Grow Omaha 5-4-2024

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Grow Omaha, the onlyradio show that talks about economic development,
construction, business expansion, and allof those things that make Omaha a great
place to live or visit. GrowOmaha on News Radio eleven ten KF Baby,
Well, good morning, and welcometo the show. Jeff Beals here
at your service. We're broadcasting livefrom the beautiful kfab Penthouse Studios high above

(00:23):
Underwood Avenue in downtown Dundee. Thisis the only show in the metro area
that focuses on construction, real estatedevelopment, anything related to Omaha becoming more
vibrant and more prosperous. Without anyfurther ado, it's time to bring on
my co host, a man whois absolutely legendary as a real estate deal

(00:46):
maker in this town and then thestate, Trenton Maggot. You're a kind
Jeff. Good morning, ladies andgentlemen. Well, good morning Trenton,
and happy Berkshire weekend to you.Yeah, we welcome all the Burkey's.
I met some last night and theycome from far and wide. You know,
it's it's it's it's all. It'skind of one of Omaha visitors,
you know, the convension of visitors. Beer here in Omaha has two Super

(01:07):
Bowls and this is one of them, the College World Series being the other
super Bowl that that we have.But as your crack reporter and humble correspondent,
I did my duty this morning,and I got up early, and
I drove around downtown and I tookin the sites. And as usual,
the throngs of people were heading intothe Chi Health Center Omaha. The hotel

(01:32):
shuttles were going back and forth.Weren't quite as many protesters this year as
usual, gott to say, Iwas a little disappointed by that, but
there was there was the obligatory youknow those sign trucks that have the electronic
signs. Yes, one was blastingcapitalism. And of course the ironic thing

(01:53):
is the organization that paid for thatpaid for that, which is a form
of capitalism. But but it lookedlike a big, big crowd and big
line for the movie, big linefor the movie. Brad Williams took a
nice photo this morning. That's onthe Groemhaw facebook page if you want to
see what some of the action lookedlike there. The meeting goes on pretty

(02:13):
much most of the day today,Only a little part of it's the actual
meeting most of it is Q andA and of course big change this year.
Last fall, Charlie Munger died justa few days short of his one
hundredth birthday. Warren Buffett's longtime vicechairman, and the two of them would
always be on stage together. Well, this year it will be Warren with

(02:34):
his two vice chairmen, Greg Abottand ajit is it John greg Gables ahead
of the non insurance entities within Berkshireand a jet is in charge of the
insurance industry. So those three willbe taking the questions. Yeah, the
moon to the restaurants all over thecity, and these guys are asking me
what my favorite stake place was,and what'd you tell them? Well,

(02:59):
I give him a few options.You don't you don't want to say,
Brother Sebastians ranks way up there,I think, And they knew that name
already and a few of the obviousones, and so brother people do their
homework. Brother Sebastians, Mahogany wouldbe up there. The drover drover is

(03:19):
up there, eight to one isup there. Uh, there's a lot
of goods take places in our town. And of course Warren Buffett likes grots
yep and then and they're all fulland h. Grot says that this is
their Christmas, so another one oftheir Super Bowls. Absolutely, But but
just the the press that Omaha yeatsand I think c NBC is broadcasting live

(03:40):
they are ye And I don't rememberthat happening in the past, but maybe
it did. They've done that fora few years. They haven't always done
it, but they've they've done itfor the last several years. And and
they always have correspondence here and andthen I think some of the other you
know, obviously the the Wall StreetGeneral of the New York Times, Fox
Business, so many of the thepublications that cover business news are here.

(04:00):
I'm sure Bloomberg is here in force. And so it's a it's a great
day for Omaha. It's it's agreat day for business in America. And
we're so excited that that our towngets to host that woodstock for capitalists.
We've got some good news at Omaha. At Grow Omaha, we are,
we're really growing. We're going tohave some announcements coming up pretty soon for

(04:24):
some new ways that we're going tobring more news and more content to you.
But as part of our effort togrow we have brought on a couple
of new reporters and we want towelcome Isaiah Ong and Nicole Bungeon. Isaiah
is covering a lot of our constructionand planning board and building permit news,

