Ep. 231 – NAR Lawsuit – The New Rules For Real Estate And How To Buy A Home – PART 2 

 April 2, 2024

How to Buy a Home | NAR Lawsuit

 

On March 15th, the first hammer fell, sending shockwaves through the industry: a staggering $418 million settlement against the National Association of Realtors. Now, it’s time to dive into the real implications and how they’ll impact you, our first-time home buyers. In this second part of our deep dive into the NAR Lawsuit episode, David Sidoni adopts a calm and informative tone to dissect this recent event. Reflecting on previous warnings about the real estate industry’s shortcomings and the potential for rule changes, David delivers a detailed analysis without succumbing to fear-inducing headlines. He urges you to relax as he navigates through the facts, dispels myths, and explores how the settlement could reshape buyer representation dynamics. With a focus on providing knowledge and solutions, David offers an extended, in-depth discussion aimed at empowering first-time home buyers amidst the unfolding changes in the real estate landscape.

NAR Lawsuit – The New Rules For Real Estate And How To Buy A Home – PART 2

How The National Association Of Realtors Lawsuit Settlement Affects First-Time Home Buyers

This is part two of a two-parter. If you have not read part one, jump back to part one of the National Association of Realtors Lawsuit. This is part two. Welcome back to a calm, soothing, educational, informational, fun time with men in the How to Buy a Home Breakdown of this Blockbuster settlement. Chillaxed. This settlement is all about what’s called the decoupling of cooperative compensation from agent to agent, which is broker to broker. If that was confusing, think how it felt for the rest of us who had to read a 108-page lawyer settlement. Attorneys know how to make everything complicated, but what was interesting is in my research on this, there was a lawyer who summed up this whole thing best. This is a differently itemized accounting of the same purchase price. That’s all the settlement does.

This is part two of a two-part series. You should have read the part one first. Now I’m going to go into the extreme details of the case. This settlement comes after a Missouri Federal jury issued a landmark $1.8 billion verdict. That was October 2023, found that the National Association of Realtors and several large real estate brokerages conspired to artificially inflate commissions on home sales. That jury ordered that the defendants who at the time included NAR, Home Services of America, and Keller Williams, had to pay $1.8 billion in damages, which would automatically triple to $5.3 billion.

That first jury verdict was not enforceable without more legal proceedings. NAR opted, they were going to settle this case for $418 million. In the settlement, NAR admits no wrongdoing but rather faces a wave of copycat lawsuits happening in other states. NAR agreed that they were going to make the changes that we talked about in the last episode and those start in July, mostly regarding how compensation is paid and how it’s advertised. All of this settlement still needs to be approved by the DOJ and the court.

Here’s what it means for you. You as a buyer have to sign a contract with your buyer agent before you see any homes. Agents can’t publicly put on the MLS that buyer’s agents are going to get paid, but they’re probably still going to pay for it in most places and the sellers will end up paying the buyer agent fees instead of paying through the listing agent. Most sellers are probably still going to pay something if they want to attract any decent buyer’s agents to bring good buyers to their homes. All this means is they’re not going to publish it on the MLS. I will explain why that’s a thing and this total nonsense of this settlement when I get to the commission explanation coming up in this episode.

Here’s a side note as we get deeper into the details of this settlement. This is the part that gets buried. I’m going to be very relaxed when I say this. This settlement doesn’t include any buyer lawsuits, but all sellers. The two lawsuits that are part of this agreement known as Moral and Burnett were both filed by recent home sellers as were most all of the copycat cases that are around the country. Importantly, no judge has certified a class of home buyers in a commission-related case.

Commissions, Compensations, And Realtor Fees

That means it’s tough for me to continue in a calm manner, but I’m going to try because that chaps my hide. I said chaps my hide like an old man drink. I’m going to calmly in a very chillaxed Bob Ross way, but I’m going to go pretty quickly to explain this to you. I’m going to give you a lesson on how commissions, compensation and realtor fees work in a real estate transaction. When an individual is ready to sell their house, the standard procedure is that the seller agrees to terms with the listing agent on the fees to sell the home.

