Future of Real Estate I Ricky Carruth DSH #449

Like right now, there's 650,000 houses for sale in the U.S., but we're higher than where we were the past couple years.

It's coming back up, but we're still so far away from where we really were.

We're going to kind of be in the same boat because all this demand that's sitting there, they're all going to come out at the same time for agents and people that own properties as they watch prices go up or whatever.

But if you're looking to buy a home, it's not going to be great.

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All right, guys, first guest from Alabama, Ricky Carruth.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Oh, man.

My pleasure.

Representing the state.

Yeah.

Bama, roll-tie.

Yeah, actually, we just won the Sweet 16.

We're in the Elite 8.

Oh, congrats.

Yeah, last night.

Other than college football, what are you guys known for?

Basketball.

Yeah.

Nah,

I live on the beach.

So people don't know we have beaches.

I just asked that.

Like, what are we known for?

Like, I went, I speak all over the country every week.

I'm at a different place speaking to agents.

And I'll ask them, like, what do you, what's the first thing you think of when you hear the word Alabama?

And it's always football, right?

Yeah, football.

And,

but, like, you know, rednecks, mud.

But we're not really known for much because we don't have any professional sports, you know?

Right.

Yeah, we don't

got much, but we got some of the cheapest property taxes, some of the cheapest properties.

Okay.

Um, and I live on the beach, and it's beautiful.

Um, it's it's basically Florida, born and raised there, uh-huh.

Nice, so you've seen that appreciate a lot, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, when I was growing up, there was no condos, and now it's just a wall with condos.

Yeah, it's cool.

And is that where you're buying properties at, Alabama?

Oh, why not?

Like, if I were living in California, you know, I'd be screwed because prices went up so much, the cash flow is not there.

I know guys in California, they don't buy where they are.

They buy where I am.

Yeah.

Because of squatters, too.

Well, there's a lot of stuff

in California, but

where I'm at, dude, property taxes are cheap.

Cash flow is good.

The prices are good.

And I know it.

So I just buy stuff right around where I live.

Nice.

And

it does well.

That's cool.

And

all the properties I I buy are like 10 minutes from the beach.

So it's got that beach allure, you know, so people are moving there because they want to be close to the beach.

We're building a $150 million high school.

Yeah.

You know, it's a small town, dude.

Like Gulf Shore is an Orange Beach.

It's about 30,000 population.

Wow.

The whole town?

The whole both towns put together.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

But we've got

yearly, we have about 8 million visitors.

It's more than Hawaii.

That's the biggest ratio of residents to visitors I've ever heard of.

Yeah, it's insane.

And

so, like, we have this huge second home market, which is, I was a real estate agent for 20 years, and that's all I sold, really, was just Gulffront condos and stuff.

And then I got into coaching agents and buying properties and stuff like that.

But yeah,

it's a very small town, and it's growing,

but we're building $150 million high school.

And I just bought three acres on a corner piece that's literally like five miles from where the new high school is going to be, 10 minutes from the beach, beach a mile from a new bridge they're fixing to build I'm fixing to build apartments there so that's smart because you know what's being built so you know the value is going to go there's no apartments being built in Gulf Shores right this second it's growing like crazy they're about to build a high school a huge commercial

like restaurants and condos and stuff literally a block from this property

and nobody's building apartments there but there's a lot of single-family homes being built that are being rented out so there are rental units being built i actually bought a bunch of those last year a bunch of brand new single-family homes, D.R.

Hortons

that do well.

But yeah,

for me, it's fun because

everybody's like, oh, it's so rough.

And I'm like, well, I'm buying stuff and cash flowing over here.

So I'm kind of spoiled being down there.

That's a good, I guess that's, I mean, like, I got the beach and I got great investment properties.

So that's, you know, I mean, there's something good to be had in Alabama.

It's cool to see you investing in your own community too and giving back to your own community.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

That's a big part of it, too.

Is like, I know some of my renters, you know.

