Why Buyers Agency Is So Important: A Panel Discussion

The discussion features Dillar Schwartz from the Dillar Group at Keller Williams Realty, and Kathy Laswick who is the Managing Broker at Realty One Group in Scottsdale. Topics covered include the value and significance of buyer’s agency in real estate deals, the need for transparency in transaction processes, and the agents’ responsibility to articulate their service value to clients. The changing landscape of buyer’s agency, influenced by various lawsuits and the competitive real estate market, was also highlighted, emphasizing the need for every listing agent to recognize the opportunities and challenges it presents.

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Guest Contact Information:

Kathy Laswick
Managing Broker at Realty ONE Group (Scottsdale, AZ)
602-791-8839
https://kathylaswick.myrealtyonegroup.com/

Dillar Schwartz
REALTOR at The Dillar Group (Austin, TX)
dillar.schwartz@kw.com
https://www.thedillargroup.com/

00:00 Introduction and Importance of Buyer’s Agency
00:29 The Role of Buyer’s Agency in Real Estate
01:03 The Need for Buyer’s Agents
01:14 The Challenges of Representing Both Parties
02:31 The Importance of Representation and Knowledge
04:01 The Complexities of Buyer’s Representation
04:52 The Value of Buyer’s Agents
05:35 The Importance of Explaining Buyer’s Agency
08:02 The Challenges of Dual Representation
08:46 The Importance of Cooperative Compensation
09:25 The Importance of Buyer’s Agent Presentation
10:12 The Importance of Buyer’s Agency Agreement
11:23 The Role of Buyer’s Agents in the Market
15:06 The Importance of Explaining the Value of Buyer’s Agents
22:05 The Benefits of Having a Buyer’s Agent
23:03 Understanding Pricing Strategy in Real Estate
23:15 The Role of Marketing in Real Estate
24:11 The Importance of Negotiating Commissions
24:34 Challenging the Traditional Commission Structure
25:02 The Art of Negotiation in Real Estate
25:17 Redefining the Commission Structure
25:36 The Value of a Buyer’s Agent
27:07 Understanding Compensation in Real Estate
27:39 The Social Taboo of Discussing Compensation
32:03 The Future of Buyer’s Agency
35:59 The Importance of Transparency in Real Estate
40:33 Contact Information and Final Thoughts

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  0:00

All we are talking about the importance of buyer’s agency and I’m really happy to have Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR with the Dillar Group at Keller Williams Realty have to get that in there too till they’re joining me. How are you? Dillar?

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  0:14

Great, I’m happy to be here.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  0:16

Yeah, I’m glad you’re here. We are talking buyer’s agency and you list a lot of properties, right? I sure do. And you’ve got a bunch of agents on your team? I do. You are correct. Then we’ve got a situation where things are changing in the world of buyer’s agency, and we’ve seen lawsuits and everything come into our world and looking at changing things up. But buyer’s agency has an important role that every listing agent has to consider. And even in social media, we see things just even explaining commission, people aren’t great at it. So I thought it would be great to have you join me today and talk about the importance of buyer’s agency, why do we need buyer’s agents out there? Why can’t we just be the listing agent and do everything

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  1:08

my first thought on this, especially when I’m sitting in front of a client is, it’s extremely first of all, you can’t represent two parties at the same time equally.

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  1:18

And that’s gonna be virtually non Texas, real estate, or anything,

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  1:23

let’s take real estate out of it. Let’s go into any other industry, right? Let’s go into a retail store. When you go in, and you try to buy whatever a computer, the Apple representative needs to represent and sell the Apple product, because they work for Apple, right, and that we’re taking this to just a retail level, they represent their employer, they are hired to sell that product and to be knowledgeable, what gets me in the door, something different. And that’s the same thing when we go all the way over to Real Estate, when we start specializing and really, truly taking a deep dive into being the best listing agent that we can part of our compensation helps cover marketing, who are we marketing it to, or marketing it to buyers who need someone in their corner, which is 99% of the time they’ve got the trusted real estate adviser, especially when you start getting into higher price points. People with money often have the real estate consultant, the attorney someone their CPA in their pocket, who is even saying go to a realtor, we’ve got this person who knows the market who knows the area who knows the neighborhood understand Pricing and Value. So as a listing agent, I believe and uncooperative compensation because of representation and barely representing each side. And then also knowledge, right

