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If you haven’t heard about the massive news that is the NAR lawsuit, then you need to check it out. Today we are talking about the massive opportunity this is bringing.
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The Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)
Transcript:
00:00:12:24 – 00:00:44:08
Unknown
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Webster of Real Estate Marketing. Doing this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand. People have come to know like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them, Let’s get started.
00:00:44:10 – 00:01:13:06
Unknown
What is up? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the Real Estate Marketing Dude podcast and holy crap, folks, have you been following this show for any period of time? I’ve been talking about what just happened this week. I’ve been talking about that for the last two years, well before the lawsuits, well before any of this stuff. The importance of building a personal brand and or a unique selling proposition to stand out.
00:01:13:08 – 00:01:33:02
Unknown
Well, the numbers, if you even tuned back to several years of episodes, the numbers with consumer dissatisfaction were evident. They were out there planning it. And this is going to be the fuel to the fire that they’ve been waiting for. So what we’re going to be doing, though, in this show is that this is not all doom and gloom.
00:01:33:04 – 00:01:55:00
Unknown
Two nights ago, I couldn’t sleep, literally could not sleep, could not sleep because I was like, oh, my God, should I start a brokerage because of this? The opportunity here is also very, very large. So this is not going to be a doom and gloom show. It might be for some of you guys, at least if you’re not willing to change, because one thing for sure is that this market will change.
00:01:55:02 – 00:02:12:11
Unknown
There’s no doubt about it. The way you’re going to be compensated is changing. I mean, it’s going to happen. And if you go on social media right now, you’re seeing two different sort of trains of thoughts. The other a lot of people are like, well, you’re going to have to list to win list live to list or last list or whatever they’re calling it.
00:02:12:16 – 00:02:37:02
Unknown
Great. Still doesn’t the fact that you’re going to lose 50% of your commission in the buyer side of the commission. Right. Whether you list or not, you still have income that is generated from buyer commission revenue. And it’s not just about that. What is more concerning more than anything is that honestly, you have to look into the remarks like, go, go ahead and hit the NBC News article and go scroll through the comments.
00:02:37:08 – 00:02:58:17
Unknown
And that’s where the true answer is, folks, because I spent at least, gosh, maybe 30, 45 minutes just reading through the comments of the news articles that are coming out, bashing the industry, saying how real estate agents held them hostage, essentially, which is bullshit. But, you know, the news and the media’s going to spin in whatever way they do, like they always do.
00:02:58:17 – 00:03:18:04
Unknown
It’s always say they’re fake news. But the comments are evident. Guys. People don’t like real estate agents. And, you know, I didn’t we didn’t need this lawsuit to come out and tell us that we saw this in the in the Atkins customer or client satisfaction surveys that have been done over the last four or five years. So the writing’s been on the wall.
00:03:18:06 – 00:03:54:17
Unknown
Now, why is that not all doom and gloom? And let’s start with actually both. Let’s do the pros and cons. Maybe that’s what we call the show pros and cons of the doom and gloom of the in our settlement, because there’s a lot more pros I see so far in cons. And I’m not just saying that to hype you up paradigm shift like this is when people make money, This is when people take market share, this is when people gain ground and this is when people stand out, stick out, and nobody makes it big in when everything just go in the same way.
00:03:54:17 – 00:04:16:07
Unknown
It go in the same way, go in the same way, go to somebody, go to the same way. And this has already happened a few times before where there are sudden shifts and different people just blew up overnight. It seems like the last time we did this was 2020. In the COVID era. How many people became tik-tok celebrities in such huge social media followings just because of was stuck to their phones for three years.
00:04:16:09 – 00:04:38:05
Unknown
So there isn’t a lot of doom and gloom, but the doom is is at commission compressions real. Like the days of getting 5 to 6%, they’re gone. Telling you right now they’re absolutely gone. Some people are going to hate that. I say that. And I understand you’re comfortable doing business the way you were, but this is not going away.
00:04:38:07 – 00:04:55:22
Unknown
There’s many lawsuits I can’t even imagine the amount of injury attorneys are just sell the testing, because what this lawsuit does is it could open up why can it open up lawsuits for all the other people? You know, you just need a client or consumer to say, hey, I thought I didn’t get I wasn’t given an option. Right.
