How Mega Acquisitions Are Reshaping Brokerages

Big brokerage acquisitions are accelerating, and we unpack what that means for brands, agents, and the tech that shapes the client experience. We also reset the basics for first-time homebuyers navigating new buyer agreements and a market where online answers are not always reliable. 
• Compass acquiring Anywhere Real Estate and what that signals for industry consolidation 
• eXp Realty acquiring NextHome and why Google visibility matters 
• Why most acquired brands likely keep their names 
• The real reason companies buy companies: agents, tech, training, resources 
• What boutique brokerages can do well and where scaling gets tough 
• Why some agents and lenders keep switching companies and when it backfires 
• Big banks, lending overlays, and how servicing drives stricter rules 
• First-time homebuyer reminders: pre-approval, down payment, closing costs, earnest money 
• Buyer agency agreement changes after the NAR lawsuit and how to ask questions early 
If you haven't already, subscribe and like Venture with Joe and Cody. Follow us on our social media, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, all the stuff.

Transcript

Welcome And What We Are Covering

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, hey guys, welcome to another episode of Venture with Joe and Cody. I'm Joe Skipper with Skipper Realty Group brokered by XP Realty. And there's Cody Wilhelm over there in the beautiful uh is it salmon shirt or pink shirt or yeah, we're gonna call it salmon. And Cody with a residential mortgage. Uh how's it going, my man? Doing pretty good. Doing pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Good. We're in spring right now. Like it is official spring. It's I think one day hot, one day real.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

And the 10-day kind of forecast is like it's looking like it's kind of normally spring. So that's good at least.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Um I'm I'm down. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I need um I had like a really quick flashback from uh before we get started. Uh I just want to say we're Cody and I are gonna talk about some uh pretty big business stuff going on in the real estate world, some big acquisitions by large companies, including my broker, GXP Realty, and kind of what that's gonna do for the real estate world. Mom and prop, mom, mom and pop brokerages. Um and then if we have some time, we're gonna get into uh we have some first-time home buyers that have lately come into the market, which I think is personally rare. Um and but they're coming in, and so that's a good sign. Um, and just kind of what kind of a reminder for first-time homebuyers of what to do uh in this market and how to go about it in the best way because uh there's lots of changes that have been going on, and if you haven't ever done it, you don't even know the old stuff uh versus the new stuff. So that might be a good thing, actually. Um, but I had a little flashback as that we were counting down to come on this recording, and I was like, I was thinking of you and I almost as little kids, like, you know, our first time doing this and how nervous we were, and how kind of it was just like, you know, like what do we talk about?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

What do we say?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah, it's crazy. I just had a quick, like, you know, you and I, because we sat more silent. Normally we talk right up to the point, and we're like, okay, we're back. Um, but uh this time we sat there for like two seconds silent, and I was like, that was like the old days. Like right. We were like, yeah, okay, okay, mentally preparing what's going on for the thousands of people that are watching like live. You know, we don't want to make uh make any mistakes, but we learned that it's not a thousand people watching.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

So no, no, and I think that we've also learned too that it's just half of what I'm maybe maybe more than half is just us genuinely having conversations. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like we have we have topics that we we like to try to go over and and work with, but a lot of it is just I mean, it's just you and I having a conversation. Like there's times where and I think that's what kind of makes it kind of cool in a way. Like I know we've talked about doing it more in-person stuff, but like doing it just the way that we've been doing it, it really doesn't, it feels like you and I are just having a a video chat on topic. So yeah, it's kind of funny how at first I think it was like, oh man, we're recording, and this I want to make sure I say the right thing, and and then now anymore. I'm like, I'm just hanging out with DJ.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I think people just appreciate the the honesty too of like just like saying what you think, and you know, we've getting more and more like that. You always gotta kind of tiptoe around that a little bit. And yeah, uh, you know, last week I wasn't in a great mood, so I went on rants about agents working eight to five. But uh yeah, uh I could still go on a rant about that. It wasn't just because I was in a bad mood.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Um it just stoked the fire, that's all.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah, yeah. No, I just think that I hope that people get some value out of it. If you want to hear anything in particular, feel free to leave uh Cody and I a comment um or uh message us and tell us what you want to talk about. But until then, we just talk about what we want, which um I think it's big news in the industry. I think we all get numb in the industry about kind of what's going on, but um real estate companies are acquiring other real estate companies like crazy. Uh, they're acquiring AI tech, they're acquiring like all sorts of things, and I think there's many reasons behind it. But like, for example, a couple of things that have happened recently is Compass bought anywhere real estate. So I know that maybe people that don't follow Compass or Anywhere Real Estate maybe are not, you know, uh, you're like, okay, who what who's anywhere real estate? But anywhere uh the brands that anywhere real estate owns is Caldwell Banker, Century 21, Cascade Sotheby's. So Compass has absorbed all of these into their larger uh business, huge deal. Um uh EXP just bought Next Home. Next