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  2:41

and talking about those marketing dollars. We spend marketing dollars marketing properties to consumers as well as other agents and a lot of deals are done because listing agents are working so hard to make other agents who may have a extra little handle or more buyers in the pipeline. If we’re focusing on listings, to jump in and bring us a buyer for that property, we have to jump in and think about if we are standing on the side to which we represent. So if we’re standing there representing the seller, then it’s hard to ride two horses with one ass, we can’t do a good job. Or in Texas, we don’t have dual agency. So we have intermediary. So we’ve got a situation where even if it turns into an intermediary transaction, we’re not representing their side. So even staying in as a buyer’s agent, or representing a buyer or us as a listing agent. Each side has a viable and vital role in that success of that real estate transaction. Correct. And when we start thinking about working and not having so many buyer’s agents out there, if that possibility ever happens, it’s too early to say anything on what’s going to be some of the changes, it would look like we would have a whole lot more unrepresented buyers out there working with listing agents, if there was no buyer’s agent in the mix. And if there was a buyer’s agent in the mix, they’re gonna have to be a little bit better on communicating their value, finding a way to get compensated and coming up with alternatives to marketing for those client.

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  4:41

I think the general consumer which we as an industry need to do a little bit better job of explaining, not just I go and do what you see on HGTV or open and closed doors. If we really break it down 90% of the agents start this industry as a showing partner and then And they’re assisting the buyer’s agent. And then they are a buyer’s agent. And then they become a listing agent. And there’s really two sides of this contract that I think the average consumer does not realize when you’re sitting there, you should say, Look, I have my buyer’s agent hat on this is the way we interpret the contract as a buyer here and my outs, here’s what I’m here to protect you first and foremost of whatever we’re up to now, like 40, what are we at 42 outs for a buyer, in addition to all of the contingencies in addition to Okay, now let’s bring in your lender, right, all of this happens that I think we forget to sit down. And we could do much better as an industry saying, this is where I offer you protection as your buyer’s agent. This is where I come in and make sure all of your T’s are crossed, i’s are dotted. And then oh, by the way, here’s what happens as a listing agent. When I feel like there’s a point where you really do have to have two different levels of experience to look at the contract and to properly represent a buyer and a seller. A great never rodeos, I somehow started out I think reverse because it started out as more of a listing manager role. And I jumped over to the listing side first. And I remember representing my first buyer, and it was a whole different ballgame. Because in the system that I was trained on you did one or the other, you did not do both,

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  6:18

do you find that you’ve carried that forth into the dealer group,

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  6:23

I would say I’ve carried

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  6:26

so so I don’t follow the traditional model of you have the listing specialist and then the agents can only work buyer’s route. However, when we do training, we do not just just train we do this is listing focus, this is the listing presentation, these are the listing contingencies. This is the contract through the eyes of a listing agent. And then also in marketing. These are how marketing listing marketing dollars are spent. And then you know anything else, this is how we look at money on the listing side. And then we go over and we have separate training, if we’re talking about a buyer, this is what we need to worry about when we’re talking about buyers, marketing dollars activities. And then you have a whole other component to this. If they’re not a cash buyers, we need to make sure that the lender is on the same page as you are and understanding the way it looks like for a buyer. In terms of the lending side. I think buyers representation can sometimes be a lot harder, especially in the market we’re in today. Because you actually have to understand the type of loan that you’re about to dive into, can you get this buyer to the closing table? Because now you have loan, the house, the contract? The lender, the appraiser. And you’re trying to get this sort of closing where on the listing side, you just have to make sure you’re throwing out the best marketing the best presentation you can to get that buyer. And that’s really hard.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  7:47

No property. Yeah. And when you are representing a seller, it’s hard to manage the expectations of the buyer. And that buyer’s agent plays that vital role. Yeah, this all

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  7:59

goes down to integrity. And character. If you honestly think you can represent two parties on most of our clients, this is their largest investment along with adding the legal the ethics of the contract, and the knowledge. You’re super human. Right? It just, and why would you sometimes I can’t sleep at night having one client much less having two clients on the same transaction. And then you fall into like imputed notice or into these things where you’re like, Yeah, I think that something’s wrong in the house, my client saying that’s not but then now your other client wants to know the truth.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  8:38

And you want to do that on the 18 hours of education every two years. Yeah,

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  8:42

it’s not, I’m not signing up for that. I wholeheartedly believe in cooperative compensation. And I think when we sit down in an appointment with a client, if everyone would spend as much time learning, and valuing cooperative compensation the same that they do pantones Color of the Year, and all that other crazy stuff, if they spent the same amount of time understanding what this truly means, then we could actually sit down across the table from a client and say, Look, this isn’t my commission. This is my compensation. And this is what it looks like to fire me.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  9:20

Right?

