Buyer Broker Agreements: Chrissie Wright’s Playbook for Navigating New Norms in Real Estate

Step into the future of real estate with our latest episode of The 121% Podcast, "Buyer Broker Agreements: Chrissie Wright’s Playbook for Navigating New Norms in Real Estate." Join host Kevin Johnson as he engages in an enlightening conversation with Chrissie Wright, the esteemed broker/owner of CENTURY 21 Portfolio, renowned for her leadership within the industry.

This episode is a treasure trove of insights, shedding light on the pivotal role buyer-broker agreements play in today’s real estate landscape. With the National Association of REALTORS®' proposed settlement sparking widespread debate, Chrissie offers a seasoned perspective on how these agreements fortify agent-client relationships and ensure agents are fairly compensated for their invaluable services.

Listeners will gain:

• A deep dive into the evolution and significance of buyer broker agreements, from their roots in Arkansas to their impending national mandate.
• Practical strategies and scripts for presenting buyer-broker agreements to clients, demystifying the process, and highlighting the mutual benefits.
• Chrissie's expert tips on maintaining a positive mindset amid industry changes, empowering agents to view these shifts as opportunities for growth and advancement.
• An insider’s look at how Chrissie's firm successfully navigated the transition to mandatory buyer broker agreements, setting a benchmark for professionalism and client service in the real estate sector.

"Buyer Broker Agreements" is not just an episode; it's a guide for real estate professionals seeking to adapt, thrive, and excel in an ever-evolving industry. Whether you're a seasoned broker, a new agent, or a savvy buyer curious about what these changes mean for you, this discussion is packed with valuable insights that will propel you toward success.

Tune in to discover how embracing change with the right mindset and tools can transform challenges into remarkable achievements. Chrissie Wright leads the way, showing us all how to navigate the new norms of real estate with confidence and skill.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The views, opinions, and content expressed in The 121% Podcast are solely those of the individual speakers and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, or policies of the show's sponsors, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, CENTURY 21® Edge, OneBlue Real Estate School, or their affiliates. Each CENTURY 21® office is independently owned and operated. CENTURY 21 Edge and OneBlue Real Estate School fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act.

The information provided in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, we do not guarantee the content's veracity, reliability, or completeness. The 121% Podcast and its creators are not responsible for errors, omissions, or results obtained from using this information. Listeners are encouraged to conduct their own research and due diligence and seek professional advice before making legal, financial, or real estate decisions.

Transcript

Chrissie Wright: 0:00

Up until you have a buyer's rep you essentially allowing the seller to say what you're gonna make that you're allowing them to pick what you're going to buy. This allows you to say, This is my value. This is my work. Welcome

Mary Thompson Hunt: 0:10

to the 121% Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping real estate agents take their business from where they are now to 121% who motivation, education and action. And now, here is your host, Kevin Johnson.

Kevin Johnson: 0:28

Jordan, welcome to another episode of the 121% podcast. My name is Kevin Johnson and today I am excited to welcome Christy Wright of century 21 portfolio Krissy. For those that don't know you that haven't had the privilege of meeting you, or maybe that part of our brand and been living under a rock. Tell us a little bit about your story. Like how did you get into this crazy thing we call real estate and find yourself running one of the top brokerages in the country?

Chrissie Wright: 0:55

I well, I guess. Yeah. So my degree was an education. But I had my daughter when I was younger, and I thought, I don't know that I was going to be tracking to school all day, you know, great bridge cares, but not for me. No May I just don't have the patience for that. So there was a house across the street goes for sale by owner. That was Brenda bars. And they were out of town. And they asked me to show it while they're in a town. So went over there and open up the door and let the people in that wanted to look at it. And then after that, this is back in 2002. They're like, Oh, are you hosted? I did. I was like, No, I'm not a real estate agent. Maybe I should go to real estate school. So pretty much like the Legally Blonde where she decides to go to law school, I decided to get a real estate school. And I worked at Coldwell Banker for 10 years. And then in 2000. Well, I bought a cannabis insured running one that was yeah, really only had five agents, it was kind of a dying brand in our market. And over the past 1112 years. Yeah, we basically built it to where now we're the number one in the state, and we have around 101 125 agents. So I just gotta say, God's like listening. Yeah, I've got great people around me and and great sport, incorporate. And it's just been a great run, which hopefully will continue for another one two years. God

