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Attracting the NextGen Homebuyer · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
Hey, what's up, Jeff Zimper, host of the mortgage marketing radio podcast.
0:14
Thanks for tuning in whether you're a first time listener or new.
0:18
Did you know we got a private community just for you podcast listeners?
0:21
That's right.
0:22
You want to engage.
0:23
You want to have more meaningful conversations.
0:24
You want to go deeper on some of the topics we talk about here.
0:26
Hey, on Facebook, go to Facebook and you go in the search bar and you search for
0:30
mortgage marketing radio, that is the private group.
0:34
Jeff for podcast listeners, go there, request to join, answer a couple quick questions.
0:39
So we make sure you're a legit human being and you get access and we continue the
0:45
conversation over there on Facebook in the group at mortgage marketing radio.
0:49
Hey, also, if you didn't know, we help mortgage originators move from
0:54
solicitor and vendor to partner in peer in the eyes of a real estate agent.
0:59
You know, it's all about when you're looking to engage with real estate agents, what's
1:04
your approach?
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You know, I talk about there's five key reasons why most originators don't get enough
1:09
referrals or engagement for real estate agents.
1:11
And many times it's often your approach, it's your value proposition and it's, you're
1:16
simply not talking to enough agents or the wrong agents.
1:19
Like those are the biggest pieces of the puzzle right there.
1:23
It's exactly what we help originators overcome breakthrough in our margin classes platform.
1:30
We help you move from solicitor and vendor to partner and peer in the awareness stage
1:35
of looking to drive conversations and engagement with real estate agents to that create referrals
1:39
for you.
1:40
It's about the right approach.
1:42
It's about the right value proposition.
1:44
It's about reaching the right realtors and reaching enough of the right realtors.
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And what is a process you have for doing that?
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My position is you lead with educational content, classes and resources.
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And that's what we do at my origin classes.
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Case in point, shout out to one of our longtime members, Liz LaFour down there in San Diego.
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What's up?
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I saw Liz just posted one day ago.
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She had another great class, 32 realtors registered for her database marketing for real estate
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class.
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Folks.
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By the way, Liz is doing most of her classes over Zoom.
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Some people do them in person, some people do them both.
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My question is, is what is your process top of the funnel middle of the funnel for
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getting agent engagement and conversations?
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Is it cold calling?
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How's that working?
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Is it door knocking, broker previews, happy hours?
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I don't know.
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There's a hundred different ways to do it.
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I've simply found the most effective way to do it is one to many leveraged activity that
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changes the narrative, changes the positioning of you as an originator in the real estate agents.
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Eyes that increases trust, lowers resistance and drives more conversion to conversations
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that leads to referrals.
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You want to know more?
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Maybe this is for you, maybe it's not.
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Only one way to find out, book a call with me, go to mortgage marketing.pro, you have
3:01
a time on my calendar, you and I will have a private one-to-one chat.
3:05
And we'll see if we're fit for each other, mortgage marketing.pro.
3:08
Okay, my special guest this week is somebody that I have admired and followed for a long
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time and have learned a lot from following her and her incredible data that she puts out
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that is very relevant for you listening to this right now.
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I'm curious if you feel that first-time home buyers are a sizable segment of your addressable
3:29
market for your business.
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Probably the answer to that is yes.
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Well, have you ever considered one of the struggles, issues, considerations, hesitations
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that the next gen population has when it comes to purchasing a home?
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You might be surprised to know what is the number one top social media platform used
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by millennials in Gen Z to search for home buying info.
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You're going to learn on today's episode.
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You might be surprised to know what is the number one fear and struggle that next gen
4:03
has when it comes to buying a home.
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You might be surprised to discover some of the other truth about the next gen population
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that if you knew these facts and figures, this data, you would be more effective and
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efficient at establishing credibility and trust and being chosen as the mortgage professional
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of choice.
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So today's conversation is a take notes conversation.
4:31
It is a share with your referral partners conversation.
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It's a click the links in the show notes conversation because this is a very educational for session
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that you need to double click on.
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Justin Messerley is the executive director of first home IQ and she runs next gen research
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and strategy for next gen home buyer.com.
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She has this amazing teacher curriculum education presentation materials for industry professionals
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like you to help young people make better decisions for their financial future.
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If you haven't heard of first home IQ yet, you need to go learn more.
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Justin is in partnership with Dave Savage, longtime friend, colleague, mentor and well-respected
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leader in our industry and first home IQ is doing some pretty amazing things.
