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Trust and Transparency in a Shifting Market: What the Real Estate Commission Lawsuit Changed Forever

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Trust is the backbone of every successful real estate transaction and in today’s shifting landscape, transparency isn’t optional, it’s essential.

In this episode of the Offerin Podcast, Ben and Kevin unpack how the real estate commission lawsuit has shaken confidence across the industry. They explore why real estate trust breaks down so easily, how offer submission processes can either build or erode that trust, and why transparency is now a competitive necessity.

You’ll learn:

  • What today’s clients expect from buyer representation and how to meet those expectations
  • Why agents must adopt ethical, transparent offer management practices
  • How to guide clients through the buying real estate process with clarity and calm
  • How Offerin helps agents deliver full visibility and protect client trust at every step

In a time when confusion and skepticism are on the rise, this episode offers a practical roadmap for agents who want to lead with integrity and clarity.


👉 Discover how Offerin helps agents win more deals, save time, and look like heroes to their clients. Visit Offerin.io to learn more or schedule a demo today.

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Welcome to another amazing episode of the Our Friend podcast, where we talk real problems, real stories, and real solutions in the world of real estate. So today we're digging into something that impacts every deal, every referral, every conversation. Trust. Whether you've done five deals or 500, you know how quickly trust can be built. And on the opposite, we know how quickly trust can be lost. In this episode, we're talking about how to build trust, combining it with transparency to become your competitive advantage. Competitive edge. And maybe we'll throw in there how offer in can help impact that and bring trust into a real estate deal as well. So we're joined by Kevin. Been super pumped to have you here and talk through this. I know this is a really important topic for both of you and, and all of us, the core principles of who we are as human beings, as men, as husbands, as fathers as well. So, so in real estate, why. Is trust. Such a big deal? Who wants to start? Well, I think trust is, as you said, it's one of the things that can be built quickly or eroded very quickly, and it's going to be the thing that is kind of like it's the underpinning of everything you do. If you build trust with your clients over time, that's going to lead to a great business, a great brand. It's going to lead to referrals. It's going to lead to being able to sleep really well at night. It's going to lead to your business actually being a stable business, something that's built on stone instead of being built on sand. Yeah. Been doing thoughts on that. Like I think our industry is. It's invisible to people. It's unknown if they don't do it all the time. It's a lot of money. There's a lot of angles. So even if somebody is telling the truth it's hard to tell people. It's just hard for people to tell what's happening. So. And because there's a lot of money involved, there's a lot of people that are drawn to it that may try to take advantage of that. So the combination of the a lot of money with the lack of visibility creates some trust issues. Yeah. That's great. Good angle. Well, and it's highly emotional and highly volatile and people's lives when somebody is selling or buying a home, it's because something else has happened in their lives. Typically a new baby, a new marriage, divorce, death, something like that is actually what's going on underneath to cause this physical thing to happen, of buying or selling a house. And so there's a lot of volatility in people's lives combined with like what Ben's saying a lot of money moving hands very quickly. Yeah. Doing something that people don't do often, maybe anywhere from 1 to 10 times in an average person's lives. Maybe they're selling or buying a home. And so all those three things combined with then needing to have somebody on the other side who's walking you through this process and you've got to make this decision to hire this person, and you really don't know what they're doing. Are they doing a good job? Are they telling me the truth? What's actually happening? You know what? There's actually like nine factors all working together at the same time. So like even for example, with offer. And, you know, when somebody makes an offer, there's little details that you just don't know. Matter that really matter. Like who was the lender, what kind of a down payment, what FHA conventional, cash or I'm trying to think, appraisal gap. There's all these little details that the average person would not understand or even just on a, on a, you know, like when you're pricing a house, like, where is it located? What time of the year is it? What are the interest rates doing? What you know, what are all these things that are happening that equal the result? And, I think it's hard for people to you could get like seven out of the eight right. It's like putting a machine together with getting seven out of the eight things. Right. But that one missing thing causes the whole thing not to run correctly. And so I