 Today's interview, I go all the way down under in Australia. This is my buddy, Lee Martinuzzi. This guy has been around for a while. He actually had a podcast that I was on years ago. I want to say six years ago, five years ago, something like that. And that's kind of how we met. And the guy's just incredibly interesting. But what I wanted to dig into with this interview was this lawsuit that's happening here in the U.S. about the buyer agent commission. And so down in Australia, of course, they've been operating like that for years where the listing agent doesn't pay the buyer agent commission. And most of the time, the buyers come directly to the listing agent. So I wanted to have a conversation with him on air here for you guys to listen to how real estate agents operate in Australia. And so if these lawsuits, if these lawsuits actually go through, then this is what we could be looking at, the way that agents operate in Australia. And so that's why I wanted to do this. So it's very interesting. We get into a little bit of his story, and then he breaks down exactly how the industry operates down there. And I just really wanted to understand it, even for myself. If in fact these lawsuits go through, it's going to be a huge, huge change in the industry, but it's going to be no different from how agents all over the world already operate. And I could just go on and further say, if you're worried about these lawsuits, it's something that you shouldn't be worried about. It's nothing that you can control. What you have to do is you have to kind of take yourself out of that situation and put yourself into, hey, I'm going to do my job. What is my job? It's to help as many people buy and sell real estate as humanly possible. If something happens in industry and creates a real massive shift in the way that we operate as an industry here in real estate, as real estate agents in the US, then we just have to pivot. You have to pivot to whatever the new landscape is going to be and get out there and continue doing what we're supposed to do. And this really kind of digs down into the core of Zero Diamond, my free coaching program for real estate agents, and what we do at Zero Diamond, which is help agents be more owner-based. You know, a lot of agents out there buy or heavy, you know, and if something like this goes through, it's going to really change a lot of things. It's going to change a lot of things on the listing side as well, I believe. So we'll see how it all shakes out. I'm interested to see and follow the lawsuits, but I wanted to bring Leon to explain how real estate operates in Australia so that you kind of understand what we could be looking at. All right? So enjoy the interview, comment below, let me know what you think, subscribe, all that good stuff, and here we go. So then the goal there is for her to transition as she learns more into being a single agent and kind of going out on her own. Is that the plan? Like in my mind, like this is a major crash, but transactions, transactions are down to 2008 levels. 2008 was our worst year through that massive crash, you know, and everything. There was tons of foreclosures, a lot of inventory. Right now there's basically historic low inventory. But what I'm getting at is that we're experiencing a very depressed market when it comes to transactions here. Are you guys experiencing the same thing? So if that interest rate starts to drop and this demand there, that's just going to cause you know, a new peak in processing. But I just have this feeling that they're going to do everything they can do to simulate the economy. And 98% according to a survey of these millennials want to become homeowners. And so we have record amount of 33 year olds, tons of owners who want to upgrade their home that they're just kind of sitting there brewing and just building and building and building right now. Hey, what's up everybody? I'm Ricky Caruth here and welcome to the show. I've got a really good friend that I've known for a really long time down in Australia. My buddy Lee. How are you doing, bro? I'm great. Thank you. How are you? Yeah, man. So it's 430 for me. It's 730 in the morning for you, right? Yeah. I mean, you have to... 430 after... 430 in the afternoon, 730 in the morning. So it's always crazy. Friday morning, yeah. You guys are always working while we're sleeping over here. I see that board behind you, man. You selling a bunch of property? Give me a seat. Give me a seat on the rack. Absolutely. Yeah, man. Absolutely. I wanted to bring you on because we have this lawsuit happening here in the US about buyer agent commissions. Everybody's worried about it and stuff. And actually down there in Australia, you guys have operated without basically buyer agents for a long time, although it's kind of a negotiable deal, right? And I kind of want to dig into that a little bit. But before we do, people that haven't seen you on my channel or whatever, how long you been in real estate, give us a little bit of