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So sit back, listen and learn and apply what you learned from my conversation with Kristen
5:28
and make sure once again you check the links in the show notes and follow along.
5:32
Without further ado, let's get into this week's show.
5:36
Justin, welcome back to the show.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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Excited to be here.
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I'm always thrilled to talk to you because I'm kind of a data nerd meaning I really like
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do a lot of research because a lot of stuff what I do with loan officers is help educate
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them so they can educate realtors and their other partners.
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And so you've got some of the best data out there.
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So there you go.
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I'm going to fanboy for a second but what for those who may not know who Kristen Messerley
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is, who are you?
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What do you do?
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I'm the executive director of first home IQ and nonprofit focused on solving the financial
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literacy crisis.
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So we do financial literacy curriculum and content.
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We also have an ambassador program where we create content and including social media
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content for loan officers and real estate agents.
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But I also do research and have surveyed at this point 6000 over 6000 millennial and
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Gen Z consumers.
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Wow.
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Cheers.
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Okay, so I would dare to say you're probably at least that I know of the foremost expert
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in our industry when it comes to millennials and next gen.
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Yeah, I think that at this point, I mean, I started out my career as a social worker but
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I got into this started surveying and doing interviews and in strategy in my early 20s.
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So it's been over 10 years now.
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And what category are you in as far as all these?
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I'm almost on the elder.
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I'm like in the middle of being a millennial.
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So yeah, I was going to ask you and we're going to put links to all your cool stuff in
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the show notes.
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We're going to talk about first home IQ and, you know, the ways people can get access
7:12
to your amazing research, which helps them across the board, whether it's how to have
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better, more engaging, impactful conversations with your clients and prospects, with your
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partners.
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That's the first thing that I see with your content.
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It helps me understand like who I'm dealing with, you know.
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But I wanted to ask you this, there's this term next gen for there's some people who
7:32
probably need to clarify what does that really mean?
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So we started using next gen a few years ago because we wanted to include Gen Z in this
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too.
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And so it's Gen Z and millennials for the purposes of our research, we look at the ages
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between 18 and 44.
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And then we segmented out and look at, you know, the differences between older millennials,
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younger millennials and Gen Z.
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So is that what we're calling next gen 18 to 44?
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That's what we're calling next gen in our next gen research.
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Yeah.
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Okay, cool.
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Just want to make sure so everybody knows.
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Yeah, that's good.
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And this is quite a timely conversation, considering what's happened in the last several
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days regarding the NAR law settlement.
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Yeah.
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I'm sure you've been getting a lot of inquiries and questions and there's still some
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unknowns.
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And so we'll impact that as well.
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But I want to just start with some of your, the key findings like what are the biggest
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headlines when you've got, you know, your 60 seconds or, you know, you got your 10 minutes
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at the meeting and you're like, okay, here's the key things you guys need to know about
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next gen.
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Where do you typically go with that?
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The three big areas, one is a trust.
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We've been looking at the development of distrust with millennials over the last three years.
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We started seeing this kind of creeping up where millennials and Gen Z are less trusting
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of professionals.
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And initially I thought this was just in the mortgage industry and it's because, you know,
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millennials entered adulthood during a ride after the financial crisis.
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So there's just, you know, that we were ingrained with this.
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But what we found was if you take a look outside of the industry, there's less trust in
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all different industries from healthcare, media, you know, across the board, government.
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And so that's just a new era that we live in and we can dig into that.
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This year's report that we released a month ago, we found that to over half say that they
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don't trust lenders to help them make smart decisions about their, their future.
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And then the second category would be around knowledge and financial literacy.
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There's a, we've done full research projects on that topic itself.
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But we find that over half say that they don't feel confident in their knowledge of personal
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financial or personal finance or home buying.
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And then the third category is brand new, but a stat that I'm starting to bring up from
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this year's report that we found that over half said that they don't feel confident that
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home ownership is accessible to the next generation.
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And the reason that's so important is just that, you know, we're seeing more and more,
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even in my news feed itself and on Instagram or TikTok, you know, people are joking about
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the fact that home ownership is just not accessible.
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It's, and people are kind of despairing over that.
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And so I feel like that's important for us to understand where we're starting from and
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then give them that knowledge and help them build trust with the pathway to accessing
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home ownership.
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Okay.
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I wrote those down, trust knowledge and with the knowledge is the fact that they don't,
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they lack some of the knowledge, which means they don't feel confident.
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And then they don't see a path forward for home ownership.
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They don't see that necessarily as accessible.
