Realtor Commission Changes

Realtor Commission Changes

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hello, I'm Michael Blaze. Welcometo Your Home three p. Sixty,
the show where we talk about everythingthat has to do with your home.
The show's brought to you by poolWorks, the Low Country's exclusive dealer of
the Little Pool line of pools.A little pool is a fiberglass pool that's
meant to be used above ground.All you need is a cement pad or

(00:22):
some pavers and you're good to go. You can be swimming literally on the
same day that it arrives. Ifyou want to check it out, go
to Mypoolworks dot com and stick arounda little bit. Later in the show,
we'll talk about exactly what a littlepool is. You will be impressed,
and I guarantee you'll want one.You've probably heard in the news lately

(00:46):
about the changes coming to realtors throughthe National Association of Realtors to the changes
in compensation of commissions, and theNational Association of Realtors has also agreed to
pay a settlement of four hundred andeighteen million dollars over four years to settle
lawsuits that were filed, and theNational Association of Realtors claims that by settling

(01:11):
these lawsuits, they're protecting its members. Now, I have some choice words
for the National Association of Realtors,but I'll be honest with you, I'm
afraid to share them with you becauseI'm afraid that they'll come after me and
they have a whole set of rulesthat is pretty self serving to the National

(01:32):
Association of Realtors. And it's mybelief. Well, see here I go,
I'll stop right there. So anyway, I'm not a huge fan of
the National Association of Realtors, butif you want to practice real estate effectively,
you need to be a realtor.In my point of view, a
lot of people don't understand the differencebetween a real estate agent and a realtor.

(01:53):
So I have a license that allowsme to conduct real estate transaction in
the state of South Carolina. Ithas nothing to do with being a realtor.
I'm a licensed to real estate agentin South Carolina. And then I
choose to be a member of theNational Association of Realtors. Why do I
choose to be a member of theNational Association of Realtors if, like I

(02:16):
just said, I have a bunchof choice words for them that I'm even
afraid to share with you. Well, because there's a local association, and
then there's a state association, andthen there's a national association. The local
association runs the MLS, the multipleListing service, and the MLS has great

(02:37):
data in it, and you know, there's been competing companies that come along.
Zilo's the one that I think wouldbe top of mind for everybody where
you can go on see what's forsale, the descriptions, the pictures and
all those things. But the MLShas data. You can look back at
the history of a property, atthe history of the listing, at when

(03:00):
changes were made, what changes weremade to the listings, how much they
sold for, whether there were concessionsfrom the seller to the buyer, which
will help you hone in more effectivelyon what the true sales price of that
property was. So the data setis excellent and actually a lot of these
companies that use data, like Zillo, a lot of that data comes from

(03:23):
these local MLS boards. So inorder to have access to that MLS,
you have to join your local board, and you have to join the South
Carolina Association of Realtors, and youhave to join the National Association of Realtors.
You can't just pick and choose whichone you want to join, you
have to join all of them,and then you follow You're required to follow

(03:47):
the Golden Rule, its code ofconduct from the National Association of Realtors.
So on the surface, those arenot bad things. Those are good things.
But when you look at it froma competitive point of view, when
you look at it through the lensof a practitioner, an honest practitioner,
let me put it that way.You know, all the time, I'm

(04:09):
like, why do I need tofollow these arbitrary rules set by the National
Association of Realtors When my client trustsme I'm doing the right thing, Why
do I need to do something elseover here? I get this added piece
of paperwork signed by everybody or whateverit might be. You know, it's

(04:31):
my business how I deal with myclients, and I treat my clients well
and my clients trust me. Sowhy do I need this interference from any
of these boards? My answer isI don't, but I'm forced into belonging
to them because I want that accessto the MLS. Like I said,
my license doesn't require it. I'mrequired to take continuing education courses. I'm

(04:56):
required to be educated in the firstplace and then pass the and then take
continuing education by the state, andthen I have my real estate license.
All this other stuff is separate.So in my view, I don't need
to belong to the National Association ofRealtors or the South Carolina Association of Realtors
or the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors. I choose to do so because I

