Artificially Intelligent with Sam Maule and Maia Bittner

Forecasting the Real Estate Business in the Wake of Industry Upheaval

• Sam Maule, Maia Bittner, Rachel Morrissey

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Are you ready to uncover the truth behind the seismic shifts in real estate commissions? Join us as we dissect the aftermath of a landmark lawsuit settlement that's flipping the industry on its head. With the insightful guidance of Tessa Jarvis, a seasoned real estate agent, we navigate the unknown waters of real estate transactions post-settlement. Tessa offers a treasure trove of knowledge, from the implications of removing buyer's agent commission advertising in MLS listings to an insider's perspective on the indispensable value of buyer's agents in a digital age where listings are a click away.

This conversation takes a technological twist as we contemplate the marriage of artificial intelligence and real estate. Wondering how AI might revolutionize your property search? We've got you covered, examining its role in data analysis and decision-making, without overlooking that human touch—emotion and tailored advice—that only an experienced agent can provide. The dialogue ventures further, with personal anecdotes reflecting on significant purchases that highlight the importance of expert guidance, whether you're buying a home or a luxury car. Technology's impact on the tools of the trade and the art of marketing in real estate also comes under scrutiny, as we assess the tech that amplifies our business and the strategies that keep us ahead.

Lastly, let's talk shop about the nitty-gritty of running a real estate business. Ever wondered how agents like me juggle finances and strategize as an S-corp owner? You'll get an insider's look at forecasting, budgeting, and the strategic inclusion of expenses. We also contemplate how the ripples of that pivotal lawsuit may shape the future of our profession. Reflecting on the emerging trends in Washington State, we invite you to join us in pondering the future trajectory of the real estate industry, ensuring you're informed and ready for what's coming down the pipeline.

Hosts: Sam Maule & Maia Bittner


Sam Maule:

This is Essential Audio. Hey everybody, Welcome to Artificially Intelligent, a podcast brought to you by Money 2020. I'm one of your hosts, Sam Maule.

Maia Bittner:

And I'm your co-host, maya Bittner. Today we are talking about real estate, given the recent news about real estate commissions, and we have a special guest today. So Tessa Jarvis is a real estate agent based in Skagit County, Washington. She was recently nominated to be one of the top agent brokers in Skagit County and, more importantly, she is my sister. So, Tessa, welcome to the show and, more importantly, she is my sister.

Tessa Jarvis:

Hey, good morning. Good morning Sam. Good morning Maia. Thank you so much for having me.

Maia Bittner:

It's exciting to be here this morning and just have a chat with you guys. We are going to jump right in. So the news for the real estate commissions Sam, correct me if I'm wrong, or Tessa, correct me if I'm wrong but it's that they're no longer allowing sellers to advertise a commission for buyer's agents. Is that right?

Tessa Jarvis:

Yes, so we're no longer allowed to publish what the commission, a seller, is willing to pay to a buyer's agent in the MLS. Now where there's some gray areas is can I publish that on my personal website? Can I publish that on my Instagram? Can I publish that on Facebook? And so I think, if we rewind really quickly, there's a lawsuit and these changes are part of the proposed settlement for the lawsuit, so nothing is finalized yet, but the proposed change is that we are no longer allowed to publish what a seller is willing to pay the broker who brings an agent that represents the buyer in a transaction.

Sam Maule:

So this lawsuit that you're mentioning, I mean, and the news kind of broke toward the end of March in 2024. So the National Association of Realtors, they agreed to pay $418 million to help compensate homeowners. But the settlement of that, like you said, is still kind of refining the details out and again. Correct me, I love restating things to see if I actually understand it. So, basically, agents work with a buyer or that typically split the commission. That's normally around five to 6%. I'm sure that varies all over the U? S, but that's my understanding right.

