Digital Social Hour - Future of Real Estate I Ricky Carruth DSH #449

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

Ricky Carruth comes to the show to talk about the future of Real Estate APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Like right now, there's 650,000 houses for sale in the U.S., but we're higher than where we were the past couple of years. It's coming back up, but we're still so far away from where we really were. We're going to kind of be in the same boat because all this demand that's sitting there, they're all going to come out at the same time for agents and people that own properties as they watch prices go up or whatever. But if you're looking to buy a home, it's not going to be great. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. All right, guys. First guest from Alabama, Ricky Carew. Thanks for coming on, man. Oh, man. My pleasure.

Representing the state. Yeah. Bama, roll tide. Yeah. Actually, we just won the Sweet 16. We're in the Elite Eight. Oh, congrats. Yeah, last night. Other than college football, what are you guys known for? Basketball. Yeah.

Nah. I live on the beach, so people don't know we have beaches. I just asked that. Like, what are we known for like i i went i speak all over the country every week i'm at a different place speaking to agents and um i'll ask them like what do you what's the first thing you think of when you hear the word alabama you know and it's always football right no yeah football and um but like you know rednecks mud um but we're not really known for much because we don't have any professional sports, you know?

Right. We don't, we got much, but we've got some of the cheapest property taxes, some of the cheapest properties. Okay. And I live on the beach and it's beautiful. It's,

it's basically Florida. Born and raised there. So you've seen that appreciate a lot, I guess. Yeah. I mean, when I was growing up, there was no condos and now it's just a wall. Wow. Condos. Nice. So you've seen that appreciate a lot, I guess. Yeah. I mean, when I was growing up, there was no condos. Right.

And now it's just a wall of condos. Yeah. It's cool. And is that where you're buying properties at, Alabama? Why not? Like, if I were living in California, you know, I'd be screwed. Right. Because prices went up so much, the cash flow is not there.

I know guys in California, they don't buy where they are. They buy where I am. Yeah. Because of squatters too. Well, there's a lot of stuff in California. But where I'm at, property taxes are cheap, cash flow is good, the prices are good, and I know it. So I just buy stuff right around where I live. Nice. And it does well. That's cool. You know, so, and it's,

all the properties I buy are like 10 minutes from the beach. So it's got that beach allure, you know? So people are moving there. Yeah. Because they want to be close to the beach. We're building a $150 million high school. Damn. You know, it's a small town, dude.

Like Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, it's about 30,000 population. Wow. The whole town? The whole, both towns put together. Holy crap. Yeah. But we've got, yearly we have about 8 million visitors, which is more than Hawaii. That's the biggest ratio of residents to visitors I've ever heard of. Yeah. It's insane. And so like we have this huge second home market, which is, I was a real estate agent for 20 years and that's all I sold really was just Gulf front condos and stuff. And then I got into coaching agents and buying properties and stuff like that. Um, but yeah, it's, uh, it's a very small town and it's, it's growing. Um, but we're building $150 million high school and I just bought

three acres on a corner piece. That's literally like five miles from where million dollar high school and i just bought uh three acres on a corner piece that's literally like five miles from the where the new high school is going to be 10 minutes from the beach a mile from a new bridge they're fixing to build i'm fixing to build um apartments there so that's smart because you know what's being built so you know the value is going to go there's no apartments being built in gulf shores right this second it's growing like crazy they're about to build a high school a huge commercial uh like restaurants and condos and stuff literally a block from this property and nobody's building apartments there but there's a lot of single-family homes being built that are being rented out there are rental units being built i actually bought a bunch of those

last year a bunch of brand new single-family, DR Hortons that do well. But yeah, for me, it's fun because I'm like, everybody's like, oh, it's so rough. And I'm like, well, I'm buying stuff and cash flowing over here, you know? So I'm kind of spoiled being down there. That's a good, I guess that's,

