This next presenter is been a friend of mine for a long time. Someone is he's one of those guys that I'll call and say I've got a crazy idea and I need someone who's really smart who really understands the industry to give me no BS insight and that is Jack Miller Who's the CEO of a company called T360? You would know them because they're the ones that publish. You know everything from the trends report every year to the hey. here's everything you need to know what's happening with lawsuits to.

They are one of the go-to consulting firms. every CEO around the world in real estate knows if you got a project and you need help the have the danger report If you need help T360 is to go two play. So to finish it off today I said Jack would you spend just a couple minutes and give us some insight on what agents need to know like I don't want to I no fear-mongering just insight into what's happening with the lawsuits. Should they care or should they just keep selling houses and take action like all the things we talked about today.

so je thanks so much for joining and kind of finishing off this Workshop today um give us some insight on this you bet. Yeah, and and I just want to say Chrissy absolutely crushed it I've watched a lot of people training on this issue and she's fantastic. So I'm going to tell you some things and then part of what you should do as your homework is go rewatch her presentation because right, many of many of the things I have to say Tom Uh, end up going back to kind of some core fundamentals that Christy was teaching about knowing your value, expressing it uh, selling, selling your services, making sure your clients really understand the value you bring in being involved in transaction because so much of this so much of this industry is confidence in the value that you bring. which you do bring value I Feel like this is an industry from whatever reason we got a lot of people that don't fully value their time and and I've got an exercise I'm going to recommend for uh people on this call to do if they're not sure how to Value themselves I can tell you exactly how to get that done.

So as far as the lawsuits are concerned, ER and I'm going to. here's the Strategic picture and you know I Also have I've got about 50 slides on this thing. We can spend a lot of time on it. but I I Will sum up kind of where we are with lawsuits right now: this, uh, this morning.

uh at Realestate News.com which is our sister Media company. uh they just pinged me and said hey, there's a 20th copycat lawsuit being filed right now. Uh, we have. We have lawsuits filed in I'll just read through the states Missouri Illinois uh m Massachusetts South Carolina uh New York Texas Georgia Pennsylvania Florida California Ohio Maryland Arizona Nevada If you don't have one of these in your state, you will soon and the the the issue is and you asked a very important question, do do we as agents you know? do we just keep keep going and just not pay attention to the noise? uh or you know like what do we? what do we do with this Yeah and what I will tell you is number one Uh, your client is seeing information about these lawsuits in the news so the reason to stay appraised to what's going on is because this is going into the ears and into the visual oculory system of the consumer and they are thinking about it and you are going to be.

If you haven't already, you probably will be sitting across the table from somebody who's going to say something to the effect of I See, your industry is being sued by all these people and it's related to compensation. What's up with that? So you need to be prepared and I'll Echo What? Christy said You need to roleplay both your buyer and your seller presentations in answering those kinds of objections and questions because if you haven't had it already, they will come up. Tom I'm on a lot of Facebook groups I monitor a lot of stuff just like you. You and I are just hounds for this industry and I've already seen people for months now posting like hey, I Went into this appointment they asked me about this or you know.

Oh I'm showing homes that are now showing in $1 commission or no commission A number of Mls's have changed their technical rules and now allowing zero dollar to be put in there and I talked to a seller that said hey, I I understand I don't have to pay for the buyer side anymore. You know what's up with that. So so you need to be prepared to explain your value both as a buyer agent and on the sell side. Tom Jump in here.

Go and Jack It's so so I have a really good friend of mine who you know Tom Tul who's an extraordinary agent um and so he he and I have a Google doc and I'm going to share it with all of you that are watching. We we started publishing call it the three most common objections you're going to get from buyers. Hey I keep hearing about these lawsuits and and you know it's very simple. it's and I'm not going to give you all the answers now but it literally is like so Jack tell me what you've read right because sometimes they're just saying it because they want to say it right and we we don't want to start defending something that doesn't need to be defended right? So we need to just ask and find out what they're thinking.