That’s the 6% that you read bout. First, that 6% has never been a law. There has never been what this lawsuit in settlement is supposed to fix. There has never been “price fixing” or “collusion.” There has never been that scam among realtors. Sellers have always been allowed to negotiate what they pay, 6% has become an industry standard. It’s a service industry. You can go out and hire a financial advisor, you can hire one for 0.05%, but the industry standard is 0.25% to 1% of your assets. some of them even charge 2% of your assets, but that percentage is up to you.

It’s the same way in real estate. Oftentimes you can negotiate that up to 5% or some discount companies. Who knows? Maybe they’ll offer you services at 3% or 4% and some of them even will charge you a flat fee. Here’s the interesting thing. Even within the same brokerage, that’s that big brand like ERA, Century 21 or Coldwell Banker or Real Brokerage. Within that same big brand, different agents can offer you different percentages for services rendered.

This is always the way it’s been. You can negotiate this. You can choose to list your home by putting a sign in the yard or putting it up on Zillow and not paying any agents. I have to help you with the legalities and liabilities of that. The breakdown is like this. If a seller agrees to pay 6%, the fees are split 3% to the listing agent and 3% to the buyer’s agent. The way the contracts are written, in some states like Missouri, that 3% to the buyer’s agent goes through the listing agent with them paying them in the final tabulation at the closing of the transaction. That is where those class action attorneys found the loophole.

That made sense to anybody but you, you nerd.

What I’m saying is it’s always been the seller who can decide who to pay and how much. The way it’s been is I decided to split it 3% and 3%. I still pay 6% to the listing agent then at some point the listing agent who knows that it’s three and three pays 3% to the buyer’s agent, but because of the way they wrote it in some of the contracts, states and areas, they found the loophole and they decided since NAR was in a tailspin, they could go after them and get a big settlement.

When the seller agrees to the 6%, the contract legally shows that the seller’s paying 6% total. That listing agent facilitates what we call cooperative compensation to the buyer’s agent. Technically, the lawyers sued saying this was unfair. I don’t care. You don’t care. All you want to know is, “Who’s paying for my buyer’s agent?”

I don’t even want to know that. I want to know how this affects me buying a home.

The changes simply mean that the seller, if they want to pay, the buyer’s agent has to pay them differently and can’t advertise it on the MLS. Does that affect you?

No.

This lawsuit didn’t uncover a conspiracy to inflate commissions. The spin that they’re trying to tell everyone is we did this to avoid price fixing collusion and inflation of commissions, but that’s just the spin.

They encouraged it. You don’t have to be transparent about your commissions anymore. I’m not even that smart and I see that. I’m not calm anymore.

I am. Keep on the blue lights. The lawyers say that the system on appearance looks like the listing agent and the buyer agent were working together. Here’s the funny thing about that. Eventually, we had to work together to close the deal, but no, they never colluded together to create the fee terms. That 6% was negotiated before we even knew who the buyer agent was. That was negotiated between the listing agent and the seller way before the home even goes on the market. How on Earth is that considered collusion? It’s a massive loophole and they exploited it. The settlement simply clarifies how the fees get paid, not how much the fees are going to be.

The settlement simply clarifies how the fees get paid, not how much the fees are going to be.

Addressing anything to concern the incentivization to target first-time home buyers and help them. Blue lights.

The headlines are unfortunately telling people that this is going to affect you. We want to make sure you know. Not one last note on commissions for you cynics. This is a Sidoni tangent on commissions. People out there are looking to sell their home and think realtors are all crooks and they want to pay their home for 2% as opposed to 6%. People out there who want to sell their home and they think all realtors are crooks and they can do this with the internet. I totally understand why people might think that. If you read this, you know me. You might trust me, I’m telling you, no. Unfortunately, there’s not a great way to sell your home for a 2% commission.

Here’s the way it works. If someone out there is selling a home for 2%, that means they’re paying 1% to the listing agent and they’re going to give 1% to the buyer’s agent. The lawsuit made everybody think that this was not something you could do before. You totally could. This has always been legal. Let me give you some real estate commission one-on-one education so this makes sense and you can protect yourself because you might run into one of those sellers who’s an absolute nut bar.

