 Is this gonna be the end for NAR, the National Association of Realtors? Is it gonna be the end for buyer agency in the United States? Are we gonna actually have buyer agents who represent people that buy homes? Now, I don't know about buyer agents, but when it comes to NAR, okay, I don't know if they're gonna make it through this. I wanna dig into some numbers here because things are not looking so great for NAR, honestly. And the more I look at it, the more I realize, man, they're really gonna be sucking wind when it comes to the next six months, 12 months, they're getting a lot, a lot of money pulled away from them right this second and it's not getting any better anytime soon. I honestly am wondering how they're going to recover. I hope the best, but we'll see kind of what happens. As far as my voice, I did the video yesterday, a lot of you were commenting, Ricky, take some days off, get some rest, feel better. We need you healthy, all that stuff. I want you to know I feel great. I feel perfectly fine. I just sound weird, okay? So bear with me here because I'm gonna get into some really interesting stuff, especially if you're worried about how this thing's gonna turn out if buyer agents are even gonna exist later. If agents are going to exist later, I had an agent reach out to me, send me a message and just say, hey, you know, I'm so worried about everything that I hear. You know, they hear things about the market and prices, you know, plummeting and you know, the market crashing and stuff like that. And then they hear stuff about agents being obsolete and being completely not needed and they're not gonna be around anymore. Then you hear the stuff about this and how the brokerages and NAR and the lawsuits and everything is kind of happening. And so, you know, there seems to be on the outside looking in a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the real estate market, but I'm here to tell you, there's really not a lot of uncertainty. One thing that I told the agent, and I'll just share this with you and I'll get to the meat here of the video, but this agent that said they were worried about agents becoming obsolete or whatever and she said, I'm putting everything that I have into this. I'm putting everything I have into it and if this doesn't work out and agents go obsolete, I waste it all this time. I said, number one, not gonna happen. People have been saying this for 20 years. Agents are gonna be obsolete. Guess what, we're still here. We're still making the same money, more money, all right? But I said, even if it were to happen, you spend all this time and effort, you spend all this time and effort out there building this business, all right? And then it goes away. What do you do then, right? Does all that go to waste? No, look at the skills you developed, A, and look at the book of business, the clientele that you developed, B. And I said, what you're gonna do if that happens, if it were to happen in a million years, you're gonna take the clientele that you built up in real estate and the skills that you developed building your real estate business and get into another industry selling to the same clients. What's that's gonna be? I don't know, something different for everybody, but there's another business opportunity right there. It's kind of like if you go really hard on a social media platform. Let's think of a real example, Vine, okay? Vine came out and it was like seven second videos. It's not here anymore, but it was here and it blew up really fast and then it went away really quick, but guess what? The people that went on Vine and learn how to operate on that platform, when that platform went away, what'd they do? They just moved over to another platform and took the skills they developed using that platform and crushed it on the next one. You don't lose the skills, right? Real estate agents are not going away, all right? So let's just make that clear. And let me take a second to take a swig. All right, so getting into this thing. Number one, the court dates for this case coming up, all right? The Sitzer case, Sitzer Burnett case, that's scheduled for October 16th, October 16th. That's Monday, that's Monday. We're looking at that case. And then the Moore case against the National Association of Realtors, that's scheduled for early 2024. So still got a little time for that one, but this other one, this is happening next week. So we're gonna see some sparks fly up there in Kansas City, Missouri next week. So I'm looking forward to seeing what the results of that is so that I could report that to you. All right, as far as these lawsuits go, and I wanna share with you the remax changes in their company, which are very interesting, by the way, and then the anywhere changes that they're gonna make. But what I find interesting here, and I wanna get your take, is that remax is settling out for 55 million. The whole case is said to be worth 4 billion. So remax is at 55 million, and anywhere is it 84, 83 and a half million. So when you look at that, you think, well, that's pretty small numbers compared to the 4 billion. But when you really think about it, the market cap for these companies, let's see, remax's market cap is 462 million. All right, I can share this with you right here. Remax's market cap is 462 million, and anywhere is is 842 million. So when you think about 83 and a half million off of 842 million, and 55 million is what remax offered to settle out for against their whole market cap is 40, that's 10%. Both of those settlements, crazily enough, come out to about 10% of their market cap, right? So it's a big chunk of their company. So that's interesting. Also, they're settling out. You also have kind of the Williams involved in the case. They haven't really said what they're gonna do here, but when it comes to NAR, they're like, we're not settling. We're gonna go all the way, and we're gonna fight this because we feel like we're on the right. We wanna fight for pro consumer. We wanna fight for pro agents. We wanna fight for the industry and prove this in court. Now, to me, they're really rolling the dice here because could they win? Yes, could they lose? Yes, if they lose, look at the implications there. I mean, they could lose it all. They could be in big trouble. If they lose, I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. I'm speculating, honestly. I feel like they'd be in trouble financially. And then who knows what policies would kind of come out of this. So again, I would love to get your take on NAR hanging into the case and kind of seeing where that's gonna go. All right? Also, NAR just came out and they said, and this just happened a couple