Latest / Dishin' Dirt with Gary Pickren / The Top 5 Real Estate Stories That Defined 2025 — And Will Follow You Into 2026 (Part 2)

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The Top 5 Real Estate Stories That Defined 2025 — And Will Follow You Into 2026 (Part 2) · Dishin' Dirt with Gary Pickren

0:01
SPEAKER_00: This is Ditch and Dirt with Gary Picker, South Carolina's only podcast dedicated to the real estate agent craft.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: And now the host of Ditch and Dirt, Gary Picker.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Hi Greens, and welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Ditch and Dirt.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm your often opinionated but rarely wrong host, Gary Pickering, coming to you from the beautiful downtown Columbia, South Carolina offices of Blair, Cato, Picker, and Castellan.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: This is the last but yet not snowy week of January 2026.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just early last week they were talking about us getting seven to nine inches of snow, and of course, and none of it materialized.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: And then we got a little bit of icing here, but very little in the Midlands.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: And in the upstate, they all got some ice mixed with some sleek.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, I hope everybody survives Snowmageddon.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of people trying to get back to work, but unfortunately, as we're sitting here looking at uh beautiful sunny day and completely dry roads, our schools are closed and our government offices are shut down.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is a novel idea, maybe it's crazy, maybe Gary's just a little too opinionated, but can we at least see a snowflake before we cancel school?
0:59
SPEAKER_00: I mean, literally canceling school on Friday for a storm that wasn't going to happen until Sunday, kind of silly considering, you know, it's sunny outside and the roads are all dry.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: And now I have all these parents who are trying to find daycare for their kids so they can get to work.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of an inconvenience when you can cancel school when you don't need to.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: Just saying, and of course, the government being shut down today, kind of silly.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: Can't get out there and do title searches for these real estate closings when there's really no reason the government should be shut down.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, the roads are dry.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: It's sunny outside, but what do I know?
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Just my opinionated show.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: A couple other things before we start today.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Number one is hope you've listened to Adition Data, an incredible new podcast that I'm doing with Candace Coleman.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: 15 minutes to learn AI each week that you can use in your real estate business.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: First week, Candace went over how to do listing descriptions, how to take that listing description, modify it into a social media post, a flyer, what other things you might need it for.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: And then this week, she's handling emails.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's had that email you just don't want to write.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: You know your client's gonna be angry.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: You've got to tell them about a price reduction or the lack of people looking at the house, whatever it may be, and you got to get that tone right.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, she's gonna teach you how AI emails can help you get that tone right to write that perfectly professional and empathetic email that you hate writing that you need to write.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: It's also gonna help you with the too long didn't read emails.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: You've got so much information to give your client.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to write in circles, you want to make sure your client reads it.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Got to get the email out because you've got to protect your file.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: It can take a massive amount of information, compose it into easy to read, easy to follow emails so that your client can get the information they need without being overwhelmed.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: This episode came out on Monday, so go ahead and take a listen to it.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: It can be found wherever you find the Dish and Dirk Podcast as well as in the show notes.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Don't want to miss Dish and Data.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start every week with a new topic and build as we go.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, tickets are sold out, guys.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: I am very sorry.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: I told y'all we'd sell it out in a week.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: We sold it out in four and a half days.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: This is the real estate success summit on February 11th.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Every ticket I have or can have has been sold.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: We cannot add any more tables.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: We are taking a waiting list.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and get on our waiting list.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Go to blaircato.com, click on the button on the top there that says summit.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: It is now a waiting list.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: Get on the waiting list.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And what we will do is somebody lets us know that they're not going to be able to attend, we'll put the two of y'all together so that you can get the tickets.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Or if somebody perhaps has a table and they might have an extra seat at the table, we'll see what we can do.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Last year we had eight to ten people on the waiting list, and I think all of them were able to get in in the end.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: So get on that waiting list.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: We tried to add more tickets, but we're over 300 now, and it's just space isn't big enough.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: What this does tell me is that there's an enthusiasm in the marketplace that I haven't seen since 2021.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Here we did our first summit, we sold it out three times.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: We went 250, 300, I think 350 before we had to cut off sales at the convention center.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: That was a year where interest rates were extremely low.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Everybody was buying houses, there was enthusiasm.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: The next three years we sold it out as well, just took a little bit longer.