I mean, like I got the beach and I got great investment properties. So, you know, I mean, there's something good to be had in alabama it's cool to see you investing in your own community too and giving back to your own community oh yeah yeah that's a big part of it too is uh like i know some of my renters you know nice um yeah it's a small town small town yeah yeah wow so you have no no plans on moving then you're gonna stay there stick it out dude we thought about like like I went to LA a month ago,

and I got so much done. I did like four podcasts and met all these people and did all this business. And I'm like, bro, if I was living out here, it'd be over. It sounds like LA for sure. I could do so much stuff. But we thought about it, like Miami or something like that. Um, we love New York, but, um, we just love it where we are. We thought about going, but, you know,

um, we'll do something, but like, I got a four-year-old daughter, you know, both of my wife and my parents live there, you know? So we got a really nice house. Like our house here would be like five mil. I bet, you know, we bought it for 1 house like our house here would be like five mil i bet you know we bought it for 1.1 before the pandemic it's worth like two now and that's a lot for bama yeah i bet yeah that's important place concrete it's it's on an acre it's in a gated community on a golf course 10 minutes from the beach um golf cart ride to like huge shopping centers and stuff that's awesome um like like as much as opportunity is out there, but like, you know, like social media

really kind of makes it such a small world where, yeah, I could go out there and do a bunch of stuff, but I could just fly into Vegas and do a bunch of stuff like this. I'm going to golf with Pineda right after this. And I had a bunch of meetings yesterday. So just, I'm always moving.

Yeah, it's the balance we play, right? Give up your house for a better area, like living in L.A., but then you'd have to live in an apartment and pay the same price as a house or go to Montana, go to Alabama, get a nice house. The cost of living and stuff, yeah. I mean, that's one thing. I don't know, man. People make decisions.

I've never really moved around. I have friends that live in a different place every year you know um whatever you know yeah i think vegas is decent because it's a little pricey but you got vegas it's not as bad it's not as bad as cali yeah and i know a lot of people that came here from cali and they're like, oh man, this is like a dream come true, you know, as far as prices and stuff. So I don't know. I like, honestly, it's almost, I almost kind of like my lifestyle where like I can come in, do things like this, you know, have some meetings, see everybody, breathe the air out here and then go back home, you know? So what would your advice to me be? I'm looking to buy my first house probably later this year. What are you buying it for?

What do you want to buy a house for? A personal house to live in. To live in, yeah. You think it's a good. I'd probably do it now. Right now? Yeah.

Yeah, because, um, inventory is building, um, you know, which that's good, but like,

there's still a lot of pockets in the country that are getting multiple offers on properties, pockets. Like the demand is there big time. Like there's a lot of people that want to sell but can't because of interest rates. And that group is growing like crazy. And then there's a lot of – there's way more first-time homebuyers than we've seen since the baby boomers.

Wow. Yeah. Just the amount of 33-year-olds. If you look at the birth rates, you know, in the 90s, it just spiked. And like those people are in their mid-30s now. Well, that's when people buy homes.

So you've got first-time homebuyers like this massive wave. And then you've got the trade-up sellers who have, they hate their home more and more. Like there's a huge group of them that need an extra bedroom or they'd love to be on the water or whatever. massive wave. And then you've got the trade up sellers who have, they hate their home more and more. Like there's a huge group of them that need an extra bedroom or they'd love to be on the water or whatever. They can't sell because interest rates. So like there's all these people that want to buy and sell,

but they really can't. And when interest rates come down, it's going to be, you know, and, and like right now there's 650,000 houses for sale in the U S pre pandemic. It was like one sale in the U.S. Pre-pandemic, it was like 1 to 1.1. So we're like half of where we were. But we're higher than where we were the past couple years. So it went down to like in the threes, 300,000. And then it's crapped back up the past couple years.

And now it's coming back up, but we're still so far away from where we really were, which was kind of low itself um and so when they start lowering rates if they if they start lowering rates you know we're already got already got multiple offers happening it's just going to become more widespread we're going to kind of be in the same boat because all this demand that's sitting there you know they're all going to come out at the same time and um and that's going to reduce you know inventory again it's like for me i would i would much rather than wait till inventory actually got back up to at least pre-pandemic levels like 1.1 to 1.1 before they started lowering rates i mean you know that's what i i mean as an agent it's like you're

fixing to make a lot of money. Because when they lower rates, it's going to be a surge. And there's more inventory than there has been for the past couple years. So there's going to be a lot of transactions happening. So it's going to be great for agents and people that own properties as they watch prices go up or whatever. But if you're looking to buy a home, it's not going to be great. It'll be competitive. Yeah, it'll be competitive

and prices will be higher. And, you know, it's just right now you actually have a moment where there's this window between now and when they start lowering rates where you can kind of negotiate or, you know, pick and choose a house. Right.