of days ago. They came out and they said, we're gonna reverse our policy here. We're gonna say listing brokers can offer 0% to the buyer agent. That's interesting because one of Redfin's complaints was that NAR's policy was that you had to offer something on the buyer agent side. That was one of their big reasons for leaving because they let for sale by owners advertise on their platforms. Redfin wants to be transparent with all the properties for sale. Whether it's by agent or by owner. Well, NAR doesn't allow the zero commission at the time. But it seems like right after Redfin leaves, NAR, right? It says we're not requiring our agents to be a member of the National Association of Realtors. NAR comes out literally like within 48 hours and went from, get this, one penny, okay, it was one penny down to zero dollars. Not a big difference, right? Not a big difference at all. So, you know, we've got the cases coming up. NAR reversing this from one penny to zero, right? To comply, I guess this is like their attempt to start to try to lean towards complying here with the case to give some legs to stand on that they're, you know, moving in the right direction. You know, the courts will want to see or whatever the case may be. Now, let's dig into the Remax settlement details. All right, Remax settlement details. And Nick Bailey here, the CEO, he says, we continue to deny the allegations made in the complaints in no way acknowledge any wrongdoing. We also continue to believe in our buyer agency, cooperative compensation and the idea that consumers are best served when they are working with real estate professionals. I totally agree. At the same time, we believe that protecting the network of costly litigation and the risk of further damages makes this settlement the right course of action. That's crazy, right? Cause it's like, they're basically saying, now we feel like we're in the right here. We feel like there's no reason why we should be sued. You know, we did everything that we feel like we should have legally, you know, to disclose to the sellers that there's gonna possibly be buyer agent. This is what we're gonna pay the buyer agent. All that stuff. You know, the seller closed the property and was happy with whatever they netted the whole nine yards. They say, we don't feel like we've done any wrongdoing but here's 55 million just so we don't have to pay any more lawyer fees that we know are just gonna continue to stack up and stack up. And we don't wanna be in this place where there's so much uncertainty because anybody can sue anybody for anything. And now they're sitting in a situation where they're like, you know, even though we feel like we're on the right, this is still gonna cost us money. It's insane. And so now they're settling and they're trying to settle out for this 55 million dollars. So what are the changes? Remax agrees to the following changes. Now I wanna like highlight a couple things before I like read any of this, but it says Remax as a franchisor will continue to. Okay. The next one, Remax LLC will continue to the next one, Remax will continue to. Remax LLC will continue to Remax LLC will remind you, okay? Remind you, which means I told you and I'm gonna remind you again. So this is also a continue to do something. The next one will continue to, right? The last two will develop educational materials reflecting and consistent with the business practices detailed above, okay? Will not require, the last one will not require you to be a member of National Association of Realtors. All right, then that's a big one. Not gonna require you to be a member of the National Association of Realtors. And let me touch on that for just one second. Two years ago, NAR grossed 326, I believe, million dollars. Okay, a third of a billion dollars that they grossed back in 2021. In 2022, they grossed 207 million. So I don't know what the difference was there, why it went down so much. But think about this, it took the hit from 327 to 207. And now you've got Redfin saying, we don't require our agents to be a part of NAR. You got Remax not requiring their brokers and agents to be a part of the National Association of Realtors and anywhere as well. And these are the biggest brokerages out there. Let me just show you here. Okay, anywhere consists of call well bankers, you guys know them, Cochran and Sotheby's, International Realty, right? Huge companies, massive. Basically saying, hey, you don't have to be a part of NAR anymore. That's a huge financial hit when it comes to the membership fees for National Association of Realtors. So you got, they hit from the brokerages that aren't requiring their agents to be part of the National Association of Realtors anymore. You've got so much heat on NAR to basically separate the fact that you have to be a part of NAR to get the local MLS data. Whereas you could be part of the state and local board of realtors without being a member of NAR, you got so much heat there of agents and groups trying to get NAR to do that. Cause that's the only leg they have to stand on right now. Man, they're basically saying, sure, you guys can quit, but you're not gonna be a part of your local MLS. So Redfin's like, well, I guess some of our agents have to stay part of NAR. What happens when they separate that and you don't have to be part of NAR to be a part of the state and local board to get that local MLS, NAR is really gonna be hurt and then that they're gonna lose everything. And then you've got all the legal battle here that they're fighting with these two court cases. Lord knows what these lawyer bills are adding up to. This is crucial stuff. Like, the aftermath of this is gonna be insane. And that's kind of why I wanna continue to follow, follow along here. So let's talk about the remax changes. Okay, we'll continue to encourage you to be transparent in your dealings with all home sellers and buyers, especially in areas of cooperation and compensation. Okay, remax won't require you to make offers of compensation or accept offers of compensation from cooperating brokers, basically saying, you know, whatever you can if you want to. Of course it says we'll continue to, which means they've already been doing this. Remax will continue to expect a remax by or side brokers and agents to be transparent and accurately disclosing their commission structure. In other words, you should continue to be honest and upfront about how much your service is cost and how you expect to be paid. Okay, remax will continue to display offers of cooperative compensation made by listening brokers and agents where such data is available. We'll continue to not provide any software that filters or