Nice.

Yeah.

It's a small town.

Small town.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

So you have no plans on moving then.

You're going to stay there, stick it out.

Dude, we thought about like,

I went to LA a month ago and I got so much done.

Like I did like four podcasts and met all these people and did all this business.

And I'm like, bro, if I, if I was living out here, it'd be over.

It sounds like L.A.

for sure.

Yeah, it'd be, I'd have so much, I could do so much stuff.

Um,

but we thought about it, you know, like Miami or something like that.

Um, we love New York, but

um, we just love it where we are.

We thought about going, but you know, um, we'll do something.

But like, I got a four-year-old daughter, you know, both of my wife and my parents live there, you know, so we got a really nice house.

Like our house here would be like five mil.

I bet, you know, we bought it for 1.1 before the pandemic.

It's worth like two now, and that's a lot for Bama.

I bet.

Yeah.

That's a supported place.

Make a creed.

It's on an acre.

It's in a gated community on a golf course, 10 minutes from the beach.

Golf cart ride to like huge shopping centers and stuff.

That's awesome.

Like,

as much as opportunity is out there, but like, you know, like social media really kind of makes it such a small world where.

Yeah, I could go out there and do a bunch of stuff, but I could just fly into Vegas and do a bunch of stuff like this.

I want to golf with Pineda right after this.

And

I had a bunch of meetings yesterday.

So just

I'm always moving.

Yeah, it's the balance we play, right?

Give up your house for a better area, like living in LA, but then you'd have to live in like an apartment and pay the same price as a house or go to Montana, go to Alabama.

The cost of living and stuff.

Yeah.

I mean, that's one thing.

I don't know, man.

Like, you just...

People make decisions, you know.

I just, I've never really moved around.

I know, I have friends that like live in a different place every year, you know.

whatever, you know.

Yeah, I think Vegas is decent because it's a little pricey, but you got Vegas.

It's not as bad.

It's not as bad as Cali.

Yeah.

I know a lot of people that came here from Cali and they're like, oh man, this is like a dream come true, you know, as far as prices and stuff.

So I don't know.

I like, honestly, it's almost, I almost kind of like my lifestyle where like I can come in, do things like this, you know, have some meetings, see everybody, breathe the air out here, and then go back home.

Yeah.

you know,

what would your advice to me be?

I'm looking to buy my first house probably later this year.

What are you buying it for?

What do you want to buy a house?

A personal house to live in, yeah.

You think I'll probably do it now, right now?

Yeah, yeah, because

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

there's still a lot of pockets in the country that are getting multiple offers on properties, um, pockets.

Um, like the demand is there

big time.

Like there's a lot of people that want to sell but can't because of interest rates.

And

that group is growing like crazy.

Yeah.

And then there's a lot of, there's way more first-time homebuyers than we've seen since the baby boomers.

Wow.

Yeah.

Just the amount of 33-year-olds.

If you look at the birth rates,

you know, in the 90s, it just spiked.

And like those people are in their mid-30s now.

Well, that's when people buy homes.

So you've got first-time homebuyers, like this massive wave.

And then you've got the trade-up sellers who have, they hate their home more and more.

Like there's a huge group of them that need an extra bedroom or they'd love to be on the water or whatever.

They can't sell because interest rates.

So like there's all these people that want to buy and sell, but they really can't.

And when interest rates come down, it's going to be, you know, and

like right now, there's 650,000 houses for sale in the U.S.

Pre-pandemic, it was like one to 1.1.

So we're like half of where we were, but we're higher than where we were the past couple of years.

So it went down to like in the threes, 300,000s.

And then, and then it's crept back up the past couple of years.

And now we're, it's coming back up, but we're still so far away from where we really were, which was kind of low itself.

And so when they start lowering rates, if they, if they start lowering rates,

you know, we're already got already got multiple offers happening.

It's just going to become more widespread.