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I like the fact that you also, because I've been following you long enough to remember
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that when that trust thing came out, yeah, the data at that time you thought was pointing
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towards the fact that they grew up during the whole financial meltdown and you know, parents
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lost their homes and all that.
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However, that speaks to the larger narrative what's happening in the country is that we,
10:59
just the trust has eroded and continue to road, right, for the last decade or so, right?
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Overall, that's just the sound.
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Yeah.
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In fact, the Adelman Trust Brometer, which measures trust across the world, they found that
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we fell as a country below 50% in trust for the first time, just I think in 2021 and
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or 2022.
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And so, you know, trust Brometer has dropped 10 percentage points since 2017.
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Wow.
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So that's, you know, again, just trust in general.
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And I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing and we can talk about that, but I think
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what's important is for us to understand consumers today want to be empowered to make
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smart decisions on their own.
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They don't necessarily feel confident going to any expert and saying, Hey, you're the
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pro, you know, take me through this process.
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They want to know that they can trust you and that they're going to be empowered with
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knowledge to make smart decisions on their own.
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Well, I don't want to hang out on the trust thing, but for me anyways, it does speak to,
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you know, the greater narrative of just what's happening in our world, right?
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Of, and this stems back, you know, I'm, I'm a tad bit older on the scale of what, what,
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what, what group do I fall into?
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But, you know, the distrust has been eroding for some time, right?
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For, for all the corporate things that have happened back in the day, if you think of
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like the end run days and the whole, you know, any example you could give the Bernie
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made off stuff, the, it just, there's always some period of time where, and it's just
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continued to escalate.
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And now I think media has amplified that.
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So now we see all these cases of distrust like every day in our, and then we're, and
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then you got like, uh, what is the phrase fake news, right?
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Like all this narrative about you can't believe shit anymore.
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Right.
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Exactly.
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Bombarded with that, you know, and so of course, you're not going to feel confident in
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that level of trust, you know, so.
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So they're in though on a, on a bright note, they're in lies the opportunity, right?
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For us, more into real estate is that we need to understand this.
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And then what are some of the suggestions or advice you give, whether it's content,
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whether it's how they communicate, you know, where, how people show up online in terms
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of becoming known or establishing that base of someone's trust worthy.
13:12
Yeah.
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So here's the thing.
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I went to your point in what feels like a very dark space for especially the first
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time home buyers who are, you know, that a lot of times they say they'll go online,
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they feel overwhelmed.
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They don't know, they don't have someone to turn to that they trust.
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But whenever they find someone that they do feel they could trust or they could have
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a conversation with, that's a bright light in what feels like a dark space.
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So then you end up being not only someone really important to that consumer, but you're
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also getting all of their referrals.
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So that's a, you know, a huge shift that you have the opportunity to access.
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But then from there, one of the, some of the interesting data we found in this last
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year's report was the, the importance of video.
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And we've been talking about video for a long time.
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But what I thought was interesting was that when we asked where people turn to for personal
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financial information at the very top, it's friends and family, no surprise.
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I think that was like 76% or something.
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But then right below it was video, it was like 72% I think, maybe 73, but right below
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that is video.
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I think it's not, you know, it's so important that you're putting out video content.
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And you're also being authentic with that, you're sharing information on multiple channels
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to help them access that information and be empowered on their own.
14:29
Well, sure, because videos like the next best thing to being in person, right?
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And video, there's really nonverbal psychological cues that help you build trust and all that
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stuff.
14:37
Yeah, but it's not.
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So scary, like a lot of people feel nervous about meeting with someone in person or even
14:44
over the phone right away.
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But whenever they can access some of that information and personality through video content,
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it allows them to get a taste before they are having a conversation.
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Or they admit.
14:56
Yeah.
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Yeah.
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The meeting, the call, the zoom, whatever.
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They, that's the point which, you know, we're going to continue to, you know, interweave
15:03
through this thing, which is, you know, social media and your content and what are you putting
15:06
out there?
15:07
Because as you well know, and other people listening have heard it said multiple times,
15:11
is for those that are doing video and putting it out there, you know, there's that, that
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lag time between the content you're putting out video versus the, the contact, the DM,
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the whatever it is, they've been consuming your videos like prior to them reaching out
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to you.
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You must get frustrated seeing, you know, in real estate and specific and mortgage, I think
15:34
it's gotten better, but still there are a lot of reluctant video people.
15:39
Yeah, I mean, I totally get it.
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It's hard, you know, it is, and it's a muscle that you have to work.