restricts MLS listings based on the level of compensation being offered. So what they're saying is, is they're not going to provide any software where you can filter, okay, let's put the listings that pay the buyer agent the most at the top, all right? That's what they're saying there. We'll remind you of your professional obligation to show and market properties regardless of what the offer of cooperative compensation might be, okay? Remind you, which means they've already told you. We'll continue to not express or imply a minimum commission requirement of any of our franchise agreements, okay? Training materials or other policies. In other words, remax brokerages and agents will continue to have the freedom to set and or negotiate commissions as they see fit. Continue to, we will continue to, okay? Allow our brokerages and agents to continue to have the freedom to set and or negotiate commissions as they see fit, okay? We'll develop educational materials reflecting everything the business practices detailed above and not require you to be a part of MLS. So they're going to continue to, which means they've already been doing everything that they say in these policy, you know, these business changes. Are they really changes? These are things all, you know, there's four out of, you know, eight, there's six out of eight of these that basically say, we've already been doing this. We're just going to continue to do this. What does that tell you? That I have nothing going to change. Nothing going to change, guys. Business is going to happen as usual. And if you go into the streets, if you were to go into the streets and talk to a buyer or seller or just anybody in public and ask them about this case, what are the chances that they even understand? What are the chances they know about the case? Okay, I would say probably nothing. And then if they know about it, do they understand it? And what it means? No, I would, what, what percentage of the population knows anything about any of this? Nobody, agents don't even know. Agents don't even know what's going on here. If agents don't even know, I guarantee your clients don't even know. So what does that mean? Nothing's going to change. You're still going to be able to negotiate the same. Commission, business is going to go on as normal. Let's move over really quickly to the anywhere policy. This is really quick. Anywhere will prohibit company owned brokerages and their affiliated agents from claiming buyer agent services are free. Anywhere will require company owned brokerages and their affiliate agents to include the listing brokers offer of compensation for prospective buyer agents as soon as possible in each active listing consistent with the MLS rules and our capabilities of third party website operators. Anywhere will prohibit company owned brokerages and their affiliated agents from using any technology or manual methods to short listings by offering compensation or less requested by the client. All of this stuff they're already doing. You know, this first one anywhere will prohibit company owned brokerages and their affiliated agents from claiming buyer agents of services are free. Like who claims that they're free? I'm sure that that's happened. I'm sure there's agents that say, hey, you know, your fee, you don't really pay me anything. Get paid from the seller side, you know, or like it's free for you. Who I probably said that at time or two in my career because it's true, I'm getting paid from the other side. It kind of is free for them. In so many words, are they paying for within the price? It's baked in, it's baked into the price. But they're just saying, hey, we prohibit you from saying that, okay? I mean, that really matter, right? As long as they know that it's not coming out of their pocket right now or outside of closing, you know, you can be transparent about where it comes from. It comes out of the total commission that the listing agent, you know, negotiated with the seller from day one. Right here, here on the listing, this is the place right here where it tells me how much I'm getting paid if you buy that house. That's how much I'm getting paid. And it's already baked into the price. I'm getting paid at closing, you know, out of the proceeds. So that's kind of a breakdown. Now, now you think about, okay, well, where do we go from here? Well, we've got a big day Monday. So I can't wait to kind of see what happens there. I don't know when we get the news, we get it Monday, we get it Tuesday, we get it Wednesday. You know, when are we gonna get the news about what happens? But I think the point here with looking at the business changes that were made at Remax and Anywhere and even Redfin, and you see NAR going from a penny to $0.00. I think the bottom line here is that nothing is gonna change and that business is gonna go on just as it is and can it continue to do? All right, Ricky, you know, you're so confident in saying that and, you know, whenever somebody says, oh, everything's okay, well, here's the thing, all right, I'll just tell you straight. 95% of the things that you worry about never happened. And the 5% of things that do happen negative, you can deal with it when it happens. If something does go down, and let's just say this whole thing is flipped upside down and buyer agents go away. Okay, let me go list properties. I'll represent both sides for 3%. I don't care if that's what the market is, let me go. Like I'm chained up, you know, let me lose so I can go out here and run. And I'll show you how to sell properties. It doesn't matter to me what it is, tell me what it is so that I can go crush it. Just sit around worried about this. Like I said in the beginning, if agents even go obsolete altogether, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna take the database of clientele that I built and the skills that I developed and go build another business and another business and another business and another business. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're a real estate agent, if you're a salesperson, if you're a business person, business minded, ambitious person, you're not worried about any of this. Cause you know, you're gonna, your ad job, you're gonna stick and move, you're gonna flow like water, nothing matters. Anyway, tomorrow I'm gonna give you an incredible market update on everything going on numbers wise in the market with listings, days on the market, what's to come, prices, all that stuff. So stay tuned for that tomorrow. I'll put that out. And until then, let me know if you have any questions in the comments. I love you guys. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Let's go.