background. Yeah, I was just looking at that. The guy, actually someone asked the question, I couldn't really figure it out. But I was three years in the industry, went for two years overseas with the family so out of real estate, another year after that came back in and I've been back in for about four and a half years now, the total of about eight years. Okay. All right. There's another residential properties here down under Australia. So if you know Australia well, I'm in a state called Queensland, which is one of the northern eastern coast states and started down the Gold Coast, which is a beautiful area and then transitioned to the Sunshine Coast, which is even more gorgeous. The cell property is up here in a lovely little hinterland town and just loving it, just loving it. Yeah. Yeah. I know that one time you showed me kangaroos there outside your window, I was kind of wild. Yeah. That was one of my colleagues. Actually, I think she had some kangaroos in the background. We help her every one, sometimes. Cool man. Well, yeah. And you've been part of my group here at EXP for two years? Yeah, about two and a half now. Two and a half. I've been on both years. I've been on both years, hoping for a third. Nice, bro. Nice. So down in Australia, let's kind of start with this and then we'll get into the actual, you know, the lawsuit thing here and how you guys actually operate. But down there in terms of like lead gin, making phone calls, door knocking, things like that, what kind of things do you guys do? What's the common activities down there for you guys to go meet property owners or are you calling them or your door knocking or you sending mailers? Like how do things work there in terms of lead gin to go out and get listings? Yeah. Look, much, much the same as probably how it works with you guys. Excuse me. So I really appreciate your model of prospecting, being authentic, just being yourself, going out there helping people build relationships. And I think that's what's the big difference from a lot of players in the industry. They're going out there with these egos and trying to be too salesy. Whereas your model of prospecting is just about, you know, going out there trying to help people, trying to help people with their plans moving forward. So that's essentially what we do here. You know, cold calling, circle prospecting as you call it, calling warm leads, things like that. Those activities are big on my list. And not everyone likes doing that. I guess there's the fear of making those calls, but that's a big part of it. There is door knocking. People just love getting out, walking the streets, saying, get eight of people in their front yards, door knocking on a few houses and connecting face to face like that. So that's a big part of some people's lead gen strategy. Not a big part of mine anymore. It was at the start, but as I got busy, it was just a time consuming thing. So I just spoke some of the calls. Flyer drops, letterbox drops, the big part of my business and a big part of a lot of people's business. So just, you know, brand awareness, putting your name out there in the community. Another big part of my business is community. I've got a very nice community. So it's not a big city. We actually have a sense of community here. So I get involved in the community and do movie nights and, you know, clean up Australia days and just throw events around and get out there in the community because people love coming together for that in part of, I guess, not lead gen, but it is ultimately what it boils down to. And then finally, social media. Like a lot of people in that digital space now and I am too. Not as significantly as others, but that's a big part of some people's business where they just, they just mail down on social media and they can lead through that process as well. Do you, do you get leads and stuff? Do you, do you get any business from social media? Look, I think it's a lot of brain awareness for me. My strategy has been for the last couple of years. I am trying something at the moment with a particular company to generate leads. So I'm just trying that at the moment, see how that works. It's only early days. And so far, the results aren't, aren't huge or significant to know. But certainly using social media for, you know, I guess you let the people know who you are building that trust before we have to walk in the door. That's huge. And yeah, yeah, I'm doing a lot more videos now as well. Yeah, I've seen your content. What, how many deals have you done this year? You know, I bet 20, 20 or so. Oh, yeah, yeah. You have some targeting 40. That's what I did last year. And you're, and you're a single agent or you have a team or how, what's the structure of the business? It works with me. She sort of, the train even lost that agent. That's slash assistant. And that's it. Just the two of us. And that's, that's all you need. Like, you know, it's, you have an assistant there on top of that or it's just you two. Just us two. Yes. So you, so