We've got the same thing on the cell side, but one of the things we just added in recently is remember like Dos and don'ts it, you have to know your own State rules but in many cases like for him in: Pennsylvania If they don't sign a buyer brokerage agreement and they just walk in cold, they're accepting whatever. the co-op agreement is correct. so if it says a dollar or zero, they're accepting that. So you've got to know what your state is doing, what the rules are.

and that's why the fire agency presentation so important. I I would So Thomas You know our consultancy. We're about 40 people. We do a lot of work with brokerages and big teams and associations.

Andes We've been called into some states to look at their rules and look at their agency law and how it's being interpreted and what I can tell you is. Almost everybody in the industry right now needs to go back to school on agency in their state and it varies from state to state. You have some states that assume you're in a transaction brokerage status. you have some states that assume you're in an agency status all but and it needs to be interpreted specific to your state.

So if you're on this call and you're un like you're like I'm not sure what status I'm in. If I don't have a signed agreement, you need to go talk to your broker. You need to go make sure you understand exactly where you are today if you have nothing signed and then if you do sign something, you need to make sure that you're working with agreements that have been promulgated through your broker through the broker's attorneys. Because almost everybody right now Tom is touching both their buyer brokerage agreements as well as their listing agreements to cover off this situation where the compensation is not clear and so if you haven't looked at those and I'm telling you, we've looked at probably 40 brokerages at this point.

More than half of them were using custom agreements. Most of them were crummy and needed to be Revisited They they had confusing terms, they had loopholes. They had things in there that would really leave you as an agent. uh, you know, potentially out to dry.

So this is something where you got to button down and I know nobody's excited about going and scrutinizing their their agreements. But it's important right now to go. Do it. And if you're in leadership, you need to go.

Do it. That's been a lot of our work has been working with leadership and broker owners on making sure their materials are up to date and working well. This is one of the reasons why I wanted you on this show. I Mean you know here we are.

We're talking about listing attraction. We're talking about rates dropping. We're talking about the buyer demand. and and yet if we didn't bring this up.

I Don't think we'd be doing our part right. Correct People need to understand. Now is the time that you need to. You know what's the old line? Cross all the do all the eyes and make sure that all of your Agreements are right for today's market.

For today's market, it is so important my friends. I don't care if you're in Beverly Hills or if you're in you know Tuscaloosa you have got to get it right because I have heard some people say to me Jack this seems to be more of a coastal thing I'm not hearing it as much in the middle of the country and my response is hey, by mid 2024, right? This might even become something that we talk about in the news of you know the election cycle like this is a real estate. the GDP of the US it's like 17 18% of the entire GDP it is a big part of the deal so thank you. There's a few more comments, a few more comments.

Yeah yeah so a um this is coming to everywhere because you are going to see. We've said we're at 20 since the SE Since the October decision in Czor Berett, there have been 16 cases filed. We're seeing them filed at a rate of about two a week. and so it's every every state is going to end up going to the Woodshed there's going to be a suit.

Uh, if you're with a a large firm, you're almost certainly be named. But almost all even we're seeing small companies getting named in these things. And it's because all these attorneys are trying to get paperwork in so that they can claim a chunk of the attorney's fees for them, right? So you're going to see that. So there's a massive incentive for these copycat lawsuits, so you're going to see it.

Uh, now is the time? Exactly what you said. Button everything down, make sure it's tight. This is not business as usual. You can't And the other point I'll make is you cannot just and I've heard this for the last two years.

I've had leaders at large organizations tell me, oh, it's going to be yours in appeal and N's going to fight and none of that matters at all. None of it matters at all because consumers are seeing it in the news and they're going to ask questions and people are changing practices and you want to be on the front side of this, not the back side of this. So the per the point I'm making is take action now because otherwise you're going to be chasing it. and you don't want to be chasing this thing.