(05:20):
want access to the MLS and thedata that it provides. Simple as that.
Now, to explain what's going onhere, some lawyers, not here
in Charleston, but often other partsof the country, and there were copycat
lawsuits also. They sued the NationalAssociation of Realtors, saying that by offering

(05:42):
cooperative compensation through the MLS, thatrealtors were setting the standard of commission,
forcing the sellers to pay the buyer'sagent commission. And they've drilled into our
heads for years. Commission is negotiable, and if you've ever filled out a
listing agreement or a buyer's agency agreement, you'll know that commissions are negotiable.

(06:08):
But these lawyers went after them,and the media kind of misrepresented or misrepresents
this. They keep saying the standardis six percent. You've probably seen that
on the news the standard six percent. There is no standard because it's negotiable.
Now, a lot of us chargedsix percent, but not everybody does.
Some charge more, some charge less. I happen to think you get

(06:30):
what you pay for, and ittakes a certain amount to run a successful
business. Otherwise you're not in business, So what does it matter? So
you need to be compensated correctly foryour services. So without getting in all
of that too much and doing acommercial for myself, I will tell you

(06:50):
this much that it's always been negotiableand it's in the best interest of the
buyer if you ask me, Becausethe way this process works is what cooperative
compensation is on the MLS. Sofirst you sign a listening agreement with somebody
that wants to sell their home.You charge them X amount whatever you put

(07:11):
on that contract, and then there'sanother area where you stipulate how much of
that is going to go to abuyer's agent. So we'll use six percent
as an example. If I chargeyou six percent, I now it's all
negotiable, and I can arrange thathowever I wish, as long as the
client agrees. But what I dois say, all right, six percent

(07:34):
and three percent goes to the buyer'sagent. So we're offering cooperative compensation.
You bring me a buyer, youbring me your client, and I will
give you half of the commission thatI charged for this listing. It could
be five percent, and it's twoand a half on a side. I've

(07:54):
seen realtors charge seven percent and thenkeep four or five of it and offer
the other side two and a halfthree percent. So it can be arranged
however you wish, and however you'veworked out with your client. Well,
now they've done away with that.The National Association of Realtors has negotiated,

(08:15):
through the settlement of these lawsuits,to remove cooperative compensation from listing agreements.
Now the media, even the Presidenthas chimed in on this, the President
of the United States of America,and he was wrong with what he had
to say about it, by theway, but that didn't surprise me.
You know what, the narrative inthe media is that this is going to

(08:37):
make home buying less expensive. No, it's not. And this is not
a good thing for the consumer ifyou ask me. Because the way that
it used to work was you hada listing agent and the listing agent listed
the property, and if you werea buyer, you went to that listing
agent and you said, hey,I want to buy this house, and

(09:00):
they're like, I will gladly helpyou. Through the years, that seemed
a little bit too It proved itselfto be a little bit too much of
a conflict of interest. So theycame up with buyer agency. And buyer
agency is just what it sounds like. You represent the buyer and you put

(09:22):
the buyer's best interest first. Yourfiduciary duty is to the buyer when you
have an agency agreement with a buyer, so you owe them your fiduciary duty.
So now the seller has an agentthat owes them their fuduciary duty,
and the buyer has an agent thatowes them their fuduciary duty. The seller,

(09:45):
through the listing agent, offers compensationto the buyer's agent. On the
MLS, each side has their ownrepresentation, and if you ask me,
that's much better for the consumer thanremoving the compensation or going back to the
old way, or who knows howthis is going to play out. I
don't know if this is going togo back to the old way exactly,

(10:07):
but they're removing that compensation from theMLS, So they remove the ability for
the buyer's agent to say, well, seller's agent, I brought my client
to the table, and you agreedthrough the MLS on your listing to compensate
me. Now they've muddied all thatup. And you know a lot of
people have said, well, ifthe buyer wants a representation from a realtor,

(10:33):
then they can pay for it.Well, what's most likely to happen
is the buyer's like, Man,I'm strapped already and housing's really expensive.
I have to come up with adown payment, I have to come up
with closing costs, I have tocome up with attorney costs, I have
to come up with moving costs,and now I have to pay a realtor
on top of all of this.I'm not doing it. I'll just represent
myself. And it reminds me ofyou know, the old saying about attorneys.