think, for the agent who is really trying to do a great job, they're out there working their butts off, trying to serve. And if they miss one key detail, they may not know, they may not. Whatever it creates distrust because it it causes everything to become clunky. Nobody was trying to have that happen, but it does all the time because people aren't able to get out side of these transactions to really like, advise people how to move forward. So. So when you walk in, somebody contacts you saying, hey, we want to sell our house. For example, Kevin, how do you start building trust? Where did where does that happen? Where do you start it? Yep. I think that trust begins in transparency. And number one, being transparent with what you know. And secondary to that maybe even more important, what you don't know and what you're not good at. So give me give me an example. This is a story of this. These are an extreme examples. But for the purpose of this conversation, maybe somebody comes, calls into our office that says, hey, I've got a building to sell. It's in a commercial zone. Can you do it? Well, the first part of me is like, oh, yeah, we definitely can, because that's a $2 million building and we get paid 6%. Absolutely we can. Right? But the truth is, we're not great at it. The truth is we are really good at selling residential properties in residential neighborhoods to people who are dealing with their residential emotional mindset and money. We're really good at that. And so being able to say no to one thing, yes to another thing, but then bringing the transparency when we do show up with those people of there's three things people care about. I think that develop trust with a client. Number one, what's the process? What are the steps I'm going to go through? Yeah. Number two, what's it going to cost me financially? And number three, what's the timeline? When is all of this going to happen? If you can tell somebody what the steps they're going to walk through, how much it's going to cost and what's the timeline for this? Those are typically the three things jammed up inside of people that are going to unlock the fear that they might be having a moving forward. And once you know those three things, whether it's in real estate, whether it's in building something, whether it's in a relationship, whether it's in opening up a new bank account, those are always the three things people care about most really good. And if you have enough self-awareness to recognize that you are not actually prepared to provide those things, that humility to invite other people into your life, maybe you need a mentor. Maybe you need a coach. Maybe you need somebody else that actually knows these things. Like you, you know, fake it til you make it. You don't actually have to do that. You just need to be able to, like, value yourself enough to spend the money, invest, and actually having somebody teach you these things so that you can actually provide to someone else what you would want provided to you. So there's an element of humility here that I think you have to have in order to build the trust, which is what you're saying. It's like you have to know and be confident enough to know what you're good at. Like if you're good at something, own it. Wear it and then be confident of the fact that somebody else is like you. You're really good. I mean honestly like when you hear your voice go and all a sudden you get all nervous about it, it's hilarious to me because it's just like you're good at it. So then when you own that stuff, it it makes everybody feel comfortable. Speaking of making everybody feel comfortable or uncomfortable, is this huge lawsuit, right. Very traditional industry for many, many years. Yeah. And then boom. Then in are has some kind of lawsuit going on. And it is we're a year plus into it. August 17th or 19th I think so almost maybe maybe eight months or nine months. As we're dating this podcast, if you will. But right. But we're a few months into it. So how has that eroded trust in the industry? You wrote it. You wanted to open up a big can of worms. Yeah. When there's ten minutes left on this podcast. That's what you. Were. That's right. That's what I was. Open the I think the from a very high level. The lawsuit with nah has actually just almost taken a glass case and broken it and shattered it into 100 or 1000 different pieces and people don't really know how to pick it up. And so from the perspective of the public, there's this thing that happened. People really don't understand it because they don't understand the nuances of what's happening in real estate. When a buyer submitting an offer, when they're working with their agent. I think the lawsuit was a catastrophic failure on the part of everybody involved in making that decision. It did not help consumers or it did not help real estate agents. It did not help silent sellers. And I don't think it helped buyers. Which was the intention. Yeah. Yeah. Apparently that's what retention of. Transparency at the core, it's like, hey, we're not being transparent in our transactions. Let's just open open the window a little bit. Let's see that. So that transparency you mentioned that word transparency made me think of that as well. The funny thing is that the window used to be open. You used to be able to see what was transparently happening. Now, what's happened is they've