The Acquisition Wave Hits Real Estate

SPEAKER_01 4:05

home, everyone's like, okay, what's Next Home? Um, they don't uh they have our massive massive traditional franchise company with over 500 locations. Um, what's bigger about that uh acquisition is that all these places are built are owned by other places, so ultimately next home is owned by uh an affiliate company with Google. So um it's a big move for EXP because we're going to, we're already talking about as our company uh going into listing our having our listings on Google searches. So um yeah, it's crazy. Like I think when I stepped back and we were planning for this podcast, I kind of was like, okay, this is a big deal. You hear it all the time, you're like, okay, big big companies are you know uh uh buying out smaller companies, but um yeah, it's it's a big deal. And I think with AI and tech and all that stuff, the only ones that are able to do this stuff and buy the tech and and stay up with the tech are these larger companies. So we're gonna see the real estate world uh change pretty significantly um over the next five, ten years of kind of what a brokerage looks like. Um yeah, what's your initial thoughts on or any questions you have about it?

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Well, my my initial thought is I always wonder with these big big acquisitions if they if it makes more sense to keep the brands out there. Yeah. Like like you know, like you were explaining the um Cascade Sotheby's, so what was it, Century 21, John John L. Scott, some of those. Yeah, like they're owned by another company and they keep those names and now they get bought by another company. Do they do they just try like does Compass try to make it all of these locations and all of these everything is just Compass now to try to grow that brand? Or do they try to keep like that's where I from the business side I always wonder like what what does make more sense? Are some of those are do they look at some of those and go, oh, those are older brands, let's let's kind

Do Legacy Brands Survive A Buyout

SPEAKER_02 6:00

of purge it and let's make it all of these locations compass now to just show like we're we're a big top player in this. Um, like like everything, those like we were talking about earlier on our live, you know, fries, the store, that was a huge brand at the time, and then they just go out like Circuit City, Best Buy, a lot of these things that were like blockbuster, you just think that they're never gonna go away, and then they do. And I wonder if that will happen on the same thing on the real estate side, because there's you know, some of these what I call older, just meaning that they've been around for such a long time. Yeah, do they get flushed out with some of these bigger, newer brands where they might people might not have heard of them, but they're like they're now growing, and now that's one of the top places to be exp doing this, you know, yeah, carrying a big, big brand with it.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Yeah, and I would say, like, from what I've looked at, the short answer is no, that they're not planning on changing the names. You know, these names, especially as you know, as and why you're bringing it up, is in the real estate world, these names mean something, you know. Yeah. The Sothobies, the you know, Century 21, all those things mean something to a certain amount of people. And so to just completely obliterate the brand, I don't think is the is the is in the short term for these companies. Um, it's more of acquisition of agents, acquisition of technology, acquisition of, you know, because it you you take over Sothobies, you've taken over thousands upon thousands of agents and brought them into your company and into your fold, which makes you more money, which makes you more ability, have the better ability to have technology, AI, and provide your your agents and uh not direct or indirectly your clients, like a better product. So I think it's overall good. EXP has always been, and the reason I joined it was it was a very agent-centric. Um I wanted to have a brand, I wanted to have the brand, and I didn't want a bigger broker having to put a bigger brokerage necessarily on my stuff. And yeah, exp's always been that agent, like, hey, we want you to build your brand, we want to give you the resources to build the brand that you want. So I don't see exp doing anything crazy with that. Um, that's always been agent-centric with that, but long term, like you said, you know, you know, things change as as people stop to stop caring necessarily about it, especially as you slowly integrate that marketing to where people start to get comfortable with um different names. But yeah, right now those names are big. Those those are hard to give up. So right now, Compass and EXP are not changing anything. I think you're gonna see the technology, the the agents. I think, I hope the agents be better, you know, better trained, better resources, better uh resources for clients, and um and just a better product that they put out for clients. So that's my personal thought. Uh I worry about the the boutique brokerages. Like, yeah, if you want to be a boutique brokerage and stay small, then I I think you're fine. I I think if you're a boutique brokerage and you want to get large um and and grow, I think that's where you're gonna have to battle these companies that are like agents are gonna say, what do you offer me that's better than EXP? Sure. That's giving me all of this training and AI resources and AI training and you know, all the you know, the liabilities that everything goes with these large companies. So it'll be interesting how these boutique broke brokerages uh fare, you know. Yeah. I I go ahead. Yeah, I guess I'm just saying like my final thought is kind of like I want them to be fine. I do