We're going to kind of be in the same boat because all this demand that's sitting there, you know, they're all going to come out at the same time.

And

that's going to reduce, you know, inventory again.

It's like for me, I would, I would much rather than wait till inventory actually got back up to at least pre-pandemic levels, like 1.1 to 1.1, before they started lowering rates.

I mean, no, that's what I, I mean, as an agent, it's like you're fixing to make a lot of money because when they lower rates, it's going to be a surge.

Right.

And

there's more inventory than there has been for the past couple of years.

So there's going to be a lot of transactions happening.

So like it's going to be great for agents and people that own properties as they watch prices go up or whatever.

But if you're looking to buy a home, it's not going to be great.

It'll be competitive.

Yeah, it'll be competitive and prices will be higher.

And, you know, it's just right now you actually have a moment where there's this window between now and when they start lowering rates where you can kind of

negotiate or, you know, pick and choose a house.

right and i'm looking to do actually seller financing you're looking to make an offer for them to finance the house because i don't think i'd be able to get the loan i want through a bank why not because i want an expensive house and all my money's in crypto oh

have you done any seller financing before yeah what do you think it's it's fine it's it's no different than the bank i mean you're they're just the bank you know um the cool thing is is it's not as regulated as the bank and you can um negotiate a little better with the rate and down payment and you know there's a little more flexibility it's actually it's actually better if you can find a seller that will do it that's what i was thinking too and work with you on it yeah but finding the seller that will do it really narrows your pool yeah your pool yeah a lot okay yeah that's good to know you know so you you're gonna have to work a lot harder a lot harder to find something i was just looking into that because of because of pace moreby honestly because he does seller financing subject to yeah it it just seemed interesting to me.

Yeah, but look at what those guys do, though.

They sit on the phone all day trying to find somebody that will do that.

Yeah, I don't want to be doing that.

I mean, could you imagine like trying to find somebody that would sign their deed over to you without telling the mortgage company, basically?

That's what subject two is.

I mean, like, how, how many people do you got to go through to find somebody that would actually do that?

A couple thousand.

And then how long do you have to like

work to try to talk them into actually moving forward with it after you introduce them to the idea right it is a tough sell that is a tough sell dude and then seller financing is a lot easier but i mean like most people want their money yeah or or they're like well if you what do you need me to be the bank for you can't get it from the bank so something's wrong with you like

it's harder it's not as hard a subject two but um

you just got to be patient and but i would be doing it now okay i'm going to start looking when i get home i would start looking i wouldn't wait i love it no i wouldn't wait dude because like later on when there's a lot of competition, the amount of people that will actually sell our finance is going to go way down.

Cause like if they have multiple offers, yours is seller financing and the other one's cash or the other one's through a bank that's pre-approved or whatever.

Yeah.

You know, even if your offer is more, you know, there could, there might be a chance that they're, they're probably, they might go with another offer.

Yeah.

And these other offers are going to be high, too.

Yeah, I remember that.

This is, I'm speculating.

No, I know, I know.

When I first moved to Vegas right during the pandemic, if you weren't offering 50 to 100K over their asking price, you weren't even getting looked at.

Or there's a lot of them that were even more.

Yeah.

So I'm familiar with what you're saying because I've already seen it happen and I can see it happening again.

I don't, I don't think, I don't see it being like it was in 2021, right?

Where it was just like

crazy.

I think we'll see deals like that, but not like every deal will be like that.

But I do think we'll, we'll, we'll have a moment.

We'll definitely have a moment where it's like there's a lot of

buyers, a lot of multiple offers.

Yeah.

I don't know, man.

I I think we'll see it because crypto is coming back strong.

Crypto is doing well.

Yeah.

I just wish that I just, I honestly just wish that they would not lower rates.

You don't want them to lower rates?

Really?

No, because it's just going to create the same scenario we were just in.

Right.

So think about this.

When they lower rates

and all this demand gets released into the market,

multiple offers everywhere, right?