you do all your admin and stuff like that. He does most of that. Oh, she's. Oh, she does it. She does it. And so then the goal there is for her to transition as she learns more into being a single agent and kind of going out on her own. Is that the plan? Either that she'll go into real estate mode or she might stay as my sales assistant, just depending on where she's fitting in that. Yeah. She's not, not as confident to go out there on her own full time. I don't think so. She'll probably just be one assistant for a bit longer. Right. And so the differences in the US and Australia, like in terms of like licensing. So when you guys get licensed, you have to go through, like this trial period for a year, right? Before you can actually go out and be an agent or what's the process there? Well, it's, it's different in every state, Ricky. So the New South Wales and Melbourne, it's a bit more regimented like that where you have to train for a year before you go out up in Queensland. It's a bit more relaxed. You just have to go out there and do your license course, whether that's your partial license or your full sales license. So a lot of people are doing these days, because a lot of people are going out there and joining these bottles like EXP. So you have to be a fully licensed agent with a company license as well. In Queensland, I can't speak for New South Wales and Victoria as such, but in Queensland, you do your course. And as soon as you get that license, you can go straight out there and sell. OK. So it just depends on the state, state by state. And then like here in the US, we are, we're literally experiencing, like in my mind, like this is a major crash. OK. Prices aren't down, prices have held firm. We had a slight correction, but it's bounced back to about even, like we're basically at all time highs right now. But as far as prices go, but transactions, transactions are down to 2008 levels. 2008 was our worst year through that massive crash, you know, and everything. And as a country, we're going to hit, we're on track somewhere in the 4.2 million range, number of transactions, something like that. Last year was 5 million. The year before was 6 million. 6 million was a big year. That was the big year. And then we had 5 million. 5 million is like a really good year. And this year we're around 4.2. And back in 2008, it was 4.1 million. So we're literally right there on the, you know, right where we were during the worst year that we had, you know, back in the crash in terms of number of transactions. So it's a depressed market when it comes to transactions, but prices have held firm, you know, back in 2008, prices went down like, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50% depending on where you were. And there was tons of foreclosures, a lot of inventory. Right now there's basically historic low inventory. We have massive demand. We have so much pints of demand. We have historic amounts of pints of demand. I could get into all that, I don't want to bore you with all that nerdy real estate stuff, but... Nerdy real estate stuff. No. But what I'm getting at is that we're experiencing a very depressed market when it comes to transactions here. Are you guys experiencing the same thing? Yeah, 100%. I mean, I look at the market very optimistically. That's just my nature, but it is, transactions are definitely down, like the exact numbers here, but I did look at them a few weeks ago for my particular market here on the Sunshine Coast, but I cross Australia. Numbers are significant. I know in the office here, my numbers of transactions are down compared to this time last year. Values are still holding. Values haven't really fallen back that much. And I think what people asked me and say, did the values fall down? I said, well, not really. It's just that we didn't have that competition that we had in 2021, 2022, which is really in inflating prices. The price came back to that level where there's no competition. In today, we're still finding nice, presented properties, three-week campaigns, multiple offers being achieved, and selling very quickly. Excuse me, I'm calling here. And we're experiencing a shortage in all-time historic levels of... Okay. You know? And I see this pent-up demand building, and everyone's talking about this mortgage rate cliff, so a lot of people coming off their fixed rates here in Australia, and they're saying that'll force a lot of people to come onto sale and some stressed sales happening, bring prices down. Again, I don't see that happening right now, that all indications show that there's so much demand out there. So properties that I think that the prices may rise even further from here for at least a couple of years before we see a fairly significant crash. So the debt that's becoming mature that has lower rates going into this higher rate environment, I guess. You're saying like people are saying that these are gonna be distressed properties, but you're saying there's enough demand where, okay, if something's