where it's the general concept. It's the way to think about it. It's engaging with buyers and sellers, whereas your state specific classes are gonna go and talk about how to actually fill out those forms, which ones you need, that pertain to you, for your state. And so that's, there's a few of those starting at nine thirty. So we'll go ahead and end it here, Robert. I'll turn it over to you for final words, and how we should, how should we think through to today?
Yeah. Absolutely, guys. I mean, again, I think I think transparency but using the right language is critical. Again, and there may be state specific rules you need to take into account.
Again, what we're talking about is general concepts. Make sure you're plugged into those state classes. We're about to turn you guys loose because we have a bunch of state classes kicking off right at nine thirty AM. You know, take these high level concepts that we discussed here and then reconcile them with your individual state rules on those state classes, and that is how we all win together.
So we're gonna be back with you guys, in a couple hours. We've got another session at eleven AM, four PM, seven PM, ten PM. And if you do wanna invite agents outside of the brokerage, you can share your links. We don't have a way to generate links for them because they don't have connect logins, but totally open to you guys if you want to.
If you have a friend or someone who is outside of LPT, you know, we wanna we wanna try to educate all the drivers on the road. You'll have to share your links with them because we have no way to get open public links to everyone, but totally welcome to do that. And, again, excited to see everybody being on this journey with us. Thanks for taking the time to invest in yourself, and we'll catch you back later today.