← Estate of Mind — The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate
Estate of Mind — The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate
Planning Amidst Industry Change
00:41:28
In this episode of Estate of Mind hosts Tami Simms and Jack Miller are joined by special guest Steven Mosher as they discuss the impact of significant industry changes due to the NAR commission settlement. Changes are prompting realtors to adjust their business strategies, particularly in how they handle commissions and interact with clients. Join us as we walk through recalibrating client communication strategies, increasing social media engagement, and reassessing business planning for the upcoming year to navigate these industry disruptions effectively.
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- [00:00]
Tammy Sims
Foreign.
- [00:09]
Jack Miller
Welcome to A State of Mind, a podcast series all about motivating, inspiring and educating you in the art of selling luxury real estate. The podcast is brought to you by the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. I'm Tammy Sims, lead trainer for the Institute and a full time real estate professional in St. Petersburg, Florida for more than two decades. In this episode we're going to talk about changing gears mid year as the unexpected can happen around us. Today's podcast is brought to you in part by Real Marketing, the only marketing firm recommended exclusively by the Institute. Real marketing utilizes over 25 years of expertise and their products are designed for you to dominate any neighborhood anywhere. Go to realmarketing4you.com that's real marketing. The number4you.com also look for past A State of Mind episodes with CEO David Collins as our guest. I'm here today with my fearless co host Jack Miller, a 25 plus year veteran luxury agent in the greater Nashville, Tennessee market. And today we have a special guest joining us, Steven Mosher with ReMax Executive in Charlotte, North Carolina who's also a Guild elite member of the Institute. Welcome to both of you.
- [01:29]
Steven Mosher
Thanks Tammy.
- [01:31]
Tammy Sims
Hi Tammy. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- [01:33]
Jack Miller
We are delighted to have you. So every year we tend to schedule our annual business planning for the fall to hit the next calendar year running and we work to stay on track for those goals and the plans throughout the year. Now this year though, we have had some massive game changes thrown at us in the industry mid year and I want to talk about how we're managing that. So Steven and I were at an industry conference recently together in Lake Tahoe and of course the topic on everyone's mind is the impending NAR Commission settlement that's expected to change the way that realtors work with buyers and how professional fees will be handled. So Stephen, what's on your mind as far as changes to what your plan was for 2024?
- [02:21]
Tammy Sims
Yeah, so quite a bit actually because there's a lot that's going on with this lawsuit and how we operate our businesses going forward, especially after August. So the significant changes that are on their way this year as a result of the settlement have really changed how educated and knowledgeable our consumers are and they want to hear what's going on directly from us. So how I'm going to implement these new business practices accordingly with the changes as they roll out and just being a industry leader for the consumer because they are looking to us now more than ever to understand what's going on. How is this going to affect them. And largely, this is going to affect a lot of buyers. So again, just having these business practices already put in place, I honestly feel pretty happy that with North Carolina, we've been practicing buyer agency agreements as long as I've been in real estate now, which is almost a full decade to almost 10 years. So this is not really too new for me. There's a couple of changes that of course I'm going to implement, but I think articulating being transparent, being an industry leader and a real estate professional is really going to help us educate the consumer and get us through these new hurdles that are approaching pretty quickly.
- [03:39]
Jack Miller
Yeah. And you know, something that comes to my mind in, in terms of changing time priorities for this year is that I've had to step up the amount of time that I'm dedicated to taking webinars and masterminds versus in an ordinary year to stay on top of these changes. And I know that was true last week at the conference that we were at, but that's definitely changed my time planning for the year. And Jack, I know that the settlement is on your mind too, but you have had an even bigger sidetrack this year. Our audience might have noticed. Notice that I didn't name Jack's brokerage in the introduction. So, Jack, tell us what has happened in your world recently.