Tessa Jarvis:

Yeah, so the way that it used to be, and so I can. So the difference is so this is the national association of realtors and so this is going to apply to everyone who is a member of NAR. I am only licensed in Washington State and so Washington State has made some changes to the way that we do real estate business, kind of in anticipation and in advance of this lawsuit. But traditionally the way that it worked is you would hire a real estate agent to sell your home and that real estate agent would say I'm going to charge you X to sell your home. It's a percentage of the sales price. Of that percentage, I'm going to share a portion of that with the broker who brings the buyer as a cooperating compensation. So all of the commission is paid to the listing agent and they agree to share a portion of that with the buyer broker.

Tessa Jarvis:

So the change is that now I'm forgetting what the original question was. So where the change is is that now they want to decouple that and so you're going to have an amount. So, as a seller, you're going to hire a listing agent, you're going to pay them a percentage and you're going to say I'm going to pay you X and I'm going to offer to pay the buyer, broker Y. So we're going to decouple those commissions.

Sam Maule:

So there's a term that Maya and I love TAM. Right, maya, we love TAM, our total logistical market. So when we're talking about the National Association of Realtors and the research I was looking at, you're looking at like 1.5 million members in the US. So I mean we're talking about a significant number of folks potentially impacted by this.

Maia Bittner:

And I think there's like another 106,000 or 7,000 real estate brokerage firms in the US. That's how many people are agents or brokers.

Sam Maule:

Yeah, about 1.5 million, and that's just members of the National Association of Realtors. You don't correct me if I'm wrong. You don't have to be in that association, so it's probably a little bit north of that, correct? Not all real estate brokers are realtors but all realtors are real estate brokers, so there could be a real estate broker who is not a member of the National Association of Realtors. Basically, we're talking about a lawsuit that affects a ton of people and, as usual, it's one of those.

Maia Bittner:

Okay, that's great, there was a settlement. Now what, right? Yeah, well, let me ask you a different question. So I see all over Twitter and stuff like that, people are saying, in this age of Zillow and Redfin, you don't need a buyer's agent, right? What are they even doing? People are like look, I can go on, I can use the filters to say like has a view, has at least two bedrooms, why are buyer's agents making so much money? Why are they making a percentage of the house? Do they even do anything? So I'm curious, like do you have any examples of things that you've done as a buyer's agent or things you've seen other people do, to kind of provide value there that a buyer wouldn't be able to do on their own? They might not have the skill or the knowledge.

Tessa Jarvis:

Totally, and I think what Redfin and Zillow have done is really great, because real estate brokers used to be the gatekeepers of property. So this was before my time. I've never actually experienced it, but what they say is you would have to go into a real estate agent's office and they would have a whole book with all of the properties that were available for sale and you would flip through that book and see which ones were interesting. So that was like our value, right? We had the properties. The only place you could find them was going to a realtor, and so Redfin and Zillow have taken that and they've said here's all the properties that are available. And they've made it. Everyone can see everything that I can see.

Tessa Jarvis:

So as soon as I publish something in our local MLS, it's going to get dispersed to Redfin, zillow, realtorcom, remax, wherever the buyers are looking for properties. That's where it's going to show up. And so when I'm having a buyer consult with my buyers, I'm even going to tell them you know what? I'm probably not going to find the property. You are going to find the property and then I'm going to help you acquire that property because you have access to the information, most likely before I do? You're on a 10 minute break, you're scrolling Zillow, you're scrolling Redfin, you're going to find that property and then I'm going to help you with the strategy to acquire that property.

Sam Maule:

Yeah, Tessa. My favorite SNL skit, I would say over the past three years, is when they were scrolling at night on Zillow. I don't know if you've seen that one. We'll have to put that in the link. It is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It's people scrolling on Zillow on homes they could no way afford. So they have about 2 million base and just going oh God great, I can't afford that or that or that, but it's one of the funniest skits I've seen in a long time.