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: This year we sold it out in four days.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, I like to think it's obviously because of dish and dirt, as well as our great guests, speakers, which I'm assuming that is a big part of it.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: But it also shows me there's an enthusiasm in the real estate market we haven't seen in a long time because what we notice is that when things are going well, real estate agents will attend events, they'll spend money.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: When things aren't going well, they think the market's bad, they won't.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: They honker down.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Quite frankly, that's the exact opposite thing you should be doing.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: When the market is bad is when you go out and get your market share.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: That's what Blair Keto has done the last three years.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: We've dominated on market share.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: When the market was supposedly bad, we're opening offices adding market share because that's when you double down on your marketing.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: But you'll learn more about that in sales at the real estate success summit.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you're able to get a ticket.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: If not, like I said, get on the waiting list and we'll go from there.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: Last thing I want to talk about, I do this every year.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: I am on the real estate commission.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: You'll know I talk about it all the time.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Nothing I say on this show is binding to the real estate commission.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: This isn't the opinion of the real estate commission.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: It's Gary's opinions.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: My show, often opinionated, rarely wrong.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: I do this every year to let you know this is my opinion.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: And yes, even though I'm on the real estate commission, I do have the right to have an opinion.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: I also have the right to have a podcast and talk about those opinions.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Because again, these are Gary's opinions.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: What the other members of the commission might think or agree with, it's solely up to them.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: It's up to however they decide.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Now, they're smart, they'll side with me because I'm really wrong.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: But just want to go ahead and throw that out and also throw out that I don't really care about your brokerage.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm brand agnostic.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: I think they're all fine, excellent brokerages.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm not pro-small broker, I'm not pro-big broker, I'm not pro-brand name, I'm not pro-independent.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm pro you.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: That's all I am.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I am pro you as an individual.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Because I know whether you work at ABC Realty or XYZ or any of them, wherever it is, you're the business.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: You get the business, not the brokers.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: So I'm supporting you.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: I want you to have the tools necessary.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm here for you.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm brand agnostic, so don't take anything I say as, oh, he doesn't like big brokers or he doesn't like small brokers or he likes the big major brands or he doesn't like the major brands.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: I will call out crap when I see crap, because that's kind of the whole purpose of this show.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of dumb crap, let's talk about the top 10 stories of 2025.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: I've already done stories of six through 10 because these are very important stories.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: We're going to continue one through five.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: These are not in any particular order.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: There was no way to rank them this year because every one of these stories were massive and had an absolute effect on how you conduct your business.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Not only in 2025 and 2026, but moving forward.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: For us to rank these would have been impossible.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: But every one of these stories does have an effect on what you do.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: And these things here are things that structurally changed how real estate is operated.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: We all know that 2025 was a monumental year of change.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Nobody likes change, but we had monumental change in 2025.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: And 2026, in my opinion, is also going to experience monumental change as everything settles in to a lot of what happened in these stories.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: For example, number 10 story, full implementation of Sitzaburnett.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, as we go through 2026, more implementation of that, more fallout from that is going to dictate how you practice and how you're compensated.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Number nine was the Anywhere merger, Compass versus Anywhere.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: This is going to create a bohemoth brokerage.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: And so how is that going to affect moving forward in 2026?
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Is Refkin going to shove the private listing networks down anywhere's throats?
7:16
SPEAKER_00: I believe he will.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: And if that happens, how much of the market is going to be taken off the multiple listing service and marketed in-house?
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And how bad is that going to be?
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully he won't do it.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, anywhere will stay with what they've said earlier that they think it's a bad practice.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: I have my doubts.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that Refkin bought this to do nothing with it.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: He's a disruptor.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Number eight, broker-to-broker compensation.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Are we finally going to see the end of broker-to-broker compensation?