- [04:23]
Steven Mosher
We've had a lot happening in our world here in Nashville, and a lot of it's somewhat historic, I suspect. But while the rest of the real estate world, Tammy, has been focused on the, you know, post nar settlement real estate happenings, we have an entirely new brokerage. A couple of months ago, rumors started circulating. And then a matter of weeks ago, it was formally announced that Compass purchased our firm, Parks Realty, in the Nashville market. Compass is a tremendous organization. They've made huge headways all over the country. And Parks was one of the largest independent firms in the country, certainly in the Southeast, with about almost 1700 agents just in the greater Nashville area. So it was, it was a big move for Compass to purchase Parks. Bob Parks, our founder, didn't sell the company. He took on some major investors several years ago. And those investors, when they got a certain degree of control, opted to sell to Compass. And the reason Parks brought the investors in, he wanted a succession plan for our company to keep us a locally owned private real estate firms serving the greater Nashville area. So that purchase was a big surprise for, for the agents at Parks. And a lot of agents celebrated that. A lot of agents weren't really thrilled with the, with the Announcement. And so anyway, what's happened for us is Bob and Marie Parks and our former cfo, Jenny Barnett, partnered together and created a brand new company called Onward Real estate. And about 200 agents over the last two weeks have moved from Parks Compass to Onward Real Estate, including many of the top agents from our firm. So we're excited about it. Really excited. It's the first time in 26 years, you know, that I'm saying another company name and I find my, myself having to stop and, and rethink my presentation because it's been like clockwork for all these years, routinely saying Parks and now I'm saying Onboard. So, yeah, we're excited about it. It's fun.
- [06:34]
Jack Miller
Yeah. And so while everybody else is dusting off their, you know, buyer brokerage skills and all, all of those things that Steven has a head up on. So you're, you mentioned you're trying to figure out how to get keys to the office and.
- [06:46]
Steven Mosher
Right, exactly.
- [06:46]
Jack Miller
Get all your new signs and.
- [06:48]
Steven Mosher
That's right. You guys are working on the big important things in life, like how to talk about the NAR settlement, while I'm just trying to figure out how to get in the building, where to park. So, yeah, so we're, we're working through all that. But yeah, actually what Stephen said is very interesting because at, at or in the national market as well, we've been practicing buyer agencies since I started my career 26 years ago. And it's interesting because I remember, just remember distinctly that when I would talk about buyer agency agreements with some of my colleagues who had been in the business for a lot longer than we had, it was almost laughable. They would, they would almost tease us or make fun of us for utilizing buyer agency agreements. And I remember hearing agents saying things like, my buyers, you know, if they want to work with me, they're going to work with me. We don't need to have a buyer agency agreement. And so conversely, I would pose the question to some of my more seasoned colleagues and say, well, why do you use a listing agreement? Because if they want to work with you, stick your side of the yard and I guess they'll work with you. But clearly there was a need for buyer agency and, you know, for us. For most of my career, we've always used them religiously. My business partner, Robert and I have, but we haven't used them so much as an emphasis on how do we get paid? Because the presumption was the system that had evolved universally throughout, at least throughout this country, had evolved really as a response to how to make the transaction happen and work and how buyers could be protected. So our emphasis has always been on getting buyer agreements signed, not to ensure that we get compensated, but to ensure that buyers are represented and they understand our fiduciary responsibility to represent them. So we always pushed hard on this document is what ensures you that we're representing your interests, not that of the seller. And even if you see my company's name on the sign on the property you're purchasing, what we're doing is representing you. And that's always been the emphasis. And the compensation piece was kind of like a sideline. Oh, by the way, here's how we get compensated, here's who pays whom and how that works. It was an aspect of the BI representation agreement. Fast forward to today. It's really interesting because the whole emphasis has changed. Nobody's talking about the. The fiduciary responsibility so much as how do we get paid. Make sure everybody understands how we get paid. And it's really a bit of a culture shock to see that focus shift. But at the same time, it's one we have to embrace, understand, and be able to clearly communicate it, because the Department of Justice has. Has demanded such. So I'm curious, Tammy, what are you and Steven, what are your plans for you guys as far as talking to your clients?
- [09:34]
Jack Miller
Well, I know that I have taken this opportunity to. To definitely reach out to my sphere of influence. Right. So everybody's asking about it, not just the people currently in the marketplace, but I think that that is an unexpected opportunity for us to actually touch everybody in our sphere of influence, because this is something that they're consuming in the major media. So I would encourage everyone in the audience who's a practicing real estate professional to take advantage of that to touch your client base. What do you think, Stephen?