And I'm looking to do actually seller financing. You're looking to make an offer for them to finance the house? Because I don't think I'd be able to get the loan I want through a bank. Why not? Because I want an expensive house and all my money's in crypto. Oh. Have you done any seller financing before?

Yeah. What do you think of that? It's fine. It's no different than the bank. I mean, they're just the bank, you know? Um, the cool thing is, is it's not as regulated as the bank and you can, um, negotiate a little better with the rate and down payment. And, you know, there's a little more flexibility. It's actually, it's actually better if you can find a seller that will do it. That's what I was thinking too. And work with you on it. Yeah. But finding the seller that will do it really narrows your pool a lot. Okay.

Yeah. That's good to know. You know, so you're going to have to work a lot harder to find something. I was just looking into that because of Pace Morby, honestly, because he does seller financing subject to, and it just seemed interesting to me. Yeah, but look at what those guys do, though. They sit on the phone

all day right trying to find somebody that will do that yeah i don't want to be doing i mean could you i mean i mean could you imagine like um trying to find somebody that would sign their deed over to you without telling the mortgage company basically that's what subject two is i mean like how how many people do you got to go through to find somebody that would actually do that probably a thousand and then how long do you have have to work to try to talk them into actually moving forward with it after you introduce them to the idea? Right. It is a tough sell. That is a tough sell, dude.

And then seller financing is a lot easier. But, I mean, most people want their money. Or they're like, well, what do you need me to be the bank for? You can't get it from the bank, so something's wrong with you. It's harder. It's not as hard as Subject 2, but you just got to be patient. But I would be doing it now. Okay, I'm going to start looking when I get home.

I would start looking. I wouldn't wait. I love it. No, I wouldn't wait, dude, because later on when there's a lot of competition, the amount of people that will actually sell our finance is going to go way down because if they have multiple offers, you're just selling financing and the other one's cash or the other one's through a bank that's pre-approved or whatever. Yeah. You know, even if your offer's more, you know, there could, there might be a chance that they're, they're

probably, they might go with another offer. Yeah. And these other offers are going to be high too. Yeah. I remember when I, this is what I, this is, I'm speculating no i know i know when i first moved to vegas right during the pandemic if you weren't offering 50 to 100k over their asking place you weren't even getting oh yeah or there's a lot of them that were even more yeah so i i'm familiar with what you're saying because i've already seen it happen and i can see it happening again i don't i don't think i don't see it being like it was in 2021, right? Where it was just like crazy. I think we'll see deals like that, but not like every deal will be like that. But I do think we'll definitely have a moment

where it's like there's a lot of buyers, a lot of multiple offers. I don't know, man. I think we'll see it because crypto is coming back strong right now. Crypto is doing well. Yeah. I just wish that – I honestly just wish that they would not lower rates. You don't want them to lower rates?

Really? No, because it's just going to create the same scenario we were just in. So think about this. When they lower rates and all this demand gets released into the market, multiple offers everywhere, right? That's going to cause prices to go up. Inventory is going to come down. What is that the definition of?

It's inflation. So like, I just don't think it's time. I think they lower rates and we're going to get another round of inflation. I mean, that's just what I think. Okay, so you want it to hold steady for the next... I would love for it to stay the same for like six months and then let's look at it.

Okay. Okay, and then let's wait another six months and then let's look at it. Okay. Okay. And then let's wait another six months and then let's look at it and make a decision. It's like I feel like all this projecting and trying to say what we might do in a couple months and stuff. It's like we're not there. I don't think we're there. I think it would be a mistake, honestly. That is an interesting take because I feel like most people want it lowered.

They want it lower, but why? Because they think they're gonna get more deals right basically how why why would they get more deals you mean for housing yeah dude there's gonna be buyers everywhere how are you gonna get a deal you're gonna be competing right that's something people don't think about i mean what why what what's their methodology behind rates being lower to get a deal? Like there's going to be more inventory? Yeah. Okay. It makes sense because –

What about the buyers are going to buy up the inventory? You know? Like so when rates come down enough to where the trade-up seller decides, okay, we're going to sell the house and go get a bigger house, right? When they do that, they put one on the market, which adds one to active inventory, right? But then they buy one. So they take one away from active inventory. So it's a net even, okay? Like that seller added one, great. But they also took one off. So we're even. We didn't gain any. And then the first time homebuyer comes along that's

renting now or living with mom or dad, and then they take one off the market. They go buy one. Well, they didn't add one to the market. So that was a net negative for inventory, right? So we're going to have a big churn of, like, transactions because, you know, the trade-up sellers and the first-time homebuyers, stuff like that. But inventory is going to go down, and there's going to be a lot of competition. And like I said, dude, right now we're half of where we were pre-pandemic in terms of inventory, half.