(10:56):
If you don't hire an attorney andyou represent yourself, if you have
a fool for a client. Soto me, this is bad for the
consumer, and I'm pretty angry atthe National Association of Realtors for several different
things. Go back and look atwhat's been going on in house at the
National Association of Realtors for the lastseveral years. They want to tell us

(11:22):
how to behave That's pretty rich.Look into it and see what I'm talking
about. But that's off subject.So back on point. I understand they
were being sued and they had todo something and settle it. But I
had hoped they would have fought harderfor both the consumer and the realtors that
they represent, but they did not. They settled it, and now they're

(11:43):
going to remove cooperative compensation from theMLS, And like I said, it's
going to hurt the consumers. It'snot only going to hurt realtors. It's
going to hurt buyers and you knowelse it's going to hurt. It's going
to hurt sellers because now you andyour agent are going to be dealing with
a bunch of people that don't knowwhat they're doing. And realtors provide a

(12:05):
valuable service, and I truly believethis. I'm an honest broker. I
look out for my clients. Ihave a fiduciary duty to do so,
and whether I'm representing the seller orthe buyer, I utilize my experience to
get an honest result for both.To me, honesty is the most important

(12:28):
thing, and that's why I'm havingthis honest conversation with you. And that's
why it might even be to mydetriment, because they don't like when you
talk nasty about them. The NationalAssociation of Realtors, there are the other
organizations for that matter. But I'mjust afraid that this is going to really
cause an upheaval in the real estatebusiness, and that upheaval is not going

(12:52):
to be good for any party involved, whether it be the realtor or the
buyer or seller. I don't thinkthat this is a a good way to
approach things. I think that thingswere the way they were for a reason,
and they had evolved to that placein order to protect the consumer,
and now they're undoing it. Icare about this industry, and I care

(13:13):
about the reputation of this industry.Let's face it. I mean, we're
already less respected than used car salesmanby the public and this kind of stuff
doesn't help so and it's misrepresented bythe media. It was misrepresented by the
President of the United States. Andhow about fixing financial policy, how about
fixing your own house before you gocriticizing somebody else's and I'm talking to the

(13:37):
politicians. This is not going tomake houses cheaper. This is going to
make the process harder, and there'sgoing to be a whole lot more losers
than you see today in this process. There's going to be a whole lot
more problems. And I could keeptalking about this forever, and maybe I
will. Maybe I'll do another showhere coming up. As a matter of
fact, I will as they providemore clarity on how they wish us to

(14:01):
proceed and how this is going toplay out in the real world. Maybe
I'm wrong. I've been wrong before, but I don't think I'm wrong about
this. So for now we'll leaveit right there. But more to come.
Believe me, I have plenty moreto say about this, But right
now it's time to welcome my specialguest on the line with me is Heath
Bodorf of Pool Works. You're theonly authorized dealer in the Low Country for

(14:24):
the Little Pool Company line of pools. So explain to us what the Little
Pool Company is and what kind ofpools they offer, and therefore, but
what you offer. Yeah, sothe Little Pool Company is actually a partnership
with a company in Ridgeville and they'repartnered with an Australian company of Compass Pools

(14:50):
of Australia. So Compass Pools ofAustralia makes the fiberglass shells and then they
ship them here in containers and theyget turned into the little pool with a
little factory here in Ridgeville. Andit is a unique product. It's an
in ground fiberglass pool, but it'sengineered and designed to be free standing.