distressed, okay, whatever, I'll just sell it and make 100,000, or whatever the case may be. Yeah. Anyone bought in that 2021, 2022 period was coming off that fixed right, and then their mortgage repayments are doubling or tripling. You know, there's gonna be a few property owners that will have to do that, and we're already seeing investors doing that where they're seeing the return shrink. So they're going, let's get rid of it. Yeah. If you in that period and try to sell now, you're probably not better make your money back, you know? So you guys in Australia, just to clarify, you guys don't have 30 year fixed mortgages, right? Yep. Yep, you do, 25, 30 years, yep. Okay. And then some of the- That's memorable in fixed rights. So the rights changes, do you have a variable right line or fixed right line? Pretty much like you do that. Oh, well, that's what I mean, 30 year fixed. Like you don't have a, you guys don't have a 30 year fixed mortgage, right? No. Yeah, see, we have 30 year fixed mortgages. They actually open it up to 40 year. Yeah, I haven't like heard anybody using those 40 years. Like they just announced that like this year or whatever, but 30 year fixed has been around a long time here in the US. Like that's the go to, that's the conventional loan. That's the loan that, you know, the government will ensure. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they will buy those on the second market and it allows, you know, banks and mortgage companies and brokerages to go out there and, you know, service. I mean, sell all these loans and then sell them to on the second market and kind of re-up to go do more loans. And the debt is fixed for 30 years. So that's what's so crazy about here is that, the people that bought, well, see our mortgage rates got down to like under 3%. Yeah, and so right, so everybody either went and bought a house or they refinanced their house. So now we have 90% of people mortgages in the US that are under 6%, like 85% are under 5%. You know, like 35% or so are under 3%, something like that. And so now that rates are like 7%, none of, nobody wants to sell because they're all sitting on these 30 year fixed low rates. Right? And so that's what's causing a real, real inventory crunch. But that's interesting. So when the pandemic hit, Yeah, yeah. When the pandemic hit there, did your government do stimulus to, did they issue stimulus checks to people to help them and stuff like we did? Absolutely. What happens, from my experience anyways, there was a lot of stimulus government grants going out there, first home buyers and things like that and the RBA Reserve Bank of Australia reduced the cash rate quite significantly. It went down to, I think it was 0.1% at its last, which is, next to nothing, we have a 3% buffer there, let's say. So yeah, we really like. So that obviously pushed a lot of demand into the market and that's why we saw this huge, and the RBA said, oh, we're not going to see rates rises again until that the earliest 2024. Yeah, rates started to rise in 2022. You know, May 22, we saw a cash rate rise and we've had 12 consecutive rises since, I believe, and now it's 4.1 or 4.35, I think it's 4.1, right? So that's gone up huge. Now they're saying that we've reached the peak and that we'll probably see the cash rate fall from here. He's back, not significantly. The big four banks in Australia are all predicting somewhere between the vicinity of 2.6 to 3.5% by the end of next year or after. So if that interest rate starts to drop and this demand there, that's just going to cause a new peak in prices. Yeah, that's what we're experiencing, man. And next year is an election year for us. So I just have the feeling, I don't want to speculate too much, but I just have this feeling that they're going to do everything they can do to simulate the economy, but it's not going to take much. Like if they just reduce the rates a little bit, it's going to be like, you know, so. This year's, yeah, election year, so that's the goal here. We have like record year, we have a record amount of 33 year olds this year. You know, it's been about almost 20 years since we've seen this many 33 year olds in the US. And that's the beginning average age of our first time home buyer. And 98% according to a survey of these millennials want to become homeowners. Yeah. And so you have this record amount, you know, unlike anything we've seen in our life of 33 year olds who want to become homeowners who are sitting on the sidelines because of mortgage rates right now that want to own homes, right? Then you've got all the people that are sitting on low rates in their home that want to move, but they can. It doesn't make financial sense to move from a 4% mortgage to a 6% mortgage. So they just kind of feel handcuffed. And I believe that that is demand building of people who want to sell and upgrade to a new home. And every day that demand is building and building and building. And so we have record amount of 33 year olds, tons of owners who