And so we're going to go into a market where we have half the inventory and all this pent-up demand and start lowering rates. Get ready. It's going to be madness. We're a disaster. I mean, in my opinion,

I'll make a lot of money, whatever. But, you know, and agents will make a lot of money. There'll be a lot of transactions, and it'll be great. But it'll be bad. And homeowners will be sitting there saying, oh, my house went up 5%, 10% or whatever. But people that are looking to buy a home this year, that's not going to be good. And that's what I'm worried about, right? Because when that imbalance is out between and the buyers kind of have a disadvantage,

I just think they should wait till like, I'd love to see inventory get back to where it was at least pre-pandemic. That'd be amazing, right? Because if we, you know, because then if they lower it and we have a frenzy, well, we got a bunch of inventory. If we crush inventory,

then we like get all these buyers through the system and then we still got inventory left. Versus right now we get all these buyers through the system, and then we still got inventory left. Versus right now, we bring these buyers through the system, we're going to go right back down to 300,000, 400,000 units per sale. I didn't know only half the inventory was listed compared to pre-pandemic. That's a big decrease. Yeah, and it was lower. It was half where it is now. Wow, it went down to three in the three hundreds, like 350,000 and then 400 and 500 and now 650. Is that because they raised the interest rates so high that people just weren't even listing their homes? Yeah, exactly. Um, so, so no, no, no. It, what it was is, is that when they, they reduced the rates, right, when they reduce the rates down to zero

and you can get a mortgage for literally 2.7%, it made everybody go buy a home. So that rush of people who went out and bought a home to take advantage of those historically low mortgage rates, right, like everybody in the country bought a house. And if they didn't buy a house, they refinanced their house at the low rate, okay? So what happened was everybody now reset their rates at the two or three or under 4%, okay? So then when they started raising rates, that locked everybody in. It was like, I'm not going to sell my three percent rate and go buy something at

a six or a seven or a five and a half i've got a three percent rate at three and a half percent rate so that's the golden handcuffs that everybody talks about it wasn't because they raised rates it's because they lowered rates and then raised rates right it's like they lowered them locked everybody in and then raised them and now everybody's like, well, what do I do? And that's what crushed inventory. So this NAR settlement, what exactly happened there? Could you explain what went down? So the basis of the suit is that, how can I say this in layman's terms? Because so many people, like there's so many, like the general public, like there's so many misconceptions about this. When you go to sell a house,

the way that it's been is that you sign a listing and it's like five or 6%, let's just say, for example. And normally like the buyer agent gets half of that. Well, the problem, the reason that they brought the suit up was because the lawyers came in and said, wait a minute, that breaks antitrust laws, the Sherman Antitrust Act. And basically saying that the buyer, okay, the buyer can't, isn't, they're not able to negotiate their agent's commissions because it's already figured into the deal. The listing agent and the seller basically negotiated what the buyer agent is going to get, which ultimately is what the buyer should be paying. Right? Yeah. You follow? Yeah. Like it's already figured in. And so,

but the reason all this happened was because back like 40 years ago, 50, 60 years ago, there were tons of lawsuits, right? Because buyers, they were getting ripped off because they were basically getting unrepresented, right? They were just going straight to a listing agent and listing agents represent the seller. Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? We'll click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below, and here's the episode, guys. agent. I'm saying the buyer didn't have their own agent looking out for them. In that world, 40, 50 years ago, the buyer was unrepresented. They didn't have an agent. They just went

straight to the listing agent. Why is that? Well, because they didn't want to pay for their own representation, so they go straight to the listing agent who's looking out for the seller. So now, me as a buyer, I'm going to you. You're looking out for the seller. So now me as a buyer, I'm going to you who are looking, you're looking out for the seller's best interest, right? But I'm dealing with you. You're not looking out for my best interest. You're looking out for the seller's best interest. So what happened was, is because they're looking after the seller's best interest, there was a lot of, the buyers felt like they got ripped off in certain situations, you know, on price or inspections, or there was something wrong with the foundation or whatever. So all these lawsuits were popping up, you know, these little lawsuits, you know, on price or inspections, or there was something wrong with the foundation or whatever. So all these lawsuits were, were popping up, you know,