That's going to cause prices to go up.

Inventory is going to come down.

What is that the definition of?

It's inflation

so like i i just don't think it's time i think they lower rates and we're going to get another round of inflation i mean that's just what i think okay you want it to hold steady for the next i would love to for it to stay the same for like six months and then let's look at it okay okay and then let's let's wait another six months and then let's look at it make a decision it's like i feel like all this projecting and trying to you know say what we might do in a couple months and stuff it's like we're not there i don't think we're there i think it'll be a mistake honestly.

That is an interesting take because I feel like most people want it lowered, but you're they want it lower, but why?

Because they think they're gonna get more deals, right?

Basically, how?

Why?

Why would they get more deals?

You mean for housing, yeah,

dude?

There's gonna be buyers everywhere.

How are you gonna get a deal?

You're gonna be competing, right?

That's something people don't think about.

I mean, what, why, what, what's their methodology behind rates being lower to get a deal?

Like, there's gonna be more inventory,

yeah,

it makes sense.

What about the the buyers are going to buy up the inventory you know like

so

when rates come down enough to where the trade-up seller want decides okay we're going to sell the house and go get a bigger house right when they do that they put one on the market which adds one to active inventory right but then they buy one so they take one away from active inventory so it's a net even okay like that seller added one Great, but they also took one off.

So we're even.

We didn't gain any.

And then the first-time homebuyer comes along that's renting now or living with mom or dad.

And then they take one off the market.

They go buy one.

Well, they didn't add one to the market.

So that was a net negative for inventory.

Right.

So we're going to have a big churn of like transactions because, you know,

the trade-up sellers and the first-time homebuyer, stuff like that.

But inventory.

isn't going to go down and there's going to be a lot of competition.

And like I said, dude, right now we're half of where we were pre-pandemic in terms of inventory, half.

And so we're going to go into a market where we have half the inventory and all this pent-up demand and start lowering rates.

Get ready.

It's going to be massive.

For disaster.

I mean, in my opinion, like I'll make a lot of money, whatever.

But, you know, and agents will make a lot of money and there'll be a lot of transactions and it'll be great, but it'll be bad.

And home buy and homeowners will be sitting there saying, oh, my house went up 5%, 10% or whatever.

But people that are looking to buy a home this year, that's not going to be good.

And that's what I'm worried about, right?

Because when that imbalances out between and the buyers kind of have a disadvantage, I just think they should wait till like I'd love to see inventory get back to where it was at least pre-pandemic.

That'd be amazing.

Right.

Because if we, if you know, because then if they lower it and we have a frenzy, well, we got a bunch of inventory.

If we, if we crush inventory, like, then we like get all these buyers through the system and then we still got inventory left.

Versus right now, we bring these buyers through the system.

We're going to go right back down to 300, 400,000 units

for sale.

I didn't know only half the inventory was listed compared to pre-pandemic.

That's a big decrease.

Yeah.

And it was lower.

It was half of where it is now.

Wow.

Yeah, it went down to three in the 300s, 350,000, and then 400,000 and 500, now 650.

Is that because they raised the interest rates so high that people just weren't even listing their homes?

Yeah,

exactly.

So, so, no, no, no.

What it was is, is that when

they reduced the rates, right, when they reduced the rates down to zero

and you could get a mortgage for literally 2.7%,

it made everybody go buy a home.

So, that rush of people who went out and bought a home to take advantage of those historically low mortgage rates, right?

They like everybody in the country bought a house.

And if they didn't buy a house, they refinanced their house at the low rate.

Okay.

So, what happened was, is everybody now reset their rates at the like two or three or under 4%.

Okay.

So then when they started raising rates, that locked everybody in.

Because they're like, I'm not going to sell my 3% rate and go buy something at a 6% or a 7% or a 5.5%.

I've got a 3% rate, a 3.5% rate.

So that's the golden handcuffs that everybody talks about.

It wasn't because they raised rates.