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I, I kind of took a break from that myself and whenever I was going through the transition
15:52
and building the nonprofit and, um, and it's, I'm like, last night I started putting together
15:58
grabbing some video and I was like, ah, this is hard work, you know, and, um, it is not
16:02
something that you just, it feels supernatural all the time.
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So.
16:07
That's funny coming from somebody, you know, quote unquote, in the, on the younger of
16:11
the spectrum because that's the argument that, you know, I know I've heard for some time
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is like, oh, it's, you know, the under 40 group, it's natural for you to pick up and talk
16:19
to this phone, you know, in a main for you.
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Do you not agree with that?
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Do you think that's very situational?
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Maybe it's my personality.
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I do think it's a lot easier than younger you are, but me, I don't know, I feel like I,
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I think it's very easy to get on a video call and I think it's gotten so much easier
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for everybody to got a video call, um, and certainly watching video content, but to create
16:42
something that you're putting out there, um, it seems to be so natural for someone who
16:48
is like born into that, but I don't know, maybe it's because I'm on the elder millennial
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side, I don't know, but maybe, maybe, but it is something, and I as well have struggled
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with this.
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Matter of fact, you know, I mentioned Jordan, not a moment ago, um, I had her on the podcast
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and, uh, she kind of helped me make a shift in my brain because she, she put it back
17:06
on me with podcasting.
17:07
She said, you know, because I was, I mean, let's face it, I've had some fear and, um, like
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the whole judgment, I don't want to look bad.
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I'm going to all the usual noise.
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And she's like, well, if somebody came to you and asked you for advice on starting a podcast,
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would you feel reluctant to share that information?
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Mm hmm.
17:23
Oh, no, I haven't thought of it like that, right?
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Um, so anyway, I think we just need to break through that and get, get to it.
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It is some, I mean, people ask me a lot about, you know, am I nervous when I speak or
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things like, you know, get on stage and I used to be so nervous.
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I would, you know, be sick before going on stage and just like shaking and now it feels
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very comfortable.
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But when I have a break from it, if I haven't been speaking for a bit, I do get a little
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bit more nervous when I get on stage.
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So it's something that has to be consistent.
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I'm going to do the reps.
17:53
Yeah.
17:54
Um, all right.
17:55
So another interesting stat though, um, is YouTube is the top social media platform from
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millennials and Gen Z.
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I'm, why I was curious on if, and I hate putting people on the spot, but if you know what
18:05
the spread is on that or the Delta is in terms of platforms they go to for that research,
18:12
could you put YouTube?
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But what, you know, I mean, what is the, as compared to other platforms?
18:17
So yeah, YouTube is at the very top for both millennials and Gen Z, um, for millennials
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then it goes into Facebook is number two, which I thought was, like, yeah, people almost
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here.
18:30
I know you've said that multiple times.
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And I'm like, people must hear that and go, what?
18:33
I know.
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I mean, I'm surprised too, but it comes up consistently.
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This has happened on multiple years, reports, and this one was a thousand millennial Gen Z
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across, you know, dispersed correctly or whatever, you know, and it's, um, yeah.
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And then Reddit was something that came up in the Instagram and TikTok.
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But yeah, for Gen Z, TikTok comes up number two, which is less surprising, you know,
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and then Instagram and then Facebook and Reddit.
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But I'm surprised Facebook shows up at all and I, I would actually, um, Amir Sayed has
19:02
been coaching me on, um, you know, uh, just with launching for some of my Q and he's
19:09
talking to me about my social media and creating video content and he's like, you've got to be
19:13
on Facebook.
19:14
This is, and I get that's where the industry is, but it's for everybody's at, you know,
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and, um, and I, I'm like, I don't want to check my Facebook.
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I don't even want to get on there.
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I got it.
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That's where the community is.
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So we got to be there.
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Yeah, you know, this is, this is, this is everything we're saying.
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The thread through this, the video is difficult.
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I don't want to check my Facebook.
19:32
I don't, you know, the social media is noisy.
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It's, it's, it's, it's neck, you know, all the things we say about the complaints
19:38
and the bitching and the moaning, um, yet it's a necessity in a requirement.
19:43
I think in our industries anyway, if you want to remain relevant today, yes.
19:47
So embrace suck, right?
19:50
Yeah.
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And I think, you know, you can have, it will become more fun.
19:55
I mean, just like going to the gym or something like that first, it sucks.
19:59
And then it becomes kind of, you enjoy it.
20:01
And because you start seeing this community building and the engagement you get with, uh,
20:07
that's meaningful.
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I think as long as you keep it meaningful and you're putting your values forward,
20:11
you're leading with education.