Boutique Brokerages Versus Big Resources

SPEAKER_01 9:30

want them to succeed. I think it is good to have that because I think there is a niche of people that want that. Um yeah, I guess I'm thinking out loud. Like we like to think of ourselves almost like a, you know, almost like a boutique brokerage with the resources of a large international company. You know, we like to because we don't have agents specifically and purposefully, we don't have agents that represent our clients besides Christina or I. Um we think that people we've talked, you and I have talked about this. People don't care where you're with, they they want you, they want to work with you. Um so we've we've been very we've had a hard time and we still we still struggle with this, and we will struggle with this in the future of having buyers agents or having listing agents that you know your friend comes in or you come and say, Joe, I want to list a house with you. And I'm like, Well, give here's here's Billy Bob, like you can work with him, you know. I I struggle with that. So I like the boutique brokerage that wants to give their clients a more intimate setting, you know, um to sell. Um, so yeah, I don't know. I don't know how the industry's gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Well, and that's always hard too, because you're selling yourself. Yeah. So when you're selling yourself and then you pass that person off to somebody else, yeah, it's like you're just selling your your name and your brand. And I think that, you know, going back to those those companies that we were talking about, some of those older ones, or I associate with older ones, because I remember like as a as a kid, you Century 21, you know, you see commercials on TV, or it was just like some of those brands that you just kind of grew up with. Um and I think that there was a time, just like with everything else, where being with those brands was a big deal. And that was like, oh, that's a big name. I want to work with a big firm that has all this these resources and money and everything to help me sell my house. And now I just don't feel like that's the case. And maybe it's still viewed that way to some people. Um, like, oh, I want to go with the big name place because they're well known, and my house is gonna sell more because it's listed by this brand. Yep. But I don't know that that really matters anymore.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah, I think there is to a certain extent. Um, but you're right. I think that the majority of people don't care, um, just from what I know. Um, but there are, you know, Cascade Sotheby's is a is a high-end brand. Like it just is. Um, and so you do see a lot more, and maybe it's maybe that's not necessarily the brand, maybe that's the agents that got into it, you know, like it's sure which which is it? Like, is it the brand or is it the agents that built a career under that brand and now it's the agent? You know, people are like, I still don't care about Cascade Sotheby's, but because you worked high-end listings, you know, that I want to work with this and Cascade Sothobies. So uh, and I, you know, I had a buddy that worked there, and I I think that this goes to like kind of the corp corporate thing and all that stuff, is agents see what we're talking about. Is there's less and less importance to the agent, especially if you're an agent that has um been on a few years, you've made it through that kind of statistic that basically all of us fail uh after the first three years, and you've made it and you've established yourself in the industry, you've established yourself with referrals and things like that. You start to see agents say, What does the company offer me? Um, and I think that's part of why these companies are buying out other companies, is because they're saying we have to be able to provide our agents with a significant amount of resources, or they're just gonna go hop to the next one. Um that's what I saw when I first started is you saw agents regularly, and lenders were the same. Like you went from like a real estate company, you're like, Oh, they're offering me this, and then you get a little more experience, you're like, Oh, they're offering me this, and and you just kept hopping to these little almost boutique brokerages or even big ones, but yeah, you're always searching for someone who's gonna provide more. So um I think what I think see these companies are doing, and I think it's good, is basically saying we need to be the company that provides the agents the best resources in order for them to stay like with us because um there's just so much hopping around right now in the industry. Um maybe not as much. I kind of stay out of that. Um, I'm pretty committed to to EXP, and it's not just because EXP is the best necessarily. It's you know, I love it, but some people would hate it. But um I just don't want to jump around. Um, but I don't think that's based on, you know, if I move to this company, uh, I'll be better. Like, you know, like uh I don't know. I don't know. I don't know where I'm going with this. But I mean I see it speak to the lender side of things for sure.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Yeah, I see it on the mortgage side quite a bit. Um and it's I'm it probably feels like it's often because I'm not paying attention to other people's timelines on where they're at, but it's like I'll see the oh, this person moved again. Oh, this person moved again, and then you're just like it. I've always wondered because I've never liked change. Like the first few years of my mortgage career, I was at, let's see, I think it was the first four years, I was at four different companies, and I did not like that in any way. Yeah, my situation was a little a little unique in the sense that I I got on with one company,