Tessa Jarvis:

Well, and I think, once you find the property right, that's the first step, and then the next step is how do we get that property? And it's going to be really market specific. I can only speak for my market because that's the one that I know and the one that I work in, but our market shifts pretty frequently and so it's knowing. Is this the type of property where I can really negotiate for my buyers? I can ask for closing costs, I can ask for seller concessions, I can ask for inspection requests, inspection repairs, I can ask for a contingent offer. Or is this a property where we need to come in really competitively because there are other buyers that are interested in this property? Do we need to do our due diligence ahead of time? Do we need to waive contingencies? Do we need to come in strong on offer price? How strong? $ 100,000 over 20,000 over right?

Tessa Jarvis:

So if a buyer was out on their own, one of the challenges I would see if you're saying, hey, we don't really need buyer's agents Is this a property where I need to offer more or I can ask for less? And so, having a pulse on our local market and knowing what was the story for the recent homes. What's the story for the homes that are pending? How can I take that story and apply it to this one that my buyers are interested in, so that I can secure it for them at the best possible price? No, Maya.

Sam Maule:

What I equate this to is the same disruption that's taking place in media right now and news where, if anything, what we're learning now, especially with the 24-hour news cycle and literally every story on any of these cable news is breaking, because it's always breaking news is the importance of the local media in your local news channels and understand what's actually happening in the community, which affects you even more than anywhere else.

Sam Maule:

And I would say that same argument Tessa applies when you're dealing with real estate is understanding that. And I'll give you an example In the midst of COVID, when the real estate market just lost its mind. I live in Florida, tessa has a bunch of jokes she can make on that and I'll do them too. But my home, at the height of COVID in March, when it first broke out and everybody was losing their minds and moving all over the place, first broke out and everybody was losing their minds and moving all over the place. I, when my house hit the MLS, I had close to 20 offers within the first day and none of them ever saw the house.

Sam Maule:

Actually, the people that bought my house by that Monday came from Las Vegas. They knew nothing about the neighborhood. They knew nothing about you know it was a iPhone. Take your iPhone and the camera and FaceTime the home. But literally the neighborhood, the schools, everything else. They were just trying to pick up from Zillow or I guess what the agent was telling them so you can see the value. You know that, especially in that type of situation, the agent would bring.

Tessa Jarvis:

Absolutely, and I've helped a lot of out of you know, non-local buyers right where they do rely on us to go in. They find the house on Zillow and they say, hey, tessa, this property just hit the market. I come in, I will do a video tour for them and send that to them so that they can essentially feel like they've walked through the house. I'm panning the neighborhood, I'm telling them about the neighborhood, you know, sharing whatever insights I have. Hey, this property came on. You know it's super similar to 123 Main Street. I know that 123 Main Street had seven offers. They only took one and they took a backup. So that means there are five other buyers who are going to be interested in this right, in addition to the new wave of buyers that has just come in. So that will give us an idea of what type of competition we're looking at for this specific property. Or it's like hey, it's been on the market 137 days, let's see how much negotiating we can do, right.

Maia Bittner:

Tessa. So yeah, we're always interested in sort of the tech angle and where there's an opportunity there. What do you think is the most painful part today of the home buying process?

Tessa Jarvis:

Oh gosh, as a realtor or as a consumer, it's like asking what's the best part about going to the dentist.

Tessa Jarvis:

Yeah, I think you know my husband and I are pretty big investors in real estate. We like buying houses. We bought a lot of investment properties and the part that is always just the biggest pain point for me is the loan process. It feels like the lenders want so much paperwork and you give it to them and then they don't like it and they want something different. And then you got to give them a letter of explanation and then they need this bank statement and that clear check, and so that is a pretty big pain point. Uh, I feel like it's just going through the process of getting the money that you need to buy I'll say it from personal experience, which I find fascinating is the the less expensive of a home.

