 What's up, everybody? How we doing? I hope you watched my video two days ago about real estate agents that are stacking listings right now. It's exactly what you need to be doing. You don't need to be worried about these lawsuits. The only reason to put lawsuit in the title so you would click on the video and realize what you need to be doing right now is not worried about these lawsuits. I'm going to go through the lawsuits. We have eight lawsuits right now in play. The latest one is in New York, Ryan Sirhant's brokerage. Sirhant Period is... It was named in this one along with 25 other brokerages. So I'm going to name all of them. I'll show you all of those and we'll look at the other seven lawsuits happening right now. I'll give you the brief description so you're up-to-date on this so we can do what? Get right back to work. And I'm sure maybe you're watching this not only just to hear about the lawsuits but get a little motivation from somebody who's very passionate about the fact that you need to be out there talking to people building your business regardless of what's happening with all these lawsuits. First off, let's step over to the CPI report, inflation. So inflation a couple days ago came in and it was flat from the past, the previous month, which was good. It didn't increase at all. But CPI, the core inflation, hits a two-year low. So this was great. This came in better than expected. And you see here a chart 2020 to 21. We got up to 9% and, you know, that, you know, around the mid-2022. And we've been fighting it ever since and we've got it all the way down to 3.2 right now. And we're just going to keep fighting the good fight, alright? So that's a good thing. And what you need to be thinking about right now is nothing except for talking to people, whatever you do. If it's social media, if it's open houses, if it's cold calling, whatever it is, figure out your thing and go out there and do your thing to build your business. I can help you do that. If you don't have my scripts, I'll put a link in the description. Download them for free. I know agents making, you know, they're selling 10 million worth, 20, 30, 40, 100, I know agents that are using my scripts to sell 100 million worth within their team, within their organization. Go down there, get those scripts for free. I'm also doing a training session later this week, okay? When you get the scripts, you'll automatically start getting my email. So I'll notify you when I'm going to do these trainings. If you want to join my tax community so that you're really going to get the notifications, no matter what, don't worry about the spam folder and stuff, text me, 251-312-8844. And let's get after it. I mean, look, I grew up roofing houses. I don't care about any of this. I care about one thing, getting the job done and being better, you know, beating, right? I'm a very competitive person. And I'm going to go out here and see, okay, here's the playing field. Let me go out here and do what I got to do to outwork everyone. I want to put in more work than everyone, right? And work can be, you know, different to everyone. What is hard work? Warren Buffett works not as hard as the CEO of Coke, yet he made 10 times more than the CEO of Coke, right? Off of Coke. So who's working hard there? Work could mean what the output is. Work could mean what the input is, you know, to each their own. I got to stay busy. That gives me my dopamine when I'm out here really grinding and helping people and doing things that actually move the needle. That's the problem with a lot of you. You're not doing things that move the needle. All right, let's dive into these lawsuits. So this is the newest one. It's in New York, the local board and 26 brokerages. There's a seller called Monty March. So this one's called March. Okay, it was filed in the Southern District of New York Wednesday. So this is just, you know, about a week old. All right, he alleged that the rules in Manhattan kept commissions high and violated state and federal antitrust laws. Okay, so this is literally a copycat lawsuit. Okay? It's the same thing as the other ones. March filed the suit. Wednesday, commissions high. Lawsuit, which is not target areas outside of Manhattan. So it's only Manhattan. Let's see, I want to get to the meat of the inclusion of language concerning the commissions to be paid by the seller broker to the buyer broker and the listing agreement. Commonly known as the buyer broker commission role constitutes an antitrust violation under Section 1 of the Sherman Act and the Donnelly Act as there's no separate negotiation competition concerning the commission paid to the buyer's broker. And look, when it comes to law, maybe that's true. Maybe that, you know, goes against and violates some kind of rule written out in the Sherman antitrust. Yo, yes. And, you know, the local board, the local New York board, they came out with this rule a while