Here’s how it works. The average home in the United States is $400,000. Let’s say the seller of that home has the right to use an agent that will do the entire transaction for whatever they negotiate. That means if they negotiate it lower, the split for the commissions is going to be lower for the selling agent and for the buyer’s agent. This means a much lower quality of service, a much lower quality of buyer representation, and probably a lower quality of buyer. You do indeed get what you pay for.

The big picture, if the seller of that $400,000 house decided to pay 2% in fees instead of 6%, the seller would save $16,000. It usually costs them much more than the 4% that they think they are “saving.” I can hear you cynics out there, “Of course, you’d say that. You are a real estate agent. $16,000 is a lot of money.” You are correct. The next truth bomb that I’m going to give you right now, is going to sound unpopular to lots of you out there, especially if you’re a first-time reader and you don’t know what this whole thing is all about. Ready brace yourself for it. $16,000 is a peanut in a $400,000 transaction. Any decent agent can make up that money in the final purchase price of the home.

How to Buy a Home | NAR Lawsuit
NAR Lawsuit: 16,000 is peanuts in a 400,000 transaction. Any decent agent can make up that money in the final purchase price of the home.

 

It’s an awful thing to say, but it’s true. A home is listed for $400,000 by an agent who will accept the role of advisor in this intense, highly complex negotiation that it takes to sell a home, but we’ll do the whole thing for only 1%. For all the hours it takes to complete the sale and not get everybody sued, they’re probably not going to net the highest price for the seller and also for the buyer’s agent who’s willing to do their part for 1%, frankly, that scares me that they’re even going to have the skills to close the deal, which can cost you the buyer, but it costs you your money and nothing for them.

Is there off the top of your head a brief example of some hyper-complicated situation that you’ve been in that required a special touch like, “What if this happens and you need to do this? What if that happens and you need to do that?”

If a deal doesn’t close, your buyer’s agent doesn’t understand the contract and there’s something terrible that goes on in the inspection, which I’ve had happen and I have advised my people, “Do not buy this home,” but because I knew what I was doing with the contract, they didn’t lose their deposit. If your person doesn’t know the realtor doesn’t lose any money, but you might lose your entire deposit or even worse, they don’t know what to warn you about like inspection things that I’ve seen and foundation things that I’ve seen.

Chicken coops in living rooms live in my head rent-free unlike me.

You end up closing on the deal and you have the biggest money pit in the universe. I know I sound like an elite bougie debug when I say $16,000 is peanuts in a deal, but how do you think the bidding wars on a $400,000 home goes? Do you think the multiple bids in a bidding war are $401,000, $402,000 and $4203,000?

Yes.

No. In fact, I got a text from a unicorn who’s representing a buyer and this is what the text said, “Emily made her second offer. Thirteen percent over the asking price. No contingencies did a pre-offer home inspection so she waived seventeen-day closing and she lost.” Imagine that 13% over asking price and she didn’t get the house.13% on $400,000 would be $452,000. Let’s freak out about the 4% and $16,000. I bet the agent selling that house isn’t a discount agent. They’ve already netted their seller way more than whatever their fees are.

Don’t get me wrong. In every deal, once you get in there, the unicorns are going to fight like hell for $100 or $200. I have scraped and clawed for a $100 30-year-old dishwasher before. At the beginning of the deal and in the marketing of the deal, when you compare a unicorn to a discount agent, I know it sounds bougie and lame, but $16,000 is easily earnable for our clients. In fact, I bet that the value of unicorns is 4 to 5 times more than $16,000 in any transaction. The fees also known as the commissions are set to help the sellers net the most money and protect the buyers so they can get the best deal.

Role Of A Good Realtor

While I was doing my research for this episode, I heard something extraordinary about the role of a good realtor. One of my new mentors, who did the best emergency breakdown on this lawsuit settlement said something that blew me away. I trust this guy because he’s a very savvy businessperson. Sharran Srivatsaa has been an Inc. 500 entrepreneur 4 times with 5 exits in the last many years. What’s an exit?