Kevin Johnson: 2:12

will right. But what do they say guy Warren and the creek don't rise. So talk about like, you know, you've grown this business, and it's it's wildly successful, you're well respected within our brand. I mean, everybody looks up to you. Were there any pivotal moments in that that journey that you just mentioned that kind of shaped the leader that you are today?

Chrissie Wright: 2:34

Oh, that's Thank you very much for that compliment. I appreciate it. I don't know if there's one pivotal moment, I think it's kind of like I'm one of those. Hey, let's try it. Yeah, I never know, unless you try it, I always tell my mother better to try to last and never tried at all. So a lot of it was just jumping in, you know, be earnest and going for it. And then also be willing to ask questions. I mean, you know, I talked to you, I talked to a lot of brokers around the country constantly just asking them questions. And I think that's probably, you know, it's been like dental moment is just each time i Doctor, another broker or another company, it's like, Ooh, I might take that, even if it's just a little smidgen of an idea and build upon it. And I think that is really, I'm a big believer and getting build it, they will come selling more may instead of really focusing on you know, the outward trying to get inward for our office and our agents and is constantly trying to build what we have. Because I always think that people like to be a part of something next reason that country clubs, Elks clubs, all these. Yeah, because people like the Arctic, somebody, and they looked at that as something that when we are a tie, they want to enjoy what they're doing. And so that's what I've been like focus, and probably my pivotal moment is, we're not gonna worry about the outside, we're smart about the inside. And then people will come and I'm looking for brokers like you and others on how,

Kevin Johnson: 3:54

yeah, that's what you know, from Louisiana. And we have a famous dish called gumbo. And it's kind of like, you know, it's a little bit of everything thrown in there, right that in general, I can use gumbo or jumbo lies on the menu, you got to ask what kind because you never know what what you're gonna get when you get it. And it's, it's all those little ingredients that add up to make the very special dish. And I've always described my business that way,

Chrissie Wright: 4:17

and you laugh at yourself. It's better to say that because I'm like, we are a melting pot. My office is a melting pot of agents that have come from all different walks of life. Just like your gumbo. And we're all willing to laugh at ourselves. And we don't take ourselves too serious because I think that's key. I think some offices are just a little bit stuffy. And they try and be a little bit too perfect. And you know, they get starts at the top and if I'm only black myself, and then I'll ask themselves, that

Kevin Johnson: 4:44

our agent should laugh at themselves. Like because I laugh at myself all the time, like and I tell them all the time. Go out there and make mistakes, have fun, fail fail often fail big. Don't fail small. You know, if you're gonna do it, do it. Just do it and learn from it. But that's how we improve. Why no today we will Are the chat a little bit because you know, there's been some, just a little little news in the industry recently with just just a smidge, just a smidge with the recent proposed settlement that the National Association of REALTORS has agreed to. And that class action suit, of course, when a caveat that that the suit, or the settlement is still proposed has not been approved by the court. They're not expecting that till at least may. But out of that comes two big changes. One of them, which is that, you know, we can no longer advertise the cooperating commission that a listing broker typically offers in the MLS like we do, now, we can still offer it, it just can't be advertised in this one spot, everywhere else is good. And then the other one that is any member of the National Association of Realtors, who wants to work with a buyer is going to have to have a buyer broker agreement signed before they can show properties is not going to be an option. Now, you know, good brokers, reputable brokers out there have long, you know, champion these agreements, because it helps with transparency, and we've been using them forever. It helps make sure the customer knows their expectations of us and our expectations of them is it is a two way street. But a lot of agents and brokers didn't require it. Because it wasn't the it wasn't the easy way. Right. It was you had to sit down actually prove value. And I know for you in your state, Arkansas, this has been something that, you know, has been a requirement for your state law from your from your real estate commission for a while now. How long ago? Was it that Arkansas adopted this position?

