← Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Episode 864: The NAR Settlement Just Killed the Boring Buyer's Agent
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Most buyers, agents right now are sweating the paperwork. The new agreement, the disclosures, the compensation, just the conversation and all. Some haven't figured it out and it's been over a year now. And look, those things matter, but that's not the real problem. The real problem is the question that comes before all of it. The question every buyer is now allowed to ask out loud. Because the rules finally made it normal to ask, why should I work with you? It's coming up more often. And if your answer is still, I work really hard and I'll find you something great. Hey, you're already losing. This is your daily real estate. I'm Tristan and I think I do this almost daily. There are some days I miss here and there, so we do a replay. But two and a half years of this, pretty crazy. Let's get into this one. The NAR settlement changed something permanent about buyer representation. Buyers don't default to agents anymore, which is nice. They choose. I mean, they always had the choice, but officially they choose right. And choosing means comparing, at least comparing more than they did before. And when buyers compare, the agents without a clear identity can get skipped. Especially if they're comparing online and especially if they're comparing on AI. And I've talked to a lot of agents in lab coat agents about the settlement and all that and how it took effect and the effect it's had. The ones who are stressed are the generalists. In fact, the ones who are worried about how that's now affecting the world in real estate with AI and the settlement and then the MLS changes and everything that's changing. The ones that are worried are the generalists. The ones who are busy are the specialists. In fact, isn't that how AI works as well? Like when you focus in on a niche area and you show up more there, AI will reward you and show up more on ChatGPT and Gemini and Claude and in all AI outlets. And not because the market's easier for specialists, but because specialists are easier to choose. Think about it from the buyer side or even the seller side, you've got two agents in front of you. One of them has content that speaks directly to first time buyers in your price range. She walks you through the process, shows you what negotiations look like behind the scenes, posts a video every week about exactly what what you are scared of as it's speaking to you. The other agent's profile says, I'm here to help or I'm here to help you find your dream home. Who do you think they call? And here's the part a lot of agents are missing right now in the world that we're in, it's not about being famous. It's not about going viral. It's about being the obvious choice for one specific type of buyer in your market. That's it. So how do we build that? In fact, this is what we talked about yesterday in a live session I did for the local board here. How do we show up for that specific audience? How are we building this? You start with content. And not just any content. The question your content should answer every single week. And that's, well, what does it feel like to have me in your corner? First time buyer education. Neighborhood breakdowns. A real video showing what happens in a negotiation. A post about what you caught in an inspection that saved your client, whatever, thousands of dollars or hundreds. What kind of content doesn't need 10,000 views to work? It's this type of content. It needs to reach the right person at the right moment. You know, some of the agents that are succeeding with this only have like a couple hundred views on their videos. But guess what? It hits the right audience and the consistency is what makes that happen. Posting every week about buyer specific topics for 12 months, that's 52 videos. That's 52 pieces of content. Build more trust than one lucky viral video. Because the buyer who watches your third video trusts you way more than the one who stumbled onto a trending reel. But content only gets you halfway there. This next piece is where your brand actually gets built. Social proof. And I don't mean five star Google reviews. I mean, that helps, right? I mean specific testimonials that read like case studies. Here's what I tell agents to do after every closing. Don't just ask for a review. Ask your clients three questions. It could be two, it could be four. You come up with the questions, but for me, for us it's three. What did I do that surprised you? What would you have missed if I hadn't been there? What did the process feel like compared to what you expected? Now, those aren't typical questions that are asked. In fact, I don't know that I've ever had those questions asked. So we curated those over a few years. Those answers are your best marketing think about it. Where we ask those questions to get specific type of answers that then can show up better out there for others to find. We're on the emotional side. And if you want something even more powerful, give your clients a framework to work from. Something like, hey, Joe, before I worked with you, what were you worried about what was your number one worry or during the process, what was the thing that you think we helped you with the most? Right? And I think when you start framing questions like that so you can get those answers that you want, you dig deeper into their subconscious and then they start thinking, whoa, you know what? This is actually, Tristan did a great job. Or somebody on my team like Mark or Luis, they actually did, Damn, you guys did great. I do remember because also, clients don't go back to think, well, what was I thinking before? It just happens. And then they move on. Now that structure produces testimonials that actually convert buyers who are on the fence because it reads like a story, not a rating. And buyers trust stories. I mean, we all do right now. Here's the piece again. Most agents underestimate referral partners. The fastest path to steady buyer pipeline isn't more ads. It's being the agent that mortgage lenders, financial planners, divorce attorneys and relocation companies or anybody else that's a vendor sends their clients to. These professionals see the need that the buyers have before the buyer has even typed one address into Zillow or is looking on Zillow or Redfin. Oh, you don't pitch yourself to these people. You, you serve them first. You send something useful, you refer business to them, you add them to, like what I have my local Legends directory or like we're building. It's a GPT that has all of our preferred vendors, our local Legends in there. So people could just type in, hey, I'm missing, I need this person. Give me their information or call them for me. And the GPT already has it, right? Say, hey, I'm going to add you into that. You make them look good to their clients. And over time, you become the name they call without thinking about it, because you've built that. And one strong referral partner who sends you four or five buyers a year for 10 years. Think about that. That's worth more than anything you're paying for out there as far as an ad. And we've paid for a lot of ads, so I've seen this play out a lot. Not only in lab coat agents and with our coaching clients, but in our business. This specifically in relationships, remember, they compound ads don't trust on social media compounds, yes, over time, but you still have to show up consistently. Same with this relationship with vendors. So here's what I want you to do today. Write one sentence, just one. Who do you serve? That was a question we asked yesterday at the end of the class. And lots of people are like, ooh, we should have started with this. And I probably should have started with that here, too. But you know what? Who do you serve? And what makes you different as a buyer's agent? If you can't write that sentence in under a minute, you don't have a brand yet. In fact, it's not really clear. So how do you expect to show up better on social and on AI? And how do you expect people to find you? So I need you to work on that today. That's your homework. Then reach out to your last three clients and ask them one of those three questions. Obviously, these clients have to like you, right? Because you're starting this all over. And then ask the questions. One, two, all three. Depends on your relationship. And these aren't generic reviews. It's different. They're real questions, and you get real answers. That's the start of a testimonial library that works while you're sleeping. The agents who are going to own the buyer representation for the next decade aren't the ones who are best at paperwork. I don't know that it's ever been. In fact, they're the ones who made it obvious before the conversation even started why you'd be a fool to work with anyone else if this at home. Please share this with an agent. Share this with somebody you're coaching. Share this with other people that you think. Think may find this valuable. And hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next tomorrow. And like I said, we do these almost daily. Some of them are on repeat. But I'm only human for now, until we throw in AI. And if you need coaching, we've got a brilliant tribe for real estate, a brilliant tribe for AI. Love to see you there. I'm Tristan. See you tomorrow.