(04:47):
a lot of the real estate developmentnews, and Nicole bunch And is covering
our restaurant and retail news. Andso we're excited to have those two outstanding
people with us part time, helpingus bring more and more news to Grow
Maha listeners and the readers and subscribersto our Grow Omaha newsletter. Both very

(05:10):
experienced writers and Omahans that are outand about and we welcome them, yeah,
and just all around outstanding people.Thrilled to have them on a board.
So we're going to go into ourNews of the Week now, which
is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage. You can find Eagle Mortgage in person
at one hundred fourteenth and Davenport,just south of one hundred fourteenth and Dodge,

(05:31):
or just look them up at EagleMortgage Company dot com. Either way,
they will help you with what isone of the biggest decisions and biggest
purchases the average person makes in theirlife, buying a new house. And
if you are thinking about getting yourpiece of the American dream or a newer,

(05:53):
nicer, bigger, or downsized versionof the American dream, one of
the first things you want to dois call Holly Schneidewin and her team members
at Eagle Mortgage. Doesn't matter whattype of loan you want, they do
almost all of them. And thenice thing about Eagle is they are a
mortgage broker, They're not a bank, and so they can shop the market,
compare lenders one against the other,match you up with the lender that

(06:15):
best fits what you're looking for andwhat you're trying to accomplish and what your
background is all about. Eagle Mortgageyou can find them at Eagle Mortgage Company
dot com. Well trenton the bignews, and this was really big news.
It caught a lot of Omahon's bysurprise. Forbes magazine has a feature
called Forbes Home and they recently namedOmaha the number one best city to move

(06:40):
to in twenty twenty four. Andnot only did they give Omaha that lofty
number one ranking, they awarded Omahaa perfect one hundred out of one hundred
score and the second city was likeeighty three. Yeah, there was a
hell of a drop off. Actuallyyeah, because if you look at it,
Omaha was number one with a perfectscore of one hundred. Number two

(07:00):
was Raleigh, North Carolina, withan eighty three point two one two.
Let's give you the whole top fifteen, shall we? Absolutely we love lists
and rankings on the show, especiallywhen Omaha's in the top ten. Absolutely
so Omaha, Raleigh number three,Oklahoma City, followed by Wichita, Kansas,
Colorado Springs, Tulsa, Oklahoma,Louisville, Kentucky, Tucson, Arizona,

(07:24):
Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Columbus, Ohio. That's the top ten.
The number eleven Indianapolis, number twelve, Alpasso, number thirteen, Mesa,
Arizona, number fourteen Austin, andthen number fifteen Albuquerque, New Mexico.
So what did they say about Omahain this Forbes report? And we
quote According to our research, theoverall best city to move to in twenty

(07:47):
twenty four is Omaha, Nebraska,which scored a perfect one hundred out of
one hundred based on our point system. Omaha has a reasonable median monthly housing
cost of one hundred and eighty eightdollars, and its residents enjoy a median
family income of sixty nine one hundredand ninety eight dollars. We loved that

(08:09):
the city enjoys one hundred and seventeensunny days a year. I'm thinking that's
perfectly sunny days, because sunny dayswere or well into the two hundreds.
Yeah, little bastards, Okay,but anyway, we have an impressive ninety
eight percent employment rate, emphasizing thecity's strong job market and abundant opportunities for

(08:31):
those who value career advancement. Asfar as safety is concerned, Omaha is
a fairly low crime rate, withonly forty out of one thousand residents being
impacted, showing the city's commitment tokeeping homes safe and secure. Say a
few other things, but one ofthe things that did jump out at me
a little bit, and the lastparagraph I won't read the whole thing refers

(08:54):
to our enjoyable climate. Yes,I don't know, I don't know if
I would like diversity. Yeah,climate, if you like a little bit
or a lot of everything when itcomes to weather on the same day,
we're the climate for you. Sobut that's a that's a that's a good
thing. And I think this istrenton affirmation that that we're doing a lot

(09:16):
of things right here. Of course, some people see this who are longtime
Omahans I think to themselves, ohmy gosh, we're too crowded. We
can't have more people. But wehave to keep growing if we want to
stay strong, no question about it. And and kudos to Mayor Stouthor,
who is on her third term andjust announced that she's running again. She's
done an amazing job in the cityCouncil, the Planning Board, the the

