Hey guys, have you ever heard the phrase “a high tide floats all boats?” You probably have.

This concept applies to pricing. In a strong market—like we saw during the COVID years—if you priced a home slightly wrong, it didn’t really matter. The market was so hot that it would cover your mistakes. Even if you were off by 4% or 5%, prices were rising 10%, 15%, even 20% annually.

But that’s not the case today.

Today, we’re in a completely different market. There’s an imbalance: about 500,000 more home sellers than buyers. Prices are flat or even declining in many areas. Zillow and Redfin are both predicting price drops this year—the first in several years.

What’s driving this shift? Interest rates. Once rates come back down and buyers re-enter the market, things will likely shift again. But for now, we're stagnant—or even declining—on price.

So, when you're sitting down with sellers, the pricing conversation becomes crucial. We're no longer in a "high tide" market. In fact, the tide ...

There are some significant changes happening in the real estate industry:

If you've been following the Zillow lawsuit, you might know that recently, two major players, Realogy (which includes Coldwell Banker, Century 21, and Sotheby's) and RE/MAX, settled this lawsuit. While other companies and the National Association of REALTORS are still part of this ongoing lawsuit, these two giants settled for substantial amounts—Realogy for 85 million and RE/MAX for over 55 million.

But what's more crucial is what they agreed to within the settlement itself, not just the financial aspect:

They've agreed to give sellers the option to not pay buyer agent commissions (BAC) when listing their homes. This means that when a property is listed on the MLS, sellers can choose to set the buyer agent commission to zero.

Imagine this scenario:

In your market, a significant portion of sellers start opting not to pay a buyer agent commission. It's a game-changer, and we need to adapt to it. ...