Why Pros Keep Switching Companies

SPEAKER_02 14:45

and then uh the buddy of mine that got me into the business wanted to partner up and they didn't do, they didn't have like a compensation structure to do kind of a team thing. So we went to a different place, and then after like three months, they there was this big rumor that they were gonna shut down. So then we left and went to a different place. So it was like within the first year, I was at three different companies and I still had no clue what I was doing. And then yeah, and then after that, it's like I spent uh seven years at the next place and had no plans of moving, but um, you know, the market shifted things and it and it kind of forced certain changes. But I will say that I do there's one thing that I notice about um people that change a lot on the mortgage side. I think what happens with some is they have an experience that's um a bad experience of some kind, right? It's like a file went bad, and it's like some people just want and need to blame the company. And I think that they get to a point where it's like you have a couple bad transactions and you've blamed the company enough, and now you're like, well, I've thrown the company over under the bus enough, I have to leave.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Rather than like taking ownership of it or just you know, whatever that looks like. But I think that there becomes this common theme that if I go to this next place, it's going to be different because they do all these things different, and it's like, especially on the mortgage side, there's little variations of things, but we're all it's all it's all the same guidelines. It's not like you can go to this next place and do all the weird loans that nobody else can do, and you don't have any resistance with underwriting and all that. So I think there just becomes a point where like I I'm getting I'm I'm running into too many barriers, so I'm gonna go to the next place to then find out after a year or two, I'm running into all these barriers and I need to go to the next place. For sure. And I know it always feels like the grass is greener at the next place, but I I don't like it. I I'm kind of like where where what you said about exp. It's like it might not be the greatest place, but you're happy there, you feel supported, you take care of it.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Yep, it's not you know, could you get another product with someone else or could you get you know, but overall, like are you losing business because of it? Like that would be the ultimate determining factor. It's like are you losing business because you can't, you know, succeed in that industry, or are you, you know, are or is it yourself? Like sure. Um, and I think with lending, I would say it's interesting because you're seeing the the real estate world go big corporate, like your big corporations are picking things up, and I don't see a ton of change in the negative for that. Um but in the lending world, and this is my personal opinion, so don't get Cody in trouble, is large banks, I think, are sometimes detrimental to the client because of so much bureaucracy and red tape and whatever, and not to say that you guys don't have to go through the same thing because you're not just lending money, writing a check to someone, Cody doesn't have to talk to anyone about it. It's just there's a little more wiggle room in a smaller brokerage or a smaller lending institution or a credit union or whatever than than these big banks, where it's it feels like the opposite in the real estate world. And I'm just thinking about this right now, so so stay with me as I as I unload this. But um, but it is interesting because for real estate agents, I think the the more money, the more uh resources that you have, the more tech, the more uh class class work, the more trainings, the that's better for you. Whereas I think real in the real estate world, they do have offer a lot of freedom to the agents within there's a larger gap of freedom. And so what these brokerages do versus you versus lending is like brokerages are there to provide the agent as much as they can so that the agent can go do what they do and sell and and buy homes. Whereas like the lending world, obviously you're dealing with a ton more money as you get up to these big banks, which then makes them more restrictive of what goes on with it. It's just like completely the opposite, um, it feels like in certain ways, um, with lending. Totally.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Yeah. So and I think that there's you see that with because a lot of these places, and it's it's I'm not gonna generalize, but I guess I am at the same time. The the big banks, certain places that are a little more restrictive, they have their own overlays over top of what the like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA guidelines.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

They did they take it a step more. Uh yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

So, like, for example, FHA, you can go up into the mid-50s for for uh your debt to income. Whatever you're getting an approval on, you can do, right? And some of these banks might say, We see that, but we're not gonna approve a loan, we're not gonna close a loan that is over 50%. Yeah, so that's where you do get some of these variations and some of these tweaks. And it's like, well, this bank told