Chrissie Wright: 6:38

That we've always had kind of an adoption on explain agency prior to beginning? Yeah, that's always since I've been a licensed agent since 2002. So at least 20, over 20 years. I know that, you know, in our state, they had a brochure that says this is agency and explain agency, and they wanted that a little time on there that you're supposed to get your you have a solution that a client, they're supposed to sign it and then you tear it off. And you give them the brochure to keep and keep a little time basically showing that they signed it that you that they received it now wherever they read it or not. Who knows, but it was some group, and that it kind of evolved where, hey, we need to spend more than just explaining agency. We need some reps. Yeah, we need some representation contracts, that they are actually signed off that yes, we understand agency. But now we're to the level that we want you to be our AST we want to hire you. And it's been around since I'm an I can't remember when that started. But at least 10 years. I know that when I started since 2001, and 2012. Yeah, we made it very much. Yeah, it was at that point, you had to have it there was it was part of that it was selling like you had to have it prior to writing the contract. So some agents would get it signed, right when they're writing their contract. But in my office in 2012, we've decided to eliminate recommend kind of biggest gap. Like let's just go ahead and get it signed and get it done. And, you know, it's, of course, everybody's freaking out over these changes. And no one likes change. So people don't like It's like in 2015, when they changed settlement statements. And we went from having, you know, HUD and, you know, now we have a three day with TRID. And all of these tax things, everyone's freaking out. Now, are we ever going to pick a closing date, because we have to wait three days, and it all worked out? I think the same thing with these buyer agreements. And I know the states that have not been like Arkansas, are really kind of breaking out from talking to other brokers. But I think it's gonna be the same thing, which we'll look back and be like, Bob, remember 2024. And we have limited those. So in my market, this is just how Ebola has done it for so long that I don't really know any different. And yes, then the MLS will be a little bit different that we can't say exactly what we're doing, right. But in my market, that second shift over the last five years, to where we don't necessarily see it anyways, because we had companies come in, but lower splits. And so we started doing some broker agreements. And so we weren't always getting that. That was being shown me wise, a lot of times you were still being paid more than that was being advertised. Because yeah, NAR said you had to advertise something, but you technically didn't advertise what you were willing to pay out, you'd have to advertise all of it if you want to, as long as your seller agreed to that. So we've had a lot of different things going on that is now kind of coming into play across the country.

Kevin Johnson: 9:19

So talking about that change a little bit, to hear it where the offer of comp move was, is most or a lot of MLS says you could put zero or as little as $1 for years. So how do you how did you help your agents transition to the point where they were putting the fee that they were expecting to get paid on those buyer broker commissions? Because, you know, the feedback I'm hearing online from a lot of agents is that, you know, they're worried that what if they don't have the money? It's all these negative things, right? Instead of trying to like, Well, how about we just step up and prove our value? But so how did you help your agents make that transition where we're going from just an agency agreement to here is a buyer broker agreement, that's gonna say you're gonna pay me X, regardless of whether, you know, if they don't pay on listing progress and patient say, you're still gonna pay?