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  9:21

Do you all picture?

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  9:23

Do you think that many buyer’s agents are even really good at the buyer agent? Presentation, you and I have talked about the buyer agent presentation and communicating your value for years.

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  9:36

I don’t I don’t want to say I think they’re good or bad at the presentation. I want to say I think we could all do a better job at our order of operations. And part of this just comes by the nature of the industry of I’m driving by and I see a sign and I call and you have an eager beaver who’s ready to jump in a car and run and show and therefore you’re just not even in a good place to start the presentation. You’re standing in the front Right yard, it’s either 110 degrees here in Austin, and you just want to get inside and you don’t even know this person’s name. I feel like the entire process just starts out wrong. And if we could front load the buyer agency agreement, we might have an engine, I mean, this would just, we’d have a different way to do business. So I don’t want to say that I think agents necessarily have a bad presentation. I think it’s the process. And, you know, I honestly think before even sellers just start letting people run in and out of their house based on someone’s calling a sign and you have two strangers going into a house if we just started this process a little bit differently with who are you? What are you? What are we doing here, and this is me, this is what I need you to sign this agreement or just the process if we could change it a little bit and more, most importantly, front love that buyer agency agreement. And understate. So

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  10:55

what if you’re a agent or on a team that specifically wants you to have that buyer agency consultation? On the front end? Before you ever go look at a property? Yes, we understand you’re interested in that. Let’s meet before and talk and make sure you’re pre approved. Do you think they all in even perfectly explain as a buyer’s agent where the commission dollars come from? No,

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  11:22

I don’t. Because we’ve never had to do it. I shouldn’t say we’ve never I think there’s more the majority of agents haven’t had do it this way. Could we as an industry do better and practice and learn if we start all doing it together a different way? I think in the next year or two years, it would be and you know, there’s been brokerages that have come up and that do the discount buyer agent role, or maybe even no fees on the buyer agent role, and they’re not around anymore. Right? You’re not around for a reason. Because the model failed. I don’t have the answer. But I do think we could, as a whole do better explaining that. And maybe even just doing a better that, whatever. So you do run out and you do show that one home and it’s a hotshot showing, but set that expectation of okay, this was one and done. But the next thing we need to do is we meet at the nearest local coffee shop come to my office, I’m not going to fire off an offer Tonight at eight o’clock with my buyer rep agreement attached through Docusign. And never explain it to you. And I’m guilty of that. I’m guilty of given the three minute explanation of 20 minutes worth of legal docs. Yeah. And yeah, I think the market also drove that of where we had to just Oh, my God sign be done. And then we never stopped. We could slow down and give each other some grace, both on the listing side and the buyer side of Yeah, I did show your property. But now I need to sit down and I need to explain this to my client, so that you know who’s about to write the contract for your listing. Give me a second, give me some grace. Let me go over let me make sure all parties understand what they’re doing. Yeah. And I think we should all just erase it out of our mind the whole I’m free. I’m going to open your door. I’m going to be Vanna White, whatever that is. It’s not how it works.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  13:01

A few moments later, Dillar and I have had Kathy last week, who’s the managing broker at Realty One Group in Scottsdale, Arizona. Oh, though I call her The High Priestess over there, you get so annoyed with.

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  13:14

That’s very sweet of you. Hey,

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  13:16

Dillar and I are talking about buyer’s agency and the importance of those roles. And we have been talking about the fact that it’s hard in Texas, we do things a little bit different than the rest of the world where we can actually represent both sides in a transaction. And that’s why I wanted to make sure that you were on this because y’all do things a little bit different in Arizona, probably the most rest of the world. But we’ve been talking about really jumping in and being a buyer’s agent and what you do to facilitate the transaction, and how things are switching up and switching around with the lawsuit and the ones filed at this point in time. And one of the things that y’all don’t know about each other as y’all both have this major common bond for teaching and motivating people. So that’s why I like love both of you. But Dillar has been making some great points about how a listing agent really needs a buyer’s agent to manage the buyer. And we were just talking about that whole buyers representation meeting, and how we oftentimes get a call in drop, rock and roll to show that property and we don’t often get the time to present a buyer’s rep agreement and everything from the very beginning. And I know Kathy’s very passionate about buyer’s rep agreements and running the show. Just like Dillar is in A very compliant method.