(09:39):
Dave fans Law and everybody in theOmaha Planning Department. We like to think
that we do our part here atgrow o Maha. Sounds like you're an
accepting award. I'd like to thankDave fans Law from that. He's a
good guy, by the way,great guy. He's been on here a
couple times. And no, Ithink everybody we can pat ourselves on the
back, but at the same time, we we're always competing with ourselves and

(10:01):
there's a lot of competition out thereas well. So all Omaha's if you
believe in this city, tell peopleabout it, and there's plenty to do.
And then also to forget about allthe stakeholders, the four hundred million
dollars that was put into the DowntownPark, and all these public private partnerships

(10:24):
help make Omaha unique. So we'rereally lucky. And yeah, there's things
that we can always improve on andmore entertainment options. We certainly have a
ton of restaurant options. But we'relucky to call Omaha home. Yeah,
we're definitely, we're definitely coming intoif we're not already in a golden era
of Omaha history. If you lookback, there have been a few where

(10:46):
where Omaha really boomed at periods.As we've gone from the mid eighteen hundreds
today, it appears that we areon the front end of another one of
those golden eras with so many thingshappening. It's you know, when you
talk with some of the people whovisit for Berkshire or other people that Trenton
and I have known who've been intown for business or what have you,

(11:09):
other than a lot of times hearingmessages that people are shocked and surprised about
what's going on here, it's justpositive. They're just people, just people
enjoy being here. There's a gentlemannamed Sam from Cleveland who was talking about
how Omaha is such a better communityand how if it wasn't for his job,
that he just loves Omaha, thathe and his buddies were talking about

(11:31):
all the cranes they're building buildings hereand the amount of construction downtown and other
places, and so it was itwas great, great to hear. And
and then you always get the personthat says, I heard that you guys
have a pretty good zoo. It'snot better than San Diego, is it.
I'm like, oh, you haveno idea. I said, you

(11:52):
go spend a day there, whatevertime you have. San Diego zoo is
so overrated. It's a bunch ofbirds. I remember there one time agoing.
It's like birds, birds. Idon't want to see birds. I
want to see like a herd oftwelve elephants. I want to see lions.
Don't we have more baby elephants thananywhere? I'm sure birds they keep
they keep being born, well,not anymore. They got rid of the
They got rid of the guy whowas responsible for all that and sent him

(12:15):
to a difference. Okay, butthere's yeah, there's still a lot of
them. But I'll tell you.You mentioned Cleveland, Trenton. I was
in. This is one of myfavorite stories, just to show Omahon's what
we have here that you may notrealize I was doing. In my other
life. I do sales training.I had a program in Cleveland a couple
of years ago and we were talkingat one of the breaks, and this

(12:37):
was for a group that's involved inthe real estate and real estate development world,
and they were talking. The guywas lamenting. He's like, yeah,
in northeast Ohio, which is abig area of three or four million
people, you know, if youcount the Akron, Canton, Youngstown,
that's all northeast Ohio along with Cleveland. And he's like, we don't have
any Class A office buildings under construction. You're from Omaha. I suppose you

(13:01):
guys have the same problem. Andat the time I was like, no,
We've got We've got like at leastsix Class A office buildings under construction
right now, and Omaha's probably athird or less the size and population wise
of Northeast o High You who,we get excited about ladies and gentlemen and
you can too. Just keep listening. Hey, a couple other quick stories

(13:22):
before we take our break, justto bring you up to speed and into
our basketball and volleyball practice training facilityis planned for fifty one twenty one North
one hundred and thirty second Street.That's a three acre lot just southeast of
one hundred and thirty second and fourt. This facility will be operated by Nebraska
Basketball Academy. It'll be about alittle over twelve thousand square feet and have

(13:43):
two full sized courts and a ninetystall parking lot. Meanwhile, Skyline Manor
an assisted living facility at seventy threehundred Graceland Drive that's just west southwest of
seventy second and Military Avenue. It'seyed for redeveloplopment as an apartment building.
It's a six story building sits uphigh on hills, so it's quite prominent.