00:04:55:24 – 00:05:24:19
Unknown
Option. That’s going be key to later on in today’s show. So pay attention to that option, That word, that’s the name of the game here. But let’s go back into some of the doom. So like you’re going to have to assume that your commissions getting cut. If you look through the comments on the NBC articles, the biggest one they’re saying is like, why should an agent get paid for the same amount of work that they would do on a $100,000 house to sell that house, the same amount of work they’re going to do on a $2 million house to sell that house?
00:05:24:21 – 00:05:46:02
Unknown
And why should they get paid 40 grand versus four grand? And that’s the complaint. This has never been adjusted. And if you put yourself in the consumer’s shoes, not in your own get out of your own skin, put yourself in the consumer shoes. You can see the positioning of this and you can see their point. If not, you’re being ignorant.
00:05:46:02 – 00:06:00:05
Unknown
You could see they have a point and right off the bat, like what’s going to happen in the next 3 to 6 months, even before like, I don’t even know how this thing settles. But what’s going to happen is that you’re going start having the conversation and be like, Hey, I don’t want to pay that commission. I just saw somebody’s article.
00:06:00:06 – 00:06:16:19
Unknown
You’re going to know how you’re going to have to be careful in how you answer that. Make sure you’re protected in the paperwork. But I’m not going to give you a legal argument today. I’m sure your broker is doing a good job of that. Make sure they are, though, or find somebody who is because the commission compression thing is going to be real guys.
00:06:16:21 – 00:06:37:16
Unknown
It’s just going to happen. How low is it going to go? I don’t know. But I don’t think you’re going to ever double end the deal ever again in the rest of your life. That’s one safe bet. And if you do, it’s it’s like it’s a unicorn, but don’t count on it. But if there’s no buyer agency fee, the question really becomes is how our buyer agent’s going to be paid or are they going to be paid at all, or are they just going to be totally cut out?
00:06:37:18 – 00:06:57:14
Unknown
Well, we know that consumers are probably not going to pay this out of pocket. That’s my hunch. We can’t prove that. So we haven’t seen it yet. But I just it’s going to be interesting to see what’s going to happen. So the one thing I do know and I could promise you, just going to happen to rewind the show and if you don’t believe me, go back to the last four years episodes, go look, go look at multiple listing options.
00:06:57:14 – 00:07:20:22
Unknown
Go look at unique selling proposition episodes. Go look at personal branding episodes. These are the things we’re talking about. The reason are we talking about that stuff then was because of what happens right now, because your broker can’t save you here. You’re still an independent contractor, which means it’s up to you to decide how you’re going to do business and what’s diligent.
00:07:20:24 – 00:07:43:02
Unknown
You can’t buy buyer leads anymore, like there’s no value to them Once this goes down, there’s no value to that. What does that mean? Quite a lot means you’re going to be in charge of your own damn business, just like any other business owner if things are going to change for a while. But the number one thing that’s not going to change is the relationship you have with your clients, the relationships you have in life.
00:07:43:04 – 00:08:07:19
Unknown
Because all of those people, regardless of how you chop up the last ten years, nothing matters anymore based on this ruling. This is big deal, guys. But the last the buyer, you your commission is going to get cut. I lost my train of thought. I’m getting all pumped up and excited here. So let’s get out of the doom, though, Johnny.
00:08:07:19 – 00:08:23:13
Unknown
Like, I don’t want to be I don’t want to be a Karen here and talking about this and just boring people to death. I’m like, Oh my God, I don’t want you guys to go, go, quit. Or, Well, a lot of you are going to quit. That’s part of the opportunity. So actually I’ll start that point. Here’s a reality scenario, guys.
00:08:23:16 – 00:08:41:04
Unknown
We’re out in a shitty market like you that sales are bad. Now you have this issue going to loom over. You’re going to have a lot of real estate agents leaving the market, probably a larger amount than we’ve ever seen before. And now what we don’t know is how long that’s going to take. Now, why is this going to be a pro or an opportunity?
00:08:41:04 – 00:09:02:04
Unknown
Well, obvious people still move, right? There’s probably going be less. People who would use a real estate agent is my guess. That’s why this is happening on the purchase side. However, on the sales side, I think that that’s always going to be something they are. So I’m going to talk about a pro of that as well. However, this is a pro because people still buy and sell.