closed the window and said, people need to open up the window every time they want to look in and see transparency, which most people don't even know. There's a window there to open up. Yeah. That's right. They they turned there was at least a structure before there was a system. It's the Wild West. That's the reality. Wow. And people didn't know how it worked before. Now everybody just is making up how it works. So that's. What's happening. I'm afraid it's worse. It's worse for the buyers. I mean, it's worse for. It's worse by worse. It's worse for the sellers. Yeah. There's real estate agents who it is very good for. And and good real estate agents look, good real estate agents are always going to serve their clients well. That's right. And so they're always going to find a way in whatever storm they're currently living in to develop truth and to develop transparency and ultimately trust with their clients. So good real estate agents are very good at managing this scenario, and they're creating wildly spectacular experiences for their clients with this going on. But here's the thing. Those people were already doing that before this lawsuit, and they're doing it now too. Yeah. Which maybe it just takes time. Sometimes when you throw a grenade into something, it takes time for the new normal. And I think that's really what's happening. It's it's not all bad. I mean, the reality is it's just kind of allowing people to rise to the occasion of figuring out what is the best system. It's not being it's not being controlled. Now. So I think over time some somebody will figure out like, oh yeah, that does that's how it makes sense. I mean, I think we're working on that. Oh, everybody who wants to be in real estate as an agent or a brokerage is working on this problem right now, today. And they have been my point is just that I've seen more bad behavior since this lawsuit than before the lawsuit. In what way? Yeah, what bad behavior you're seeing. And here's the other problem with it. The other problem with the bad behavior is there used to be an enforcement mechanism. Now, because everything's hidden, there's actually no enforcement mechanism. So bad behavior can happen. Nobody even knows about it. And then there's nobody to actually enforce any type of consequence to it. So let's give me an example. Oh, here's the easiest example. I can tell you. I don't have any way to prove this, but my my instincts. Here's what happens. Spidey sense. Here's what happens. A buyer's agent submits an offer on a property. Let's just keep math simple here. Let's say it's a half $1 million offer with a 3% buyer's agent commission being paid to that. Okay, okay, 15 K, they get a counteroffer. And let's say they the counteroffer was, 525 with a 2% buyer's agent commission. Those details never make it back to the buyer. What actually makes it back to the buyer? I don't have the math going on here because I don't have a calculator in front of me, but what actually makes it back to the buyer is a 3% commission still, and whatever the number was to make that even. So, let's call it 525 now with a 3% commission. That information used to be public. It used to be in the MLS. You used to be able to see it. Everybody could see what the buyer's agent commission was, so there was no way to put a cover over it. Now what's happening? When buyers agents submit offers, they get a counter offer with a different commission. That information never makes it back. And I know this because I've seen it come back to us on offers where we get back something that just doesn't seem like it made its way back to the buyer. Ultimately, our job is to represent our sellers in that scenario, so we get them the best scenario and the best deal. But that's my feeling of what's going on. Well, and there's a bigger issue with this number, and that is they almost got it backwards. What way? Well, the issue, you know, they're they're kind of looking at all these buyers agents saying, hey, these people are getting paid too much or whatever. The truth is, truth, trust. Whatever these buyer's agents are, they work their tails off and they earn every dollar of a 3% real estate commission that they get. They truly do the actual indifference, if you want to call it, or whatever is on the listing side, technology, Zillow, the internet, advertising, all of that actually is, is where the, the lopsided the lopsided in this is so, putting all this downward pressure on these buyer's agents and actually getting your sellers involved in negotiating with them and, like, going back and forth is actually, I think, going to create a jaded this is creating a jaded ness in these buyers agents. They're like, fine, okay. You know what? Like nobody's understanding what I'm actually going through. Well the truth is to run a successful real estate business, one where you have office space, you have a really great team, you have a good website to represent you well, to be able to pay attorneys correctly, to structure your business, to be able to offer this thing to the public. The truth is, you need to make money. There needs to be a profit on it, and you need to be able to support your family with that profit. Putting this downward pressure on those, commissions. Oh, doesn't allow that to happen, which means then you end up with some type of weird thing that actually comes out for the public. You're