20:13
For instance, you're sharing information that it's truly helping people.
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For me, that's when I'm like, okay, this, this feels good.
20:20
You know, it's not, I'm not wasting time on there.
20:22
And I'm sure you, you need to put, you know, serious boundaries around it, um,
20:26
to make sure that that's quality time spent.
20:29
I think that's also another secret, uh, you said sharing information and being helpful.
20:33
That's a little secret trick or hack.
20:35
Um, you know, I have this saying that if you show up to serve, you can't lose because it,
20:40
you know, you're coming from the right place, which means the message is going to be more authentic
20:44
in the whole point being, it's like, you shouldn't be showing up to sell on social media, right?
20:49
Yeah.
20:50
Yeah.
20:50
We're long past that time, I think where it's a selling platform like this is a,
20:56
it's always been, but definitely more important than ever that you're showing up,
21:01
bringing value into your community and you're showing up as yourself.
21:04
You know, I mean, people see through disingenuous posts or corporate feeling posts.
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It's, it's all about, I want to learn from you as an individual and see who you are.
21:16
Well, then can you give any quick tips on types of content you think because you see a lot of originators
21:20
and, and realtors, what do you think would be some suggestions there for them?
21:24
I mean, it totally depends on the person, but we do see some of the, the best content out there is stuff that,
21:29
um, that is share, like, I'm trying to think some of the Min Nguyen who's, what's a mortgage, you know,
21:38
he does a really great job of sharing information, but he kind of, he does it like while he's walking through
21:43
whatever, you know, um, and it's talking about, you know, a new down payment assistance program
21:49
or what's new in the news around the market and, you know, it could be anything that you're interested
21:55
in bringing leadership around.
21:57
Um, but I think there's also people who are sharing quick tips.
22:02
I answer to questions, common questions.
22:04
You know, that one's a really good one.
22:06
Um, I think as long as you are, and people like Jordan Nutter doing skits, you know, like back and forth on, um, a scenario.
22:15
So it kind of depends on what you want to get into, but I think there's, it might be a good idea actually to create,
22:20
you know, some, or show a list of people doing different types of content and see what appeals to you.
22:27
Um, we have some people, like, a lot of our social content we create.
22:31
Um, people can customize it whatever, but what I find people are most successful with is that they
22:36
use that content to create a video over it because you can very easily, you know, put yourself over a
22:41
piece of content and just talk about that.
22:44
Say like, Hey, I'm going to talk to you about what's in a credit report right now.
22:48
And it's normally really boring, but here's what you need to know, you know, and like,
22:51
if you make it like, here's a quick hit of something, that's, that's helpful.
22:56
So you just gave me an idea about that.
22:58
The green screen thing is cool, but you mentioned credit report, um, ideas,
23:02
where do you get ideas to be to have relevant content?
23:05
Oh, I'm going to tell you right now, you get ideas from this next gen homebuyer report that you
23:09
guys published, which we're going to put the links into the show notes here.
23:12
And you've got these multiple slides that will give you insights into the information that next
23:17
gen is seeking. One of the ones that popped out for me was 70% have checked their credit in the past
23:22
six months. Why? Yeah, I thought that was a very promising, you know, it's the fact that people
23:30
are, are, I was shocked by that. I thought we were going to like, you get some bad numbers.
23:35
And you know, what's interesting is, um, I don't think people, I think people are trying to do
23:40
something, um, but they, you know, the average, we did a financial literacy report with the
23:45
first home IQ quiz, which is 20 questions measuring their understanding of buying a home.
23:50
And the credit question, I think 80% of millennials knew that FICO is the most commonly used
23:56
credit spring model, but it was like 50% or something of Gen Z. And, um, and so people might not know
24:03
what to do, but they are know what's going on, but they're trying to take a step in, in the right
24:09
direction. So they are trying to save, they are trying to, you know, check their credit and,
24:14
but they don't necessarily know what that means. So having some direction around like, here's what
24:18
a good credit score is. Here's what you should look for on a credit report. Here, you know,
24:23
that kind of stuff would go a long way. Right. And then you talk about good habits and it looks
24:27
like there's some good habits from next gen in terms of expense tracking and saving and things
24:31
like that. Yeah. Yeah. That was really positive. And you know, again, the average score of the first
24:37
home IQ quiz with millennials, actually all ages was 57%. So it's very low. They're understanding
24:43
of buying a home, but it sounds like, and I want to do, you know, the next financial literacy
24:48
report I want to do is to measure some of their those pieces of information better on their knowledge
24:55
of basic financial literacy, because I think they, it looks like they are, they know they need to budget.