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  15:04

It is really hard in today’s day and age to establish, when you get that phone call, and you have to run to that property, it is really hard to say, hey, let’s talk about agency, which really in Arizona is the law, it is, before you had any meaningful discussion, while it’s showing a whole meaningful discussion, probably not. But at some point, when you start talking about comps, and you start talking about value, and you know what you do as an agent, then you’re having a meaningful discussion. So in Arizona, an agency declaration is required, literally at that time, a lot of agents don’t do that until later. So right from the buyer broker agreement, is simply something we all should have been using all along, quite honestly. And it’s an opportunity for an agent to say, Hey, this is my value to you, as a buyer of representative, here’s my value to you, as your representative, and your advocate, as somebody who’s going to help you through the entire process. And I think we’re probably what we do the worst job at is really saying, Hey, this is my value, this is what I do. And this is why you should hire me. Because in essence, that’s when a buyer boroughbridge employment agreement. Interestingly enough, as listing agents, we have no problem going out there and saying, Hey, here’s what we do as a listing agent. Here’s my marketing plan. Here’s this. And so everybody signs a listing agreement, right? We’re gonna pay you everything’s fine. Probably what we haven’t been doing is explaining the value of the buyer representation.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  16:43

And they grabbed somebody to the market just like a listing agent, right? Correct. There’s really no difference in that.

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  16:50

Yeah, it’s big. It’s grab your value, and put it out there. But I know dealers current, when she is saying, Hey, we have to stop using the phrase I work for free. There’s no value in that. There’s no value in

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  17:06

free, we just need to throw three out. I’ve seen even post uncompensated activities even. And I had an attorney in last week who said stay away from that to just get into the services that you provide and quit talking about what you get paid for and what you don’t get paid for. Tell them what they’re responsible to pay. We want to make sure that agents even understand the offer of compensation and how a buyer’s agent gets paid because a typical seller will see. And I’ve seen it in social media a lot in the last couple of weeks where the seller sees the line item for the buyer’s agency on a closing disclosure or a HUD one if there was a cash purchase. And everybody thinks that the seller is paying for the listing brokerage and the buyer’s agency, when I think pretty much nationwide we’re negotiating as a listing agent. And then we cooperate and we offer a compensation in the MLS, or through other agreements with a buyer’s agency to bring a buyer based

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  18:21

on a choice that the seller may correct Well, or sets the compensation, or at least the agent recommends, what would be a good compensation for a buyer broker to participate in that sale. So that,

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  18:36

and I think that listing agents need to include in which we do what the buyer’s agents are actually doing. So in our case, they’re cold, they’re doing their cold calls or prospecting their door knocking. They are I mean, and now with the younger generation of realtors and social media. There’s no way that I could ever have the outreach I have without buyer’s agents. And I would never be as good as I am today due to the volume that the team and the agents allow me to leverage because if it were just up to me, I’d maybe have two deals a month just based on leverage, and I want to serve at the highest level. But if I have to do my own open houses show every single buyer do all of the prospecting every single piece of marketing, you just can’t have I mean, we have 20 Something listings right now, we wouldn’t be able to host the volume that we host without other agents cooperating with us. And I think being able to sit down in a listing appointment and explain, like, stop selling yourself, sell the process. Because if you think about it in reverse, it would be very interesting if we didn’t have listing agents and a buyer’s agent said, Hey, I have a buyer now I gotta go cold call for listings and try to find this house for my client to buy. Oh, what a nightmare. Yeah, we don’t turn the tables that way. We

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  19:57

have to do that already, too. too much when we have a buyer that’s looking for something that there is no property out there for Yeah,

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  20:04

the buyer’s agents have a grind of a job. And we have made it sound really fun by things like HGTV or Oh, Instagram, I’m just going and showing this amazing kitchen and it’s no show, show the hustle, show the grind behind it. Yeah,

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  20:20

cuz that’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of fun. Yeah.