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Most experts say it's not only dying, it's on hospice.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: And I think that broker-to-broker is dead.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: It needs to die.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: It is why you're getting sued in the first place.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Take out of most of what happens in broker to broker, and that eliminates a lot of your liability.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: We're already seeing brokerages get rid of it left and right.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: XP, next home.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: We're seeing even locally PRA Wilder Realty getting rid of broker-to-broker comp, and they are thriving, guys.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: They tell us, Tony Nally came on our podcast and told us how much his agents are thriving outside of that old broken system.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Number seven, clear cooperation, private listing networks.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be the fight of 2026.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you right now, this is where the rubber is going to meet the road.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Who wins this battle is going to be important.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: If we eliminate clear cooperation, we will not have fair housing.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Simple.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: That's simple.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: It will not happen.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: You cannot have fair housing and not have clear cooperation.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: We're already seeing states like Washington State recognize this and saying everybody has to have equal access to a property.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: You cannot hold that property in-house and market amongst your own people.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: We know the reason people are doing this is not seller choice.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: It is so they can get both sides of the commission, which is exactly what they should not be doing.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: They're setting themselves up for another lawsuit.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: We'll see how clear cooperation is handled.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, Refkin doesn't win this battle.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Number six, Zillow lawsuits.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: We talked about Zillow lawsuits, and every one of these lawsuits could have a profound effect.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Whether you like Zillow or not, Zillow runs the market.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Zillow by itself, the number of hits that it gets on its website matches more than the number two through ten combined.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: It is that big of a powerful house.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Tearing it down without thinking of the ramifications of tearing it down is not a good idea.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Tear it down, what replaces it?
9:16
SPEAKER_00: How disjointed does this market get?
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Your consumers love Zillow, whether you do it or not.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Your consumers go to Zillow.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: That's where they want to see their listing.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: That's where buyers look first.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: So we need Zillow.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: The question is, are we just going to tear it down?
9:29
SPEAKER_00: And if we're going to tear it down, what's going to happen?
9:31
SPEAKER_00: So we have to think through that.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: And that's my problem with Refkin so far, is he wants to be a disruptor, but I don't think anyone's thinking of what then.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: It's fine to tear things down that need to be torn down.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm not for always maintaining status quo quo.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm actually the one advocating to get rid of broker to broker comp.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: But you've got to think through what happens when broker to broker comp work.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, it goes away, it makes things better.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: What happens if Zillow goes away?
9:53
SPEAKER_00: What happens if NAR goes away?
9:54
SPEAKER_00: What happens if clear cooperation goes away?
9:57
SPEAKER_00: None of that is good.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Let's move now into the remaining five.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: We're halfway through our top 10, and seller bonuses and commission steering are a big problem.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: This topic didn't just make some noise in 2025.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: It became a compliance litmus test for brokers and buyer agents.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: At the core of this issue, what we're looking at is paying bonuses to agents to steer them to property.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: And this is a thing that builders are doing that need to stop, especially after the fact.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: Taking bonuses after the fact is becoming a huge liability issue.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: Regulators, lawyers, courts, they start now seeing this financial steering as a real fiduciary risk.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: And the key principle here, which I've been hammering on this show for a year now, is you cannot direct client attention to a property based on your commission rates.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: That violates the Sitz and Burnett settlement and it violates your fiduciary duties under South Carolina law, 4057, as well as the Realtor Code of Ethics.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: You have to show all houses.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: This is what got this industry in the problem it's in today in the first place.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Catchmart knew that you could go on the multiple listing service and sort properties based on commissions.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a second.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: How stupid that was.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: That you literally could go on the MLS prior to Citrournette, search for properties that paid a 4% or 5% or 6% commission, make a list of those, and then only show your clients though.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Complete breakdown of the fiduciary duty.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Your fiduciary duty is to do what's in the best interest of your client, not in what's in your financial best interest.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: The fact that MLS has allowed that is why we're in this situation today.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Had that never happened, it probably guts a lot of his cases.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: But boy, did that make his good case that this shows listing agents are artificially keeping fire compensation high by allowing this to happen.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we are fast forward today.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: So now you don't have the MLS listing it, but we still have agents out advertising commissions as co-ops, as broker to broker.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: And all this ties together.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: All top 10 of these things tie together.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: And that's what broker to broker is going to get, y'all.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: It still allows commission steering because we're still sitting out there dictating what buyer agents are going to get.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: But see, here's the problem: it doesn't matter what you're telling me you're offering me.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know why you're telling me anything.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Why are you offering anything?
12:06
SPEAKER_00: It's not doing anything to sell your house.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: If you believe that you have to go out there and tell the whole world that you're offering 3% as a co-op to sell the house, and that's how you have to sell the house, and you don't know how to sell houses because the co-op is not binding.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's binding anymore until we negotiate a contract and put it into writing, and it's either signed as a Form 120 or it's signed as part of the contract, it doesn't matter.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: And for buyers' agents to say, well, I can't show houses that my clients say, don't show me a house that the seller's not willing to pay the commission, is also not correct because we don't know what the seller's willing to do until the seller says what they're willing to do in a contractual form, Form 120, or in the actual contract.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: So when a seller says, I'm not paying any commissions at all for the buyer's side, do we know that to be a fact until we make an offer and it's negotiated?