Big Bank Overlays And Red Tape

SPEAKER_02 19:40

me I can only get approved here. And yeah, most of the time it's like, okay, well, if if if we both did a good job of qualifying them, then the numbers should be the same. But if you run into some of these places that have these overlays, it could be the difference in, yeah, I can get you approved for more. Um or they have a cap at a at a certain credit threshold. And yeah, you know, other companies, we just follow whatever the whatever FHA says the rule is, we just follow that rule. We don't have any additional stuff. So a lot of times you'll see it with these bigger banks because they service the majority of their loans. So it's like a safety net for them to say, all right, if we're keeping this loan forever, we want to keep make sure that it's safe. Whereas other companies that don't service, or maybe they don't service a lot of them, they're selling them. So for them, it's like we're doing it and it's off our books, yeah, and now whatever happens, happens. But at this point, we're just we're just moving along. So you see that a little bit more with the big banks because they do service it, they're built to be this big machine that can have banking and mortgage and all this stuff, and they service it and everything. And it's like that's they're they're protecting their asset, but it can also be a little more restricting on stuff because they're like, Well, we don't want to, we don't want to have this person, you know, we don't want to have this riskier loan sitting on our books, and then they default, and then now we're we're we're better off just saying we won't do it and let somebody else deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

And on that note, like I, you know, what you were just saying is big banks, the priority with bank big banks may not be mortgages. Like exactly. So they don't, you know, you might have a loan officer that's super frustrated because they're like, Why can't we get this person the funding? They fall, they they fall in the perfect category. And the big banks, like, I the it's mortgages isn't our thing, and we don't really care, you know, to make you happy. So there's there's a bunch of factors in that. I would say like my final advice for uh real estate agents on that is there is no bad company to work for. I I don't think it really like I can tell my story of I started at boutique brokerages and moved my way up only for the fact of resources. I was like, I hit a plateau of of where I could go with what I knew with a boutique brokerage. And I was like, I just need someone to help me take it to that next level. And it was not a knock on a boutique brokerage, it was just like I personally wanted to grow further. Boutique brochures are great and they offer a lot of like, you know, more intimate training, uh, more care for you as the agent. You know, in my opinion, it's more they know you. Like you're not just, you know, one of thousands upon thousands of agents. So um I would say really there there is no right or wrong, and there's no right or wrong all the time. I would say hesitate to move all the time. Like, really look at what you want to do in the future. Um, look at what you want, what type of learning you like, and what type of style you like to do uh in your learning and in the technology that you need, and then go from there and not don't jump around because it just doesn't, it's not a good look. It hurts your marketing, it hurts your you know, pocketbook because your marketing has to change all the time, but it also it just isn't a good look. So I would say find someone, you know, these large companies to me are kind of the future of that. If you want to grow within this industry in the real estate industry, the larger companies are gonna do that. If you like to say, hey, I'm part-time, I want to do it, you know, two or three homes a year, you know, then maybe the boutique brokerage is for you. But if you want to grow, grow, like business-wise, grow, I think these large companies are are doing it and they just continue to improve on that, in my personal opinion. But on the lending side, what would you say to a lender that's kind of looking and what they you know, what would you give advice to?