25:00
They know they need to save some money. They know they need to check their credit or know what
25:05
their credit score is. Do they know what that means? Maybe not. They know how to buy a home,
25:10
definitely not. You know, so there's some there's some pieces that are big pieces that are missing.
25:16
Then as I continue to go through this content, which I don't want to give it all away,
25:19
because people don't go need to get it via the links we give them. But clearly, as you reference
25:24
in your in your researches, they're stressed about finances. They are, you know, riding the
25:32
thin razor in terms of when it comes to savings, cost of living, their barriers, what they see as
25:37
the barriers at home buy. So do you have any insights then into what percentage of these first time
25:44
home buyers are getting assistance from relatives or otherwise? Oh, that's a good question. I don't
25:49
know that off the top of my head. I know that information is out there. And I know a lot of,
25:54
you know, anecdotally, I can say a lot of people who are buying homes are getting that
25:58
down payment gift from relatives. And that's where, you know, what another, like another initiative
26:05
we have going at first home IQ that we haven't released yet is want to create more awareness
26:10
around down payment assistance programs for one that that's something that a lot of people don't
26:15
have information about. Secondly, house hacking. I don't think people have a good understanding
26:21
that of strategies to make homeownership accessible. Because, you know, again, people feel like it's
26:29
out of reach. They're saving and they're like, there's no way I'm going to get even close to the
26:33
amount that I need to get to. But we found 70% of people said 69% said that they thought you
26:41
need a 10 or 20% down in order to buy a home. So if they're trying to save 20% on a, you know,
26:48
home here in LA, they're going to be like, yeah, there's no reason for me to do that. You know,
26:53
moved to Ohio. Yeah, yeah, I'm just going to a lot of vacation and forget about it. Yeah, you can
26:59
you can do somewhere else. No, the house, house hacking is great. I would love to see, yeah,
27:04
more attention brought to that. As a matter of fact, I had a conversation, I have a 22-year-old,
27:08
and I had a conversation with him about that. And he was like, what? I'm going to move in there
27:13
and, and man, I'm like, yeah, you're going to move in there, dude. And you're going to leave rent
27:16
free. And this is going to be your asset later in life. Yeah. I'm going to do the down payment
27:21
and all that kind of stuff. He's like, hmm, interesting. Yeah. So if we're talking about
27:25
kinds of content to create, I mean, that was just focusing on strategies to get into home
27:30
ownership and strategies to get to your dream home. Like a lot of people don't understand,
27:36
you just got to live in that for a year. And then you can lever it, you know, have leverage and
27:40
move into the next one. I think that at least having some kind of roadmap, if you could fill up
27:48
your feed with that over time. 40, according to your research, trust and housing experts,
27:58
they trust realtors more than lenders. They do. Is that surprising? A little bit because,
28:04
you know, realtors have always been like down under attorneys and all that on the surface, right?
28:08
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They came up more. Yeah. That we asked last year,
28:17
loan officers versus real estate agents and the same thing. But Gen Z was a way less trusting.
28:23
So that wasn't good. Well, really, what's the hell do they know about that?
28:30
I know. Come on. You know, they're getting the problems. They're getting their news from like
28:37
my 22 year old Reddit for sure. You know, not so much TikTok with him, but Instagram, but YouTube
28:44
all day long for the 22 year old YouTube hands down. Yeah. I'll have to end. Of course,
28:50
we get into Dave Ramsey debates because when he went to high school, he went through the Dave Ramsey
28:54
program and we have the whole like, you don't need a credit card debate, right? I'm like, well,
28:58
let me tell you why that might not be true. Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah, that's interesting.