- [10:11]
Tammy Sims
So I completely agree. I think that right now there's a wonderful opportunity for us to educate. It also helps us, as true estate professionals, stand out to be. You know, I say this term quite a bit, but I think it's important to be an industry leader. We are the experts in real estate, and we are supposed to guide our consumers. So for a lot of people, I think this is going to be very difficult for them. That may have never put this into focus from the beginning, but for me, especially being in the state of North Carolina, where I've always practiced buyer agency, now I'm just out, right, having the conversation more upfront and especially with my sphere of influence, it's interesting because they're all A little bit more aware of it. And when I have buyer consultations with new buyers that I've never met before, they oftentimes don't know about the lawsuit and the changes that are taking place. And so I think that that's a testament to how I've educated the people that I have worked with, because they're the ones that are reaching out to me, like, hey, what's going on? And it gives me an opportunity to practice educating them and going over any questions that they might have. And when I have these buyer consultations, I'm very upfront and transparent with them before we ever start the working relationship together. So I answer these questions for them. I go over what changes might be taking place, how things are going to operate now versus how things will operate come August, and how that's going to affect the buyers. And I also have this conversation similarly with the sellers, as far as compensation is concerned. So, because my sellers are going to end up being buyers as well. So having that conversation, setting proper expectations and articulating very well to our consumers is what makes what I do a little bit different than some of the other professionals in the industry.
- [12:04]
Steven Mosher
Yeah.
- [12:05]
Jack Miller
Now, Jack, I'm thinking about something that you said just a few minutes ago about having to change up your script. Right. And I think among the three of us, we certainly are the types of agents who are comfortable with our presentations and have spent a lot of time perfecting and understanding how the conversation needs to go. And then, so here we're having to change up and kind of unlearn some of the things. Maybe not so much for you, Steven, because you've been practicing this, but I'm in a marketplace where buyer brokerage agreements are not required and certainly haven't been a standard. So I'm having to learn new dialogues. And, Jack, I'm curious, since you're having to have these conversations about your brokerage change with your sphere of influence at the same time as the industry changes, are you tackling that? Are you using that as an opportunity, all in one fell swoop to communicate both of those things?
- [13:06]
Steven Mosher
Not exactly. It's a little. A little too much information to bite off one shoe. What we're doing is we're sending a letter out. What Robert and I have done, we put together a letter that summarized, in my words, what happened as far as the merger with Parks and Compass and the launch of Onward, our new firm. So we did a letter, and then we attached two different local news articles from two highly respected business publications so they can see my interpretation of it and then two third party interpretations of those, you know, that stream of events. So we're sending that out in letter form and then what we're doing subsequently is doing personal phone calls to each of our current clients. I've done that already. But each of our current clients and then going through our sphere of influence and talking to folks individually and that, that one on one contact as you guys were talking about a few moments ago, it gives you that venue for having the conversation personally with your, with your clients and answering their questions and making sure that we really help one, educate our consumers locally because real estate's local. And even though this is a national phenomenon with the Department of Justice, how that's applied locally and how that's interpreted locally within the, within the boundaries of the Department of Justice may look a little bit different. And I'll give you an example of that. So when the, when the, when the news first hit about the DOJ's involvement in the lawsuits and NAR, the headlines that all of us were seeing on a national basis were pretty sensational. It didn't matter whether you're listening to CNN or FOX or ABC or CBS or abc, whatever station it was or whatever print publication it was, it seemed like every major news media outlet was grabbing a sensational aspect of the headline and running with it as that, boiling it down to two or three points, which basically sounded like, oh, suddenly for the first time ever you can work directly with a listing agent. Suddenly, for the first time ever, you're going to pay not 6%, which is the national requirement is what they made it sounded like.
- [15:12]
Jack Miller
Right, right.