Chrissie Wright: 10:09

Well, I think you know, the first time is always the hardest. And then it isn't. It's, I think for right now I tell people, I'm a happy we're all kind of in this junior high dating. It's like no one studied before. And when I first start buyers reps, it feels like you're in junior high, again, you're having to ask someone, you have to go slow dance with you, and you're breaking out and think about it for weeks, what actually happens. And so I feel like that's where we're at. And then you get to where you're grown up, and you're like, Okay, it's no big deal. You just do it. So for those that are all kind of junior high, awkward dance stage, the best way that we started was we kind of made up a script of sorts, that we kind of hang up a few things that were talking white, that way my little packets in our office, and we said, here's these packets, we want you to keep them in your car, which is basically going to be a roadmap for you to go off, just like the contract is new, talk to yourselves. So when you talk to a seller and the listing agreement, you're like, Oh, this is right, but your names record your address where we're at with that, yeah, the length of the listing agreement, and you go through, right, and that's your roadmap of work had been discussed? Why they do for agents right now? Because like, how am I gonna just walk in and say, Hey, use me, that's kind of breaking them out. So we came up with these packets in our packet, we basically say to him, Hey, let's show the house. At the end of showing the house work. They want to be at the office, the foreshore of the house with Bill the packet out? And what if you had a second electrodes with this for you? One thing that I want to point out is that right now, we're dating lots of people, I know that you called me about this listing. But it's basically like we're dating lots of people, and you have no representation, what I'd like to do is I'd like for you to hire me to represent you. So that way you do have some representation. And then going into it, we go on to the contract. And we say this, right, a year is a contract. And what it is, is it basically said that I represent you and this contract, and as I put, let's say, three rabbits at three rabbits in this contract, saying that that will be my payment, historically, the seller will pay that on behalf of the buyer. So this will probably be paid by the seller. But in the event, if the seller does not pay, it will just ask the seller to pay it on behalf more than write the offer. And we can cross that bridge when we get there. Then this is right here. This is where I would prefer cancellation. So if you decide you don't want to work with me in the future, you don't have to work with me. But basically what this is saying is that I represent you. So that way I can take you and if you're not willing to make a commitment, I understand that. But here's the deal, I have people that are wondering, like I couldn't met someone majority of my time is spent, you know, on the people that are about listing agreements with that tournament, or the blood buyers agreements with. So I'm not saying I won't still send you some properties. But you know, I can't promise that I won't miss something, or I think of these are my people that are my focus. So when you decide he wants a representation, yeah, let's just new coordinates go from there. And they usually just, and if you're good at that, I'll go ahead and send you one right now, when I get home or back to the office, and you could sign it. And I just always say sure that sounds good. You're the first person that's talked to me and ready also just giving me a card. No one's really displaying how it works. And there's other things that we've put in that packet. Oh, talk about, but that's really kind of, you know, in a nutshell, how it works. Yeah, we kind of just can't explain, you don't have any right at this moment.

Kevin Johnson: 13:27

I think that part of that is going to get a lot easier once the new policies are enacted, because then anyone who's a member of Nara is going to have to have an agreement signed, right? So it's going to be a matter of at that point, who I think is going to be who can prove their value the best who can demonstrate to that buyer that they are worth whatever number they're putting down in that paper whether it be three rabbits or four rabbits or five rabbits.

Chrissie Wright: 13:55

That's well and you know, in my pack, and I haven't so let's get started we have a sheet that says sanity Higgins and you know I'm telling my agents and like here's the double purpose of the steady hand is so that way when you don't know how to start you say with some another cheat probably think that my job is basically to open up doors for you. While there's a lot more than just opening up doors. Yeah, everyone always understand that when I pay this, you know, I list my property I understand what I'm paying for I'm paying to get it on MLS I'm paying remarketing. Yeah, I'm paying for all of those types of things that go along with it, but the buyer be like well, why don't I really paying for this is your moment to shine and and explain what you're heading or Well, what you're paying for is that really my job essentially, Starks a hard part of my job is when we write the offer because when we write the offer, I'm going to be negotiating inspections, disclosures. I'm gonna be talking with the appraiser, the title company, you know, attorneys, whoever, surveyors, all that's gonna play and in general, the reason it says 70 hands is because from the moment they write this opera, the moment we get to closing day Well, it usually touches on average about 70 hands, because that contracts didn't go to me as your agent, and single my broker, and it's gonna go to you, and it's gonna go over to the other agent, their broker than the lender and the underwriter that's going to come back. Yeah, so it's going to all these people back and forth this whole time. And when you're concerned about, oh, go into Home Depot, or go into Hobby Lobby or talking to your neighbor, because you're excited about decorating the home that you're buying, or the changes that you're going to make, your focus can be all of that my bulk is, is going to be on this transaction and getting it from that contract to closing. And that's what you're hiring me to do. And essentially, that's what the seller generally is paying me to do on your behalf. And so that's what this means is that you want me to represent you and get you from that contract to that closing table and make it seamless to where you don't even know what's really going on. But on the concierge bond and saying exactly.