It’s what all entrepreneurs want to do. That means the dude built up a business to explode so much that he can sell out exit, the thing that everyone is their once-in-a-lifetime dream. This dude’s done it four times in the last decades. He’s done it in tech, he’s done it in Wall Street and in a couple of different real estate businesses. What’s the thing he said that blew me away after working in all those places? He said that there is nothing more complex than being a realtor in a residential real estate transaction. That dude, a business giant, has done it all.

The job of the realtor is to close the deal correctly Sharon said that that job requires the most skill of everything that he’s seen. When it comes to commissions and fees, they matter. Here’s the problem. The lawsuit has created confusion. I don’t think it muddied the waters. I think it took mud, cement, puke, shower drain hair and tossed it in the river. Congratulations to all of the “winners” in this lawsuit supposedly out there to stop the crooked real estate industry.

Dispelling The Top Ten Myths

The only winners are the class action lawyers who made all that money and didn’t do jack cheese for the consumers. I’ll give them one thing. This lawsuit hopefully will make the commissions more transparent. Most of us have been doing it transparently anyway. All this does is force realtors to have to learn how to do their job. You want to know the best way to buy your home. Let’s be sure you understand all the BS that’s coming out in the news. It’s time to dispel the top ten most ridiculous myths that I’ve seen in the headlines since March 15th. Remember, news is about ratings. If it bleeds, it leads. Fear sells. In social media, it’s even worse.

The only winners are the class action lawyers who made all the money and didn’t do jack cheese for the consumers.

I know social media advertising and marketing agencies that charge $10,000 for you to come in and take their course. The main thing they teach you is how to be controversial and polarizing in the first three seconds of the post so that you get more views and more subscribers even if you don’t want to be controversial and polarizing. Fact. Remember, if it bleeds, it leads. There’s nothing that rhymes as good in social media because the actual phrase would be if, “It’s toxic, it’s viral,” but that doesn’t rhyme. It’s not catchy. It’s totally true.

Also completely biologically accurate.

What’s crazy is lots of the hate that I’m seeing on my social media, granted, I have a lot of realtors on my feed, but it’s could be warranted that people have bummer things about realtors, but it’s also a lot of disgruntled realtors whining and bitching about what’s going on. It’s probably those disgruntled 87% that are going to look for a new job in the next five years. Here are the ten biggest myths from the big news outlets they’re freaking straight-up wrong. Not myths, incorrect, but they have to get those catchy headlines.

Our first culprit is Joe Biden. In a campaign event, Joe Biden, while speaking on housing affordability incorrectly stated to thousands of people, “The National Association of Realtors agreed for the first time that Americans can negotiate lower commissions when they buy or sell their homes.” Joe, no it’s not for the first time. Americans could and always have been able to negotiate the commissions, then he said that the average consumer would be saving $10,000 in commission fees on a typical home purchase.

Biden said, “I’m calling on realtors to follow through on lowering commissions to protect home buyers.” First of all, that’s the way it’s always been. It’s called a free market payer service provider what you want. There’s never been a law against that of any kind. I don’t like to talk politics much on the show unless they talk housing. In this case, sorry Joe, but let’s find another way to get votes and the news outlets aren’t doing any better. CNN put a headline that said, “The way Americans buy and sell homes is about to get turned on its head.” Wrong.

Myth 2) Headlines on all major news outlets are seeing this. Myth. Home prices will drop. I want nothing more in the world than this to be true for you, but this settlement isn’t going to do that. How commissions are advertised and paid will change not how much. When the interest rates drop and the floodgates open and home prices, they’ll probably end up going up for the next few years. See episodes 11 to 14.

You gave an example where one offered 13% over the asking price, yet the average commission was 6%. How in the world is when bidding wars calling for way more than that percentage, how is that tiny percentage even going to affect the cost of a house?

The seller doesn’t need as much net. That’s 6%. The lower that goes the more I make.

To your point, a good realtor will get you 13% more. How do those amounts even make sense?

It’s the headlines.

No, I’m saying for you. I’m saying 13% so you can tie it to the example you already gave.