back, maybe several months ago, that the seller is going to be paying the buyer agent directly. You know, so they've already adjusted for this, but the lawyers are going to say, well, you adjusted now. What about all the people, if you adjust, and that's saying that you're admitting that what you were doing was wrong if you're making a change. And if you're admitting what you're doing was wrong and you're making a change, then what about the people that suffered the damages before you changed the rule? This is the angle that the lawyers are going to take. It's literally a copycat case, just like the other ones, okay? And let's look at this list of defendants here. You've got the real estate board in New York, real estate board, New York listing services, Brown Harris, Christie's, Caldwell Banker, Compass, core marketing services, Cochrane Group, Douglas Element, Elegren, Ingalls and Volkers, Fox Residential Group, Halstead Real Estate, Homesnap. Homesnap's in there, Keller Williams, New York, Leslie and Garfield Company, Level Group, M&S Real Estate, Modern Spaces, The Agency, The Modeling Group, Nest Seekers and National, Oxford Property Group, R New York, Remax, Surhan, Salon Group, Salon Square, Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates. So they just were like, okay, give us a list of all the brokerages in New York and let us just name them on all these lawsuits. And this goes back to, I was reading in here, they're going back to the proposed class include, this is class action includes Manhattan sellers between November 8th, 2019 and present. So from the time they filed the suit, what was that, four years ago? So anybody that sold something to Manhattan over the last four years, okay? So this just adds to the number of lawsuits that we have happening right now. This makes eight total. All right, let's run through them real quick. And this kind of gives you a little bit of the backstory of the very first one, Christopher Moore, I sold a house, it was 6% commission, 3% going to his own agent and 2.7 going to the buyer's agent. He wasn't happy about it. And in 2019, he went to a lawyer, they filed a lawsuit and the rest is history. And that case hasn't went to trial yet. That's going to happen early next year. I was thinking about going and actually being in the courtroom for that. So let me know in the comments if you'd like to see that happen, because I think that's something that I'm definitely entertaining. But we've got so many lawsuits like, now I can actually be flying all over the country all year to come up with this. But at the end of the day, this first one, it's going to get appealed. It's going to get drug out for years and years and years. I'm waiting to hear what the judge actually rules on this. And then what happens in Supreme Court, that's going to really give the lay of the land here. I'm interested in the injunction that the judge may or may not put in place concerning how real estate agents get paid, how they negotiate, what's going to happen here. I think it's going to be very interesting. That's something that's really, that we're just standing by waiting to see what that judge actually comes up with. So stay tuned on my channel, hit subscribe, click the bell, all that good stuff. So you can stay on top of this as it happens. Because as soon as that happens, of course, I'm going to be reporting to you right this second. The one that just went to, so that was the more case. The one that just went to court is called the Citzer Burnett. Okay, it actually went to court. I'll put the videos in the description. You can look at my videos. I carried it and followed this one and reported it on every day through the trial, giving my two cents on everything. Okay, that's the one that came through and the jury actually awarded 1.8 billion in damages, which could get up to over $5 billion. And so you guys all know about that when the more case is the same thing. It's in Illinois, not Illinois guys, Illinois. And this one had the biggest and highest profile of various bombshells until the Citzer Burnett beat it to trial. So Citzer Burnett just got to trial faster and kind of put this more case on the back burner, but it's still just, the stakes are just as high. So we're going to see because National Association of Realtors is naming just about all of these lawsuits. And so we're going to see how this unfolds. You know, when that one goes to trial early next year. Gibson, this is the first of the so-called copycasts. Now Gibson is the lawsuit that the lawyer from the Citzer Burnett trial immediately went and filed as soon as the jury gave its verdict on Citzer Burnett. It's the exact same thing. And what they did was is they opened it up to other brokerages, right? You've got Compass, EXP, Redfin, Wackard, United Whole, not United Real Estate, Howard Hanna, Douglas Solomon, National Association of Realtors. So you've got these brokerages