It's because they lowered rates and then raised rates.

It's like they lowered them, locked everybody in, and then raised them.

And now everybody's like, well, what do I do?

And that's what crushed inventory.

So this NAR settlement, what exactly happened there?

Could you explain what went down?

So

the basis of the suit is that,

how can I say this in layman's terms?

Because so many people, like there's so many, like the general public, like there's so many misconceptions about this.

When you go to sell a house, the way that it's been is that you sign a listing and it's like 5% or 6%.

Let's just say, for example.

And normally, like

the buyer agent gets half of that.

Well, the problem, the reason that they brought the suit up was because

the lawyers came in and said, wait a minute, that breaks antitrust laws, the Sherman Antitrust Act.

And basically saying that the buyer, okay, the buyer can't, isn't, they're not able to negotiate their agent's commissions because it's already figured into the deal.

Then the listing agent and the seller

basically negotiated what the buyer agent is going to get, which ultimately is what the buyer should be paying.

Right.

Yeah.

You follow?

Yeah.

Like it's already figured in.

And so, but the reason all this happened was because back like 40 years ago, 50, 60 years ago, there were tons of lawsuits, right?

Because buyers,

they were getting ripped off because they were basically unrepresented.

Got it.

They were just going straight to their listing agent, and listing agents represent the seller.

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To do what's best for them, the buyer.

Oh, so the seller was keeping the five, six percent.

No, no, no, no.

They were paying the agent, whatever,

the listing agent.

I'm saying the buyer what didn't have their own agent looking out for them.

Got it.

Right.

And that in that world, 40, 50 years ago, the buyer was unrepresented.

They didn't have an agent.

They just went straight to the listing agent.

Why is that?

Well, because they didn't want to pay for their own representation.

So they go straight to the listing agent who's looking out for the seller.

So now me as a buyer, I'm going to you who are looking, you're looking out for the seller's best interest, right?

But I'm dealing with you.

You're not looking out for my best interest.

You're looking out for the seller's best interest.

So, what happened was, is because they're looking after the seller's best interest, there was a lot of the buyers felt like they got ripped off in certain situations, you know, on price or inspections, or there was something wrong with the foundation or whatever.

So, all these lawsuits were popping up, you know, these little lawsuits, you know, the buyer suing the seller or whatever.

And so, you know, the National Association of Realtors, you know, they were, they were, they came along long before all this, but they, but they eventually, because of of that implemented this this rule clear compensation rule where

you know here's mls right here's a central network where agents can advertise their listings to each other privately so that you know everything all these other agents have for sale and you can help them sell them and to be a part of this and to be able to put your listings in there you got to at least offer a dollar you got to offer something to the buyer agent.

And we have this field.

It says buyer agent commissions.

And this is what you're going to pay the the buyer agent if they, in fact, bring a buyer that closes on the property.

So they put that in place

so that the buyers would have representation, so that buyers could have representation without having to come out of their pocket.

And that way every buyer would have representation, their own representation, looking out for them on every deal.

So,

but

Now we're basically forcing sellers to pay the buyer's commission.

Okay.

And so this happened like 30, 40 years ago.

This came into play.

So this has been brewing for a long, long time and it's finally come to a head.

And so basically,

here's the like just one sentence overview, right?

The way that we've been operating does break the law, the Sherman Antitrust Act.

It does.

Because like we're basically forcing the seller to pay buyer agent commission.

That breaks the antitrust law, period.

but the catch 22 is is that the system that we have in place right now is best for consumers

and so that's the catch 22 this whole thing right because it gives buyers representation every time of their choice right whereas when you take that away which is what they're in the middle of doing now the buyers are going to have to come out of pocket and they're going to say no i'll go straight to listing agent and they're going to we're going to go through this whole cycle over again

where now the buyers are going to be dealing with somebody who is looking out for the seller and isn't looking out for their best interest and And when a buyer comes to a listing agent as an unrepresented buyer, the listing agents are going to say, I'm advising you to go get your own representation.