want to upgrade their home that are just kind of sitting there brewing and just building and building and building right now. And the longer rates stay up, the bigger this, you know, this is going to get that it's bubble. I'm calling it a reverse housing bubble. You know, the bigger this bubble is going to be and the louder it's going to pop, you know, when mortgage rates finally start coming down. So it's interesting you guys down there are kind of go through the same thing. The process will come back with you think it's actually going to put your process up. No, I think it'll go up. You know, in my opinion, no way that it can go down under these circumstances, you know, the fundamentals of the real estate market are so solid right now here in the US, you know. The people who are sitting on mortgages have the ability to repay. The regulations on loans are so high. They're just, they make sure that these people can afford these loans. And the demand is brewing so big and the supply is just nothing, right. So when mortgage rates come down, that's going to release a little inventory as these owners do decide to upgrade, okay. But it's not going to be enough for the demand. So yeah, I do think we'll see prices increase. I don't think we'll have a negative here in terms of appreciation. We didn't last year wasn't negative this year is not going to be next year is not going to be. And what percentage of homeowners actually have mortgages over there? Like if you look at the Australian market here, and again, this is a rough estimate from my knowledge, it's about 35%, let's say. All kind of have mortgages, most everybody owns a free and clear. So if you look at the rest of the market, it's probably a little bit higher than 35, but you look at the rest of the market, they have wealth, you know, they have equity. Yeah, yeah, people, you know, what's holding a lot of people back because I know a lot of people want to sell right now. And it's not because of their interest rates, it's because they can't find anywhere because there's a shortage of supply. So they've loved to sell, but they don't want to sell and then be homeless because that's the same thing here. I'm meeting people every week. I don't know, just sell my home, don't have anywhere to go. And now they're making some rough decisions and that's what's, you know, getting processed off because they have no other options. I've got to hide that for us. It's the same thing here, like the owners don't want to sell because of mortgage rates, but also because there's nothing to buy. There's two reasons why, you know, they don't really want to sell. But yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. So that's cool, man, that you guys are kind of going through the same thing. I was wondering about that. Yeah, I always said a little of the bonds, like six months, 12 months, you know, on the US. And to answer your question, I think it's the opposite here, right? You guys are like 35 to 40% who have a mortgage. I think we're 35 to 40% who own free and clear. I think the number's like 46% or something who don't have a mortgage. So I'm just, that's just off the top of my head. I may not be, you know, that's a wreck on that. You're trying to industry experts, but I'll have to correct me on that. I think it's interesting though, that, you know, in a country where you guys don't have 30 year fixed mortgages, right? You've got a much larger percentage of people who own the properties free and clear. That makes sense because people don't want to get into a loan that the rate's gonna change in three to five years or whatever, right? But over here, it makes sense for more people to have a mortgage because they're getting locked into a 30 year fixed rate, you know? But the equity as a company too is just significant. It's huge. You know, I saw all these people have, you know, over the last couple of years, my 30%, so if you bought before, then you're probably pretty well off, you know? Even if the interest rates go up. Yeah, they, over here, depending on where you are, since the pandemic started, like everywhere, is up like anywhere from 30% to 60%. Prices are up 30% to 60% from March of 2020, so, you know. Yeah, I get real bad with the younger people, you know, trying to get it. Now, a lot of people are like, oh, you know, now's the horrible time to buy. It's gonna crash and burn and all this stuff. I'm out here buying houses every day. I just put a duplex under contract today for 350. It's a duplex. I'm gonna rent. I'm buying new construction homes. I've bought closed on two. I've got three more I'm buying and then the duplex. So that's six rental properties I'm buying right now in this market over here. So I'm kind of putting my money where my mouth is. Let's switch over to the setup you guys have with buyer agents, the lawsuit over here. So forever, and I don't know how much you, you know, realize how we operate over here, but the way that it works is, is I go out, I get a listing, I'm the listing agent, the