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Because when we make them an offer they can't refuse, lo and behold, they probably will pay it.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, if somebody is advertising, I'll pay 2, 3, 4, 5, 40%, that's not binding either.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: So even though they swear to God they're going to pay that, and you go out and you make that offer, doesn't mean they have to accept your crappy ass offer.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: So none of it is binding.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: But the more we continue to go down this route of broker-to-broker comp of trying to guarantee these commissions to buyers' agents, this continues to feed Michael Ketchmark and his ilk and allows them to continue to claim, which we'll see in a future story, the commissions are remaining high because you're greedy.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: That's not the case.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: You get paid because you do work, not because you're greedy, but you're playing right into Michael Ketchmark's hands.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Broker to broker's got to go away, and commission steering has to stop.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: And the only way to commission steering to stop is to quit doing broker-to-broker comp.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: Commission is whatever you ask for.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: What are you being charged by your buyer's agent?
13:45
SPEAKER_00: Then you can ask for some, all or none of it.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: You can ask for more of it because you're limited by what the agreement says.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: That's where we need to be.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Stop the commission steering.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: The second aspect of commission steering that is going to get you all in big time trouble are these bonuses.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Agents are asking to take bonuses after doing the work.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: What we know is that you must have a buyer representation agreement in place in order to get paid.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: And once you have that buyer representation agreement in place, that is the maximum you can get paid.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: You can only amend it if you do additional work.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: And we have talked about this in this podcast.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Additional work does not mean you are tartar, you showed more houses, the buyers are paying your rest.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: None of that is additional work.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: It's either going from customer service to client service, larger geographical area from a limited geographical area.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: It's very limited.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: But here's the key it has to be agreed to in writing prior to doing the work.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: You can't do the work and then go back and say, well, I had to do more work, so I want you to amend the agreement.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: It has to be in the agreement before you do the work.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And if you're going to amend the agreement, it's for doing additional work.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: So try to square that with me, if you can, how you get a bonus.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: The bonus is being offered for doing work afterwards, right?
14:52
SPEAKER_00: So how do you ask for a bonus beforehand?
14:54
SPEAKER_00: I haven't done anything for you, but I want to receive a bonus for that work.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Ethically, how can you ask for a bonus when you've done no work?
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, builders might pay me a bonus.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, why are they paying you a bonus for?
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know, because I do good work.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, you hadn't done any work yet, so why are you in a bonus?
15:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, if I do good work, I want to get the bonus.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: How do you do that ethically?
15:10
SPEAKER_00: That makes absolutely no sense.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, let's think about why a builder is truly giving you a bonus?
15:17
SPEAKER_00: There's one reason and one reason only a builder or a seller would offer a buyer's agent a bonus.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And that is so you will do what?
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Everybody together, show the house.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Is that not the very definition of commission steering?
15:29
SPEAKER_00: It's 100% commission steering.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: They're offering you the bonus, so you'll show the house.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: No other words about it.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: It is self-fulfilling.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Because you showed the house, because they offered the bonus, they got what they wanted.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: You to show the house.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: That is commission steering.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: The sole reason you showed the house is because of the bonus.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Now, take it to the next step.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Your client is deciding between house A and B.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: House A has a seller bonus, B does not.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: What does that seller of A expect?
15:54
SPEAKER_00: They want you to advocate for their house because you're getting the bonus.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: That also is commission steering and also is a violation of your fiduciary duty.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: How do you explain that?
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Now you can tell me, as many of you have, well, it wouldn't affect me, I'd still advocate for both houses.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's true.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a very ethical person.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: I hope you think we all are.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: It still puts you in a bad position.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: And why does it put you in a bad position?
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Because even if you pushed house B over house A and they wind up buying house A and you take that bonus, guess what they're going to do when something breaks?