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  20:22

And exemplarily, vice versa, listing and describing why you need a buyer’s agent and why they’re good for the process. And like you said, you’re doing a lot of the buyer brokers job already by giving the value to the seller, but the seller has to understand that process, and it’s not the lawsuit per se, the whole thing.

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  20:45

I know, they’re gonna appeal it. I

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  20:47

know, it’s not settled. There are things that are going on. But I think that at a certain point, we all have to practice like dealer does. We all have to give the statement of this is what the buyer worker does. This is why we offer compensation to them. This is why they’re good for the process. And especially when it comes to that’s let’s talk about the underserved. Yeah, yeah. Can you hear on fire reps? Yeah. And a lot of people may long,

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  21:20

I seem to teach that in contract classes all the time, and somebody is Miss telling everybody that if there is a VA loan meeting, the Veterans Administration is underwriting a loan for a veteran, that veteran is not allowed and cannot pay for buyer’s agent representation. And it has to be paid for by another party, which has traditionally been the seller. And I think that it’s going to have to continue in that situation. And that’s a protection that the VA does. Now if you have a veteran that’s doing a conventional loan, that’s not right. But when it is a VA loan? Yeah, you can’t do that. So how would you think that the seller would benefit on not having a buyer’s agent? Because in the sensor case, he when he was interviewed, he said, You want me to pay for someone who’s going to negotiate against me, I can think of 1000 reasons that a seller would want a buyer’s agent. Rep working with a buyer to not only get the transaction done, but make sure they’re covering all those pitfalls, right?

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  22:34

That’s right, they need to get them to the closing table.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  22:38

They’re not a piece of cake, or they know. Yeah,

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  22:41

one last minute. I don’t want to do this. And or cold feet. You see it every day. I’m sure Billy, you see it a lot. Yeah, we

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  22:50

have, I’ve already seen a few listings in our MLS, where the Commission’s lower, a lot lower, and then it says, now you need to you can work your commission into it. And I and my best guess from reading between all the lines is that they’re trying to price I said, essentially lower. That’s a pricing strategy, not a commission strategy. Correct. And so once again, like we were saying a little bit earlier, is I think that we need to do a better job of sitting at the table and not just explaining marketing in the sense of this needs to be pretty marketing falls into every category. The price helps market what we’re offering to it. And I mean, I challenge listing agents to go or sellers and go and talk to their local builders, their local builders need agents, they don’t only offer double the amount of compensation to a buyer’s agent, then they’re going to throw in some appliances a design center credit, and probably a bonus on top of that. Right. So if a builder would do it, and encourage a buyer’s agent to a brand new home that apparently has nothing wrong with it, why witness seller just simply offer a you know, Cropper to compensation.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  24:01

Yeah. And I want to remind everybody is here with a real tour member in a our code of ethics 1616 that if you’re going to negotiate that commission that is offered out there, you have to do that before you submit an offer over because you can’t do that after you’ve submitted an offer. It’s got to be done ahead of time because everything is negotiable, right?

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  24:26

Everything is made

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  24:27

but are you that’s what I would like to ask a lot of agents as they say that everything’s negotiable, but are you because I think a lot of agents sit down at the table and they say this by broker charges 6% for me to take a listing

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  24:42

being your broker that’s offensive. When agent there’s that they shouldn’t they don’t get it. Let’s

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  24:48

talk about the strategy. Let’s have a menu of pricing a menu of options, but I feel like it almost feels like agents are hiding behind like that it’s going to win the deal to blame this person and who’s not at the table? And yeah, everything’s negotiable, are you and second part of that is the statement, my broker charges 6% To take a listing without any explanation. That’s throw that script away. Yeah,

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  25:16

you’re gonna use it around me definitely say I’m gonna demand 10% Not just

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  25:20

I started 8% With all clients, I my hiring is 8%. Right?

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  25:24

Practice. So your business practices your business practice, right? Your ball or not that this is my business practice, this is what I do. Here’s my value, this is the process. This is the grind. This what happens, this is what I do. This is my family, stay away from stay away from it.