Right after episodes 11 to 14. Remember my example about the text 13% over? That’s pre-floodgates. I don’t think home prices are going down. Remember earlier the text I got where the bidding wars got 13% over the list price? I don’t think home prices are going to be going down anytime soon. The third myth, 6% commissions will cease to be the norm. CNN had this headline, “How to make sure that the 6% Home Commission does hype?” I know that gets lots of clicks, but it’s probably not going to happen. Remember this settlement is about how the realtors get paid, not how much. My man Sharran said about this whole process. It’s the same thing. It’s just a different path to get there. It’s called decoupling of the listing broker paying the buyer’s broker. It means who pays who and how, not how much.

How to Buy a Home | NAR Lawsuit
NAR Lawsuit: Remember, this settlement is about how the realtors get paid, not how much.

 

The fourth myth is something that sounds sketchy and it is, but it’s not happening as much as they say it is. The myth is that steering will become less common steering. It’s a big buzzword. What it means is that this lawsuit they’re using to stand up for every person, all the little guys because they say steering is a way that negatively buyers agents direct buyers to more expensive homes so the agents can get bigger commissions. Let me get one thing on this clear first. When you’re a first-time home buyer, the agent will make more money on a $450,000 house than a $400,000 home. Not a ton more, but they make more.

The reality is, if you’re looking at a $400,000 home and a$450,000 home, there should be a pretty big difference between those two homes. In fact, if a unicorn shows you a $400,000 home and a $450,000 home and they’re pretty similar, the only steering they’re going to do is towards the cheaper home because it’s cheaper but equal. When you close the deal, you’re going to tell all your friends what a killer deal you got, how dope your unicorn is and then that unicorn gets ten more clients.

They address steering thinking that it has to do with all buyers but it doesn’t. Steering is a sketchy tactic, mostly using luxury homes. When a buyer’s looking at a $4 million home with a 2% fee to the buyer’s agent versus the buyer’s agent pushing them to a $5 million home with a 3% fee. That’d be a $70,000 difference in the commission for that buyer’s agent. When they’re comparing two mansions, that’s when the slimy agent steers. In fact, for first-time home buyers, and unicorn agents, do we steer clients?

Not for better commissions, but we steer clients. That’s what you pay us for or the seller pays us for. We steer based on a certain set of variables that you give to us and then we use our knowledge of the homes in the neighborhoods. We steer based on the conditions of the homes, the neighborhoods and the school districts and whatever else is important to you. We steer if we find out that the seller has their home at a ridiculously high price because we talk to the agent and we find out this seller is nuts and thinks their home should sell for $100,000 more than it should. We want to steer you away from that drama.

Myth 5) One million agents are going to leave the business. I wish some were going to leave, but nothing’s changed in the license requirements so they might stick around. Myth 6) The internet is going to take over all real estate like Amazon and Zillow. I don’t believe so. Boots on the ground are still going to make it happen because experienced agents keep the deals together and ultimately save you tens of thousands of dollars or better yet, they protect you and let you know when you should not buy the home. That’s a big deal. These internet providers can’t help you with that.

Myth 7) The New York Times said this, “Powerful realtor group agrees to slash commissions to settle lawsuits.” That’s such a wrong interpretation. Go back and see Myth 1, Joe Biden. Wrong. Myth 8) The Wall Street Journal published an editorial accusing realtors of playing a rigg game. The headline is true, but the story is all wrong. I went off on the first part of this episode about what’s wrong, but the lawsuit, the cooperating compensation that is getting decoupled in this lawsuit is not the rig game.

The rig game is that the industry has been selling you a licensed realtor as though it’s something of value when it’s a numbers game with people that are not qualified to do the job. Myth 9) Buyers are going to have to now pay their buyer’s agents maybe 2% or 3% of the purchase price on top of the down payment they had to save for and their closing costs. I know people want to throw this headline out there, but it’s likely not going to happen. In fact, in some states, buyers are already having to pay something to their buyer’s agent, 0.5% or up to 1.5%, maybe even higher. The industry norm is that the buyer’s agents are still getting paid in different ways. You need to talk to a unicorn who’s going to know how things work in your area to know if you need to pay, if anything, to work with a buyer’s agent.