seller signs a listing agreement with me and on the listing agreement, they agree to pay, let's just say 6%. So I get the listing agreement for 6%. I go and I put it in my local MLS that gets syndicated to all the other agents and I say, hey, if anybody brings a buyer, I'm gonna give you 3%, okay? So I split that 6%, I give them 3% and I keep 3%, okay? And on the HUD statement, the settlement statement, the closing statement, when we close, it shows the seller paying the 6% with 3% going to the buyer agent and 3% going to the listing agent. And that's kind of how we operate over here. Every single deal, the buyer agent commission is figured into the deal, right? It's baked into the deal and it really technically comes out of the commission that the seller agreed to pay the listing agent, right? And so this is how we've operated here for 100 years, okay? And so then here comes this lawsuit and the lawsuit says, hey, you know, us as the, it's property owners who sold the property suing different real estate companies, right? Remacs and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, National Association of Realtors, they're suing all these people, all these companies and saying, hey, we shouldn't have had to pay the buyer agent's commission, right? We shouldn't have had to pay that. And it's actually made it through court a couple of steps and it's headed to like, you know, a court hearing, you know, like they're allowing it and they're gonna try this case, right? And so a lot of agents over here are worried and really stirring it up that, you know, if this lawsuit goes through that, you know, owners won't be able to pay the buyer agent out of the, you know, the listing agent's commission like we have been and then, you know, like there's a bunch of different camps, but one camp is out there saying, commissions are gonna go down to two or 3% for the listing side and the buyer is gonna have to figure out, you know, how to pay their agent if they're even gonna have an agent, right? And so a lot of people are worried about this. They think maybe buyer agents could potentially go away. They feel like the listing agent's gonna be doing, gonna be doing twice as much work because now they're gonna be representing the seller and having to work with the buyer since there's no buyer agent and getting paid twice, you know, half of what they were. Yeah. And so a lot of people are kind of in an uproar about this so coming from you who you live in this where there is no buyer agent commission figured into the listing side and everything, I just wanted to understand more about how things are done there in Australia when it comes to this. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm, look, they're totally different really. So generally it's seller agents. We go out there, we source, you know, property owners that wanna sell and we sell their properties. We advertise that buyers come to us and the buyers buy the property. They don't pay a commission. The sellers pay the commission. Yeah. So we work for our clients to get then top dollar and buyers know they know that we're out there to try and get our clients the best deal. So that's, I guess, where it puts this, you know, this distrust against agents because buyers go up against us and go, geez, okay, well they're gonna want me to pay as much as I can. But that's how it works. Anywhere from one to 3% in my knowledge across most markets in Australia is what we expect for a commission from a seller. Right. So we get a bunch of buyers come along. That's up to us how closely we work with them. Now a lot of agents are probably fairly slack without a fence being met, but fairly slack with their attitude towards buyers, you know, because buyers aren't paying them. So they sort of don't worry about them as much, but you should be treating buyers with as much respect anyway because they could be a seller, et cetera, et cetera. But, you know, we work with the buyers and so the good agents work with the buyers and say, okay, this one's not for you. And then we can use that buyer to try and source another lead. Hey, I've got a buyer, are you considering selling? Great. So I've had a lot of what we call off-market sales when we've got a buyer introduced the owner that's thinking of selling. They make them an offer that's, you know, just as good as what they want it anyway, so they don't go to the market. So that's typically how it works. Now there are buyers agents in Australia and it's becoming more popular now. So yeah, probably to the contrary of what you might have thought, buyers agents now in Australia are becoming more popular and the reason is because people are busier. You usually have husband and wife both working, you know, long hours. Stock is harder to find. So there is a shortage of stock and I guess buyers have a confidence that, hey, if this buyer's agent knows the market, they know prices, apps they can negotiate in a better deal anyway. Yeah. So they can pull the legwork for the buyer. So