- [15:13]
Steven Mosher
And now it's going to be 3%, saving sellers, 3% on each transaction. And buyers, they're going to pass that on. The buyers, and buyers are going to save 3% on the purchases. None of that was true. But they were stating it as if this was fact and they were taking some of the talking points and running to the finish line with things that just clearly were not, were not accurate. And so now it's. What's nice is we've had a few weeks for the dust to settle. We know more what that looks like. And now as individuals in our respective markets, we can go out there and talk to our clients and say, here's what really happened. Because I've had clients ask me those questions point blank, you know, and I'll start the conversation with something like, so what have you heard? Because I want to know what have they heard? What, what's their opinion or what, what's the framework from which they're asking the question. But then one of the things that's very interesting, at least in our market, we reached out to, because I work in a market where there's lots of new construction in the luxury home market and we have a amazing amount of, of custom builders here in the greater Nashville market. We do have some high end production builders as well in the luxury space, but primarily custom builders. I'm talking builders who build for our market. You know, entry level price points around 3 million and up. And I reached out to a number of those and said, hey, how is your marketing plan or your business plan changing in August as a result of the NAR settlement? And a lot of my colleagues have done the same. And the interesting thing we found, Tammy and Steven, as we reach out, is that so far all of the high end luxury custom builders are not changing their game plan. They're still allowing the same part of their budget for compensation for buyer broker as part of their marketing plan. They need us, they want us. They recognize the value we bring to the table. And that has a big ripple effect in the luxury pond. And how so is as Stephen mentioned earlier, we sit down with a seller, it's not just educating buyers, educating sellers. So when I sit down with a seller and the seller says, well, Jack, my understanding is now we don't have to pay the buyer broker. And I say to the seller, you know what? You've never had to pay a buyer broker.
- [17:26]
Jack Miller
That's right.
- [17:27]
Steven Mosher
That's.
- [17:28]
Jack Miller
I want to, I want to jump in and just clarify for our audience, especially those that may not be real estate professionals, I want to clarify the fact that commissions are and always have been negotiable. Right. And so, and the, the numbers that, that Jack was referencing are those that the media has put forth as opposed to any suggestion of, of what a marketplace compensation is. So that was.
- [17:54]
Steven Mosher
Thank you, Tammy. Thank you for that. That's, that's the whole irony that they were stating as it were a requirement, but the reality is it's always been negotiable. And so in talking to these luxury builders, they're telling us that the fees that they've always paid and budgeted for are still in their business plan and will continue to be in their business plan. So now when we sit down and talk with a seller and I talk to a seller on a resale property and the seller says, well, I'm thinking that maybe we just won't offer a buyer broker fee. And I'll say, no, you don't have to. You're exactly right. It's completely negotiable. You don't have to offer anything or you can offer whatever you feel comfortable with between here and there or whatever, but at the end of the day, here's the deal. Mr. Seller, Mrs. Seller. When you're selling your three or four million dollar home here in Brentwood, Tennessee, your biggest competition is new construction. And new construction is offering to compensate buyer brokers to make sure they make their property as marketable as possible. So what do you want to do? And so it's a good, it's a good talking point to share that with our sellers and with our client clients as a whole to help them understand the big picture and help them make educated decisions of what type of planning they want to do when it comes to purchasing a home or selling home.
- [19:06]
Jack Miller
Yeah. Stephen, I'm curious about the impact. I think you've got some, some custom build inventory as well that competes with resale in, in your area. Are you finding the same approach? Have you had those conversations with those, those builders reps?
- [19:24]
Tammy Sims
Yeah, so I and Jack was talking about this as well. The value that we bring and I have, it depends on the builder. But my more custom home builders value the relationships that have gone on for so many years well beyond my own practice that still exists today because the first line of having a buyer or bringing a buyer, most consumers are reaching out to the real estate professional. They again want that guidance, they want that knowledge and experience. Our consumers and the buyers that we work with, they have full time jobs. Every one of them does something for a living. And, and what we do for a living is navigate this intricate process, the complexities of it, from start to finish. And honestly for me, beyond the closing day and that's such a huge value. And the builders, they recognize it, they value that relationship because a good realtor, even with new construction, there is a lot of value that we can provide and helping get our buyer and seller or builder to the closing table. It's a lot of times I believe that people find that it's an adversarial position, but it's not always that way. And more often than not we are working together to come to that middle ground and getting both sides to the closing table and a happy finish.