29:05
Yeah, I actually, at first I was like, okay, YouTube, everybody's going to YouTube for this
29:10
information. And then I started thinking about anything like as soon as my, you know,
29:14
faucet or my dish little thing broke, where am I going? YouTube, like you go there for any
29:20
question you have. And so yeah, I think that's a, it's something. But anyway, back to the real
29:26
estate versus L.O. That tended, that was a really big gap between millennials and Gen Z in terms
29:36
of that trust. And I, I would be really curious to see if the NAR news influences that in any
29:44
way, just because it's bringing some awareness of how a lot of friends be like, hey, I want to talk
29:48
to you about this. There was a New York Times daily episode about it. And I, you know, I don't
29:53
understand what's going on. And so there's kind of more, I don't know, thirst for knowledge around
29:58
that. Well, I'm glad you transitioned to that because we'd be remiss if we didn't bring that up
30:02
briefly right now because that is on everybody's news feeds. And most of it, it's completely
30:08
inaccurate and clickbait headlines and false. I don't know if you've read much into the documentation
30:14
around the settlement. Yeah, it's like, yeah, I have. That's why I was up so early this morning,
30:22
as I had to be on a bunch of calls and like, you know, conversations, plus I'm just learning
30:25
and consuming. And so the NAR also has a Q&A document, which is a summary of the lawsuit
30:31
instead of 108 pages, it's 12 pages. But there's just so much misinformation, misinformation
30:36
going around out there. And I think to your point, that's also going to fuel some of the questions
30:40
about, well, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Realtors are frigging overcharging people and
30:44
you know, all this stuff and story, which brings back full circle to the real headline here is
30:51
and how do you be seen as the trusted advisor, right? Yeah. And I think, you know, community leader
30:59
is a phrase that Dave Savage and I have been using and I've been hearing him speak to that
31:06
related to the settlement. And at like, how do you set yourself up as a community leader,
31:11
both to consumers and to your partners, you know, whatever that that looks like, it means,
31:18
you know, bringing education, bringing resources, you know, showing up. And so it's not a time to
31:24
be silent, I think, on that it's a time to really everybody has questions about it. And how can
31:30
you bring value and resources as a leader? Well, my immediate idea, um, my first kind of,
31:37
you know, thoughtful instead of emotionally knee jerk response to the whole thing was
31:42
a empathy. This is speaking to loan officers on behalf of realtors. B, this is your time to,
31:48
to your point, be a community leader. I'm suggesting people in my community, what I tell them to do
31:52
is host a panel where you're going to bring in a handful of agents, title, maybe attorney,
31:58
if you're an attorney state, whatever. And you're going to, you're going to be the MC and you're
32:01
going to host this town hall conversation. Um, and you are going to fill the room, right? And
32:09
you are going to be seen as a leader in the community leading the narrative and the conversation.
32:14
And out of that, I promise you will come opportunities for you. But I think that's one of the
32:19
opportunities of a community leader is you need to control the narrative a little bit instead of
32:23
the media controlling it. Absolutely. You need to have a narrative no matter what is going on in
32:29
the news. That is the world we live in today. And so it, yeah, I think that part of being a community
32:36
leader is controlling the narrative in your network, um, showing up having a voice.
32:41
Yeah. And on that note, I want to get this in if I, if you don't mind, um, in this whole NAR
32:46
conversation. I don't know if you're familiar with a thousand watt consulting. Yeah. I just met
32:50
with them. They're right. What was that? Brian Barrero or somebody else? It was somebody else. Um,
32:57
he was, you'd love them. They're great data research firm. Incredible. Yeah. Yeah. And so this is
33:02
part of my post the other day where they had this and I got the printout right here in front of me.
33:07
But they did, they surveyed it surveyed a thousand people who knew about the, um,
33:10
lawsuit situation with the NAR and the buyer compass, buyer agent compensation. The question was
33:15
a thousand people. If you're buying a home today and your budget was half a million,
33:18
how much would you be willing to pay for these services of a real estate agent to guide you through
33:22
the process? 37% said 10,000. Wow. That's 2% of the purchase price. Yeah. Which is roughly
33:32
the standard buyer agent compensation anyways. 15% 12 said 12,500 and on and on. But the point
33:41
being is and I was on a Tom Ferry webinar earlier today and there's lots of days because people
33:48
start freaking out. Oh my God. How the buyer's agent is going to and that's and the buyers aren't
33:51
going to be able to have the money for it and all this kind of stuff. So setting aside VA and FHA
33:55
for the moment, um, people believe and people want there was a, I don't have it handy right now,
34:01
but Tom Ferry's data reiterated and keeping current matters reiterated people want buyer
34:08
representation as a, as a buyer and they're willing to pay for it. You know, so and then without
34:15
getting into the NAR logistics of how that actually gets all worked out right now, um, for those
34:19
listening and aren't aware, um, the settlement does not say buyers agents are not permitted to be
34:25
compensated. It does not say that. It just says it's not allowed to be published in the MLS.
34:33
Very simple layman's term of that. There are other ways, phone calls, text, your own brokerage
34:38
website that has your own listings that you can publish that. But but the DOJ was really trying to do.