SPEAKER_02 23:20

I mean, it's kind of similar to what you said, I think, because when you look at the big bank side of it, that I think what your what your target audience is, your target clientele, a big bank might have that like say you wanted to do construction loans, you wanted to work with builders and that was your thing, and this bank here offers a really good construction loan. You might be better off going there, and and maybe they have more restrictions on other loans. But if you're if you're like, hey, this is my focus, this is what I do, that might be the best fit for you rather than going to a different place that has more flexibility, but maybe their construction loan's not that great. So then you're kind of compromising a little bit of what you want. So I think a lot of it really does come down to personal preference. What do you typically, what kind of loans do you find yourself in? What are what are those situations? Because if you're looking at something that's a little more niche and and you're trying to target that audience, you want to make sure that that place has that for you. Yeah. Um, I think most of the time with the lending side, unless you go to some, I don't know, like maybe a credit union is definitely going to be more restrictive. They're gonna have other resources that maybe we don't have, but they're also not gonna have a lot of other stuff. They might have like 20% down conventional, really, really good deals. Yeah, but some of them don't even offer FHA loans. Okay, some of them don't offer any type of, you know, different financing other than conventional and FHA. So a little more restrictive, but if you're finding yourself in a position where my clientele is is this and this fits my my bucket the best, like that's probably what you should do if you feel like you need to change. But I think a lot of it to me is really the support, less less of the loan programs that are available and like because that it can and will change. Like you never know if you're working with that builder and something happens and now you're no longer working with that builder. Well, shoot, now I'm at this place that I was here for just builder stuff and now I can't get any more builder loans. Um, I think it's it's really the support on the back end. So, like your underwriting support, your processing support, your team that's behind you that can help you when you do run into some of these issues and roadblocks and stuff, that it's you're not just on an island going, all right, how can we fix this and nobody's willing to help you? Because that's when it really starts to I think that's when you really start to feel like this is the right fit for me, is when when there's challenges that come up and you feel a team of people supporting you and figuring it out and helping you get to that point rather than just being on an island. Because I don't think in the mortgage side, you know, real estate, you I don't know how much you you lean on your uh managing broker or support people, but I know on the mortgage side it you could be in the business for 50 years and you still run into an issue and you still are gonna need that support and that that team and those people there to say, hey, why are we viewing it this way? Let's dive into this. Here's my resources, here's let's figure this out. Whereas, you know, you're gonna be doing that as a new person, but but it just never seems to go away. And I don't know how much that that varies or changes with the real estate side, like you know, various laws or tweaks where you're kind of like, Well, shoot, I don't know. I need to reach out to my managing broker. But having that support is huge because if you if you try to get the support and it's not there, you're like, Well, why am I here? I'm kind of just on an island right now, I'm not getting any help. Yeah, the marketing stuff is cool, but if I can't get loans done, if I can't sell the house because I don't have the support from the back end, what good is it? So for sure. I lean towards that more and more.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Yeah, I agree. I think it, you know, every person's different, but I think, yeah, you just have to kind of it. I kind of willy-nillyied it in the beginning of just like, eh, okay, my buddy was running this bridge and it was cool, and you know, whatever, I'll do it. And um, I think looking back, and I and I wouldn't have changed anything, but just really focus on, you know, kind of what your clientele is, who you want to serve. Um and in the real estate world, I think you know, the name really doesn't matter. It's more what resources you have to build your own brand. And you want to, I I personally think you want to build your own brand. You don't want to build it for some other company. Um so get with a company that allows you to have that flexibility within the law that allows you to kind of market yourself versus them. So really quickly, let's go over um just really quickly. We've had some first-time homebuyers coming into the market. Um, and so I just wanted to kind of reiterate a lot of things have changed. If you first time homebuyers are watching at this point, which you're like, I was I'm not a real estate agent and not a lender, so I don't care. But hopefully you're still watching. But uh, a lot of things have changed. The NAR lawsuit has happened uh years ago. But if you're new coming in, there's a new lawsuit, you're gonna have to sign a formal document with your uh real estate agent that's gonna say that you're gonna pay them a certain compensation if they charge a compensation, which 99.9% of agents will charge you for their work. But um find an agent you know that explains that contract to you, can walk you through it and how they navigate that commission, because what we have done as a company is kind of uh

First Time Buyer Rules Just Changed

SPEAKER_01 28:35

incorporated into an offer, and you know, we're pretty successful with that, and so the buyer doesn't have to pay. So the a lot of law changes have been going on, and so if you are a first-time home buyer on the real estate side of things, not necessarily the lending, but uh just be prepared that you can't just call a lender, walk into a house and say, Okay, like the they're gonna have to have some paperwork associated with it. So anything, anything you suggest for a new first-time homebuyer besides get pre-approved. That's the first step in life of real estate.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