Sam Maule:

So when early in the early in your life cycle you're getting your first home, that starter starter home or that second home, the process is much more painful than when you're someone like me in their 50s, buying a home, which was rather interesting because the price of the home I'm in now as compared to my first home. My wife just got a Volvo XC90 car. I paid more for that car than I did for my first house Back in the 90s I think I paid. It was in Atlanta. I think I paid like $63,000.

Sam Maule:

I'm not going to say how much the next C90 is, but, folks, it's more than $63,000. I wish I could finance that over 30 years. But that process is fascinating to me because we're seeing this weird shift happening in the US and you read about this all the US and you read about this all the time. I mean Professor Scott Galloway talks about this on the Pivot podcast how we're seeing this migration of wealth from younger generations to older generations. It's imbalanced. We hear constantly, especially with younger people, that they can't afford to get on the housing market and I would think having an agent's help, especially with the largest purchase you're going to make in your life, is I mean, it's just vital.

Maia Bittner:

Well, sam, I mean, it's funny you bring up cars, because that's I was thinking, just about cars. And here's what I was thinking is for me buying a house I bought two houses, both with Tessa, and my number one thing is I want to make sure I'm not getting screwed over, right, it's like this is the biggest thing I'm buying, One of my biggest investments. I don't really know what I'm doing. For me, having an agent was a good like hedge against kind of getting screwed over. And so here's the car tie-in. I almost kind of wish I could get an agent for buying a car, and I think a lot of people dread it, right, they're like I don't know what the market is, I don't want to negotiate against a car salesman like notoriously kind of a cranky person to deal with. And so, yeah, I almost wish that, like you know, we had more assistance to help make sure that you're not getting screwed over there.

Sam Maule:

Yeah, I completely agree.

Tessa Jarvis:

Well, and I think I was going to say I just completely agree.

Sam Maule:

And, tessa, this is the part where you go. Oh Lord, I actually think over the next decade or so, maya, that AI is going to play more and more of a part in this, because we're talking data right, crunching data, crunching those data points and seeing that. So the amount of data analysis that's going to start to go into this and being fed back to agents who are going to act as your advisor. Personally, I don't want Siri telling me how to go out and buy a house. That's something I want to do with somebody like Tessa, right, somebody I have a relationship with and someone I trust.

Tessa Jarvis:

Well, and I think there's, I think there'll be a lot of ways that AI will support us in our work and really help us dial in with that data. But there are so many late night phone calls, early morning text messages, right, where we're really playing the role of therapist or counselor, or you know. I mean it's a, it's a big purchase and it's people buy on emotion. Big purchase and it's people buy on emotion. And so, even though there is a ton of data with it, they're you know, we're there to help guide you through that to say, hey, you know what buyer's remorse is pretty normal. A lot of people.

Tessa Jarvis:

They go under contract and they go, oh, you get that gut punch of is this the right move? Right? And then I'm going to take you back and revisit what you said. Your goals were, how we feel like this accomplishes those goals and what additional information do you need to move forward? Maybe that's the data that AI has supplied so we can say, yes, you are getting a great deal on this. Here's what the market shows. Are you still comfortable moving forward?

Sam Maule:

I'm curious, tessa, what have you seen where Maya and I are eyeball deep in the payment space and the tech space when it comes to financial technology? So, maya, you hit on a couple right Redfin and Zillow and what they've done, influencing how we look at homes. But on the flip side of that, have you seen tools to help agents out from a technology standpoint?

Sam Maule:

other than your iPhone, which is a fantastic tool, by the way, and a great way to allow face time standpoint other than your iPhone, which is a fantastic tool, by the way and a great way to allow FaceTime, but have you seen others that really help you out as far as like local data on neighborhoods or communities, or what is a gap you think that's out there?