(15:11):
So you pour a concrete bad andyou put it on it, or you
can put it on a roof ofa home, you can put it on
pillar, or you can put iton whatever you want. You can even
sink it in the ground if youso wish. But it's designed to be
completely free standing, so it sitswithin its own footprint, minimal space.
If you decide to move, youcan take it with you. It's a

(15:33):
very unique product and of course itcomes with the longevity of the fire glass
and I think everybody in the industryknows fiberglass technology as far as it goes,
Australia has got it down. Theymake unquestionably the best fire glass products
in the world. So yeah,it's a good product. Now I can

(15:54):
think of a you know a milliondifferent ways that that would be applicable here
in the low Country where you wouldwant it an in ground pool like that,
and you know grading issues in thelow country. A lot of times
we face flooding. You know,you have you know the soft ground and
the loam type soil in a lotof instances. There's also a benefit to

(16:15):
the portability of it. You saidyou can take it with you, but
also that comes into play in theinstallation of the pool, right it does.
So it's very simple. It's youknow the installation. It's it can
be set on pavers. They're anengineered paper, but it can be set
on papers if there's aermeable issues ina lot of neighborhoods there are, and

(16:38):
it can set on a pad alsoa concrete and but the as far as
the take of it, the longestprocess is waiting if you pour it on
a pad, is for that concreteto dry, and then once that cure
is then that pool literally can bedelivered in a day and you can be
swimming by that night. Because ourbiggest pool is right around four thousand gallons,

(16:59):
so it doesn't say a long timeto fill them up, and they're
self contained. They've got all theplumbing, everything attacked. When it comes
kind of like a parable hot tub, you know the ones that you buy
the big big stores, and youknow, you get it delivered that day,
fault with water and you can beswimming that night. So it's it's
very very easy. But it's completelycustom customizable, just like any other fiberglass

(17:22):
pool. And and if you havea tight area, it's also easier to
get into those tight areas right wheresometimes they have to use a crane on
some of these pre formed pools toget them in there. This makes it
easier on the install where you cando it without the crane, right.
That's correct. As long as there'syou know, a lot of the neighborhoods
there seems like the homes are gettingcloser together in the backyards are getting smaller.

(17:45):
I'm sure you've noticed. And there'sa lot of those neighborhoods going up.
You know, the South Carolina economyis as far as influx of new
people coming in, it's just astronomical. But you know, when you when
you take a look at these newneighborhoods and the size of the yards and
that you have to say, well, jeez, you know sixteen by thirty
two in ground you're going to workthere and what But hey, everybody wants

(18:08):
a pool, you know in ourexperience anyway, and you know, of
course their budget comes into mind.But when you look at that and you
say, well, you know acrane is going to put this over the
cost? How else can we getit in the background or in the backyard.
And that's where this pool is perfectbecause you can literally as long as
you can fit it between the houses, you can wheel it back there with
a part or a small like afork truck type vehicle like a law Yeah,

(18:34):
that's really cool. And what aboutthe filtration system? Now? Is
there a specific filtration system that itcomes with or can you customize that to
salt water or chlorine or how doesthat work? Well? We offer so
we the pool comes is they offerthree standard packages, but any you know,
is it being that a five orleft? Well, we can put

(18:56):
anything the customer wants. It canbe a saltwater pool, it can be
a mineral pool, which those arekind of new. It can be a
standard chlorine pool. The filtration canbe year standard sand filter, but they
don't use sand. They're using anew product that's filtered balls. They almost
look like polyester balls that they're designedto catch the debris and they're very lightweight.