they're becoming more popular. I just met with one yesterday, they had a great meetup and you know, we're going to work together. So if I've got some buyers that I can't spend as much time with him, I'll introduce them to him. Now if they decide to go to work with the buyer's agent, then they have to pay the buyer's agent commission. So if a buyer's agent comes to me with a buyer and they make an offer of property that I've got for sale, that goes through. I still get paid my commission. The buyer agent gets paid by his client, which is the buyer. Makes sense? And so the buyer agent over there, they get paid at closing, or do they get an upfront fee, or how does it work? They get a pot up front, see? Okay. Pay it at unconditional, at unconditional. I believe most cases where they get on it. So if that happened here, it would absolutely turn the industry upside down from what we're used to. You know, we're used to being able to take a buyer, represent them for their best interest, and then go and us as an agent, as a buyer agent, actually work with the listing agent, right? And negotiate the deal with the listing agent. We're working on the behalf of our buyer's best interest. They're working on the behalf of the seller's best interest. We're both trying to get the best deal for a client. And at the end of the day, the buyer agent just gets paid out of closing whatever was negotiated, basically in the beginning by the listing agent and whatever's posted in MLS. Yeah. Well, we should have an option. You know, if there's another seller agent out there that's got a buyer, that sales agent could come to me and say, hey, Lee, I've got a buyer that may be interested in your property. Can we conjunct on the commission? So then what we do, let's say it's 2% commission, we can give up a percentage part of that commission. So we might say it's a 20% to the other agent. Okay. Of my $10,000, I'll give you two grand. Because I'm interested why to the property or it might be half the commission. It depends, it's case by case, but I've heard 50, 50 spits done before in a slower market. So that's typically common, definitely in a slower market. In a busier market, buyers are just out there anyway, so you don't really have to fight for them. But in a slower market, yeah, that's not uncommon too. Yeah. Well, if we move over to that model, then it's gonna be twice as much work for half the money. Cause like now we'll negotiate 6% and then we'll go out and find the buyer. Well, we get the 6%, right? The regular commission over here is anywhere, depending where you are, like most places, you know, four is kind of on the low side. And then, you know, five, where I am like five and six is kind of the standard. Well, I'm getting like five or six, if I represent the buyer and the seller. And I'm getting like two and a half or three if, you know, if I just kind of just sleep on the couch and another agent comes along and brings a buyer. Conflict of interest there, like there's always thought, you know, I'm representing my seller and I have a boss and suddenly I'm getting paid for a boss. It's the same thing. Well, we're getting paid by the listing agent though. Yeah, yeah. So when we're doing both sides, we're actually working for the seller. Yeah. Right, working for the seller's best interest in that scenario. Here in Alabama, we do have a limited consensual dual agency, which is kind of like kind of representing both sides to the fullest to make everybody happy, which is never really, you know, technically speaking, that's just never really. It's like you're always trying to get the better deal for somebody. But yeah, dude, if this lawsuit goes through, a lot of things are gonna change over here. And but at the end of the day, it's not gonna take us out. It's just gonna rearrange how we do things, you know? Do you think it will change? Oh, well, it's crazy because the thing is, is that, you know, how can the seller agree to pay a commission, right? We'll say they agree to pay 5%. They agree to pay it. Okay, the deal's done. The deal's closed. They got their money. They were happy. They paid what they said, but they were gonna pay to the agent and then they come back a couple of years later and say, wait a minute, I, you know, that you shouldn't, you know, Yeah, it doesn't make sense. You weren't paying them. Like I paid that. That's kind of like subcontracting. You know, it's like you hire me to roof your house. I come measure your house to roof it. You know, we agree on $10,000. And then I pay, and then I pay my crew. I pay another guy $8,000 to actually do the work. And I make $2,000 for subcontracting the job to another crew. Yeah. I mean, it's the same thing. No, it doesn't seem to cut it. I mean, I think if you've got, yeah, I mean, if you've agreed to the 6% stride up, yeah, it doesn't matter how you, but I can't believe it's made us this side of court. You know, I just, I can't believe it, but if it happens, I think it'll wipe some agents out who are spoiled with