(14:05):
Currently vacant plans call for one hundredand sixty units apartment units. That
is in increasing parking from one hundredand seven to two hundred stalls, So
the projects keep coming. And thatis your News of the week, which
is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage. Eagle Mortgage Company dot Com. Going
to take our first break of thehour, and when we come back,
we're going to bring on our friendand colleague Jill Anderson. She is the

(14:28):
president of NP Dodge Residential Sales Divisionand is going to be talking to us
about the residential real estate market.A lot going on in that market,
and don't worry, we will askher about that National Association of Realtors settlement
that affects real estate commissions. Soyou don't want to miss any of this.
You're listening to Jeff and Trenton onGrow Omaha brought to you by Dingman's

(14:50):
Collision Center and Cheer Athletics on newsRadio eleven ten Kfaby. We talk with
the Independent the candidate for the Senate, Dan Osborne, why he's running against
niph Fisher this November, and alsoa smorgasboard on the open Phoneline Friday.
Here it all on the every Starterpodcast page campab dot com and welcome back

(15:11):
to the show grow Omaha brought toyou by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics.
Cheer Athletics is the place for yourkids to get involved or your grand
kiddos. If you're looking for aplace where kids can really learn a lot
about life and compete and get ingreat physical shape. It's cheer Athletics.
It is part of the All Starcheer industry, which is such a great

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sport that has become so popular.There are a lot of All Star cheer
gyms in the country, but thecadillac among them is Cheer Athletics, and
there are multiple locations, about twelveof them. The Omaha location is in
Papillion, just southwest of Highways fiftyand three seventy and we highly recommend it.
If you are interested in getting involvedor learning more for your kiddo or

(15:58):
grand kiddo, just go to caOmaha dot com ca as in Cheer Athleticscaomaha
dot com. We have with usJill Anderson. She is our colleague and
friend. Crenton and I are partof the NP Dodge family of companies,
and Jill is the president of MPDodge's residential division, which is the famous,

(16:18):
the famous yard sign company. Soif you ever see that NP Dodge
yard sign in front of a housethat's for sale, that's Jill's group.
So Jill, welcome back to theshow. Thank you, thanks for having
me. So let's always start,as we typically do, with your thirty
thousand foot view of the residential realestate market in Omaha today. It's funny

(16:41):
you asked that. So going backthe Forbes article obviously we're talking, is
terrific. In my mind, Istart to worry, how are we going
to find housing? So last timeI was here, I talked about our
inventory shortage. We haven't, youknow, dug out of that necessarily from
about a year ago. Though ournew construction is is I don't want to

(17:02):
say catching up, but it's doingbetter. A healthy market is six months
of supply, so if if itgoes beyond that six months, it's a
buyer's market. Below that, it'sa seller's market. In our new construction,
we're just teetering a little over sixmonths, so we want to say
buyer's market and new construction. Butfor existing houses we're still low. We're

(17:25):
just over a month of supply.The tornadoes last week didn't help you,
No, no, And our heartgoes out to anyone affected by those but
no, now those folks have tofind a place to live temporarily and then
look for permanent housing. And we'realready at a shortage, and the contractors
already extremely busy. You bet,yeah, Because if I understand correctly,

(17:45):
about two hundred houses were either destroyedor damaged to the point where you can't
quite live in them right now?That that that hurts, That hurts a
lot. Jill, how are howare prices these days? How offering prices,
sales prices and what's changed there.We're still seeing increased prices now in

(18:07):
the heart of the pandemic. Wewere starting to see some prices, you
know, up by ten to fifteenpercent, which is unknown in our market.
We're starting to level off back intothat, you know, four to
five percent, which is healthier.Yes, which is healthier, and that's
you know, more of the norm. But it's still hard to say.