You want to be on the front side of it. and again, Christe's presentation. There's some other great coaches out there that I've seen phenomenal presentations brush up on your agency, go after that and I want to also leave the group with with some other future. Just a little bit of future thinking here, thank you.

So we're in conversations with a number of companies. There is talk of like what does a settlement look like right and there is some pressure to like how do we settle out of these and it's a it's a longer conversation that we want to have fit for this group particularly. But there is some discussion about settlement and it's generally accepted speculation that any settlement if there was a global sett settlement done by N by a group of Brokers that got together and said hey, we're going to settle all these as a singular class action which is how these things resolve some of the terms. There's going to be financial terms to that settlement, which again, I could talk a lot about those, but we're not going to get into that today.

But there's business terms of that settlement and Tom one of the business terms of that settlement that is almost certainly going to be in there like almost certainly going to be in there is that the buyer broker compensation field as a standalone field that has a percentage in it or a dollar amount in it comes out of the MLS That is like everybody that we're talking to, all the attorneys, everybody they're saying look, that's coming out There may be another field that says seller concessions that may have like oh, we'll concede X doll X whatever but I'm just saying if you are looking down the road and saying how does this eventually end up, it likely ends up with that buyer compensation field being either removed or significantly changeed to more of a seller concession type field where your compensation on the buy side is not guaranteed. So that's the whole point. Now, it's not guaranteed right now, an individual seller could put zero in there. but imagine if the field is gone.

So my point is, get on the front side of this. Go watch Chrissy's presentation again. Go get your agency laws well understood, talk to your broker, talk to your peers in your Market and get get everything papered and and cleaned up and make sure you're going into every client relationship. Uh, where your hours are are minded, your time is respected and valued.

Jack You are so on point and I'm watching I'm listening to you intently and I'm watching the comments. And here's what's great. We don't have to in the US look too far, just look at the state of Washington I was in Seattle yesterday they started doing this last year. Yeah, has already made the change you can't like It was literally I was talking to Lennox Scott who you know and he said very well Basically the MLS rules just said hey, you have two weeks and in two weeks you can't write a contract without a buyer brokerage agreement So for about two weeks every like this and then they went.

Oh okay and then everybody got work. Listen, this is for this group and I know your group. Tom For this group, you need to look at this opportunistically. If you master this and some of you already great at it, keep being great.

But mastering this now puts you in an area where you're going to make a lot more money. You're going to be the professional in your markets if you're running a team, if you're running a brokerage, you're going to be able to recruit people and say look, we're professionals here. we work like CPAs and attorneys we get agreements signed up front. We're really good at selling our value proposition.

People understand all the things we do for them and and there's some great tools come to Market to help you track your time and do things like that. The last piece I'll leave the group with which will reinforce on Christe's presentation is if if you want to know what your time is worth, you want to know what your time in real estate is worth the way to do it. There's a simple calculation to give because people go I don't know and this for me is like if you need to get amped up about getting this done and selling your clients, go take your income from last year right? Or the last two years the last three years. Pick a period of time right and then take your full-time working hours which is about 2,000 hours people working a year.

Some of you work 2400 hours Tom You work like 3,000 hours I work like 3,000 hours. But take your working hours right. Slice off half of those for business development. Most you spend half your time in business development.

So take a th000 hours. If it's a 2,000 you know 2,000 working hours in a year. Take 1,000 hours, take what you at your actual take-home divided by a th that's your hourly rate. That's what your time is worth.

And then go see well, how many deals that I do in those years and you can get to your you're probably spending between 50 and 150 hours per transaction with your clients and start thinking of yourself in that way because if you think yourself, you go. Wow. I'm I'm a $300 an hour person. I'm a $350 an hour person.

Now imagine yourself as a as a well-compensated attorney, uh, accountant engineer. You're meeting with a client for the first time and you're you're a 300 400. Some some people on this call are seven or $800 people an hour. $800 an hour people, right? You would never start working with a client without something written up front without an understanding of the value of your time.