these little lawsuits, you know, the, the buyer suing the seller or whatever. Um, and so, you know, the national association of realtors, you know, they were, they were, they came along long before all this, but they, but they eventually, because of that implemented this, this rule, clear compensation rule where, you know, here's MLS, right? Here's a central network where agents can advertise their listings to each other privately so that you know everything all these other agents have for sale and you can help them sell them. And to be a part of this and to be able to put your listings in there, you got to at least offer a dollar. You got to offer something to the buyer agent.

And we have this field. This is buyer agent commissions. And this is what you're going to pay the buyer agent if they, in fact, bring a buyer that closes on the property. So they put that in place so that the buyers would have representation, so that buyers could have representation without having to come out of their pocket. And that way, every buyer would have representation, their own representation, looking out for them on every deal. So, but now we're basically forcing sellers to pay the buyer's commission. Okay? And so this happened like 30, 40 years ago. This came into play.

So this has been brewing for a long, long time. And it's finally come to a head. And so basically, here's the like, just one sentence overview, right? The way that we're operating, the way that we've been operating does break the law.

The Sherman Antitrust Act, it does. Because like, we're basically forcing the seller to pay buyer agent commission. That breaks the antitrust law, period. But the catch-22 is that the system that we have in place right now is best for consumers. And so that's the catch-22 of this whole thing, right? Because it gives buyers representation every time of their choice. Whereas when you take that away, which is what they're in the middle of doing, now the buyers are going to have to come out of pocket.

They're going to say, no, I'll go straight to the listing agent. And we're going to go through this whole cycle over again, where now the buyers are going to be dealing with somebody who is looking out for the seller and isn't looking out for their best interest. And when a buyer comes to a listing agent as an unrepresented buyer, the listing agents are going to say, I'm advising you to go get your own representation. If you don't want to do that, that's fine. But I need you to know I'm looking out for the seller. And I'm trying to get them as much money as possible and get them the best deal possible. I can't consult or advise you.

I can write the contract for you for this much. Here's my fee for that. And sign this, saying that you realize that I'm looking out for the seller. You're unrepresented. I'll write the contract if you want, or you can write your own contract and send it to me, whatever. But I'm looking out for the seller. That's the world we're moving towards. And if the buyer wants their own representation, they'll either A, have to pay for it, pay the buyer agent for representation, or they can put in the offer for the seller to pay.

Like the DOJ and the plaintiffs and the class action lawyers, they're not saying that they don't want the seller. They don't care if the seller pays the buyer agent commission. They're saying they don't want them to be forced into doing it every single time, which is what has been happening. Got it. Right? So they're going to take the buyer agent commission field out of MLS.

That's what they're proposing. Wow. Yeah. That's a big change. Or you can't put it in there. It's going to be a big change. to pay it, you know, if you want to, but they just want to like more clarity and more transparency around like, you don't have to, right. And we're not going to make you. And so that's really what it all, all comes down to, man. It's like, we're going into a world where as a buyer, you're,

they're going to have to like, go, go get an agent, sign a piece of paper saying you're going to pay them this much. They might, agents might start taking retainers and, but you can go straight to the listing agent. Now, what's interesting is that right now we're at an all time high with the amount of information consumers have, buyers and sellers, right? So like a buyer looks on Zillow, a buyer does their research or whatever. They literally know more about the house and stuff than, than agents do because they're zeroing in on that house or that subdivision where we're kind of like, we're looking at the whole market. We've got a bunch of buyers. They've went really deep with this one property. They know all the past sales and history and owner's name. They know everything, right? So we're at an all time high with the amount of information consumers have, buyers and sellers. But guess what? We're

else at all time high at the amount of people who choose, it's their choice, to use a real estate agent. It's like, you know, a lot of people are like, well, what do we need agents for? We got Zillow, we got this, we got that, we got all this stuff. Well, that goes against data. We have more information now, but we're also at an all-time high with the percentage of buyers and sellers who choose by their own choice to use an agent. Why is that? They got all the information. Why can't they just do it on their own? It's their choice. They don't have to use an agent. They can just sell by owner, buy by owner. They can do whatever they want to do. Well, with all this information, it kind of creates confusion because it's so much. It's almost Chinese at that point, right?