(18:27):
You know, our existing sales priceright now is right at three hundred and
fourteen thousand. That's a tough pillto swallow. If you're a first time
home buyer and you're coming in andyou know, construction prices are higher,
interest rates are higher, insurance ishigher, and you're looking to buy your
first home or even go resell andbuy a new home. There's a lot

(18:48):
of considerations that you have to takeinto account, and it's just putting pause
on some folks, you know,in their minds going, you know what,
maybe I'll just stay and remodel andsee what happens in a few months.
What I've heard and read is thatolder, say empty nesters that are
in these big houses, they don'tneed bigger houses, but if they downsize,

(19:12):
they're basically spending about the same amountof money more downsize, and so
they just stay with a bunch ofempty rooms and their kids and grandkids don't
visit as much as they could.Yeah. No, you're exactly right.
And you know, I hate sis. I just went through a remodel,
which it's never fun to do that. And then when you think about,

(19:33):
well, if I want to downsize, I'm probably going to look like you
said, maybe for a home that'sa little less expensive, but I still
want to bring it up to speed. I'm not saving any money. So
that's what's going through people's minds too. Well. I know of a lot
of people, you know at ourage, they Trent and I are they
the kids have moved out and theyare looking to downsize the amount of square
footage, but they want more features. So yeah, you may want less

(19:56):
square footage, but you want thelatest. This the late is that you
always want this, this one thingin your house that you never had when
the kids were there and you wishedyou could have well, and then you
want newer, so you're actually yoursmaller house is going to cost a lot
of money. Jill, what aboutcompetition for houses? A couple of years
ago, you know, we werehearing the stories of of you know,

(20:18):
people practically clubbing each over the orthe head and trying to get the house
that they wanted to buy. What'sthe situation there these days? We're still
seeing multiple offer situations in that pricerange. I'm going to say, right,
you know that three hundred four hundredprice range, and of course it's
all going to be dependent on conditionof the house location. But if it's

(20:41):
price right and ready to sell,we're seeing multiple offers where they're sending a
little bit longer is that higher endprice range. And again I want to
you know, go back to puttinginto reality. Last year, at this
time, our average days on themarket was right around eleven for that price
the price range that we're seeing multipleoffers, it's moved up closer to twenty

(21:03):
six days on market, which isstill fantastic. Why is that we're a
little more inventory online causing them tosit a tiny bit longer, which is
I mean, it's good, butwe're still churning through that inventory so quickly
that you know, I don't wantto say we're going to be out of
it, but it's a great timefor sellers and also sellers though have to
be reasonable as well. Some ofthat longer time on the market might be

(21:27):
because they want to get a fewmore dollars, which I don't blame them,
but at the same time, youwant to strike where the irons hot,
you bet. Yeah. It's neverbeen a you know, known factor
to say, well, the longerI sit on the market, the more
I'm going to get from my house, because buyers are going to start to
wonder what's wrong with it? Arethey really willing to sell and negotiate?

(21:47):
Does it need that much work?Yeah? So price it right and have
it in good condition and you'll likelyhave a very quick sale. Jell.
A year ago when we were talkingwith you, the higher interest rates were
a much newer phenomenon, and nowthey've been what we consider to be high
for a while, and fortunately therate increases have stalled out. Have you

(22:11):
seen anything in the market that leadsyou to believe that people have conditioned themselves
to these new interest rates or Ihate that word new normal, but are
they the new normal? Yeah?You know for buyers who've never bought,
this is brand. I mean theyknow nothing different for ones who are like,

(22:32):
well, wait a minute. Youknow I locked in at a lower
rate, now I'm going to sell. I like to phrase it as a
switching cost because you know you're notgoing to get that same rate, but
you're moving that equity over into anew home and once you're there, possibly
you can go REFI down the roadif and when rates go down. But

(22:52):
we're definitely seeing you know, peoplemove for the same reasons death, divorce,
upsizing, downsizing, relocation. Thosepeople have no choice really and understand
it as well. It's the oneswho are sitting in the houses, like
I really hate my house, butI'm in at such a good rate I
don't want to move. Then youhave to think, well, does it
long term make sense to switch mycost into that new house. I remember

(23:18):
decades ago when they're adjustable rate mortgagesrage, we're a lot higher than they
are now. Are we seeing somepeople switch to adjustable rate mortgages? Mortgages?
Are we just not there? No? They exist? Absolutely. Some
of the homebuilders are actually offering thoseas incentives to get people in. I
don't know that it's as prominent,and that's probably you know, lenders can

(23:41):
tell you we've got this program inthat program to help people out and get
them moved. But they're absolutely partof the game. All Right, we're
going to take our middle of theshow break, but when we come back,
we're going to talk about the NationalAssociation of Realtors Commission settlement with Jill
Ander and what that means, andwhat that means for people in real estate,