the current setup. Yeah. Yeah. And- Because how do you do buy a generation? Like buy leads? Is it just from advertising online? Like what do you do? Yeah. So like we have Zillow. Stride relationship. People buy Zillow leads. People do YouTube, they do YouTube videos and stuff like that. I never did any of that. I dabbled, literally did that kind of stuff for like a month here and there to test it out. But I always knew creating relationships with the property owners was, you know, the most efficient thing to do, of course. So I always focused on that. So the agents who are focused on that are gonna be just fine. They're gonna have to rearrange the way that they do things if this were to happen the way that, you know, there's a, I think it's a chance for it to happen the way it's gonna happen. But how would that change the commission? I mean, if you're listing a client's property, you're still gonna be charging them 5%. I think so. When you've given up. In my opinion. Yeah. I mean, in my opinion, we're gonna be getting the same commissions that we're getting, but it could put some downward pressure because. It'd be hot if I bought the agents. Yeah. If you see what one thing that could happen is is, you know, if there's no more buyer agents and we're not paying a buyer agent fee, and these agents over here are used to getting two and a half to 3% when they sell something because another agent was involved, then they may be fine and dandy to go out and list something for two and a half to 3% because that's what they were getting anyway, right? And so then if the agents, right? If the agents go out there and start reducing their commissions to compete with each other, then that's what could bring the commission rates down. It's all negotiable. And that's part of the issue. That's part of the lawsuit is that they're acting like this antitrust problem where we're fixing rates, commission rates, but it's totally negotiable, right? 100% negotiable. I negotiate on every single, like there's nothing fixed about it. The only thing fixed about it is if agents, if the buyer agents aren't getting represented and there's no buyer agent fees, then I fear that agents might come in and start undercutting each other, right? And start taking listings for two and a half to 3%, knowing they're getting all of that no matter what happens. And then they just kind of deal with doing, dealing with, working with the buyer. It's gonna be a mess, bro, honestly. Cause it's like, right now the setup is so good because buyers actually have representation. Their own representation. And if they do away with this, it's gonna take the buyer representation out of the equation and it's gonna make it to where buyers aren't represented, which in my mind and my opinion is gonna create more lawsuits. Yeah, all the buyers then, you know, that pay up buyers agent to go out there and do the work. Yeah, but not all of them can, right? No, all the buyers don't want it. A lot of them don't want it. Right, not all, well, we'll see how it all plays out, but I wanted to understand is your perspective to be, what's that? It'll be interesting. Keeps posted. Yeah, I wanted to understand from your perspective since you live in this kind of world, you know, that way everybody that watches my channel can kind of get an idea of what the possibility it could be if this lawsuit actually goes through. Yeah, yeah. Now we always appreciate the US model and how you guys operate. Kind of thing, no, would you rather be here or there? I think it'd be nice, you know, to be there. But I still, yeah, I don't know. I guess if the seller's agreeing to pay that commission and you find a buyer through another agent and you're splitting it, I mean, that's sort of what we do now in terms of that induction phase. Yeah, yeah. It's just not as practice, you know? Yeah. It's like, oh, you just work the best deal you can to help everybody do what they want to do. Mm, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, it's a good philosophy. Cool, man. Well, I know it's what, eight o'clock there now? Yeah, just after, right? Yep. That's been good. Get your day going and everything, man, I appreciate you coming on and sharing a little bit with us about this, your business, how it is down in Australia, all that good stuff. I'm still gonna come down there. Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. I need an ambulance to connect in Australia, I have a say so you can follow me on Facebook, just connect, after the chat. Yep, I'll put all of Lee's information down below if you guys are in Australia or if you just want to connect with Lee, I'll put all of his links below. His website is social media handles and all that stuff. So you guys should reach out to him and say hello. And... I'll get Ricky here next year, 2024. Yeah, I've loved it. I've been dying to come down there. So, yeah. Now, cool man, it's a plan. Thanks. Hey, I appreciate you, Lee. Guys, we'll see you on the next video. And until then, keep crushing.