That it is. Um yeah, I mean a lot of it just comes down to walking through what I think we all feel are the very basics of things. So just numbers, down payment, down payment assistance options, closing costs. Yeah, especially. Do you have to pay them? Yeah, especially for first-time home buyers. Do you have to pay them? When are they paid? What is earnest money? How does earnest money work? Do I get it back? You know, a lot of those just kind of basic things that we're so used to. Yeah. Um, they're big questions that people have because it's like there's so many different terms and numbers and things being thrown around. I notice that there's some people that don't they don't want to feel dumb. So they don't want to ask the question, but then they get to a point where they're like, Yeah, I I feel I'm frustrated because I don't know a lot of this stuff. But but so for me, I try to always remind myself of what it was like learning the business in the very beginning and going, okay. And I'll tell them too like, stop me if you know all this stuff. But here's what some of this stuff means, here's what any of this stuff is. So I think a lot of it is just having those conversations. I always encourage people to, even if you're not ready, even if you think you're not gonna buy for five years or two years or whatever that looks like, have that conversation because I think all of us are, we want to be able to help, we want to be able to educate, we want to give you correct information as opposed to not to say that there's stuff online that shouldn't be trusted, but I think you can get a different answer for the and for the question. Absolutely. And you're like, wait, okay, this one was posted three years ago. This one was posted. Yeah, like it's confusing. I don't understand it. So getting all that information up front before maybe even you're ready, just to kind of start to check some of those things off your list of all right, what do we need to what does our credit need to look like? What is my income? I have all these student loans, what do I do with them? They're deferred, can I, you know, and

Pick Pros You Can Ask Anything

SPEAKER_02 31:05

there's like every person's situation is so different. Um, so I think just having a good conversation with with a loan officer, um I'm here if you need me. Um but just having that conversation, ask those questions, you know, use the internet as much as you want, but I'd say rely on a real person who does it. Yeah, for sure. Because as we've talked about with AI and the internet and everything, um, sometimes the sources that are used or the context in which it is used is not accurate to the real thing. So and I find that like sometimes I'll rather than going through the guidelines of everything when I have a question, I will Google it because now you've got Gemini that pulls that up and everything. And there's times where I pull stuff up and I'm like, that doesn't seem right. And the source is not a guideline, the source is some other person's website. Website that is not even really it took like a clip of it, so it looks like it's applicable to your question, but then you dive into it, and I'm like, that's why I I use it as a kind of like quick little reference point, yeah, and then I dive into the real guidelines of stuff for sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

So yeah, I think like overall, I guess like the theme of what you just said is like find someone that you feel comfortable talking to and sounding good in front of, if that makes sense. Yes, exactly. Because it is like there are personality differences, and as much as you and I like to think that we get along with everyone and everyone would love us, um, it it may not work. So, you know, your buddy that refers you to someone, don't just accept that that is the person that you need to be with. It's sure uh really talk to talk to agents, talk to lenders, and find out not only what programs they have, but is this someone that I can make the biggest purchase of my life with? You know, it's not a marriage, but it's like you want someone to feel comfortable texting and saying, Hey, I don't have a clue about this, or what does this even mean? What does you know earnest money mean? What is you know? So you really want someone um obviously that knows what they're doing, but also can communicate with you in a way that you know makes you feel like this this purchase is is okay to happen or not okay to happen. So yeah, and Cody and I are the best at what we do, but um we obviously some people don't agree with that. So uh and that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

There's fine, yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

But um, yeah, so if you do have any questions about real estate or you know, you just want to uh tap into Cody or me and just find out any questions you have, it's no commitment to us. We are happy to help, even if it doesn't work out with us individually, and we're happy to help uh in the real estate world because it's confusing, and there's a lot of great people out there that work in this industry, and there's a lot of terrible people that work in this industry. So um want you to find the best ones, no matter if it's us or not.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

So yeah, and and sometimes, like you said, that's the case where the questions, the the plan, the project, whatever it is, is like, hey, I think you're gonna be actually best served to go talk to this person. Yeah. Because, you know, I don't know that we can do what you're looking for, but yeah, for sure. This person might be able to. So maybe start there and take a look at it. And I think we all want we all want to earn everybody's business, but we also realize too that we can't. Yeah. There's there's other people in other places that that might do that better. And that's our goal is to get you. If we can do it the best, then we're gonna do it. If we can't, then we're gonna refer you to somebody else that can that can give you the service and the product and whatever it is that you need. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Okie doke, my bloke. Um, well uh and if you haven't already, subscribe and like uh Venture with Joe and Cody. Uh follow us on our social media, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, all the stuff. Cody is just Google us. Just Google us. Yeah, that's true. They might be able to. I haven't Googled our I haven't Googled us in a while. I need to Google us.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Yeah, maybe don't Google us yet. Let me let me Google us first.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

Let us change the algorithms first. Yeah, exactly. Okay, man. Well, it's good talking to you. And until next week, we'll uh see you later. Sounds good. Okay, bye. All right.