Kevin Johnson: 15:55

So how do you coach agents to help them understand how important these documents are for them and their business and the benefits that they have by having these documents in place? And how they outweigh any perception of any cons that might be out there?

Chrissie Wright: 16:13

Well, I mean, first of all, I tell them, yeah, and I think they're great. Here's the deal. Up until you have the buyer's rep, you essentially allowing the seller to say what you're gonna make, that you're allowing them to pick what you're going to buy, this allows you to say, This is my value, this is my worth. Yeah, I'm not worth one rabbit, I'm not going to do it for one rabbit. So I expect three rabbits or two rabbits or four rabbits whenever this is what I expect. And this is what I put it in my Myers rep. So you've got to think of that, like what is your pay, this is not something you're trying to do for free. So the beauty of a buyer's rep is it allows you to kind of set the tone of your value. I think I've told you before Kevin, that, you know, you can say burgers are you can buy a burger for nine cents, you can buy burger for $20. Not all burgers are the same burgers. So you got to decide what your value, yeah, and what kind of burger you're going to be. And then you've got to be able to set I mean, and when you signed up for this job, you sign up for sales. I mean, everyone knows that this is a sales job. And it's not just selling the property you're selling yourself. And if you can't sell yourself, then you might not be in the right job. And so that's kind of what I explained to the agents, it's like, you just got to understand this is what you do. Yeah, this is your profession. And this is where you go in and get present value. And if you can sell your value, people will buy it, they're willing to pay it. We're in a generation more than ever, where people will pay to have something dark with them and pay for it. People make people clean their homes to pay people to mow their yard instead of doing it themselves. People pay people to paint their houses. When I was a kid, I'm sure when you were a kid, that didn't happen. People buy to the outcome, sell the mother yard themselves, they clean the house themselves. And still a lot of people do, but we become more of a, Hey, I'm gonna pay, I'm going to work a little bit extra. So that way I do what I'm an expert in. So that way I can earn money to pay people that can clean towels, and mow yards and do things that they're experts at. And because I can tell you you don't want me making house I do better to be someone your house for you. Because that's what I've been trained to do. I am not a painter and I respect people that hate that are. And so I tell the agent pest chief got a big and that's it. You got to be willing to go in and do.

Kevin Johnson: 18:25

Yeah, it's you don't want me painting your house either. No, it's not me. I'm good at what I do. But there's a lot of things I'm not good at. And I'm okay with that. No, that's not that's not my wheelhouse. So as I mentioned earlier, there's there's a considerable amount that's probably understating this injury of negative misinformation and noise out there. And, you know, one of the challenges that I'm seeing is that so many agents across the country are buying into it, they're reading the headlines, they're not understanding the details. I'm not the biggest NAR fan in the world, full disclosure, but even to me, this settlement made sense from a business perspective. You know, other than the big companies that had already settled, every other member was exposed to lawsuits. And this settlement protects everyone. And the other option was bankruptcy, because they did not have the over $5 billion they were going to need for the bond to be able to continue with the appeal. So I applaud them for the decision they made. But again, the the media is and it's very disappointing, even respectable organizations out there have been reporting this information. So how do you coach and mentor your team? They're in Arkansas to kind of just tune out the noise and stay focused. And to also, you know, shepherd the customers and your clients through this because they're seeing the same thing the agents are How are you helping them navigate this

Chrissie Wright: 20:03

I think a lot of it is just education I think you know