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  25:46

And I’m willing to compensate the other agent 3% of my commission to and then I go through the list of everything they do. And we do give our sellers the option of we go through what happens if an unrepresented party shows up what happens whatever, if it’s an AI lawyer, or someone’s mom from Houston, who wants to wrap them in Dallas, you get to choose and we’re going to advertise this accordingly. Right. And we go through that with our clients. And now it’s also interesting, because I think if you took a bunch of agents and actually surveyed them and said, Alright, how many unrepresented buyers actually close the deal, how many title friends came through and close the deal? And how many people brought Aunt Betty to the table to close the deal? It’s probably one out of 20 or 30 deals for each of us. If even Yeah, I think this year out of almost 200 deals, we closed one, unrepresented buyer and the seller actually called me and said, Do you supervise the transaction for $1,500, you have to do anything else, you just need to write and represent buyer and I said, I’ll write the contract and will not do anything else I will not negotiate. And we sign a buyer rep agreement that included all of the proper language, and he knew the only thing I was doing was writing the contract.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  27:04

So you have a discussion with your clients about compensation. I don’t think that’s something that many agents have a good handle on to have with their clients, even though that’s also in the code of ethics. You’re doing, what the code is laid out, they’re telling you to do. And even the amount of compensation that is going to be paid by a client, right? Why would someone have such a hard time discussing compensation with their client?

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  27:38

social taboo, nobody talks about what they get paid, you know, you don’t go to a doctor and say, Hey, what are you gonna make on my surgery? Or how much do you make each year? It just, I think socially, we don’t talk about people’s pay. But as agents, we have to talk about compensation. Last time you bought a car, did you ask the car person, Hey, what are you making off of his car? That’s it’s just not socially. It’s not the way a lot of people are built. And we train them differently when they come in to be an agent. If you’re uncomfortable with it, instead of saying this is my business model, this is what I do. This is how we make money. They don’t want to talk about I think I started having higher level

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  28:23

conversations. One once I had more reps under my belt and saw different types of deals, because when you sit down with the buyer, you really don’t know if they’re buying new construction, because that’s a whole different commission structure. In Austin, I’m going to speak for Austin, we have a bunch of wholesalers, and I probably close 10 to 15 wholesale deals last year alone, which require you to work them the very first line on half of it is no commission, right? So there’s that structure. And then you go in and you hit the little industry disruptors like ideal agent, home light, and these other companies that come in with referrals. And then you start seeing different compensation. So if you’re closing one deal every three or four months, you’re probably only seeing 3% It’s really pretty, it’s in the MLS. So you’re not having to go at the table and have these conversations. You start closing 10 to 15 deals a month, and you start seeing the true spectrum of real estate. You’re gonna go in and learn how to do it. I was just telling Robbie, before we get started, one of the agents on my team, I believe it was her first three deals during COVID. Every single one was like 2% or less commission, and so the only thing she knew was how to negotiate her commission. With her buyer. She actually had to go to the lender because you go and you don’t realize this and then all of a sudden you’re telling the lender, no, they need an extra 810 Because she I would say her average price point at the time was higher sixes Yeah. So we’re talking talking a large amount of cash that the buyer needed. So now She’s having these other conversations. I remember looking across the office and being like, What in the hell are you talking about. And she’s like, Well, I’m a good 3%, my buyer knows, if you can open your eyes as as an agent in general, and realize there are a lot of ways to do this, don’t go and throw the industry disruptors out the window. That’s just a way to do business negotiate how much money you want to make.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  30:22

And agents have to understand that they’re obligated, if they’ve got a buyer’s rep, and they’re going to hold their client to pay, let’s say, the 3%. And they go to a listing that they are interested in and only pays 1%, they have to have that conversation with that buyer up front so that when they decide to write a contract on that, and they close, there’s not a surprise that they’re going to be owed money. Right? And having that conversation, if you if it’s a taboo up front of not being able to talk about the commission, how are you ever going to, unless you’ve just decided, Oh, I’ll take the 1%. And that’s fine, too. I’m not knocking that I’m just saying, if you’re going to expect the full, you have to pony up and have a conversation, and then want to say man up I thought that would be will succeed.