16:21
SPEAKER_00: You pushed me to house A.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: I told you to buy B.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: No, you didn't.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: You wanted me to buy A because you got the bonus.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Try to explain that to a court.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: Try to explain that to the real estate commission.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: You're the one who has to stand up there, not the builder.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: So, builders, you have got to stop doing this bonus.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: You are putting real estate agents' license at risk.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Ain't your license, it's these real estate agents' license.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Not one single buyer has ever bought a house because their real estate agent receives more money.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Never happens.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: Your concessions should go to buyers.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Buyers buy houses because you're giving them something additional.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Give them a screen porch, give them upgrades.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: That's where buyers buy houses, not because an agent makes more money.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: I believe, quite frankly, that you're going to start seeing these lawsuits against these builders because of this as well.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Builders and sellers who are offering bonuses.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Listing agents, it's your license.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: So when your builder's telling you to put a$10,000 or a 1% bonus, you need to stand up and say, no, that is against our rules.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: It's against the settlement.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: They can't accept the money.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: They shouldn't be accepting the money.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: We're committed creating commission steering, and that's a problem.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: You've got to stand up and do what's right.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: And I know there's a lot of money involved in these things, but builders, you need to do what's right, and listing agents got to do what's right.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: And that also means that buyer agents have to do what's right.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not your money.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: You cannot go back and amend your agreement to accept it.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: You should not be asking for it in an agreement where you haven't even done any work yet.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Ethically, that makes no sense.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: That money belongs to the buyer.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Use that money to negotiate more concessions for the buyer.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: I had a real estate agent the other day call me, said$10,000 being offered by a builder.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Can I accept it?
17:47
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know the answer to that.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I know.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: She went back to the builder and got$10,000 worth of concessions and add-ons to the house.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: That's what needs to happen.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a very large, evolving issue coming up here in the next year.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Number four, commission rates holding steady.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: This is very interesting.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: The predictions were after Sitta Burnett, it was all going to collapse.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Buyers were never going to be represented anymore.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: I had agents saying, I'll never work with the buyer because I'll never get paid.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to make any money.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: This has not happened.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: All we've seen with commissions, according to the Consumer Policy Center study, which was, by the way, an eye-opening and the fact that it had so many admissions and obfuscations.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: It was basically written to try to come to a preconditioned, predetermined conclusion about real estate agents being greedy.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: The bottom line is the only market where prices fell in terms of commissions were the million dollars and above.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: So congratulations, Michael Ketchmark, you helped the poor man, you know, that million-dollar listing guy, you helped him save some money on his listings.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Rest of us, screw us, right?
18:39
SPEAKER_00: But the point being is those commissions were already going down anyway.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: We know that million dollar listings and so forth, the commission rates are already started going down before Sitzer Burnett.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: So I would argue it has nothing even to do with Sitzer Burnett.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: But what we're seeing is Consumer Policy Center is basically trying to say it's because of your greed that commissions aren't going down.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: So apparently you are supposed to, of the kindness of your heart, just agree to start working for less money.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of the statements they made in this ridiculous commentary was that it's because of your greed and your will unwillingness to negotiate on your commissions that people can't buy better houses.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Now think about that for a minute.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: I go into a doctor's office and say, but for your greed and your hospital's greed, I could have an elective surgery.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: So you need to cut the cost.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Or I go into a restaurant and I tell the waitress, but for your restaurant's greed and overcharging prices, I could have gotten a dessert today.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: And they're going to say, oh, well, let me drop the prices so you can get a free dessert.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, you're the only industry in the entire world that just ought to, for the consumer's sake, charge less so the consumer can get more, even though it that harms you.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: The good news is rates remain negotiated.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Buyers are paying agents directly.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: And if the seller compensation of buyer brokerage fees does not fully satisfy the contractual amount, the buyers are paying the difference.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: And we haven't seen that since Sitzer Burnett.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: So in some ways, thank you, Sitzer Burnett.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: You've now solidified buyer agent fees.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: In the past, if I was at 3% and the co-op was 2%, I ate the 1%.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Now the seller pays the 2% in the co-op, and now we go and ask for the 1% from our buyer, and that's being paid.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: And I'm also hearing from a lot of listing agents that now, since they're not doing broker to broker, they're charging more.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: So quite frankly, the opposite effect has happened under Sitzaburnett, and I think it could not be better.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Number three, protecting agency with builder transactions.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this was a real estate commission project, I think, for a while, was that we were seeing problems with agency.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And mainly where we were seeing it was when a broker, when an agent left a brokerage, they would contact all of their clients and try to get their clients to go with them to the new brokerage, which is a complete violation of agency because all clients belong to the brokerage.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: And so when you leave a brokerage, you cannot solicit those clients to leave with you.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: That's interference with agency.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: The second place we were seeing interference with agency was when somebody would contact you to see a house, and the extent of trying to determine whether or not they were under agency with another agent was, are you working with an agent?