(24:03):
what that means for home buyers andsellers. So more with Jill Anderson,
president of MP Dodge Residential in amoment, but you're listening to Jeff
and Trenton on Grow Omaha. Thankyou to our sponsors Cheer Athletics and Dingman's
Collision Center. Back in a momenton news Radio eleven ten KFAB. News

(24:26):
Radio eleven ten KFAB is free inconvenienton our iHeartRadio app. Free never sounded
so good for music, sports,talk and podcasts. Girl Omaha is brought
to you by Cheer Athletics and Dingman'sCollision Center, which has four metropolitan Omaha
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such a good job of communicating.Dingman's Collision Center sponsor of the Grow Omaha
radio show. Before we get backwith Jill Anderson from MP Dodge, though

(25:33):
we do have our commercial real estatedevelopment spotlight. Oh the week. It
is brought to you by not allcompanies, not all companies dot Com and
not all companies. They are buildingup Omaha, and you know they're famous
for a lot of things. Onething would be headquarters buildings. You know
that Valmont Headquarters building and Heartwood Preservethat opened a couple of years ago.

(25:56):
Not all companies development HDR headquarter.That's the global headquarters for HDR, one
of the nation's top ten architecture andcivil engineering firms. Right there, ax
Sarbon Village. Not all companies didthat. Falmont, by the way as
a Fortune one thousand company, sothey can handle those. But they're also
famous for places. Not all companieshas designed and developed Sarbon Village, River's

(26:21):
Edge, the Builders District downtown,and let's kind of talk a little bit
about that Builders District downtown, rightIt is looking great. In fact,
today this morning, when I wasdriving around taking in all the Brickshire hullabaloo,
I went through the Builders District andas we've reported in the past,
they are they're building a public amenityspace, kind of a private but open

(26:44):
to the public park if you will, somewhat similar to that little park area
north of HDR at Xarbon where Sunny'sis located. A lot of stuff like
that that is coming along fast.Big construction progress on that this week,
and so we should be able toI'm thinking we'll have people enjoying that public
space later this year. And thatis your Novel Company's Commercial real estate Development

(27:07):
Spotlight of the week. If youwant to learn about not all companies,
it's really easy. Got a Facebookpage or go to Noelcompanies dot com.
Well, we have Jill Anderson withus. She is the president of MP
Dodge Residential and Jill, we wantto talk to you about the National Association
of Real Atteurs. This has beenin the news quite a bit. Lawsuit

(27:30):
over commissions eventually led to a settlement, and it has a lot of people
who are either home buyers, homesellers, or just curious onlookers wondering what
on earth is going to happen tothe residential real estate market. And maybe
I'll give a high level overview ofwhat got us here. So March fifteenth,

(27:52):
NAR agreed to a settlement of fourhundred and eighteen million, and that
was really in the wake of alawsuit that started last year, well years
before, but ended last year inOctober with home sellers in Missouri. And
basically they were saying, hey,you know what, we paid too much
in commissions. We didn't know thatwe were also paying the buyer's agent commission

(28:15):
in our sale. So after thatclosing of that lawsuit, there were immediately
copycat lawsuits that stemmed across the UnitedStates and included the National Association Realtors and
several other brokerages. So originally wethought, hey, we're just going to
fight this and keep appealing. Andthen as it came down to look at

(28:37):
all the money that's going to bespent in attorney fees and this could go
on forever, NAR did decide theywere going to settle, so it's still
a proposed settlement. They did getpreliminary approval on April twenty third, looking
like it's going to go into effect, and with that payout, they also
agreed to a couple of major changesthat will happen in the residential real estate

(28:59):
un regarding commissions, the main onesare, and we'll always say it,
commission is fully negotiable when you're sittingdown as an either buyer agent or a
seller agent, it's negotiable. Thathasn't changed. But whether the seller does
agree to wrap the buyer agent commissionin with theirs at the beginning, I

(29:22):
should say that's no longer going tobe posted in the multiple listing service.
That's where we go now as agentsto say, hey, what's you know,
what's the payout going to be?And then agents always have had that
opportunity to go talk to their buyerthen and say, you know, my
worth is X will you pay thedifference? So now we're also going to
have buyer agreements that need to besigned before an agent goes out or excuse