34:43
I'm going to geek here for a second was, uh, was they were trying to bring transparency, um, and
34:49
price fixing, remove price fixing because the assumption for so long was, hey, you know, your
34:53
compensation is in here. It's two and a half percent. It's 50% of the listing price, whatever. Um,
34:58
and the DOJ, a lot of different reasons why they got their hand in this thing, but they thought
35:02
that that was not in full transparency to all people in transactions. So there you go. Any comments
35:08
about that? Yeah, no, I mean, I think that while people say that they don't trust the expert,
35:15
you know, and so that's going to be leading into this, they also don't trust themselves.
35:20
So that lack of confidence in their own knowledge of the home buying process was very clear and
35:24
has been continually evident through all of our research. And I think, you know, they are starving
35:31
for someone to help to represent them. They want that. They just want to know that there's
35:36
transparency. They want to know that it's fair. Um, and so I think, you know, putting some
35:41
structure and language around that is going to be important. And again, like showing up as a leader
35:46
to be, um, to show them that you're on their side is going to be really important. Yeah.
35:53
Okay, let's for the few minutes we've got left. Let's talk about this cool thing you're doing
35:56
called first home IQ. Uh, what do you want to tell us about that? Because you are looking for some
36:01
people to help carry the message, right? Yeah. Yeah. So first of all, first home IQ is again,
36:08
focus on increasing financial literacy with the next generation. Um, the ways that we're doing
36:13
that are one through supporting educators. So we have a curriculum designed for schools,
36:19
we have online courses, um, and with the schools we have like lesson plans, all that kind of stuff.
36:24
The second way is through industry professionals. So that is by empowering industry professionals
36:29
to bring education into your communities, whether that be a presentation at a school or a
36:34
community organization or a hospital or whatever, um, or sharing on social media. And so in the
36:40
third way is through media content, but we are, um, you know, for the industry professional,
36:46
we have a free community that's available to anybody. We have some free resources in there,
36:51
few social posts. We have a free presentation you can use. Um, and then tons of like, you know,
36:57
interviews, our research report is in there. So if you're interested in just like participating in
37:02
the conversation and leveraging some of that content, um, you can go to our website first home IQ.com
37:08
and click on the tab. Elows and realtors join the community. Um, but then the, the other thing that
37:13
if you are really committed to this, you're someone who already is like, you know, delivering education,
37:19
um, doing, maybe doing some presentations or want to support that initiative. We are a 501c3,
37:26
um, and we have an ambassador program. And so that's where you're donating time and money
37:32
to support the initiative. Um, we, for our ambassadors, we have a huge library of
37:38
a presentation materials. We have, um, lots of, you know, social media content, huge library
37:44
of social media content with captions that are all customizable. We have a bunch of branding and
37:49
playbooks and, and all of that for, for ambassadors. Um, and then our ambassadors donate a minimum of
37:55
200 a month, um, to be, to participate and support the initiative. Cool. Awesome. That's a lot of
38:02
resources. You give them. So for those who want to go down either of those roads, we're going to
38:06
link that up in the show notes. First home IQ.com will also, uh, link up if you'd like your website,
38:12
which has some of your additional research and all that, uh, next gen home buyer.com. Would that be okay?
38:17
Yeah, that'd be awesome. Okay. Cool. Um, then let's, let's put a cherry on top of this thing. What is,
38:23
even with all the challenges in the headwinds, right, affordability, trust, uh, confusion in the
38:29
marketplace. Um, what, what do you want to give us for any kind of a guiding light moving forward
38:35
because we're largely serving first time home buyers? Yeah, I think, I mean, the biggest thing,
38:41
I guess I've already said, but, you know, leading with education really supports all of those areas.
38:46
I mean, when on from the accessibility standpoint, there's a just general, like feeling that, you
38:54
know, all the media content we digest as consumers is telling us we can't buy a home. So we need you
39:01
coming in giving us real strategies around how we can buy a home, you know, and, and I mean,
39:06
I live in LA and, and it really, affordability is a real challenge. And, but there are pathways
39:12
to getting there. And I think, um, we need to hear more of that. So, um, and then of course,
39:17
there's that helps with our knowledge and builds trust as well. Awesome. Well, once again, this
39:24
has been an inspiring conversation. I love your data. I love how you're educating the community
39:28
out there. So thank you for making time. Great. Thank you so much for having me. You bet. Listen,
39:33
there's, do you know what to do? If you like this episode, hey, first and foremost, go learn about
39:35
being a first, first home IQ ambassador. Check the links in the show notes. Go do it. You know
39:40
what to do. And if you like this episode, share it with somebody. Appreciate you tuning in. We'll
39:44
see you on the next one. Bye for now. All right. Well, thanks for tuning in to today's episode.
39:48
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