00:09:02:04 – 00:09:25:19
Unknown
So even if even if a lot of the market’s up using real estate agents, there’s only so many real estate agents leaving the industry that they’re still going to be a lot of opportunity for those who can withstand this storm. Okay. So there’s going to be a tremendous number of opportunities in this market. The negative part of that is those opportunities are each going to come at lesser than what you probably have been accustomed to your entire career.
00:09:25:19 – 00:09:44:00
Unknown
I don’t think there’s too many people who are still I’ve been in I’ve been doing this for 21 years. But no, I think there’s people that have been doing this for 30 years. I haven’t ever seen a shift like this or something like this big of a deal. So that’s the pro. Now let’s talk about marketing opportunities based upon this.
00:09:44:00 – 00:10:08:15
Unknown
Like if you’re a listing agent, you’re not a listing agent, you’re marketing company for houses. Like your job isn’t to sell real estate, your job is to market real estate, you know, differently than how an advertising company would come on into a product or pitch like, let’s just say I got hired by Coca-Cola, and Coca-Cola is like, Hey, I want you to do our fall marketing campaign.
00:10:08:19 – 00:10:42:24
Unknown
Well, I would have to develop a marketing campaign specifically for the product that Coca-Cola is trying to pitch. Well, in your case, every single house is a new marketing campaign. And you know what’s going to be in demand are going to be people who can create high end videos, literally have marketing steps, not just, hey, let’s listed in the MLS, let’s put a sign in the yard, hosted a cup, an open house is where I could pick up some buyer leads to make you feel better while I’m totally hung over from the night before and see what happens now.
00:10:42:24 – 00:11:03:09
Unknown
Those days are gone. You’re have to earn your shit. That’s the opportunity I You are going to have to sharpen your marketing skills. Traditionally, real estate agents, many of them are some of the worst marketers in the world. But there’s a good a handful that are always the best marketers, and it’s the best marketers who sell the most amount of houses.
00:11:03:09 – 00:11:25:03
Unknown
They’re not necessarily the sharpest tools in the shed, but they’re damn good at marketing and making sure everybody knows who they are. So the way that you position yourself, your personal brand has never mattered more. What is your personal brand? It’s how people know you. This means that you have to start creating content if you have it yet.
00:11:25:05 – 00:11:42:00
Unknown
If you’re not going to be on social media, your business is dead. You know, a lot of you, a lot of your old whippersnappers are going to get pissed that I say that. But, you know, in all honesty, if you’re talking me on social media in the future, you’re fucking out of business. These are is this is the reality.
00:11:42:00 – 00:12:16:06
Unknown
This isn’t a let me make you feel good show. This is like, dude, get off your ass If you don’t change, your shit is fucked show. Okay, so what we’re really getting at here is look at all these different opportunities like changes. That’s the opportunity, guys. Now with the marketing, same thing you’re going to have a lot of people are going to be very scared to spend money right now, those who are willing to spend money on brand marketing, video content creation, you’re going to come out of this on the other end and you’re going to be fucking killing it because the same thing is going to happen.
00:12:16:06 – 00:12:37:00
Unknown
People are scared. Oh my God, I could tell you this, you guys. I own a video marketing company. I no longer have that video marketing company because about 13 to 14 months ago I noticed the shift in the marketplace. And I was right. Real estate agents in the industry pulled back their marketing budgets when they should instead be doubling down.
00:12:37:02 – 00:12:58:12
Unknown
It happens all the time. That’s why we merge and get out of real estate video marketing. So this stuff is is right there, but you’re the one who creates the content. This is going back and nothing changed from before, but the most popular agent is going to be the most in-demand agent because the more content you create, the bigger your brand grows.
00:12:58:14 – 00:13:18:09
Unknown
And the reason why your brand is so important is the same reason why Josh Altman has a reality show. He doesn’t have to ask somebody for a his his when he goes on a listening presentation. He doesn’t have people ask him for his pitch or ask him for his listing presentation. His brand has grown so large. Your media and content creation that people just assume he’s the right job.
00:13:18:14 – 00:13:44:15
Unknown
The same way that if I was going to go out and tell you I’m a chef, I could shoot five fucking videos, put them in front of you, make you watch them, and you would think I am, but I’m not. That’s the power positioning and branding. When you’re doing things with things like video and content creation, social media and multipurpose scene and distribute your content much like a media company, because that’s what you’re going to have to do and a lot of people aren’t going to do it, and that’s going to lead a lot of people out.