(29:45):
me, before a buyer goes outwith an agent to look at houses.
Main thing there is, you know, I might say, you know what,
guys, let's go look at acouple of houses. We'll sign this
agreement for a two day trial andI'm going to see if I like you,
and you're going to see you likeme. But when we really start
working together, I'm going to dedicateall my time to you. I'm asking

(30:06):
you, you're not going to workwith any other agent. And at the
end, if a compensation isn't offeredupfront by the seller and I can't get
it negotiated into the offer, areyou willing to pay me before closing?
It's really just a different way tolook at the model of how we do
it. Now we're breaking it apartbeing more transparent, but it's just a
different business process than we're used totoday. So I think some people might

(30:30):
have gotten wrapped up on the headlinesof oh, I don't have to pay
or I'm going to have to payless. That's not necessarily the case.
Yeah, And as a thirty yearpractitioner in commercial real estate, which is
a different side of the business,but we deal with commissions all the time
as well, if you really thinkabout it, if you're a seller or
a seller's agent, you count onbuyers and buyers agents to come and look

(30:55):
at your houses. So it's allpretty much baked into the deal as far
as I look at it, andreally everybody's in it together. There's clear
division of who represents who and ifthe commission, if it gets split from
the listing agent to the to thebuyer's agent, that that's part of the

(31:18):
deal, but to to We'll seehow this plays out. But but it's
I think you explained it very well, but it adds a lot of work.
It adds a lot of confusion,especially at the beginning of this process,
and my concern is that it wasmuch to do about nothing that trial
attorneys and class action attorneys saw anopportunity to rile things up, and so

(31:44):
let's see how it plays out right, And you know, we were kind
of talking during the break. Mainconcerns of people that it will affect are
people with, you know, firsttime home buyers, maybe a little less
income at the beginning, and they'restruggling already for a down payment and to
get their closing costs, and nowthey may have to pay a commission on
top of that out of pocket.And then veterans, Currently the way loans

(32:08):
are scheduled for VA loans, theycan't pay commissions. So if the seller
isn't willing to let them roll thatinto the price of the home, they
may not be able to get thathome. They might have to look at
homes only offering a commission. Sothere's a lot of things still at play
here. I think that that anybuyer or seller who thinks this litigation and

(32:30):
the new way of doing things isgoing to save them money, I don't
think that's going to happen. Ithink it's going to be worked out in
the wash, and we're pretty muchgoing to be status quos as far as
the deals that are made. Iwould definitely like to agree with that we'll
see it's a new landscape for us. But that is our hope too.

(32:51):
As is always case, the onlypeople who win in class section lawsuits are
the plaintiff's attorneys. Jill, beforewe let you go looking in your crystal
ball, next six months to twelvemonths, Omaha residential real estate market,
what's coming down the pike? Youknow it's going to remain strong. And

(33:12):
as I kept alluding to earlier,it's a price warn a beauty contest.
You got to have the house pricedright, looking great. But there's no
reason to be afraid of the interestrates. They are what they are.
They're not going down. They mightnotch up a tiny bit, but it's
still a great time to buy,still a great time to sell. And
don't let fear lock you into anymode, into no mode of movement.

(33:35):
You got to be making decisions andworking with an educated professional, all right.
If you are thinking about listing thehouse or need representation to buy one,
just get a hold of NP Dodgeand one of Jill's outstanding agents will
take very very good care of you, as they have been since eighteen fifty
five hundred and sixty nine years ago. Jill Anderson, Thanks for joining us.
Thank you very much. Jill Anderson, president of MP Dodge Residential Division,

(34:00):
to take our final break of thehour, and when we come back,
it'll be the lightning round. Lookingat the list and there's a lot
of stuff on there. You don'twant to miss any of it. You're
listening to Jeff and Trenton on growOmaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collision
Center and Cheer Athletics on news Radioeleven ten KFAB. Emory song I Love
It, Emory when you get woundup two to six on news Radio eleven

(34:24):
ten KFAB. And it's the lightninground here on grow Omaha. This is
brought to you by Perkins Kretzer Construction, general contractor here in town that does
projects all over the metro area,but also you know Grand Island, Norfolk,
Karney, North Platte, Nebraska,Siusude, Iowa. They get around