You almost don't even know, like, what am I looking at? This is a lot of stuff. And it actually confuses them even more is what I'm thinking. And it causes them to say, like, this is way over my head. I can see that. There's also, like, fees and stuff you got to worry about. Yeah. Oh, they don't know.

That's the thing. Like, so I had a for sale by owner. I sold this guy's property a long time ago. We're like great friends. He called me and he's like, well, I'm going to buy this other condo. I was like, go do it. And then he called me a month later. He's like, we're buying it by owner and we're selling ours by owner.

I'm like, awesome. Cool. I don't care. he's like we got an offer and yeah i want to run run the scenario past you or whatever i'm like okay see now we're venturing into what agents do see like we don't just people think we just open doors and turn on the lights and find buyers no that you can do all that on your own, and it's easy to do. Where our value is, is making sure that you get the best deal possible, right, and consulting you through that deal. So he calls me, and he's like, here's the deal on this contract.

I'm like, wait a minute, man. I was like, I get you're trying to save money and everything, but, you know, this is what you need an agent for. Like, you're wanting to sell by owner, and you're trying to save money and everything but you know this is what you need an agent for like you're wanting to sell by owner and you want to save money on the commission but now here comes the contract now what are you going to do he's just like a fish out of water you don't know what what to do with it right and I'm like this is this is what I make my money this is my money this is the money call right here when we get the offer knowing exactly how to handle it it was a really weird deal exactly how to handle it what to do next what the steps When we get the offer, knowing exactly how to handle it, it was a really weird deal, exactly how to handle it, what to do next, what the steps are to get the deal done smoothly in your best interest. That's what you have an agent for. It's like a lawyer. It's like going

to court. I can walk in a courtroom. I can get the ticket, speeding ticket. I can go to go in the courtroom. I'm not going to go in there without a lawyer right i think what'll happen sean is since buyers right now show a customer not paying commission out of their pocket it's figured into the deal when this goes down and and they're told you have to pay us now they're gonna say i don't need you right that's what they're gonna say and and then they're gonna go and go straight to the listing agent and buy homes. And in the beginning, I think it's going to be a lot of buyers that do that, right? And then I think over time, like two, three years down the road, we're going to see that stat reverse. Like say 80% of the buyers say, I'm just going to go buy straight from the listing agent. 20% still pay their agent or

whatever. I think that stat will reverse. It'll be 80% of people who pay for agents, the buyers, because what's going to happen is they're going to go out there and do it on their own and realize, oh, right. They're going to get into these situations. Now, a lot of people go and they buy straight from listing agent. I talk to them all the time. They're like, oh, I do it all. I do it all the time. I don't need a, and I'm like, great. You know, there is a good 10% of people who do that. But here's the thing. You may do all right on this deal and the next deal or whatever, but you're going to run into a situation where something happens, right? And you're going to wish to God that you would have had an agent. Then another part of it is, is like when a seller sells for 6% and gives three to the buyer's agent, what they're doing is they're going to reduce that to 3%.

They're going to say, we're not paying the buyer's agent anymore. We're just going to pay 3%. We're going to list it for 3%. And so the seller saves that 3%, right? But then when they sell the house, what are they going to do then? They're going to go buy a house. So now they either got to pay an agent, right? So they save the 3%, but now they're going to have to probably pay

whatever they negotiate, or they can go straight to the listing agent and not be represented, right? But it's like, I could go on and on about it, but when you sell, like the plaintiffs, it was hilarious in court, the stuff that they were saying. Like this one lady, she was like,

I sold four houses and I bought five. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. You're ahead because you paid, you bought one and you sold four, but you bought five. So you paid four commissions for the sell side and then four commissions for the buy side, right? And that's four you sold, but then you bought five and didn't pay anything. So you got one for free, right? And then she was like, I'm doing this for my kids. They're coming to the age where they're going to start buying homes. And if I can do something for them, then by golly, I'm going to do it. And I was like, wait a minute. Do you understand what you're doing though? Because now

they're coming to the age where they're going to, though? Because now they're coming to the age where they're going to buy homes, so now they're going to be first-time homebuyers. When they do that, you're putting you, being on the stand and being a plaintiff for this case, are putting your kids in a position where they're going to have to pay out of their pocket for an agent or go unrepresented

as a first-time homebuyer. And the first-time homebuyers, that's who's really going to get screwed here. Yeah, because they don't know how to buy a home. They don't know, man. And they're going to be really like a fish out of water because they don't know how to buy, and they're not going to realize how much they need an agent.