00:13:44:17 – 00:14:16:16
Unknown
The attention that is on your brand is going to be the most important thing in the world. Opportunity. I think I’m a number four niche down immediately, niche down, immediately. Dial in that brand. If you’re a give back it, let the world know about it. We had so many agents we branded with such cool wise in their life from rescuing dogs per closing to giving 10% of their commissions back to charity of their choice.
00:14:16:18 – 00:14:37:13
Unknown
But those are brands. And don’t hold back. You’re not a salesperson anymore. You’re a human being That helps people transition and everything. Home services and whatever it is you stand for, it’s time to niche down and let the world know about it. Don’t be politically correct, be politic, be personally right in your own way. You know, I mean that that’s there’s none of that.
00:14:37:13 – 00:15:02:07
Unknown
You have to be yourself unapologetically. And the way you do that is you scream it from the rooftops and not give a fuck what anybody says because that’s what’s going to take their own attention. Okay, niche down. Number five, Interest rates are still high. One should focus directly on distressed sales over the next 12 to 18 months. It’s going to be where the transactions are.
00:15:02:09 – 00:15:37:02
Unknown
Okay, The transactions are going to be people who need to move. Already seen this. This should be evident for you guys. Your focus on people in their elderly years who are either incapacitated, death, enter a probate, divorce, relocation, marriage, life events, guys, is where you’re going to want to focus your time and energy. Some of you if you’re if form the strategic relationships with all of these different service providers in your market, you have to own all of these different services.
00:15:37:02 – 00:15:59:06
Unknown
You need to position yourself as the Amazon of real estate, everything, not just the fact that you help people sell houses. You have to be the guy in gal that has the probate attorney, that has the divorce attorney that has Johnny. No, no, you are the Rolodex for the community. You need to position yourself as a master connector and a master communicator.
00:15:59:08 – 00:16:23:10
Unknown
And what you’ll find is that you’ll make a bunch of these different relationships. Some of them are going to be very fruitful, like the probate attorney, one relationship with a divorce or a probate attorney, an estate planning attorney, one relationship ship can change the next 12 months. Imagine if you have two or three. Why? Because they have clients that will always move in regardless of the interest rate or regardless of the recession.
00:16:23:15 – 00:16:58:13
Unknown
And if you can find a way to form a relationship with them that refers you business, well, that’s a great position to be in. Very, very good position to be in. Number six, probably should be number one. You got to market your database and you have to build one. If you don’t build a database of referring and repeat clients into the future, you will always I mean, it’s going to you’re going to be just a rat race the rest of your life.
00:16:58:13 – 00:17:23:16
Unknown
It’s going to always be peaks and valleys. You have to build a database. A database is nothing more than a list of people, a contact of relationships. It is a real estate agent. It’s the people that you’re friends with on Facebook. It’s the email list that you’ve collected from made up of people from anywhere, from the people who say hello to your kids, soccer games, to your friends, your aunt, your uncle’s, to your past clients.
00:17:23:18 – 00:17:57:10
Unknown
It’s nurturing that email list. It’s farming people via direct mail. You know, I’m talking about creating media on an offline social media and in print and doing that consistent because it’s that network, that database that is always going to be responsible for your business. Before the lawsuit. After the lawsuit and the better relationship you have with it and the more trust you have with them, the less all the rest of this shit matters.
00:17:57:12 – 00:18:15:23
Unknown
So don’t overthink that piece, but don’t not do it. Because if you don’t have a database and if you don’t have a system that you’re marketing your database with, I want you to go a referral suite, a dot com, that’s a referral suite as w e t like sweet candy dot com. I got to get myself a little shameless plug.
00:18:15:23 – 00:18:33:16
Unknown
Why not? You know, I’ve been on this show for nine years. Ten years? Ten years. Been doing this for ten years. But let me talk about the final one and some I’m really excited to talk about. And this is something that you’re going to have to have to do. You’re going to have to earn income through ancillary services or other ways.
00:18:33:18 – 00:18:59:02
Unknown
And I want to give you several different ways, and you need to start thinking outside the box. Do not rely on commissions as the only source of income. It’s part of your income going forward. And it might be the most dominant part for a while, but you’re going to have to diversify where you make money. The first and most obvious, I believe, is if you’re going to stay in real estate is that you’ve got to be an investor yourself.