(34:45):
the entire region. Now, PerkinsKreutzer might be a newer company, but
they have a great deal of experienceon their construction team, project managers,
their admin's or superintendent's, carpenters labors. Many of these folks at Perkins Kreutzer
more than thirty years of experience inthe construction industry. Last week we told
you that they're working on thirst Tthe th h i r s tea,

(35:08):
not the thirst T cafe. They'rebuilding a thirst T, which is a
new boba tee and beverage chain outof California. Well, guess what you
know those thirst T cafes that Thirstyis different from they built those two.
Wow. Yeah business. So PerkinsChritsler Construction is doing a lot there.
Dave Kreutzer leads the team and theydo an outstanding job. So if you're

(35:31):
looking for a contractor just give PerkinsChritzer a call. Sometimes they're referred to
as PC Construction. Same thing,same people, and they'll take good care
of you, all right. Signagehas gone up for a new Little King
restaurant and a brand new retail stripand Heartwood preserve in front of the new
Charleston's and Mahogany Prime. It isgetting very close to opening. The equipment

(35:54):
is inside the window. And speakingof Mahogany Prime, remodeling is underway for
the old Mahogany Prime building that isdirectly north of Biagi's and that is being
turned into a new restaurant. We'vebeen hearing some rumors about it here.
It might have the same ownership asSalted Edge. Still, yeah, we're

(36:15):
hearing, you know, steak seafoodsort of thing, so maybe not too
terribly different from Mahogany, but wehaven't confirmed that yet. And it looks
like renovations could be starting not toofar off on the old Charleston's, which
is right in that area. Thereare some construction stakes that have appeared outside

(36:36):
the buildings, so and we've beenhearing rumors about what might go into that
building as well. So a lotof things, a lot of things happening.
Now, let's go into a fewother news items we have for you.
Is These Pizza Bus, which iswildly popular, tentatively set to open
its first brick and mortar location onSouth twenty fourth Street downtown. The exact

(36:57):
addresses five twenty two South twenty fourStreet, May we're looking at. And
this has been featured on Diners,Drive Ins and Dives television show and people
love is these Pizza Bus I mightbe able to stump the bells on this
round. Let's go for It's whenGunderson's moves into its new building from Village
Point on the out side of VillagePoint. What's going to go into their

(37:21):
space? A? I don't know, and B if you do know,
I'm a little upset that you haven'tput it in the Gromha newsletter yet.
It's a restaurant called Medi's. Ithink they're from out of town and I
think it's Mediterranean, but it willbe a restaurant. How long have you
known this, Uh, not verylong. I think he's known it for
a while and he's forgot to tellme and he's busted. Myrtle and Cyprus

(37:44):
a coffeehouse and roaster at five seventeenNorth thirty third Street near Gifford Park.
Recently Soft opened its second location seventysecond in cass inside the Omaha Conservatory of
Music, and speaking of Mediterranean places, Trenton Cliah, which is gonna be
the latest concept from Omaha based flagshiprestaurant group getting closer and closer to opening

(38:06):
into the former Wheatfield space at twelfthand Howard in the Old Market. This
is described as a journey across theAtlantic that serves as a Mediterranean muse and
it's supposed to have a really goodmetatrane. I love their creativity. Yeah,
I can't wait to try that one. Von Mahr, the top department
store in town, three levels,one hundred and eighty five thousand square feet,

(38:28):
gonna go through a thorough upgrade andrenovation it needs. It hasn't been
renovated in there since it opened inthe nineties, but the plans are gonna
make it look awesome. It ispart of a one hundred million dollar effort
to renovate all of the company's stores. They currently have thirty seven stores and
fifteen states, based in Davenport,Iowa. Well, the music is playing,

(38:52):
which means we have to save therest for next week. Oh shoot,
oh darn, but we're gonna moveon. Hope everyone has a great
week. I'm Jeff Biels, TrentonMaggot. You've been listening to Grow Omaha,
brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center, Chair Athletics and Perkins Chritzer Construction.
We'll chat with you next week atnine right here on news Radio eleven ten KFAB