So so take that exercise, take what Christy gave you and take this motivation and go back. And and you know, let let's let's take the market. Let's be the Professionals of everybody here. I Know you're professionals and this is just owning it, claiming it and doing it.

That's all it is I Love it man! What a perfect way to finish. Jack Thank you so much and by the way everybody. uh so I'm a little sick today Jack was going to drive up from Austin we were do a podcast. we're gonna do it next week so we're gonna go deep on this because somebody was like leave Jack on for another hour, right? We've already gone way over more.

I've got a lot more cont you guys I've got a lot more content to you guys next week so we'll we'll dig in, we'll dig in, we got more. Yeah, you'll all. You'll all see that on my podcast and so Jack thank you so much man! I really really appreciate you always. And if you're a broker owner out there and you're like we're confused, we don't know what to do.

You need to reach out to T360 today, go to their website, book a consultation like they are the go-to source for all of this stuff and so much more. Hey I want to get better technology I Want to train my agents better all this stuff. So Jack kudos to you guys, thank you so much! You guys are a blessing to the industry All right! So I'm gonna wrap it up with you guys I'm going to remind you of a couple things. Thank you Jack As we end I Want to go back to again the converging forces of what's Happening We know we're in election cycle, we know the rates are going to drop, we know there's massive buyer demand, and we also know whoever lists the most houses puts themselves you in the best possible position to win.

That's why I spent so much time in the beginning frontloading you with Jimmy and with Jason to make sure that you're in the best possible position. I Also want to remind you no more than three goals. This is a year of simplification. We got to keep things very simple in 2024.

So what's your volume? Close goal for the first quarter: How many marketing activities or marketing results do you want to produce in the first quarter? and then how many listing appointments will you go on in the first quarter? I Want to see that up and visual inside of your office Lastly, Hector put up that little Banner thing at the bottom if you're not one of my clients today and I have so many of my clients out there God Bless you guys I Love you all Bunch you I'll see you in Orlando coming up at our Orlando Elite Retreat Uh, this is your last shot if you want to say hey I want a coach like Christie or hey I really need a marketing coach or you know what, just make me a banan's offer. If you call my office today and you at least say okay, let's book an appointment then at least you're in the queue for my bananas offer which my office is open here in Dallas for another two hours and in Orange County it is open for a couple more hours so I'm gonna encourage you to call my office and in the meantime I hope I get to see you I'm GNA do about I don't know 40 50 events around the country Jason was just in Orlando I was just in Santa Clara California I'm gonna be in Houston I'm GNA be in Dallas We are going to be everywhere this year. People like coach Christie Jeff Mays Emily Kenberg Emily Terrell So many of our best. So make sure you're racing over to Tomferry.com to find out when we're going to be in your area and if we're even close to you.

I'm definitely coming to Boston. You know it and I will see you also in Orlando I am going to be in New Jersey I think in Hoboken so you'll have to make the trip over the tunnel just like my son who lives off Allen and Houston or Allen and hon we will be in South Florida we will be I'm not sure if we're going to be in Ohio I did see Nashville We'll definitely be there Lots in SoCal Lots in Denver all kinds of places is coming up I Don't know if I'm going to be in no, we are going to be in Raleigh and we are going to be in St Louis and I was just in Northern California All right. so everybody's saying please come here I Want to go to South Africa I Want to come to South Africa Montana no but I will be in Jackson Hole All right. So I got a bounce.

Make sure you call my office right. Give yourself the gift of guidance and accountability and structure. Let's get more stuff done so call my office. Thank you guys for being a part of this! God Bless you! 202 is going to be absolutely bananas because you are going to go out there and do the work.

I Look forward to seeing you guys soon. Take care and hey, let's go. That's bananas All right. I'll see you guys soon, take care.