So they're going to try to do it on their own, and it's going to be a mess. Wow. They need to figure out a fix for this, then. Dude, the lawyers don't care. They just want money. They just want the money millions they're making hundreds of millions on this damn dude um nar just settled for uh 438 million whole remax settled for 55 million uh kelly williams settled for 70 something million anywhere settled for million. Compass just settled for like 57

million. They're going off. They're not done. There's all these brokerages still in the suit that have to settle out. They have to settle out. Because the thing is, is they lost for five point something billion dollars, which nobody has. Nobody in the industry has that money. You can't even appeal it because you have to put the money up. Yeah. So everyone's just settling up. But you know what? Home Services of America, I believe it's Warren Buffett that has it. So he

has the money. Oh, so he's fighting it? Well, he's still in it. He's the one left in the Missouri case that's still in there. Home Services of America hasn't done anything. It's Warren Buffett. The brokerage doesn't have that money, but he's got the money. It'd be interesting to see kind of what he does.

But yeah, the lawyers don't. They're just like, they found a loophole in this thing. They're like, here we go. We're about to get us a payday. And we don't care what the aftermath is for first-time homebuyers or whatever. So it's kind of a weird thing, man, because like, yeah, we were breaking some laws there unintentionally for the betterment of society. Yeah.

But the way it was set up was best for consumers. Dang. That's crazy. Ricky, that's been an interesting story, man. Anything you want to close off with or promote? We talked for 20 minutes about that. Yeah. Nah, man. Appreciate everything you do. Um,

nah, dude, I'm, I'm just out here. I, uh, I'm coaching agents more than anything and just buying as much real estate as I can and, uh, running teams and, um, traveling and speaking and just hanging out with the fam. And, um, I, uh, I've really come into a place where like I've always – like I got in in 2002. I was 20. Made a meal real quick and lost it all in the crash. And I was bankrupt, homeless, sleeping in my car, people's refrigerators and stuff, and went back to roofing houses and everything. And so I came back and became one of the top agents in the country. I was the number one Remax agent in Alabama and stuff like that. And now things are going so well um this is this is a couple months ago i catch myself like

looking around like okay where's the hammer gonna drop from because back in 08 it came out of nowhere right and so i have ptsd from that and so i'm like looking around like what's gonna happen now so that anxiety that money anxiety had me getting up, you know, just like if I was a teenager, like trying to make it, even though I've made it, I'm like getting up at five o'clock, going and working out like a Navy SEAL, coming home and like just grinding away on my computer. Why? It's because I'm worried about I'm going to lose everything I got if I don't keep pushing out content and making these calls and coming up with these things and doing Zoom calls and answering DMs and doing all this stuff. And I finally got to a point where

I realized, wait a minute, like I've got PTSD from this and I have money anxiety and I am worried. And so I had to take a step back, man. And like back in 08, I read a hundred books. Those hundred books got me where I'm at. Wow. But I didn't read anything since. So I just kind of plateaued on like personal development, right? Because like I'd learned all this stuff and I'm crushing it. So I'm just going to keep crushing it. Well, if you keep doing same old stuff, you're going to get the same old stuff.

Yeah. And so I had to take a step back and be like, you know what? I do have a problem here. So like the past 60, 90 days, it's been a real transformation for me. Uh, I read every morning. I don't work till about noon. I spend an hour with my daughter. I go to the gym late morning. I don't get up early. I'm sleeping more. Um, and I'm making more money, believe it or not. And I'm not worried at all. So that figured I'd throw that in there just for what it's worth for anybody listening

that might be going through some kind of money anxiety or something like that because it was a big thing for me. But now, dude, that's just like, oh, I can breathe. I feel happy. I'm not worried. You know, I had to kind of take a step back and look at the big picture. I love it, man. That's important.

Thanks so much for coming on. Yeah. Pleasure, bro. Yeah. Thanks for watching for coming on. Yeah. Pleasure, bro. Yeah. Thanks for watching, guys, as always. See you next time.