- [20:47]
Jack Miller
Yeah, I'm seeing a very similar experience in my marketplace. One of our farm areas is downtown luxury condos. And so we've got several that are being under construction now and they're holding firm to the way that they've practiced all along the way as well, and of course every market condition, every shift gives a different temperature to the water. But I think that as of right now and for the foreseeable future, there is that recognition of the value of professional buyer representation. And quite honestly, I don't do much in the rental world, but I find myself at the moment helping a corporate relocation who has a sizable budget and is looking for rentals in, in the, you know, in the $8,000 a month range. Right. And so these are the kind of the price of condos that, that, that he's likely going to buy after renting for a year. So I'm providing him with the service to build that relationship. But out just yesterday he asked the question of what I was being compensated. Right. And on the rental side that is a very different thing. And he said I'm going to pay you what you deserve for this representation. Right. And so that was an interesting thought process for me in that for those of us that, that, that work in the rental side of things, that, that we should probably adopt this similar type of representation agreement and compensation arrangement even if we just do it every once in a while as a favor or one off. But that, that really kind of hit me yesterday and I was delighted to be with a member of the public who understood the value of that.
- [22:37]
Steven Mosher
Tammy it's interesting, one of the things that we practice for several years when it comes to rental needs because again, you know, if you try to make a living as a, as a broker in the rental market, you could starve to death quite easily if you use traditional means. What we've done oftentimes because we don't do it that often, but we do it for our VIPs helping them get into short term rentals, not meaning the traditional short term rental, but you know, a lease for a year before they make a purchase. Because oftentimes that rental is followed by a commitment, a long term commitments. They want to explore the market perhaps and learn the area or they just got to make a quick decision. They just want the dust to settle, get settled and then I'll pick up the actual home search at some later date. So what we'll do oftentimes is we'll do a buyer agreement because buyer agreements don't have a specific length of time. It's all, again, it's all negotiable. And so if the, if the client signs a one year lease, we'll sign a buyer agreement, let's say one year and 90 days. And we'll provide our services gratis to our VIP clients to help them learn the market, help them find a rental, get situated, get settled. Knowing that on the back end when their lease expires, that we have a buyer agreement that's in place that allows us to move right into representing them on the purchase end. Knowing, of course, full well the risk is we can work with them as a renter. And they. Things could change. They may never buy anything.
- [23:58]
Jack Miller
Yeah.
- [23:59]
Steven Mosher
Cost doing business, but at least we know we're kind of creating business down the road because we'll need it then, too. And it's a good service to provide to our clients. So it's been a nice tool for us to kind of provide that service and have all those agreements worked out on the front end.
- [24:13]
Jack Miller
Yep. And so it makes me think of having to adjust your plans. Right. Because we were talking about the business planning, that sort of thing. So we've got to develop new forms, those of us that. That. That haven't used them. And. And my company changed affiliations. I work for an independent boutique real estate agency, and for the last 10 years, they had an affiliation with Christie's International, which is not a brokerage. It's an affiliation which most people don't understand. That agreement expired just a few months ago. My brokerage opted to align with Forbes Global Real Estate. And so we've had to change up all the business cards and signs and letterhead and all of that sort of thing, find websites and. And things that we didn't even know existed. And. And so I know you're doing that too now, Jack. Right, right, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [25:12]
Steven Mosher
And it's interesting because I see, you know, over my tenure, I've seen agents throughout our industry move around from this brokerage to that brokerage. And some do it quite routinely. I don't know how they do it. I've always said, you know, and I'll say this to our. Our audience members who are newer in the industry, is that, you know, we strive to brand. Just as our companies are creating a brand in the industry, we're creating our own brand within our companies in the industry. And the more you move around, the more you're watering down that brand. I feel like you really need to stay, you know, steadfast and keep the same message going out week after week, month after month, year after year, so that it becomes. So that you become a staple in your marketplace. And so, yeah, so this is the first time for us, Lord knows we've created our brand. Been there 26 years. So it's a new thing for me to Think about, okay, how do we align with a brand new company name and, and reinforce the same brand that we've had previously? And so it's been a fun challenge. I've actually found the energy of the office, not just the physical space looking different, but the energy of being a new space, a different place has been revitalizing. It's been terrific. I mean, when we walk in the front door, you can feel the energy of the room. And part of that's because it's a startup, everybody's excited, and part of it's because we're all in new places. And so it's been a lot of fun to feel that energy too, as we start this new venture.