Tessa Jarvis:

Yeah. So as far as local data is tough, because every house is so specific and every home sale is so specific and there's going to be really unique things about it um, most of the tools that we see are transaction based, so ways to help us in the process of buying and selling, uh, and there's a. There's a lot of technology out there like I could spend a ton of money on tech that would help me. I say air quotes help me be a better agent. I don't invest in a lot of it. I'm pretty specific in the areas in which I invest my resources, but I would say the caveat to that is that the cool thing about being a realtor is that I can run my business any way that I want. There are some really really tech heavy brokers who invest in the website. They have really big, robust websites. They have really big, robust client management software that have drip campaigns and property specific websites and really dig deep into that. That's not my forte, so I don't invest a lot in that.

Tessa Jarvis:

I use BombBomb as a video software that I use to help my clients, and so it's cloud-based video, so I can go do a property tour through BombBomb on my iPhone and then it just uploads to the cloud and I can text that right to my client and it can be a 20-minute video and we're not taking up a ton of data, or I can get back on my computer and send an email. That's one I use a lot. Ammetry is another one that I use that helps me with transaction coordination, and so it builds digital timelines. That kind of helps keep everyone in the transaction on the same page. So we create a digital calendar. You get digital updates of hey, your earnest money is due, hey, your inspection contingency is expiring. Hey, remember to change your utilities.

Tessa Jarvis:

Back to the original question of where there's a gap.

Tessa Jarvis:

I think I know one of the biggest fears folks have when buying a home is is there something wrong with the property?

Tessa Jarvis:

And so if there was a way to access, you know, maybe we say all of the service records from anyone who has ever visited that property or any of the permits that have been available, right? Some counties have really robust websites and you can log onto the county website and you can see a lot of the information there, but they also I know that they have more information than what is publicly available online. You just have to physically go in and talk to a permit tech, and when I make that recommendation, most people are like, yeah, I don't really want to go down to the county and talk with a permit tech, right, but if there was a link where I could click on that and I could see everything that was available, right, when folks are looking at homes, they're in an information gathering stage, and so I feel like the more information that's available to them, the better they can make a decision right and the clearer they will feel moving.

Sam Maule:

It gets back to your analogy, maya, of buying a car because you get the car facts right. Let me know, let me see the history of the car. You know what's funny, tessa, you were talking about video. That's the one thing that persuaded me to sell, to buy the house I was buying, and help me sell my home was drone footage was going up over the home showing the whole property, showing the neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhood. That was the kicker for me selling a home and for buying the home that I have, because I could see the entire roof, you know. I mean I could see the property lines and and the adjoining property. I knew that there, you know, i-95 didn't go and a railroad track didn't go right by my home.

Tessa Jarvis:

Well, how often do you jump to folks, jump on Google Maps, right, and you walk around, you want to see what the neighbors look like. Is there a junkyard right behind you? Because, as a listing agent, we're pretty creative in the photos that we will highlight that you can see and you show up and next door you're like, wait a minute, that is not what the photos look like online, right? So, having that information available before you call your agent, before you even go to a drive-by of the house, I was going to say that drone footage.

Maia Bittner:

It's so high up. So in this part of the world, right Northwest Washington state, I feel like it makes everything look like an ocean view, even though it doesn't have an ocean view absolutely it's like, yeah, if you're a hundred feet above your lot, you can have a beautiful view of the ocean my husband always jokes and he goes great, I have an ocean view from my drone.

Tessa Jarvis:

But if I don't have a drone, yeah, just just move to florida.

Sam Maule:

Everything's an ocean view, or will be soon enough at the rate we're at the race moving.

Maia Bittner:

Tessa. Let's talk about.

Sam Maule:

Oh, go ahead, Vanna, I'm sorry.

Maia Bittner:

Yeah, I was going to say let's talk about being a real estate agent and the financial side of that. So you don't make a salary right, or do you?

Tessa Jarvis:

I don't know. So my business structure is set up, that I am an S-corp, and so my S-corp, that is funded by myself, pays me a salary. Do you pay yourself a salary? I pay myself a salary. There is nobody out there paying me to go to work, except for myself Right, so the money coming in is just commission-based. Yes, 100% commission-based.