that are added to the lawsuit, but also he opened this up nationwide. And that's why this case right here, the Gibson case, they're looking at 200 billion in dam dis because they're opening it up to everybody in the country to join the class action, as well as that could get up to trebled 600 billion. So we're talking about a half a trillion dollars on this case right here. They're really going forward trying to hit that home run. You got Batten 1, this began in early 2021. It's significant because unlike Citzer Burnett, Moore and Gibson involves home buyer plaintiffs, okay? So this is home buyers, all right? The New Jersey based case was real as you know known as leader after it's firstly defendant. The judge just missed the case in 22, but the buyer plaintiffs then filed an amended complaint in 2022, bringing it back to life. Another home buyer, Maya Batten. She became the lead plaintiff at the time, hence the case, Batten. The suit names, NAR, Anywhere Home Services America, Remax, Long and Foster, Kelly Williams, all right? So this is home buyers, this Batten 1 is home buyers. This is in New Jersey and it was dismissed and then they amended it and now it's back to life. Then you got Batten 2, okay? So it's the same thing as Batten 1, it's the same person, Maya Batten. And this one is, I believe this one is going to be, let's see, okay, this is also home buyers. All they did was is they brought additional brokerages into the mix. So Batten 1, Batten 2, those are both home buyers that are saying they shouldn't have to pay the buyer. They shouldn't, the buyer agent commission shouldn't be figured into the price. They should pay that out of pocket at closing and be able to negotiate that. That's what they're saying. All right, Burton, this one is a home seller. This is Burton. This is filed in South Carolina on November 6th. So this is another copycat. After the verdict, Burton is seeking class status. They named Nara and Keller Williams, just Nara and Keller Williams. They're also going after the same thing, the same exact thing. Then you got March, the one we just talked about in New York with, you know, Monty March and the 26 brokerages along with the local boards there. Then you got Nasalik. Nasalik began in 2020. It's, again, the same thing. It's got Anywhere, Home Services, Remax, Keller Williams, Property Information Network, MLS, PIN, the PIN MLS. Same thing around the buyer broker commission rule, plaintiffs in the case have argued that the buyer owned a multiple listing service. PIN, the broker owned. The broker owned multiple wasn't required to follow NARA rules, but still adopted a policy similar to NARA that requires seller brokers to offer compensation to buyer brokers in order to submit a listing to the service. Anywhere in Remax agreed to settle the case in October, however, all the parties asked for a stay or temporary pause of 30 days to determine the appropriate treatment of the plaintiffs in the case. So Remax and Anywhere actually, you know, they agreed or they offered to settle out of more, Nasalik and Citzer Burnett, all three of those. And, but none of those have been approved. Okay, none of those have been approved yet. There's going to be a hearing and about, and I think on the 20th, let's see when that the 20th is Monday. I believe it's the 20th where the judge from Citzer Burnett is going to have a trial to determine the pre-approval of the settlement from Remax and Anywhere on that. Then you've got the Department of Justice case, okay? The Department of Justice simmering in the background. All these lawsuits is an ongoing legal battle between NAR and the Department of Justice. Okay, if you don't know about this, the battle began in 2020 when the DOJ sued NAR over what it characterizes illegal constraints on competition. The DOJ announced a settlement with NAR at the same time as it revealed the suit, which initially made it seem like an open and shut situation. Okay, so they announced we're going to sue NAR, but basically the same day we're settling out. In 2021, the DOJ said it was pulling out of the settlement. Okay, the settlement that they agreed to. So they agreed to the settlement, they agreed there were certain rules that NAR agreed to do to abide by moving forward. The DOJ said, okay. And then in 2021, about a year after they agreed to the settlement, DOJ said they're pulling out of it. Reigniting the legal fight that continues to this day. Shortly after withdrawing from the settlement, the DOJ also resumed its investigation in NAR, including the participation role that's also at the center of many customer-led lawsuits. Since 21, NAR is arguing court that the original settlement should stamp. New public developments in the DOJ case slowed as the central Burnett trial came and went. However, it was constant issue looming over the proceedings. And in October, attorneys for the DOJ intervened with a Nasellic case and raised concerns