- [26:32]
Jack Miller
Isn't that interesting? And so, so I'm curious for both of you. One of the things that we typically do in our business plans is budget and schedule out client communications, whether it's newsletters or advertising or that sort of thing. Have you had to revisit what your plan was for client outreach as it relates to like, seriously going back to your business, your written plan for the year, and having to reallocate and do things like that? Have either of you had experience with that?
- [27:05]
Tammy Sims
Yeah.
- [27:06]
Jack Miller
You go first.
- [27:09]
Tammy Sims
Yeah, absolutely. So I think there's two ways that we can go about changing our business plan and addressing everything that's going on both directly and passively. So directly meaning when we have those consultations, like I'm addressing everything up front and passively, I think is more in line with how we're sending out content and how we're reaching out to our sphere of influence or our consumers and putting our content out on social media platforms. So it's definitely made me change the way that I want to do that outreach. I want to be, I want to be more active on my social media and the content that I'm delivering, because that content, and this resonated when I heard it from another peer of mine. When you're putting content out on social media, you're putting yourself out there in a working situation at all hours, even when you're not actively awake or if you're on a call. That content is there for the consumer to reach out. It is a library for them. And that's the way that I really wanted to. Didn't think about it that way at first, but when someone repainted that picture for me, it was the aha moment. Hey, this is a resource for people that are coming to my page. One, they get to know me better, and two, they're becoming more educated on what is happening. And consumers aren't going to stop working with real estate professionals, but they are going to want to work with someone who can guide them, educate them and show value and transparency in our practice.
- [28:34]
Jack Miller
Absolutely, that's a great point. Jack, how about you?
- [28:38]
Steven Mosher
Yeah, for us, we've taken a little bit different approach, I think again because we've changed affiliations midstream as this NAR post NAR settlement is approaching. And so what we wanted to do was to create as much of an air familiarity as possible. So when it comes to advertising, for example, and the new branding, we continue to brand ourselves in the same venues where we had previously. So the same luxury print publications, the same luxury social media spaces. And what we, and at first our temptation was, okay, let's get all new photos, all new everything that. No, I told Robert, I said no, there needs to be an air familiarity. People need to see we're the same people.
- [29:19]
Jack Miller
That's a great point.
- [29:20]
Steven Mosher
So we use the same photos, same images that we've used last three or four years and just put new logos, new names etc and the same with our website. We. This is really interesting. Robert and I had worked for, gosh, three months on a brand new website that was going to launch several weeks ago. Three days before we launched our brand new website, Tammy, we learned about the, the acquisition and I'm like, oh my gosh. So we put that on hold and we, and we're in the process right now, this week actually we're going back to our original website, which is a good, functional, working website and it certainly had the luxury, you know, branding to it. We're just simply changing out logos on that website. We'll use that for the next few months. It'll continue that same theme of, hey, same guys, same thing, same presentation, different company affiliation and then we'll do a big launch a few months from now on the new website. And I think that will help our clients make that transition and understand who we are, what we're doing.
- [30:16]
Jack Miller
I think that's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
- [30:20]
Steven Mosher
Yeah. So how brilliant it is, but thank you.
