 What is up everybody Ricky Caruth and I'm coming back to you with some lawsuit update. It's been a minute It's been a minute since I talked about the lawsuit. So I'm happy to be here talking about this with you once again I wasn't gonna let this die. I wasn't gonna never talk about it again I just need to take a little break if you know what I mean Um, if you guys saw the debate with michael ketchmark and anthony lamakia That was an incomplete circus and that was when I saw that I saw a couple minutes I couldn't watch much of it and when I saw that and I saw the vibe that was happening I was thanking god That I stepped away from the entire situation because guess what michael ketchmark the lawyer That you know represented the plaintiffs on the sister bernand trial. He called me too And he said I saw your videos, you know, I think you're you know talented young man and all this and I said Oh, thank you and we talked a little bit about the suit and I said, let's do an interview He said absolutely after a little after a minute or two went by I was like, you know what? I need to step away from this situation. I'm getting a little bit too deep here We're talking about billions of dollars people getting sued. Let me let me take a step back and do what I do Which is helping agents get more listings close more deals Helping them understand how to build their career for the future betterment of their families That's what I'm more interested in I kind of got carried away with the lawsuit stuff And that's okay. You guys don't blame me and I brought a lot of value During the lawsuits And the cases and all the videos that I did. I know you guys appreciated it I know you guys appreciate the fact that I stepped away from it to continue on with what I'm doing here Trying to help agents, you know when I did the lawsuit videos tons of views mega views You know now I'm back to getting really really little views. That's okay. It doesn't matter to that You got to go understand. It's not about views not about subscribers. It's not about any of that to me It's about continuing to do what I do keep in my head down grinding away because guess what? I know where I'm going to be in the next three four five ten years I know where I'm going to be if I keep doing what I'm doing and that's that my message to you today Keep doing what you're doing keep helping people buy and sell real estate You know where you're going to be in the next three to five years We've got breaking news here though. And so I had to bring this to you I'm going to continue to keep you updated on lawsuit buyer agent commission Information as something like this comes to be and I'm going to do my best to help you navigate these situations So if you haven't subscribed Subscribe now because I'm going to continue to bring you value whether it's getting more listings or make a Sure on top of the real estate market in terms of just prices and inventory and stuff of that nature or Whatever the end results are of these lawsuits and settlements and all this stuff All right, but kello williams just settled out. They just settled out for 70 million dollars I want to get into the details Of what they actually settled what all the terms of the settlement was and all this but first I want to tell you I think this was really smart And I'll tell you why they could have settled before the trial like remax and anywhere Remax settled for 55 million anywhere settled for 83 and a half million So keller's sitting here settling for 70 million after The trial let me tell you why that I think that's smart because They could have settled before but they said nah, let's roll the dice and see if we win Which they they had to have been confident that there was a good chance They were going to win or they would have just settled before but they thought Let's roll the dice and see because if we win then we're going to get out of here You know Without having to pay a chunk and then if we lose we can always settle afterwards for probably the same price They probably would have settled for the same price. Yeah, they probably pay a little more in some lawyer fees And they they probably pay a little more to take that gamble, but not much more and maybe not anymore So I think this was really smart for kella Williams to do it like this. Well played kella Williams I applaud you for how you how you played this out And uh, let's dive in here Uh, before we do that, I do want to let you know we just finished our january listing challenge And here is the leaderboard right here. We have amber every which was at the top with 11 listings jordan mckinry He was uh, he came in second with eight broad rick brown jr. Had seven shane novelin had seven angie Fleming had seven and Listen the listing challenge for february is starting right now We have over 600 agents doing this working together educating collaborating pushing each other and and we're competing To win more listings and we're going to continue to do this every single month It's february 1st right now go to zero to diamond dot com write this second and join the listing challenge We do calls every monday at five p.m. Eastern where i'm in there We're going to do a kickoff call monday incredible presentation to help you learn how to get more listings and build your career angie here that came in fifth She got uh, she told me yesterday. She got three listings in all of 2023 three in 2023 she picked up seven in january Okay, what this is working for people. It's going to work for you come in and work with us. We're not doing cold calls We're doing warm calls. We're doing follow-up calls. We're warming them up and then calling them We're targeting the sellers that we want to do business with and it's working beautifully So go to zero to diamond dot com right now and sign up and come see us I'm also on tour. I'll be in la next week. I'm going to be in new york at gold bar live I'm going to be in houston I'm going to be in vancouver washington and a bunch of other events coming up I always go and travel a lot between now and september every year So i'll be in la next week, but i'll put a link in the description for all those events And if you're anywhere around would love to see you i'm going to go i'm going to scream at y'all I'm going to do my thing that you know that I do so i'm looking forward to seeing you there all right, let's dive into this lawsuit situation and see what we got So they settle out for 70 million. All right, and this agreement is nationwide All right, so kelly williams decided to bow out on the citzer burn out lawsuit gary keller The brokers notified federal court in missouri that it had entered into a settlement agreement with the plain s Okay, and it settles all homeowner seller of lawsuits nationwide Darrell frost the spokesperson for kelly williams said the firm's going to pay 