Yeah.

Right.

If you don't want to do that, that's fine, but I need you to know I'm looking out for the seller and I'm trying to get them as much money as possible and get them the best deal possible.

I can't consult or advise you.

I can write the contract for you for this much.

Here's my fee for that.

And

sign this saying that you realize that I'm looking out for the seller.

You're unrepresented.

I'll write the contract if you want, or you can write your own contract and send it to me, whatever, but I'm looking out for the seller.

Wow.

That's the world kind of we're moving towards.

And if the buyer wants their own representation, they'll either A, have to pay for it, pay the buyer agent for their own representation for representation, or

they can put in the offer for the seller to pay.

Like the DOJ and

the plaintiffs and

the class action lawyers, they're not saying that they don't want the seller, they don't care if the seller pays the buyer agent commission.

They're saying they don't want them to be forced into doing it every single time, which is what has been happening.

Got it.

Right.

So

they're going to take the buyer agent commission field out of MLS.

That's what they're proposing.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's a big change.

Or you can't put it in there.

It's going to be a big change.

And

they can offer it through saying seller concessions, like we'll pay X amount of closing costs or whatever to go towards buyer agent fees and

your prepaids and everything else.

So they're not saying that you can't pay it, you know, if you want to, but they just wanted more clarity and more transparency around like

you don't have to, right?

And we're not going to make you.

And so that's really what it all comes down to, man.

It's like we're going into a world where as a buyer, you're either going to have to like go get an agent, sign a piece of paper saying you're going to pay them this much.

Agents might start taking retainers,

but you can go straight to the listing agent.

Now, what's interesting is that right now we're at an all-time high with the amount of information consumers have, buyers and sellers, right?

So like

a buyer looks on Zillow, a buyer does their research or whatever.

They literally know more about the house and stuff than agents do because they're zeroing in on that house or that subdivision where we're kind of like, we're looking at the whole market.

We got to buy a bunch of buyers.

buyers.

They've went really deep with this one property, they know all the past sales and history, and owner's name, they know everything, right?

So, we're at an all-time high with the amount of information consumers have, buyers and sellers.

But guess what?

We're else at an all-time high at the amount of people who choose it's their choice to use a real estate agent.

It's like you know, a lot of people are like, Well, what do we need agents for?

We got Zillow, we got this, we got that, we got all this stuff.

Well, that goes against

data.

We have more information now, but we're also at an all-time high with the percentage of buyers and sellers who choose by their own choice to use an agent.

Why is that?

Right?

They got all the information.

Why can't they just do it on their own?

It's their choice.

They don't have to use an agent.

They can just sell by owner, buy by owner.

They can do whatever they want to do.

Well, with all this information, it kind of creates

confusion because there's so much.

It's almost Chinese at that point, right?

You almost don't even know, like, what am I looking at?

This is a lot of stuff.

And it actually confuses them even more is what I, is, this is what I'm thinking.

And it causes them to say, like, this is, this is way over my head.

This is

also like fees and stuff you got to worry about.

Yeah.

Oh, they don't know.

That's the thing.

Like, so I had a for sale by owner.

I sold this guy's property a long time ago.

We're like great friends.

He called me and he's like, well, I'm going to buy this other condo.

I was like, go do it.

And then he called me a month later.

He's like, we're buying it by owner and we're selling ours by owner.

I'm like, awesome.

Cool.

I don't care.

He's like, we got an offer.

And I want to run the scenario past you or whatever.

I'm like, okay.

See, now we're venturing into what agents do.

See, like

we don't just people think we just open doors and turn on the lights and find buyers.

No, that you can do all that on your own and it's easy to do.

Where our value is, is, is making sure that you get the best deal possible, right?

And consulting you through that deal.

So he calls me.

He's like, here's the deal on this contract.

I'm like, wait a minute, man.