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  31:12

I mean, on some transaction, let’s be honest, your client gets the home of their dreams, the transaction of their dreams, you make in Austin, going off an average price point, let’s say five to $6,000. What’s wrong with that? And you’ve just created a raving fan for life? Right? I mean, that’s a lot of money. In general, for a lot of people. When we are in an industry where we don’t have it, no one comes in and says deal or you have to stop at 50 $60,000. So sometimes I think we need to rearrange that and reframe if you get out there and have more conversations and close more deals. Eventually. There’s not like a pressure on this 3% Number. Yeah, because you’re not closing one a quarter or one a year. Where

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  32:00

do you see buyer’s agency going? What do you see with buyer’s agency? Have you had a crystal ball? Where would you see it go?

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  32:09

I’m going to suspend it. Let’s go is there is a value to it. And I think there’s there’s too much of a value to it for it to go with. Right. And I do believe that in the lawsuit that went through in the subsequent lawsuits that have been filed. It’s a money grab, plain and simple. People understand the contract when they sign it. This is the money I make. It’s right there in every employment agreement. And a few bad agents does not make a bad industry are a bad move.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  32:42

Correct? I agree with that. I heard

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  32:46

it explained the other day they compared it to the the what was it McDonald’s coffee, because one person spilled their coffee, then every single McDonald like in the world had to change the marketing and the logo and the way they sell and advertise coffee because one person out of millions and millions, billions. Yeah. Right. And that’s how this is. And you know what I can sell a house, I know I can do that. Now I just need to practice on increasing my conversations and framework around selling the buyer’s agent.

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  33:15

And buyer’s agents need to do the same. Agreed

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  33:19

buyer’s agents need to do the same, it’s imperative to be able to in 30 seconds or less to be able to hit at least five hot points, if you’re a buyer’s agent was the value that you deliver. And even having those value statements, it’s hard because you have to sit down you have to do the work. But most of the people know why they do their job and what all they do. Absolutely conveying it and conveying it in a way that someone cares.

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  33:47

If you show up because you’re just starving and hungry and haven’t been doing your job and building your pipeline. That client is going to feel that energy from you. Regardless, you’re going to feel desperate, we all feel desperation when it comes across, especially when you’re dealing with a salesman or salesperson, especially when you’re in an industry that people already see us as slimy salespeople. So if you show up and you’re you have that commission or that I just need to close this deal, I just need this lead. It doesn’t really matter what you say at that point, that energy is going to transfer. So if you show up as a professional and this is your system, this is your process. Let me talk to you about the value that I put up and bringing to the table. We will be fine.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  34:27

We will and I think that slimy professional description is prevalent out there. And it really makes me sad because most of the people that I know, in real estate, work their asses off. They make sure that they get tons of education, they know how to represent their client. And then you come out here and you throw it a show like Dillar said in the beginning on HGTV and everybody thinks, oh I can do it. We have tons of influx of new agents and they don’t realize how much work it is.

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  35:00

Right? Kind of the one thing that when I interview agents for the office and bring them on is the core of why they want to get into real estate. And the danger sign for me is always, oh, my neighbor told me I’d be good at it. There’s always so Oh, I just thought I love the homes. That’s like, my favorite number one warning. How about I want to help people. And the people that honestly want to help people are the people that make the best agents, right? Because they treat their clients, like they have a brain, they give them the information, they allow them to make their choices, and then they assist them and they advocate for them in the best way possible. Those are great agents. And

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  35:43

we’re surrounded by them every day. Absolutely. We learn who those agents are and who the agents are, who get into real estate to have more time. Because the

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  35:55

money is their number one reason. Yeah.

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  35:57

And I think as a whole in the industry, we could do a lot better job of being transparent and being transparent with our clients being transparent with I think some people are scared to like really sit down with our I don’t know how long your representation Doc’s are I feel like ours in Texas are bagel stack, and then you add burger required Doc’s to that I’ll ever slow down and be transparent. And that sort of falls into disclosure as well. For some reason, I feel like there’s this we’ve been taught, or there’s this energy that we have tied so much. And why I heard of a team in Dallas who’s doing an awesome situation right now, where they’re starting out with, let’s just say 3%. But they’re now offering buyer’s agents bonus, if he bring us a deal in the first seven days, we’re actually going to pay this if you bring us a deal, whatever, they eight to 14, there’s another bonus for this, and all but the way that they sell it, and I heard the presentation to the seller is beautiful. And they just know how to do it. And they’re being transparent across the board. And I think we could do a better job. In practice on like I said, front loading the representation docs and our meet and greets with our clients being more transparent about how we make money, and being flexible. And

