Above, Ryan Schneider and Sue Yannaccone
With Aug. 17 in the rearview mirror, real estate professionals are now navigating a new era of real estate—one they’ve been preparing for since the NAR practice changes came about as a result of last year’s legal settlement.
In an effort to help agents and brokers transition into this new era of real estate, on Wednesday, Aug. 21, Anywhere hosted its second episode of “Anywhere Voices.” The hour-long episode—moderated by Matthew Ferrara, industry speaker, philosopher and author—featured Sue Yannaccone, president and CEO of Anywhere Brands and Anywhere Advisors, and Ryan Schneider, president and CEO of Anywhere Real Estate Inc.
Aiming to provide attendees a roadmap to success in a changing landscape, Yannaccone and Schneider reflected on the impact these changes have had in the early days and what real estate professionals can do to stay on top of the ever-evolving landscape.
Addressing confusion and misinformation
Kicking off the conversation, Schneider noted that while we’re in the very early days, he’s positive about what he’s heard from both agents and managers regarding how well parts of this past weekend went as far as getting good listings signed, making buyer agreements work and having buyer agreements that meet the consumers’ needs.
“While we’ve had pretty much a full year of preparation to equip them with the tools and resources and knowledge to adapt and continue to serve consumers’ needs, there’s clearly a substantial amount of both confusion and misinformation out there in the market—not necessarily with consumers, in my view, but among agents and brokerages,” explained Schneider.
“I think the level at which agents across our industry are prepared for these changes differs pretty dramatically, but we feel good about how our network of agents and franchisees is ready here,” he added.
“There is a lot of confusion out there,” concurred Yannaccone, “but it’s not all the same thing that people are confused about. There’s a varied level of understanding of what these changes are, how to best implement them, etc.”
Open houses were one example addressed during the Q&A portion of the event.
Yannaccone took the lead as she provided the following guidance related to the still nebulous open house arena.
“A consumer can still go to an open house and walk through that open house. There’s nothing in the new practice changes which dictate that a prospective buyer need to enter an agreement to tour at an open house. They can leave contact info as they have in the past. They can do all these things,” she explained.
“What’s different now is that the buyer agreement will become necessary if the agent begins to engage in the future with this consumer or begins making more formal use of their services, such as revisiting the property outside of the open house, identifying other properties for consideration, going on formal tours.
“You’re going to need to enter into that agreement if you begin acting in a different capacity with that consumer,” said Yannaccone.
Simplicity and flexibility key on consumer side
Next, the conversation turned to the other side of the equation, with Ferrara asking how buyers and sellers in the market today are absorbing these changes and adapting to them.
“We haven’t heard much from consumers so far because it is so early, but also because it’s a pretty small set of consumers at any one point who are either buying or selling their home,” noted Schneider, who went on to explain that the goal is to provide the brand’s agents and franchisees with resources and tools to help make the changes both easy and approachable for consumers.
Drilling down further, Schneider noted that being transparent and always acting in the consumer’s best interest are the main reasons why they focused on simplicity and flexibility, first and foremost, in their buyer agreements—which must now be in place at the beginning of the process.
“The reason we really support these agreements is the transparency they offer to the consumer into the value that the agent is providing them,” said Yannaccone. “It helps give clarity to exactly what the agent is doing, sets forth the terms upon which they agree to work together while setting forth that customer expectation upfront and equally agreeing upon the compensation for the work the agent is doing on their behalf.
“We enter into contracts with lawyers, with doctors, with home improvement contractors,” added Yannaccone. “This is no different. It creates a little bit more of that clarity as they’re considering different agents to potentially use. I think our agents and consumers will end up in a much better place with higher satisfaction and our value being reinforced in the broader marketplace through these agreements.”
Having introduced several kinds of buyer agreements to the Anywhere network leading up to the implementation of the Aug. 17 practice changes, Schneider further explained the principles behind their design and why they approached them the way they did.
“Not all buyers are the same, so I think you’ve got to give consumers and agents different options depending on the scenario. Some buyers want to just go look at a home, while others know the home they want to buy—or the few homes they potentially want to buy—and they want a contract or an agreement to help make that happen. Others may want to go on a multi-month journey with an agent to find the right home. We need to support them for all of those because it’s in all of our interests to have really good, clear, simple, flexible buyer agreements to support our consumers and agents.”
Future focused: the next 6 weeks
While there are still moving parts to contend with in addition to things being implemented, changed, etc., Aug. 17 is clearly not only a deadline, but also a starting point.
To that end, Ferrera asked both Yannaccone and Schneider for their insight into the future—specifically what real estate professionals should be doing in the next six weeks to ensure they’re going to be set up for success going forward.
For Yannaccone, it’s all about leaning in, learning what’s going on and taking the opportunity to be better.
“This is a really pivotal moment, and one that is key to embracing and beginning to reestablish that value for the public. We’re focusing on equipping everyone to do that, but listen, lean in, ensure that you’re able to practice your conversations, get comfortable espousing to the homeseller and the homebuyer what value you’re providing to them in this process. Don’t shy away from it. What are the new forms? How are you articulating these things to your consumer? Prepare to educate them, especially since they may not know.
“We have to work together,” stressed Yannaccone. “We have to continue to be ready to adapt as we’ve done so many times in the past. We’re an extremely agile industry, and successful agents and brokers lean in, learn what’s going on, and they take the opportunity to be better and engage in a more direct conversation with their consumer.”
“You want to embrace change and make as much positive out of it as you can,” added Schneider, who pointed to the growth opportunity for those who remain committed to fully embracing the changes and determining how they can create value for consumers in ways they haven’t necessarily had to before.
“I think there are going to be agents who are going to build more business because they’re going to use buyer agreements to better lock in support and deliver for buyer customers. We’re not running away from offers of buyer broker compensation like some competitors are, and so we’re going to do everything we can to learn and be successful with the changes that went into effect. And I think that’s something our best agents, best brokerages and best franchisees will do.”
Perhaps most importantly, both Yannaccone and Schneider agreed that there’s still work to be done as we continue to navigate the new era of real estate—and they’re fully committed to continuing to lead through the change.
“I don’t intend to sit back and just let it happen. We’re going to monitor the market, adjust our strategies, our guides, and ensure that we’re guiding those agent and consumer needs as we go forward,” explained Yannaccone, who told attendees to “get comfortable operating in the gray.”
“This is a learning journey,” said Schneider. “We’re all going to evolve, and we want to not just be a first mover in terms of strategically settling litigation and things like that, but we want to be a fast learner in how we adjust to support our agents and the customers.”