70 million dollars He said it will not impact our operations or ability or our ability to support our franchisees and agents Uh, it also involved of course the no salad case the more case and all that stuff um, let's see They were relieved to to negotiated this deal And it also protects uh releases individual agents and franchisees from any copycat Litigations filed in the wake of the Uh of the trial. So here's the here's the meat of it kind of what are those additional terms So just like anywhere in remax Um, they said the settlement included uh provisions to no longer require agents to be members of the national association of realtors Are or follow uh the national association of realtors code of ethics or the mls handbook as well as practice changes Including that the firm Uh will require and or encourage agents to make it clear to clients that commissions are negotiable That agents have the freedom to set Or negotiate commissions as they see fit And that agents will not be required to make offers of compensation or accept offers of compensation from cooperating brokers So in essence, they're doing the exact same thing that remax did that anywhere did saying that Okay agents of our company you do not have to be part of nar if you don't want to be now There's a lot of local mls is that require you to be part of nar so, you know The brokers themselves saying you don't have to if you're in an area that you don't have to be a part of the local mls Then you don't have to at all You know and the ones that do you're only required not by us but by the local Board of realtors who are requiring it. We're not requiring you to do it And you don't have to follow the code of ethics however They will have to follow the code of ethics if they're part of their local board of realtors and those code of ethics that they follow Okay, but the but but the broker just saying we're not requiring that And they're gonna make it and they said they will require or encourage so we'll require or encourage Agents to make it clear that client to clients that commissions are negotiable I'm sure that's going to be on a new disclosure That kelly-wimps is going to bring out and say here you go Agents start using this and make them sign it make them read it that commissions are negotiable Um, so all this is very interesting basically the same thing as the anywhere and remax settlements now This has been preliminarily approved by the judge okay And that's talking about anywhere and remixes preliminary approval the final approval hearing for those two settlements has been set for may 9th I don't this the way I read this it doesn't this doesn't include The kelly-wimps settlement it only includes the two it says the two settlements And this is talking about anywhere and remixes So I guess we're yet to really know when the approval hearing for the settlement that uh kelly-wimps just announced They decided to enter into the settlement due to the speculation and uncertainty across the industry in the wake of the judge The jury verdict and the sister brunette suit So the thing is is I've been talking about this and it's like I'm looking at nar and home service american I'm thinking it's going to take a lot to appeal this because you got to put up a bond that says you're good for the money It's over five billion You got to put up a bond that you're good for the money and then the law your fees to do a an appeal Uh to the supreme court. I know a man Personally who fought the ftc Uh in court through appeals cost him 27 million dollars. Okay, you don't know how much the lawyer I mean for a case like this It could be way more who knows a lot of uncertainty there How long is it going to get drawn out are they going to win? Are they not you got to put up the big bond To show that you've got the money in case you do lose There's a lot of stuff going on with an appeal. So kudos to kelly-wimps for for taking this And uh putting this deal together so they will walk away from it kelly-wimps Gary keller said we had full confidence in the strength of our appeal Um, let me make that bigger But we also knew the appeal process would be long and unpredictable And that our franchisees and agents would have no protection and complete uncertainty while that process played out over time Our kelly-wimps family needs and deserves protection now not later We came to the decision to settle with careful consideration for the immediate and long-term well-being of our agents Our franchisees and the business models they depend on it was a law It was a decision to bring stability relief and freedom to uh us all and focus on our mission without distractions It allows us All to turn our attention back to what we do best Delivering unparalleled value in an ever-evolving real estate market So now home services of america and nar are the only remaining defendants in the and the more and citzer burnet suits All right Let's see if anything else is interesting here Uh, let's see. Da-da-da-da-da All right, the citzer burnet suit as well as other commission lawsuits In nar's participation role, uh, which requires listing agents to make a blanket offer of compensation to buyer agents In order to list the property on mls According to plaintiffs commission sharing inflates the cost for consumers In violation of the sherman antitrust act and so a lot of people argue that A lot of people say that it's not violation. There's two camps. There's the oh, it definitely is against the law what they're doing It's wrong. It inflates prices and then there's the other side that say it doesn't inflate prices Um, you know sellers aren't going to sell for less just because this happens They're still going to sell for appraised value and nothing's going to change And then the buyer if the buyer has to pay their own commissions That's that's going to inflate because they're going to have to pay it on top of the purchase price So there's a lot of different ways that you can spend this and take it There's a lot of speculation on what way this is going to go as far as the end result How we're going to operate as an industry moving forward if they're going to remove the buyer agent commission Filled from mls where you can't even offer it anymore. So there's a lot going on there We don't know how this is going to end. Let me know in the comments what you think How you think this whole thing is going to end what your thoughts are on this and I appreciate you I know you guys have given me a lot of love and support. I just want you to know how much I appreciate that I'm looking forward to seeing all of you guys at my next event and in the listing challenge every single Monday, I'm in there screaming at you guys and answering every question that comes up So go to zero to diamond.com right now Join us and I'll see you on the next video. Peace What the teller hey