(19:18):
And so you know, as faras that they can put cartridges on
it. They can customize it justlike you would any pool light, led
lights, whatever you want on it. And that's the beauty of these pools
is they are just so perfect forthe area. And you know with the
water tables. You know, wehad that thousand year flood there several years
back. I'm sure everybody in thelow Country remembers that, and perfect pull

(19:44):
for that. You don't have toworry about the water table. You can
set it on the ground, builda deck around it, and it's done.
Yeah, And because in that case, in that five hundred year flood,
and you're right, everybody that washere during that time certainly remembers that.
But there was you know, literallypools up and out of the ground.
What wasn't there. Yeah, yes, there was a lot of low

(20:04):
Country pool builders had problems with foolspopping out of the ground and the water
table. Everybody, I think inthe industry knows that that changed the water
table kind of permanently. Here.I built you know, in ground,
gunny pools, shocker pools, vinylliner pools, and even I noticed it.
You can go down you know,two feet in hit water and you
know, when you get into thatand even as you get closer to you

(20:26):
know, Mount Pleasant than that you'relooking at, you know, drastic changes
to the water table and has affectinstallation of fools, and it adds a
lot of costs when you have tode water in area to put a pool
in sure, and something you saidwhen we were talking about the filtration systems
piqued my interest. So explain tous sort of mineral pool As you said,

(20:48):
it's a rather new product. Yeah, so I think they they've come.
They they've been introduced a while ago, but I think they've been perfected.
Just like you know, back inthe late ninety in mid nineties they
started introducing the salt water pools.So they had a lot of problems with
them at first, but they've gotit perfected. And I think that's where
the mineral system is and is whatit is is h two copper anodes that

(21:11):
also have other minerals in them.But it's what that does is it releases
those ions, the copper ions intothe water, and of course, you
know, copper and algae don't getalong well, and so basically it makes
it easier to maintain. You usea lot less chemicals as far as maintaining
the pool because you're not having tolike heavy dose shock the pool to get

(21:33):
rid of algae or prevent algae.And so you use your mineral or your
actual chlorine levels go way way waydown, and you can actually adjust it
so that your chlorine is you know, typical chlorine is one point five to
three, and you know, youcan run literally at the one one or
one point five level on that,so you're you know, your usage on
chlorine goes way down. Yeah,so the water is very comfortable, and

(21:56):
you know, and I think peoplealso don't understand the concept of salt water
pool. You know, they thinkthat somehow it's it's like the ocean or
something. I mean, you knowin salt water, well, you can't
even tell that it's salt water whenyou're swimming in it. And yeah,
it's actually less than tears, youknow, so saline content I think is
less than tears. So yeah,you're right. Yeah, And the way

(22:17):
that it works is you have thatpiece of equipment that converts the salt into
chlorine and then and then it kindof it naturally turns back to salt,
and it's just a cycle over andover again, right, correct, correct,
So yeah, you're taking the sodiumchloride and turning it, taking the
sodium part of it out and leavingthe chloride. So yeah, basically that's
kind of a little a thing inthe industry where people think they're getting a

(22:42):
salt water pool and they don't havechlorine. Well, no, you're really
getting a chlorine pool just happens tobe making the chorine out of the salt
water. Yeah, yeah, you'rejust making your own chlorine with the salt
in the water. So you've gotso there's two different models of the little
pool, right, and then onehas two is it too sizes and the
other one has three sizes, yes, sir. And they're they're developing.

(23:04):
They have R and D out onseveral new products, come bigger, different
shapes. They're they're expecting to bringthem within six eighteen months is what they're
expecting. So those are in Rand D. But currently, yeah,
there's first two models, five differentsizes between them, and you know,
the smallest one is like we callit the party tub. It's basically a

(23:26):
very large hot tub and there's itwould be standard, you know, deeper
than a than a normal hot tub, so you could actually get in it
and do some exercise or something.But the biggest pool I think is I'm
going to speak in metric here,it's about six between three meters long,
which is I think roughly twenty onefeet. But that is uh, you

(23:49):
know, that's there that seems likethe best seller. Everybody wants the bigger
pools, and you know, butit is called the Liverpool Company, right,
well, I mean I can seeyou know, we're w'ere that application,
especially like downtown and stuff where yourlot size is limited and like you
said, I mean even out inthe suburbs. Now they're literally just giving