21:02
SPEAKER_00: They'd say no, and they're like, well, I'm in the clear.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: The commission said, the commission said, absolutely not.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: That's not enough.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: You have to do a reasonable inquiry.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing houses?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: What houses have you seen?
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Who have you seen those houses with?
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Contacting that agent to find out whether they have agency.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: The other issue we were seeing with agency was on the builder side.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: And what we were finding out was that clients that were represented by agents would go on a weekend to a model home without their agent and go view homes and discuss contractual matters with model home agents and in often cases sign contracts outside of their agent.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: And what the real estate commission did was make it very clear in a guidance letter that builder agents, whether you're sitting a model home or not, that you have the same obligations under our law as other agents.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: And this is a game changer.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: It made it very clear, crystal clear, that builder agents must follow all agency laws, no exceptions.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: They cannot interfere with a client's existing agency.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: And that means showing property.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: If somebody shows up to the house, they have the same obligation to make a reasonable inquiry to determine whether or not this potential buyer is represented by an agent.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: And if they find out they are represented by another agent and they've done a reasonable inquire, that's it.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: They cannot show them the house.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: They cannot go further.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: They cannot talk to them by a contract.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they need to pick up a phone and call the other agent, say, your client's here and you need to talk with them.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of anger has come from the builders on this, saying that's not what to do.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I hear some of them are telling their listing agents to go ahead and show the damn property anyway.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
22:31
SPEAKER_00: That's your license they're screwing with, not theirs.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: Your law is very clear.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: This is not a restatement.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: That's the funny thing here.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: This is not a new law.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: This isn't new rules.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: This has always been the law.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: This is nothing more than an enforcement clarity.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: And those agents who continue to ignore it are going to find out on the wrong side of this because buyer agents have complained for many years of their clients going to model homes without them on the weekend.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: The builder agent shows them the property, gets them under contract.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: That cannot happen, guys.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: That will not happen anymore.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: And the buyer agents know this now, so they are standing up and they're stopping.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, conversely, this also means buyer agents, you can't just drop your buyer off at the door and say, let me know when you get the contract signed.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: You have fiduciary duties to represent your client.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: When you sign that representation agreement, you did it under the old car duties.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: You've got obedience, loyalty, disclosure, confidentiality, accounting, reasonable care.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: And that ain't reasonable care, dropping your client off and say, here, builder, you take it and let me know what happens.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Who represents the builder?
23:26
SPEAKER_00: The listing agent, the model agent.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: They don't represent your client.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Their interests aren't tied to your client.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: They're doing what they can to get the best deal for the builder.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: So when you drop off your client and say, here, you take care of it, you're not doing anything to protect your client.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Read the contract to advise your client.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: The listing agent can't advise, cancel, or advocate for your client.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: So get off your ass and go do your job.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: I've had many builders call me after this and say, you won't believe how many people just drop them off here and say, Oh, I love working with you because I don't have to do anything.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Then you don't need to be involved in the transaction.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: If you're not doing anything, get out of the transaction and let's get a professional in there who knows their duties and does what they're supposed to.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: I get irate about this stuff because it's so common sense, but yet here we have this stupid crap happening all over our industry.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: And that's why the real estate commission has to come out with a guidance letter to tell you to stop doing it.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: So, in conclusion, number three, builders, stop interfering with agency and buyer agents, do your job.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: Number two, very big case.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: The Supreme Court came out with this Isaac's case, one of the best cases we've had for real estate agents since probably the McLaughlin case.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this has been many, many years.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: For many years, they have told us at the real estate commission that the South Carolina Seller Property Condition Disclosure Act was a shield to protect you.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: And every time I teach a class for continue education, I've told you that's crap, that this is the thing that people use to sue you.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: I serve as an expert witness in these cases.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: In all of these cases, when there's a problem with the seller disclosure, what they do is they sue the real estate agent and they sue them under that act, saying that they violated the act, and they claim damages against the agent because something was wrong under the disclosure act.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Supreme Court has come out and said, can't sue them under that act.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: You cannot sue them.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not a there's no private cause of action against a real estate agent because something the seller is supposed to do.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: The act requires the seller to disclose, not the real estate agent under that act.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: That's a completely separate disclosure statute for the real estate agents.