How to Buy a Home | NAR Lawsuit
NAR Lawsuit: The rigged game is that the industry has been selling you a licensed realtor as though it’s something of value when it’s really just a numbers game with people who are not qualified to do the job.

 

The cool thing about this is hopefully all the realtors start doing this, but when we work with unicorns, you would’ve known this on day one. When you’re starting to plan for 6, 8 or 12 months of your last lease ever and you plan accordingly, but the myth that sellers are now going to refuse to pay the buyer’s agents because suddenly they found out how this whole thing works, that’s not going to happen. Good luck selling your house when you’re not paying the buyer’s agents and considering the quality of buyers that are probably going to show up. Myth 10) Buyers are going to go directly to the listing agent and not use a buyer’s agent.

First of all, I don’t know if you know this, but this is illegal in 1/3 of the United States. The settlement’s probably going to make this more of the national policy soon. NAR and the realtors are going to have to keep settling these suits. This one’s going to go next. I mean look at the optics if you are going directly to the listing agent.

How does it work? First, the seller and the listing agent agree to work together to sell a home, 4%, 5% or 6%. Now the listing agent has agreed they’re going to sell the home for the most money. Here comes the buyer. The buyer says, “Listing agent, why don’t you represent me too?” The listing agent is already signed to get the biggest net for the profit to the seller. What happens when they’re negotiating with both the buyer and the seller and we get to negotiations on everything, inspection repairs, termite, appraisal, on and on?

How is the buyer protected in that scenario? That’s the top ten. These myths aren’t going to be the salvation that’s finally going to weed out the corruption and level the playing field for the consumers. The system is still going to suck. You win the best way by hiring experienced quality unicorn teams that know how to beat this sucky system and that have been dealing with these commission compensation questions for decades. Find a team that sets them aside to protect you, their buyer, and work to negotiate the best deal possible.

How This Affects First-Time Home Buyers

If you’ve been reading the part 1 and 2, now let’s talk about you. How does this affect you a first-time home buyer? 1) Contracts are going to be mandatory for you. 2) This is a cool one, unicorn agents will be easier to spot. 3) Eventually, you may have the choice like a seller does with deciding if and how much you want to pay your agent who’s representing you. First up, contracts. Now, if you’ve never bought a home, you may be shocked to know that as a buyer, in many states, there’s no mandatory contractual relationship between a buyer and their officially licensed representation during the planning loan shopping, and even the touring of the private homes and private appointments.

That’s real. You can do that without a contract. Do you see why I got uns chill earlier when I got passionate about how this blockbuster settlement against realtors is addressing all the wrong issues? This settlement is all about the sellers. I’m eliminating that whole piece. Let’s go to, “Yeah, that’s real.” Good. Now we’re finally doing that. Some states have already made this mandatory. Many unicorns already make this mandatory as well.

Unicorns are known as a service provider, they’re offering professional expertise and killer value. We enjoy entering into that mutual agreement with our buyers, “You go all in with me, I’ll go all in with you I know.” I’ve said unicorn a bunch in this. For those of you guys who are homies and read all the time, you know what a unicorn agent is, the rest of you out there, it’s that magical, mythical, elusive experienced agent who gives a damn about a first-time home buyer. These contracts that you are going to have to do hopefully with a unicorn agent are known as the buyer agency agreement, the buyer representation agreement, or the buyer broker agreement, depending on where you’re buying a home, they’re different in different states.

How to Buy a Home | NAR Lawsuit
NAR Lawsuit: A unicorn agent is that magical, mythical, elusive, and experienced agent who actually gives a damn about a first-time home buyer.

 

Starting this summer, you won’t be able to tour homes with an agent without one of these contracts signed. I know it’s crazy. This was never a mandatory practice that was already in place. Wouldn’t you want to have an agreement in place to facilitate this consultation, planning, and strategizing of buying that home? In the old system, you could work with an agent while they offer guidance in the complexities of getting financially and emotionally ready to buy a home, yet the actual partnership isn’t ratified until the offer is made.

This is changing in this lawsuit settlement, and I say this means buyer agents have to show I’m a unicorn right up front. They have to prove that they understand the process, they have the experience, the training, and education, and they care about you. They have to show enough so that you’re happy to sign up with them and sign a contract. In this contract, you’re going to agree to compensation with a clear understanding of where it comes from, from you, the seller, or a combination of both.