Maia Bittner:

To me it sounds a little crazy to manage from, like, a cash flow perspective. How do you think about that? How do you forecast what you're expecting to receive in commissions? How accurate are you on that? I'd love to kind of dig in on that side.

Tessa Jarvis:

So I set goals every year, of kind of where I would like my production to be, just to have a driver, you know. Going forward, my accountant kind of helps us forecast. We look at previous years and see how those were done. I was raised with a pretty frugal mindset and so that really carries over to the business. I try to be pretty mindful in my spending. I don't particularly have a cashflow. I don't have a cashflow problem, I guess I would say, because I build up my reserves and I have reserves and those are kind of untouchables, and then I build up a basis to work off of those reserves problems, for you know who's covering the cost of, say, staging.

Sam Maule:

Who's covering the cost of the advertising. Is that done through the brokerage or is that done through the seller? I mean, how does that typically manage, or is that just negotiated?

Tessa Jarvis:

It's totally negotiated and typically depending on which listing package. So if I'm working as a listing agent, depending on which listing package my client selects, sometimes that staging is included in my fee that I collect and so I pay for that. Other times the seller will pay for the staging. It all really just depends Most of the marketing. You know. So all of the photography package, the drones, the video tours, the Matterport, those 3D tours that allow you to walk through the home, that's all included in my marketing, in my listing commission, so I pay for all of those.

Sam Maule:

So what do you think is going to be the impact overall of the lawsuit and the settlement? Because I've read everything from we're going to lose half the real estate agents in America to home prices are going to crash to. This is a nothing burger, in your opinion. And now I'm asking you to forecast. So I apologize, it's telling the future sucks, it just does. But what do you think the impact is going to be, let's say, over the next year with this?

Tessa Jarvis:

I think it's going to be pretty minimal. If I'm totally honest, I think that it will be harder for some brokers and so I think some of those part-time brokers who just sell one or two houses to their dad or their cousin, I think it's going to be a lot harder for them to stay in the industry. So I do, and part of me hopes that we will lose some brokers. There are a lot of real estate brokers and there are some that do not do a very good job. You can I mean, just like any profession, right, you can have a great accountant, you can have a great account and you can have a terrible account, and you could go get a great pedicure. You could have a terrible pedicure. But I think if we lost some brokers, that would not be bad for the business. I think it will help elevate the service that folks are receiving. Uh, because you're gonna have to be really good to stay in. But yeah, I mean, the news is all over that prices are coming down. Prices are going up in. But yeah, I mean the news is all over that prices are coming down, prices are going up. I will say so, washington State, where I'm located. We're a little bit ahead of that, and so we have already decoupled compensation we have already required so this was effective January 1st.

Tessa Jarvis:

There's a requirement that if you're working with a buyer, you now need to sign a contract, that buyer and broker need to be in contract to work together. And so that's one of the proposed changes for the NAR settlement. And in all of the networking groups in the face, people are freaking out over this, but it's been a practice I have implemented in my business before. It was required by state law and it totally makes sense, right? Say, hey, sam, if you and I are going to work together, here's the contract that's going to cover the terms of our agreement. It's going to cover compensation, location and duration. And you're like oh yeah, I'm hiring a professional. It would make sense that I'm going to sign a contract to work with that person.

Tessa Jarvis:

But for folks who have never had that as a part of their business practice, it feels really scary to require those agreements to work with the buyer. Because it could. It used to be pretty willy-nilly, right. Oh yeah, I'll show you some houses. Oh yeah, I'll write this up. Oh yeah, you bought with somebody else over there. Okay, right, I mean there's. Yeah, it used to be pretty willy-nilly, now people are gonna have to level up.