I was like, I get you're trying to save money and everything,

but, you know, this is what you need an agent for.

Like, you're wanting to sell by owner and you're wanting to save money on the commission, but now here comes the contract.

Now, what are you going to do?

He's just like a fish out of water.

He doesn't know what, what to do with it.

And I'm like, this is, this is what I make my money.

This is my money.

This is the money call right here.

When we get the offer, knowing exactly how to handle it, it was a really weird deal.

Exactly how to handle it, what to do next, what the steps are to get the deal done smoothly

in your best interest.

That's what you have an agent for.

It's like a lawyer.

It's like going to court.

Like, I can walk in a courtroom.

You know, I can get the ticket, speeding ticket.

I can go to go in the courtroom.

I'm not going to go in there without a lawyer.

I think what will happen, Sean, is

since buyers right now show a custom to not paying commission out of their pocket it's figured into the deal when this goes down and and they're told you have to pay us now they're going to say i don't need you right that's what they're going to say

and and then they're going to go and go straight to the listing agent and buy homes and um

and in the beginning i think it's going to be a lot of buyers that do that right yeah and then i think over time like two three years down the road we're going to see that stat reverse like say 80 of the buyers say i'm not i'm just going to to go buy straight from listing agent.

20% still pay their agent or whatever.

I think that that stat will reverse.

It'll be 80% of people who pay for agents, the buyers, because what's going to happen is they're going to go out there and do it on their own and realize, oh,

right.

They're going to get into these situations.

Now, a lot of people go and they buy straight from the listing agent.

I talk to them all the time.

They're like, oh, I do it all the time.

I don't need a, and I'm like, great.

You know, there is a good 10% of people who do that.

But here's the thing.

You may do all right on this deal and the next deal whatever but you're going to run into a situation where something happens right right and you're going to wish to god that you would have had an agent then another part of it is it's like when a seller sells for six percent and gives three to the buyer's agent what they're doing is they're going to reduce that to three they're going to say we're not paying the buyer agent anymore we're just going to pay three we're going to list it for three percent

And so the seller saves that 3%, right?

Yeah.

But then when they go, when they sell the house, what are they going to do then?

They're going to go buy a house.

So now they either got to pay an agent,

right?

So they save the 3%, but now they're going to have to probably pay whatever they negotiate, or they can go straight to the listing agent and not be represented.

But it's like,

I could go on and on about it, but when you sell.

like the plaintiffs, it was hilarious in court, the stuff that they were saying.

Like this one lady, she was like, she was like,

I sold four houses and I bought five.

And I'm like, well, wait a minute.

Like,

you're, you're ahead because you paid, you, you bought one and you sold, you sold four, but you bought five.

So you paid four commissions for the sale side and then four commissions for the buy side, right?

And that's four you sold, but then you bought five and didn't pay anything.

So you got one for free, right?

Yeah.

And then she was like, I'm doing this for my kids.

They're, they're, um, they're coming to the age where they're going to start buying homes.

And if I can do something for them, then by golly, I'm going to do it.

And I was like, wait a minute.

Do you understand what you're doing, though?

Because now they're coming to the age where they're going to buy homes.

So now they're going to be first-time home buyers.

When they do that, you're putting you on being on the stand and being a planning for this case are putting your kids in a position where they're going to have to pay out of their pocket for an agent or go unrepresented as a first-time homebuyer.

And the first-time homebuyers, that's who's really going to get screwed here.

Yeah, because they don't know how to buy.

They don't know, man.

And like, they're going to be really like a fish out of water because they don't know how to buy and they're not going to realize how much they need an agent.

So they're going to try to do it on their own and it's going to be a mess.

Wow.

So they need to figure out a fix for this then.

Dude, the lawyers don't care.

They just want money.

They just want the money.

They're making hundreds of millions.

They're making hundreds of millions on this.

Damn.

Dude.

How much?

Dude, NAR just settled for $438 million.

Remax settled for $55 million.