- [30:24]
Jack Miller
It's. It, it's something that I hadn't thought of, but I've noticed it in, in, in my consumption of your social media and, and, and your website and whatnot. I noticed that it was the same guys, right, but with just some different logos. And it's funny because the temptation would be to do all new everything, but I really think that that's brilliant and it reminds me. So my, my mother who I work with, right? And she's 38 years in the business now. She started with Merrill Lynch Real Estate, which you probably know that Merrill lynch is no longer in the real estate arena. So Merrill lynch became Prudential Florida, which became our Vida, which was acquired by NRT and became Coldwell Banker. Right. So for 17 years she didn't change an office, but the brokerage name kept changing. And so her brand was her brand. And we just swapped out the logo at the bottom. Right. And our clients, it was seamless to them because they, they, they, they didn't even notice that we were with a different brand. Right. When we did audits, when we finally decided to make a brand change of our own, we reached out to our A list clients and said, if we change brokerages, would that impact your, you know, your desire to work with us? And they said, what brokerage are you with? Right. So it reinforces that personal brand and that consistency. But definitely something that caught my eye is that consistency. And that's a really brilliant one. So are you going to do your business planning same time or earlier for next year? Right. Like typically it's in the fall, sometimes we procrastinate and it gets to be really late fall. But what do you have planned for that?
- [32:16]
Steven Mosher
I think, Jack, how about you? Yeah, I think for us, if anything, it may get a little bit later because quite frankly, we need to see how our local market reacts to the changes that are upon us in the industry. Honestly, as I said earlier, I don't think we're going to see this huge wave of change that a lot of agents kind of feared. It's certainly not in the, in the luxury space, but we don't know yet. Once we. But I think in order to do business planning for the following year, we've got to have good data from our current experience and we need more than a few weeks, we need months worth of data. So if anything, we might get pushed back a little bit toward the end of the year for planning for the following. But my gut feeling is based on what I've heard when I've spoken to past clients, based on what I've heard, spoken to other colleagues and also not just locally, but colleagues in other markets who got ahead of us on this. There are some places in the country where they're a little bit ahead of us on this. And what I've been hearing from the luxury space is it hasn't been a radical change in way, it's impacted them in their market, but all markets are different. And so we need to see how the Market responds where we can really do anything. So I think we'll be, I don't see, I don't think we'll see anything radically different, but from a timing perspective, yeah, maybe a little later in the year.
- [33:29]
Jack Miller
Interesting. How about you, Stephen?
- [33:34]
Tammy Sims
Yeah, so I definitely agree with Jack. I think that I'm going to be visiting it a little bit later. But with this going on, I am a little bit more in tuned with the, my planning and checking things quarterly because there are going to be these changes. But for honestly, for me, I don't think this is going to change my practice much. I really don't. I think there might be a spike somewhere and I don't know if that's going to be a positive spike or a negative spike, but genuinely, I feel like it's going to be pretty steady and stable. My practice is very transparent, very upfront and educational to the consumer and who I'm working with and that I've done a lot of sphere of influence business my entire career and I think that's a product of a good education, being honest, having integrity, following my own business plan, following my mission statement, and really helping the consumer through that entire process and all of the changes. But this is about change and this is about being fluid and being light on your feet and the ability to change gears when necessary. I just am fortunate that this is something I've already put into practice, you know, years prior to all of this going on. So a lot of my buyers and repeat buyers, you know, this is almost business as usual for them. And Tammy, just kind of jumping back to your rental situation. I had a rental client to the exact same thing with me. I explained upfront what was going on, how I was going to help them. And the number one question they asked is how am I going to be able to compensate you? Because I am going to compensate you for this. And to me, that's just a sheer testament of what I'm doing for the people that I'm working with that they feel that compelled to do so.
- [35:19]
Jack Miller
Yep, I love it. And I'm reminded constantly that the one constant, no pun intended, is change. And I think, you know, with my mom's expertise, you know, she sold real estate in the, in the 80s with double digit interest rates and we survived. And Jack, I know that you and I were all in it when the market crashed and we saw short sales and foreclosures and yeah, sky was falling, but we got through it. And Steven, I know that you're, you're a little bit newer to the business. But you certainly saw the pandemic, as we all did, and. Right. And at that moment, there was the idea that it could completely change the way that we do business. And we got through it. Right?
- [36:02]
Tammy Sims
Yep.
- [36:03]
Jack Miller
And so I think Chicken Little can go do whatever Chicken Little wants to do, and the rest of us are going to adapt and we're going to seize the opportunity, right?