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: And so the only person that can be sued under the Seller Condition Disclosure Act is in fact the seller.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, that doesn't mean that you're in the clear.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: What it means is that they have to sue you under something else, negligence, fraud.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: The standard is what you knew, not what you should know.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: And that's another one of those things that the plaintiff's lawyers like to do is they sue under the Condition Disclosure Act and then say the agent knew or should have known.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: That's not the standard.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: When you look under 40-57, you have to show actual knowledge.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Show me where this real estate agent actually knew this was a problem.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: Most of these cases we get, it's hidden damage.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Their home's been inspected.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: The buyer's agent was in the house much longer than the listing agent, but yet when something is found years down the road, they'll sue the listing agent saying the listing agent knew that the interior wood was rotted.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Somehow the listing agent, in their 35 minutes, they sit in the house taking pictures and listing the property and getting the document signed.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: Somehow they knew that water was leaking from some roof structure up in the top of the house, working its way down into the living room and somewhere hidden behind that sheetrock and all that insulation, that the walls were rotted out.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: They knew because they listed the property.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Yet all the inspectors and all these professional inspectors who never found it, they didn't know.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: And so the court said, now this is crap.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: What the court says is agents are not obligated to inspect for latent defects.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to tear up walls and try to find stuff.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: You're not the insurer of the property condition, and the buyers actually have the duty to inspect themselves.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Even though you get a property disclosure, doesn't mean you just look at the property disclosure and say, well, I'm good to go.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to do anything else.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: You have a duty to read the inspection, do your own inspections, and try to find these issues.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: So this was a huge case, finally creating a shield from the South Commander Disclosure Forum and not a sword.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Could not have been happier.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: In fact, since this case came out, I've actually alleged this in multiple expert witness cases.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: And in every one of those cases, the plaintiff's lawyer had to drop that particular cause of action.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: And it made the rest of their causes of action much more difficult.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: So this is a huge story for 2026.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if I was hammered rank them, and I told you I didn't want to rank them, this would rank probably at number one or number two for me.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Number one, NAR's new MLS access rules and code of ethics fight.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: NAR updated its rules as to MLS access.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: This is something that I have been begging for.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: What NAR did is they repealed the national requirement that you had to be an association member to access their MLS, making it a local decision instead of a national rule.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: And I think locally, all of you better be changing this rule.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, they put this bullseye on you.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: It is an antitrust risk for anybody to say that in order to get access to the MLS, you have to be a member of the Realtors Association.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: I know there's markets in South Carolina that still have this requirement that if you want to be a member of their MLS, you still have to be a member of their realtor association.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: I think that is an antitrust risk.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: I should not have to join your organization to practice my business.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: So that was big.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, we still have some MLSs out there as I understand it, and I hope I'm incorrect on this, but I've been told there's at least one MLS is still putting co-op offerings on their multiple listing service.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: And in the words of that great English poet, Austin Powers, are you mad?
28:16
SPEAKER_00: What are y'all doing, guys?
28:17
SPEAKER_00: This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: We should be moving away from all of the things that got us sued in the first place, not trying to stick to these stupid old practices.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: The ship has sailed and ain't never coming back to port.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Now, the second aspect of NAR's ruling, however, was a little concerning.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: On the ethics side, a proposal was put forth and with full disclosure of referral fees.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: It actually passed the NAR board, but was rejected by the delegate body.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: It was a stunning rebuke.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: People closest to the transaction said no to more transparency.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: That's not gonna age well, guys.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna come back to bite us all in the butt.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: Good thing is my good friend Leo Pray and some others like EXP have already implemented their own referral fee disclosure rules, and they know that transparency is a whole lot better for consumers, but even better for association members and better for these brokerages.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: So the entire story here is gonna be a snapshot of this industry of how we wrestle with this trust, transparency, membership, and legal liability.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: So there you have it, guys, the top 10 stories of 2025.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: And as you can see, all 10 of these stories redefine transparency, compensation, competition, legal risk, and the very structure of how your brokerage operates and thus how you operate.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: You need to pay very close attention this year to how these stories play out.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: That's all the time we have for our show today.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: Hope everybody liked it and enjoyed it.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: By the way, we are teaching continuing education again this year.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: That will be offered through Central Carolina Realtors Association.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Go check their website as well as their calendar, and you'll see when we are offering those classes.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Y'all have a great weekend and come back again another week for Dish and Dirk.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Y'all take care.