In summary, this contract will clarify exactly the services they offer for what compensation, who’s going to pay for it, and what you can expect in working with them. The second big change for you, the first-time buyer, is you could see a shift in the level of service you receive across the board and the quality of agents that represent you moving forward. Isn’t that awesome?

Do you want to read a crazy stat from your host? Eighty-mine percent of buyers’ agents don’t have a buyer presentation. Eighty-mine percent of agents are fine being a door opener and not comfortable sharing their actual value with you. Not only do these unicorns have one, but we unicorns get together and discuss this in annual zooms to help boost the way that we serve our buyers. We care about you, making sure that you understand and are excited about the value that we bring to you.

Instead of what a lot of realtors do, we say, “I’ve been the number 1 agent here for the past 10 years. I sold a bajillion homes. Sign here. You’ll see.” The third big change for you, the first-time homebuyer, it’s a potential change. You might have to budget to pay your buyers’ or agents’ fees, part of it, or maybe even all of it now, maybe not today, maybe not later this year, but maybe sometime in the future.

Some say this settlement will change the way real estate business is done, but I doubt it. For most entry-level and lower-end buyers, the first-time home buyers can barely come up with a 3% down in the closing costs. There was one article quoted that said, “They don’t have enough money for a can of paint, much less a $20,000 commission.” Since nobody wants to tank the market, I have a feeling that these things are going to stay relatively the same.

The only thing we know for sure is the logistical accounting changes that are laid out in this settlement. That’s it. That’s what we know. Remember, the settlement says nothing about the actual fee amounts, just how they’re reported. One thing is certain, the myths and the clickbait headlines are certainly going to be proven wrong with time, probably even by the time you read this. This story might have even faded from the news cycle. That’s it. Sidoni this clears up any confusion for you if you’ve been feeling a little stressed about what’s going on with this lawsuit.

For now, if you’re close to buying, heck, this might not even affect you at all. This stuff doesn’t even happen till mid-July. If you’re a 2025 buyer, this might not affect you either. The moral of this episode talks about this settlement, the breakdown is this.  Your best strategy has always been finding a way to beat a rigged system. If you want to know what’s your own best personal play to win in the unfair world of win buying, go to HowTobuyAHome.com and ask me your question. Don’t focus on these stories about the blockbuster changes in the industry. Focus on you.

Your best strategy has always been finding a way to beat a rigged system.

Don’t be afraid to go to the website. Right there, you can get the starter kit or you can Ask David a direct question. That’s me, or ask for a unicorn and we can get your personal planning journey started. There are lots of resources on social media and YouTube. Jump back into the catalog of the podcast, listen to episodes, and help you get more educated on the process. I always tell people to listen to the interviews. It’s a great way to learn and motivate. As always, no matter what happens, we’re going to be here because we know you can do this.

 

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This podcast was started for YOU, to demystify things for first time home buyers, and help crush the confusion. After helping first timers for over 13 years, I knew there wasn’t t a lot of clear, tangible, useable information out there on the internet, so I started this podcast. Help me spread the word to other people just like you, dying for answers. Tell your friends, family, and perhaps that random neighbor you REALLY want to move out about How to Buy a Home! A really easy way is to hit the share button and text it to your friends. Go for it, help someone out. And if you’re not already a regular listener, subscribe and get constant updates on the market. If you are a regular and learned something, help me help others – give the show a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, or write a review on Spotify. Let’s change the way the real estate industry treats you first time buyers, one buyer at a time, starting with you – and make sure your favorite people don’t get screwed by going into this HUGE step blind and confused. Viva la Unicorn Revolution!

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You Might Also Be Interested In:

Ep 232 – Interview With Self Proclaimed “Not Privileged” First-Time Home Buyers
Ep. 230 – NAR Lawsuit – The New Rules For Real Estate And How To Buy A Home – PART 1
The First Time Home Buyer’s Ultimate Guide To Credit Scores
Ep. 194 – Interview – Making the Impossible Purchase Possible