- [36:14]
Tammy Sims
Absolutely.
- [36:15]
Steven Mosher
Absolutely. I wanted to ask you, Tammy, have you and Stephen both. Have you had just kind of what type of feedback you've heard from your local mls? It's very interesting here. We had. We had someone come in and speak to us a couple of weeks ago, and they were issuing kind of warnings to some of the more entrepreneurial agents who might take advantage of the. Of the change. And they said, okay, when you post your photos on mls, don't have the landscaper cut a big photo, three in the front lawn.
- [36:42]
Jack Miller
You know, oh, my goodness.
- [36:44]
Steven Mosher
Don't put, you know, your. Your seller is offering a. A $3 or, you know, or a $4 session or whatever. You know, it was very. It was humorous. Some people have actually proposed these creative work.
- [37:02]
Jack Miller
Interesting. There's always something, right?
- [37:04]
Steven Mosher
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
- [37:05]
Tammy Sims
Watching the number three into the driveway or sidewalk.
- [37:07]
Jack Miller
Oh, my goodness. Right, Right. Okay. We are not looking. Looking to get. Do not try this at home audience.
- [37:13]
Steven Mosher
That's right.
- [37:14]
Jack Miller
Do not try this at home. And that, actually, it brings me full circle, though, because I'm not getting a lot of that from my mls, because my MLS is going through a merger, the same as we're talking about. So right there, they're focused on some other things. And so just when you think one thing, the other can happen. So our time together has come to an end. And so I want to ask Jack and Steven if you have any. Any parting thoughts, any guidance for anybody who's maybe feeling a little overwhelmed by change.
- [37:53]
Tammy Sims
Jack, you want to lead on that one?
- [37:55]
Steven Mosher
Sure, yeah. Well, the first thing I would say, and I get really, the really closing comment I would add, is that as we're talking about all the change, at the end of the day, all the change that we're seeing on a national scope regarding the NAR settlement is really about transparency. And that's the goal, transparency with the consumer. And from that standpoint, what's happening, I think, is a really positive thing because it helps the consumer think about how everyone's compensated, how their money is being spent and the value they're getting. And from that aspect, I think this is a really, really good thing because the brokers and agents in the marketplace who have doing this for a long time, or perhaps not for a long time, but are truly committed to this as a career. We're in good shape because we can bring our value to the table and consumers understand who they're hiring and how important that hiring decision is. Whereas I think for many years, and particularly in the lower price points, sometimes buyers and sellers simply make choices somewhat randomly, in some cases based on who happened to be in front of them at that time. So I think the transparency and the more committed decision making that consumers are making as a result of this can be a really good thing for those of us who are, who have made this a career and not just a sideline business. It's a good thing.
- [39:21]
Jack Miller
Yeah. Yeah. Stephen, how about you?
- [39:24]
Tammy Sims
So something that came to mind that I would like to leave the audience with is you don't fly your kite in the national weather. So every market, every city has its own scale, process, market trends, Right. So I think that if the consumer was ever curious or interested to know more, reach out to us. There's nothing that a realtor loves more than a, than a curious consumer who has questions, because we're ready for those questions. We typically have the answers for you. And if you haven't reached, if you haven't gotten anything from us, you know, we want you to be on our list so that we can send you out these informational pieces so that we can connect with you, because at the end of the day, we want to be there when you're ready to make that decision. The market applies so much pressure as is as a professional, I don't need to add any more pressure to your process. I want to be that guy for you. I want to take you through and navigate you as your captain, if you will, from beginning to end, and just be there when you're ready for it. So I think that would be my one little thing for the audience.
- [40:32]
Jack Miller
I think that is great. I think that's great. And we say it in the training. Nobody flies a kite in the national weather. I love it. So thank you all so much for joining us on this episode of A State of Mind, the Art of selling Luxury Real estate. If you're interested in learning more about the institute, you can find more@luxuryhomemarketing.com and if you like what you just heard, please share with a friend. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review this podcast. And if you've got a hot topic that you'd like us to discuss in a future podcast, Feel free to let us know. Send an email to infoxuryhomemarketing.com thanks so much for listening.