00:18:59:04 – 00:19:22:12
Unknown
You know, get in learning that stuff, take courses, take training. If you’re if you’re in any of our if you’re in referrals, readers, witnesses, there’s plenty, of course, recommendations in there that we share with you guys about what training to take. It’s super, super important because you’re going to come across good deals and why give them to an investor if you can take them down?
00:19:22:14 – 00:19:44:20
Unknown
Right. Some of the most profitable models I’m seeing right now are like the rehab or that accidentally started a brokerage. You didn’t start a brokerage and then became a rehab or he became a rehab and then realized all the ways he can monetize the brokerage around it through the additional leads and everything else around the transaction. So think outside the box number to ancillary services.
00:19:44:22 – 00:20:04:12
Unknown
So, for example, I think everyone is going to be a solar vendor. Solar is are very lucrative business. It’s something that a real estate agent should have in their arsenal to sell anyways. So make sure you’re at the right trusted vendor and you can make good money doing it. It’s just the way the industry is headed. Like every agent should be able to sell solar.
00:20:04:14 – 00:20:35:02
Unknown
In addition to selling real estate right now, every agent should also start thinking about getting their mortgage loan. I’m a lawyer in mortgage loan origination license, and the reason for that is that there are several programs by several different banks out there that exist right now that you can now legally get paid for referring a lender. The client that you’re working with on the buy side, I think it’s like a half a point, 50 basis point, something like that, which is great.
00:20:35:04 – 00:21:03:03
Unknown
You know, if your commission is going to get cut a point and a half over here, well then you might as well at a point over there. Right. There’s a tremendous other amount of services and vendor services that you can also refer and or recommend during the transaction like movers, handymen, estate sales, things of that nature staging that you’re going to start approaching differently.
00:21:03:03 – 00:21:27:14
Unknown
It’s not it’s going to be the mindset is got to be more like, okay well if I send this person business, how much are they going to pay me? And you got to present yourself as a broker because that’s just what the everyday affiliate world is. So that’s what I mean by building a master connector and a network of all these different services, because you’re going to see a lot more opportunities to monetize around the transaction in ongoing than just in it.
00:21:27:16 – 00:21:49:03
Unknown
Like if you can find a way to profit off of home services, not just when the client needing to buy or sell a house, but to service them after they bought or sold the house and to stay in touch with them and use that as one of your ways to stay in touch with them and become the Home Depot essentially of your database.
00:21:49:05 – 00:22:09:22
Unknown
That’s the future of this business, folks. So I promise you that’s where this is going. So I want you someone’s to go out here and create a 1% brokerage and they’re going to crush it. And it was already a bunch of you out there. But prepare to have many more. And that’s going to be very high in demand.
00:22:09:24 – 00:22:33:06
Unknown
There’s a big that’s $1,000,000 piece of advice right there, guys. Create the 1% business model already have it mapped out. It’s pretty damn good. I just don’t have the time to do it, nor do I want to. But if you do, you’re going to make you’re going to be rich. All right, folks. So let’s recap on this. Where there is doom and gloom.
00:22:33:06 – 00:22:54:03
Unknown
There is lots of opportunity. And right now there is lots of opportunity. But what your it’s going to require is is going to require you to change, start changing the the reluctance. See in those comments are like, oh, we could just do this. Oh, you know, it’s going to change and you got to change with it. Start taking proactive steps right now, leadership wise, surround yourself with the people who are changing with this.
00:22:54:05 – 00:23:14:18
Unknown
Get involved and see what’s going on in see what? RC And see what all the webinars your broker saying and make some adjustments. I’ll be releasing a lot of content specifically to this. I’m going to actually dedicate the next six months probably to this cause because I believe the product that we just launched is exactly what is needed for this time.
00:23:14:18 – 00:23:39:12
Unknown
And hey, sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time in their product suite, assist and referral suite Ecom. You can check both of those out folks, if you will. And I really appreciate you. Listen to another episode of the Estate Marketing podcast. I appreciate you guys hanging in there. Changes opportunity and don’t be scared. Double down Faith in yourself and left it over.
00:23:39:12 – 00:24:05:17
Unknown
Right. See you guys next week. Thank you for watching Another episode of the Real Estate Marketing Do podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our web site at WW W dot Real estate marketing do dot com. We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace.
00:24:05:22 – 00:24:08:16
Unknown
Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.