Maia Bittner:

Yeah, I mean, they're like getting rid of, like, the tourists. Um, you know, that's something that people are talking about in venture capital too. Right, it's like with the changing interest rate environment, people who like weren't really in it, aren't professionals, aren't experts, might choose to do something else at their time. I wonder if we'll see something similar to travel agents, where it used to be that everyone needed a travel agent to travel and now it's really sort of a more specialized or more luxury experience and I think we've hinted at that. Right, like you're even providing a specialized experience. It's like you are an expert in Northwest Washington State. Right, you've got a low-tech business, high-touch, relational thing. That is the service that you're providing. Emphasis on negotiations and things like that and that people will be able to choose kind of their specialty and what they want and get more diversity, more specialization in the industry.

Tessa Jarvis:

Yeah, and I guess one of my concerns I work with a lot of first-time homebuyers and the news is pretty great at sensationalizing all of this, and my concern is that if you were going to buy your first home and you didn't know that I would be able to negotiate for the seller to cover the cost for me to represent you, if a buyer didn't know that they might go with more of a discount type style brokerage because they were like, well, this is all I can afford. But if you work with someone who is great, right, and there are plenty of great brokers in our area right, but they will be able to negotiate for their compensation to be covered and you could get that expertise service. And so that's my biggest fear is that people are going to be stuck with somebody who's not going to be able to advocate for them very well, because they think that's all they can afford.

Sam Maule:

If I could, make a recommendation for those of you that are early in this cycle and buying your first home. Please don't get your advice off TikTok. Can I just go ahead and make that statement now?

Maia Bittner:

I know they're entertaining, but not the greatest fiduciary I've been thinking about or even resource, you can get all of those like home flipping shows, like they make it seem so, um, normal and easy and chill, and even I'm thinking about tiktok. You know people are like look, I redid my kitchen and they've edited the video of them redoing their kitchen so that it takes 12 seconds and it looks like oh, that would be really easy and I bet anyone could do that. I'm going to go buy you know a house that needs to be remodeled. Yeah, I really. I don't know, tess, have you seen this impacting? Sorry, I feel like this is a segue. We're going to wrap it up, but I'm worried about this.

Sam Maule:

It's a fantastic segue, though.

Tessa Jarvis:

Well, and I think so, like you know, if I go, I'm in a pretty service oriented business.

Tessa Jarvis:

Right, I want to make the process of buying a home feel really straightforward and simple, right.

Tessa Jarvis:

But if we go on a little bit more serious note and this was something I saw on TikTok, so don't, but it was you know, if you were, let's say, you were involved in a $400,000 lawsuit, who would you want representing you, representing your interests, right. And so part of what I do is protect you from any legal ramifications that go along with buying or selling your house. Right, we are held to the standard of care of a lawyer. So if our contract goes in front of a judge, they are going to review that as if we are a lawyer. Goes in front of a judge, they are going to review that as if we are a lawyer. So pay attention to who you hire, right, because you could be involved in, let's say, sam, maybe you bought a million dollar house in Florida. You could be involved in a million dollar lawsuit for the purchase or sale of that house. And so your representation, who you hire for that it matters, right, and you want them compensated for the severity of the negotiations that they're doing in my humble opinion, you know.

Sam Maule:

Excellent advice and, I think, a great way to actually wrap up this episode. Tessa, thank you so much for your time. It's like you said it's always interesting to kind of cut through a little bit of hype to see what's really happening. You said it's always interesting to kind of cut through a little bit of hype to see what's really happening on the ground. That said everybody, thank you. That's going to wrap it up for this week's episode. Please go out and give us a review. We'd really appreciate it If you want to reach out to me and talk about maybe some future episodes you'd like to see us lean into. Linkedin is a great spot, and so is Twitter. Maya, how about you like to?

Maia Bittner:

see us lean into LinkedIn is a great spot. So is Twitter, maya. How about you? I'm on Twitter, I've got open DMs. I'm at Maya B on Twitter and yeah, hey, thanks for listening. This week, don't freak out about real estate news. That's my summary.