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  37:21

I think that’s the key is literally bringing up the agency, the representation, all of that up front, and quit using DocuSign to complete a listing presentation. And I tell my agents if your listing presentation is not at least three hours, you’re doing it wrong, the buyer Yes, we run out and we show houses. But that should be followed by let’s go back to my office and have a discussion on how this works. If you’ve not had that already, right, even that you should discourage running over showing the house right away. Number one, for safety reasons. You should be meeting the buyer in the office and you should be going over your agency and how everything works. People can find homes on the internet all day long. That is not our value as agents. That is what our value in it is opened up to them. Our value is the process the getting back to advocating give people credit for having a brain and have that discussion with them. I’m

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  38:23

giggling because I just saw the text come through. I actually have an agent right now who’s very upset that never showed our listing is not a member of our MLS and is very upset about her compensation and it’s just like our listing agreement says this is what we paid on MLS brokers and I tried to explain this to you. And that just brings up in my mind like the conversation and expectation not only between us and our clients, but each other. Hey Robbie, I’m writing a deal for you. I live in Houston, Texas. I’m not a member of the Austin Board of Realtors I’m showing and we’re bringing a ready willing and able buyer can we discuss my compensation? It’s not advertised in MLS I’m not a member instead of sending over contracts and then just trying to force it through uncomfortable you can it you

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  39:10

can 1616 says you can’t do anything after you’ve submitted that offer. You’re

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  39:14

screwed. She’s Correct. Yeah,

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  39:17

exactly. And it’s

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  39:19

in Arizona do the same thing. It’s this is only an hour away Tucson is only an hour and a half away. But that’s not your MLS there’s eight different MLS is in Arizona were eight or nine and you go outside your area and and a lot of them don’t even think oh I’m not going to get compensated for driving that extra hour. And it’s what made you think you would allowing

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  39:41

the conversation exactly just have it and is not be one of the very first things I learned when I started as an assistant I remember probably day like three is there’s no ego in this business or in this office. And yes, I’ve had a little bit of an ego at times just because sometimes you know you’re excited and you’re doing things but you In general, I would say having my ego in check for the many transactions I’ve been involved in in agents I’ve had the opportunity to lead has really helped to just call, stay calm, and it’s just a simple conversation.

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  40:14

I’m smiling as you’re talking about your ego dealer because you work your freakin ass off. So you’re entitled to a little bit of ego, because you work so hard. So it’s okay. And that’s all I’m gonna say on that. I’m not going to everybody can judge and say somebody has an ego. That Kathy, if folks want to send you a referral, or talk to you about real estate in the greater Scottsdale area, how best can they get a hold of you?

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  40:45

Probably the best way is my cell phone number. Like simply Kathy dot landflip. Get Realty One group.com is my email and

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  40:54

we get a high priestess at Realtek

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  40:56

high priest at Gmail as high dot priests is at No, you need that to be my cell phone number and you’re welcome to use it text. I tell people like cafes now that I’m a broker, it’s seven to seven. Because by seven usually there’s a glass of wine in hand and I don’t want to give advice after that. That’s

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  41:13

when you start giving out more commission.

Kathy Laswick, REALTOR, Broker  41:15

That’s a lot. It’s a little looser, but it’s 602-791-8839. Okay,

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  41:24

and if y’all didn’t get that, hold on just a second, we’ll take care of your dealer. If folks want to get in touch with you or send you a referral for Central Texas because you go far and wide. How best can they get in touch with you say

Dillar Schwartz, REALTOR  41:38

my email and it’s Dillar di ll a, our thought Schwartz S C H W ar tz@kw.com. And don’t think there’s many other dealers. So if you just Google it,

Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English)  41:52

in case you missed either one of their contact information, it will be in the show notes below so that you will have their full contact information so you can send them a referral, or call them about working with them. Hello. Are you doing great. Thank you, Robbie. Both, I appreciate you. It’s a huge conversation, and we could go on for hours. Thank you for tuning in to this episode. We’re dropping a new episode every Sunday at 12 noon central. We’d love your support for the real tea with Robbie English (Host, The REALTEA with Robbie English). Please do us a favor and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. It only takes a couple of seconds and it really does help us out. Also, be sure to share it with your colleagues and friends. Until next time, we hope you have a profitable and productive week.