about the proposed settlements. The intervention put the settlements on the ice for a couple of months. The plaintiff's attorney and the sister Burnett case, Mr. Michael Ketchmark, my boy, also have also lately been in talks with the DOJ. It remains to be seen what may happen with the DOJ, but some experts have speculated that the feds could ultimately force greater disruption on the real estate industry than any of the customer-led commission lawsuits. All right, so that's where we're at. That's a full update. Now, when you think about this, this is the crazy part. The lawyer, the lawyers that are all in this, that are fighting, you know, they're the plaintiff's lawyers fighting the case, suing, you know, the brokerages and the national station and realtors and whoever they're suing in the middle of all these suits, they're literally suing them for antitrust, you know, price fixing, collusion, you know, all this stuff that they went in and they got together, right? They got together and created this situation where we're all gonna stick to our 6% or whatever it is. And so what's nuts about this is that the lawyer's really good. I mean, very manipulative, I would say. And he got the job done. His job was to go in there and win that case. What did he do? He went in there and won that case. But what's ironic and what's hypocritical here is that he won the case against people that are doing the very thing that he was doing at the time that he was suing them. Well, he's, I'm gonna sue you for this thing while, and he's doing it while he's suing them for the thing that he's suing them for. And what I mean by that is, is he's charging the plaintiffs, let's just say 33%. I mean, they're gonna make like, you know, let's just say the 1.8 billion, it troubled up to 5 billion, you know? Let's say 1.8 billion, what is that? 500, you know, 6, 700 million dollars in the plaintiffs, the home sellers, the 500,000 of them, we're gonna get like 1500 bucks a piece. But the lawyer gets 500 million dollars. It's the exact same thing. He didn't negotiate his fee, his fee is what his fee is. The plaintiff showed up and said, okay, we want you, we don't care what you charge, you know, we're gonna go with you because you're the best and we wanna get the job done. He said, okay, well, great, here's what I charge and let's get after it. He went there, he did his job. It's the exact same thing an agent does. A buyer or seller goes to an agent and says, hey, you're the best, I don't care what you charge, I just wanna get the job done. The agent says, yep, here's what I charge and let me go get the job done. He gets the job done, he gets paid, but a being but a boom, it's the exact same process. The only difference is, is at the end of the day when you sell a house or someone, most of the time they're making more money than the agent. Where in this case, you've got a lawyer making hundreds of millions, if not billions, once all said and done, if in fact everything goes through, which I don't believe it will, I think it'll get appealed and thrown out. But even if it goes through, you're talking about making billions and the homeowners are gonna make a couple thousand bucks. That is ridiculously ironic, ridiculously hypocritical, and it just goes to show you. And when the lawyer, Michael Ketchmark was on CNBC, the Brian Sullivan asked him, where's the money gonna go? Where is the money gonna go? Is it gonna go to the homeowners or where's the money gonna go? And he said, of course it's gonna go to the homeowners. He said, he was sitting up there and he was like, and well, Brian, it's gonna go back to the homeowners. It's gonna go straight back to the homeowners. It's like, no, it's not. No, it's not. You're gonna get hundreds of millions and the homeowners are gonna get a couple thousand a piece. How is that right? Okay? I mean, like, how is that right? And it's the very thing that you're arguing against. You're doing it right in front of us and the plaintiffs are sitting there with a smile on their face about it. It's like, wait a minute, you've got the guy right here. This is the guy right here that needs to be on the other side of the courtroom. So that's what's incredibly ironic about this. The DOJ being involved in this, there's no telling what side. Obviously, since they went in and they wanna retract their settlement, obviously they're against what's happening. Obviously they're against what the participation rule is and offering compensation to the buyer agent. But if you think about the alternative, they don't want no piece of that, I guarantee you. Anyway, listen, I'm gonna do a training later this week. I'm gonna put the link in the description, tax me 251-312-8844 to make sure you get notified on that. Grab my scripts as well, free scripts. Let me know what in the world I can do for you and let's keep going. I 35 with the top down, quit the teller, hey, they should get like me.