Keller Williams settled for for 70-something million.

Damn.

Anywhere settled for 85 million.

Compass just settled for like 57 million.

They're going off.

They're all done.

They're not done.

Like all the, there's all these brokerages still in the suit that have to settle out.

Hold.

They have to settle out.

Because the thing is, is they lost for $5.00 billion, which nobody has.

Nobody in the industry has the money.

You can't even appeal it because you have to put the money up.

Yeah.

So everyone's just settling out.

But you know what?

Home Service of America, I believe it's Warren Buffett that has it.

And like, so he has the money.

Oh, so he's fighting it?

Well, he's still in it.

He's the one.

He's the one left in the Missouri case that's still like in there.

He hasn't, Home Service of America hasn't done anything.

And I'm like, it's Warren Buffett.

You know, like the brokerage doesn't have that money, you know, but he's got the money.

It'd be interesting to see kind of what he does.

But yeah, the lawyers don't.

They're just like, they found a loophole in this thing.

They're like, here we go.

Like, we're about to get us a payday.

And we don't care what the aftermath is for first-time homebuyers or whatever.

So it's kind of a weird thing, man, because like, yeah, we were breaking some laws there unintentionally for the betterment of society.

Yeah.

But it was the way it was set up was best for consumers.

Dang.

That's crazy.

Ricky, that's been an interesting story, man.

Anything you want to close off with or promote?

We talked for 20 minutes about that.

Yeah.

Nah, man.

I appreciate everything you do.

Nah, dude, I'm just out here.

I'm coaching agents more than anything and just buying as much real estate as I can and running teams and traveling and speaking and just hanging out with the fam.

And

I've really come into a place where like I've always

like I got in in 2002.

I was 20, made a meal real quick and lost it all in the crash.

And I was bankrupt, homeless, sleeping in my car, eating out of people's refrigerators and stuff and went back to roofing houses and everything.

And so I came back and became one of the the top agents, you know, in the country.

I was the number one remix agent in Alabama and stuff like that.

And now things are going so well.

This is a couple months ago.

I catch myself like looking around, like, okay, where's the hammer going to drop from?

Because back in 08, it came out of nowhere.

And so I have PTSD from that.

And so I'm like looking around, like, what's going to happen now?

So that anxiety, that money anxiety, had me getting up, you know, just like if I was a teenager, like trying to make it, even though I've it, I'm like getting up at five o'clock, going to working out like a Navy SEAL, coming home and like just grinding away on my computer.

Why?

It's because I'm worried about I'm going to lose everything I got if I don't keep pushing out content and making these calls and coming up with these things and doing Zoom calls and answering DMs and doing all this stuff.

And I finally got to a point where I realized, wait a minute, like I've got PTSD from this and I have money anxiety and I am worried.

And so I had to take a step back, man.

And like back in 08, I read 100 books.

Those 100 books got me where I'm at.

Wow.

But I didn't read anything since.

So I just kind of plateaued on like personal development, right?

Because like I'd learned all this stuff and I'm crushing it.

So I'm just going to keep crushing it.

Well, if you keep doing same old stuff, you're going to get the same old stuff.

Yeah.

And so I had to take a step back and be like, you know what?

I do have a problem here.

So like the past 60, 90 days, it's been a real transformation for me.

I read every morning.

I don't work till about noon.

I spend an hour with my daughter.

I go to the gym late morning.

I don't get up early.

I'm sleeping more

and I'm making more money.

Love it.

Believe it or not.

And I'm not worried at all.

So that

figured I'd throw that in there just for what it's worth for anybody listening that might be going through some kind of money anxiety or something like that.

Cause that was a big thing for me.

But now, dude, it's just like, oh, I can breathe.

I feel happy.

I'm not worried.

You know, I had to kind of take a step back and look at the big picture.

I love it, man.

That's important.

Thanks so much for coming on.

Yeah.

It's a pleasure, bro.

Yeah.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you next time.