(24:11):
you a postage stamp sized lot withhouses very close. So if you're limited
on space, you know, asmall pool like that is a great option
to have and still have a youknow, a great pool. Now what
about you know, what about HOArules and all that stuff when it comes
to pools, is do you doyou notice that the hoas are accepting of

(24:34):
the little pools. It's kind ofhit or miss. So really there's no
classification on a punch pool. Soright now it's being called an above ground
pool. We're trying to educate peoplethat is actually a free standing fiberglass pool.
You know, the above ground poolmarket is the least expensive way to

(24:56):
get into pools, and there's nothingwrong with that. Every what he has
a budget, but the traditional alot of ho as will not allow on
above ground pool and just because ofthat, that that faux pas around you
know, twenty four foot diameter,twenty six foot diameter pool that you see
and a lot more rurally than youdo in town. But the so the

(25:19):
h o as, there's no classificationon these. If anything, they're more
probably their equivalent to a swim spaand there is no you know, there
is no restrictions on swim spa installations. You know, you can you can
order a swim spot put that inyour backyard. So that's what this would
be similar Like, it depends onwhat you do with the decking around it.

(25:42):
That would probably be your biggest restrictionon these as far as your h
o A. Yeah, and that'swhy I asked about hoas, because everybody
knows how hoas can be. ButI'm sure you have some literature if somebody
was interested to present it to theirhoa architecture or review board and that you
know you can it can explain exactlywhat you just explained, how it's different

(26:03):
than your typical you know, aboveground pool that they'll reference in their covenants
and restrictions. Correct. Correct,So yeah, we have all that documentation.
There's engineering drawings for these things,from installing them on you know,
roofs to all you know, puttingthem in the ground. So in everything
in between, there's installation, youknow, engineer drawings on how to attach

(26:26):
decks to them. And that's anotherthing that I need to mention is the
beauty of these pools is you canactually can't leave your deck off of them.
They're strong enough that you can fixyour deck to them, so you
don't have to have posts like ifyou were putting a wooden deck or trucks
type deck on it, then youwould not have to put posts right up
next to the pool. You canactually attach them to the pool. Wow,
it's pretty cool. Yeah, itis. And and what about colors?

(26:49):
Do they come in different colors?They do, so they offer four
colors. It's one kind of tocall it court. It's more of a
gray with some flex in it,and then they have a sapphire, which
is a brilliant bright blue, andthen they have a pacific which is kind
of a dark blue, and theyhave been one that it's actually my favorite.

(27:10):
It's called Evolution, and Evolution isa combination of the quartz which is
the gray, and the blue pacificchips, so it gives you almost a
Caribbean color water. It's very,very very nice, and it's got some
nice sparkle in it, and it'smy favorite for sure. Well, Heath,

(27:30):
it's been an interesting conversation and itsounds like you have a great product
there, and I've actually reviewed itand I'm going to show it to my
wife. I've held off because,you know what, the first thing that's
going to happen is once I showit her, we have to get one
of those. So I might becalling you up here sooner than I had

(27:51):
thought. But well, we'd lovedit. We love to build a build
your powl, that's for sure.Well, that's great. I look forward
to it, Heathan. Thanks forthe conversation today. Go to mypoolworks dot
com mypoolworks dot com for more informationand do you have a phone number where
they can reach out to Heath.We do so. Our phone number is

(28:11):
eight four three six nine five eightthree five five and that is that.
We have good voicemail service, sothey can leave us some message if we
don't get them, but we willdefinitely get back. Okay, great,
give that phone number one more time. Eight four three six nine five eight
three five five Heath bot Orf ofPool Works, Thanks for your time today,

(28:32):
Heath. Thank you, MIKEL.I appreciate it and it was a
pleasure to talk to you. That'sit for your home three sixty. Make
sure you tune in every Saturday andif you want to catch the podcast,
you can download that for free onyour iHeartRadio app. You can also find
it online at ninety four to threeWSC dot com just look under podcasts.