not the public is not actually getting the service they need or want to be able to have a great experience and to be able to make sure they're protected, the actual but make sure they have a professional representing them. People want that in real estate. The thing that people miss the most when I hear people talk about this, the truth is people want great representation when they buy or sell a house. Yeah, that's the thing that all of these people are missing that think real estate agents don't need to exist or they're doing a bad job. No. When you're going through a divorce, when you have a new baby, when you're getting married, when you're making a half $1 million purchase, you want to make sure you're protected and you have great representation. That's why real estate agents exist. Cheap plug for your friend. This is like one of the things that actually is like super significant on the the buyer agent side, when someone is using offer in, you know for sure that when you're representing your client and you put an offer in, it is making it to that seller the details, it's being represented correctly, which is such a big deal because it's so easy to make a mistake as, I, I was talking to a listing agent the other day. We were on a different transaction, and like, I heard it in her voice. It like, her voice dropped. She's like, oh, I've got, you know, hot property. It was like, almost like deflating to her because she's like, she was literally talking about her. I forgot to do this. This and Little League, which I always love bringing up Little League because she's now dealing with this, you know, problem of I have to like go and manage all of this. So anyways, it's really awesome for buyers agents to know that their information is getting to a seller. It's just that at the peace of mind of knowing if you lose, you lose. But at least you know it was represented well. So in the traditional real estate space you start from the first phone call or even the marketing sign, you start building trust that first conversation, that relationship starts building, building this again, this relationship of trust. The offer is so critical at that stage. Tell me, give me some good, good stuff. Have you guys ever seen like a Deal fall apart because of the lack of transparency or the lack of trust that was built, or heard of stories at least? Well, I think when I think with buyers in particular, if you don't have if you don't adopt the mindset of treating them the way you want to be treated early on, you're you can't. Build the the trust fast enough like you in order for them to win. And if there's a competitive property it takes like you had to educate them and really help them understand what's happening. For them to get up the confidence to, to win at something. If it's a really hot property where they have to trust you impeccably on all these different angles. So I think, I think to the degree that you look at somebody and are like, hey, I really care about their life, their family, their finances, their future. When they call me back in six years and I'm my goal here is to educate, care for and bring them to the point where they can make an empowered, confident decision. Like that's where you build all the trust is, is actually looking at this like it's a job of bringing someone's life forward. Yeah. And if you look at it like a commission, like you're going to get like if you're thinking about it through the lens of and everybody's guilty, I'm guilty of I've done it, you know, like you can get off kilter for a minute there. You know, it's like a doctor who doesn't care for his patient like it's the worst. But if you have a doctor who, like, has that I actually care about you. And, like, you know, even they followed up or I gave him a phone number, whatever they did because they were like, no, I actually, like, really care. And felt the servant's heart. It changes your experience as the person like, you know, whether or not they cared, which builds the trust. Yeah. Now, if you are misguided person who doesn't know a lot, you can do that and still really damage somebody. So like, beware. Like you need to do the work to like better yourself. So if you're a new real estate agent to say in your first year you haven't had a ton of transactions yet, what is like 1 or 2 practical things that they need to implement into their lives? I love that. First, I'm going to take one and just say number one is servant's heart. Right. You have to have that ability. I heard a quote once that says build relationships not leads. Yeah. And so you know in this space it's a relational business. However I feel like when transactions are happening and you miss a detail, you, you that's can quickly and erode the trust. Right. Two things. Number one servant's heart. Yeah. What else. What. Let's do all that okay. There can be this should be 2 or 3. Fine. Two. One. They need a mentor. Get a mentor. Like. And like, find somebody who has the servant's heart that actually cares about real estate. People, their lives, their families that, like you can learn from and also is very detail oriented and wants you to, like, do it right. That's one and then two. Get a house, buy a house. If you're a new agent, if you haven't bought a house, you got to figure out how to get your feet wet. Or if you own a house, get an investment property like you start dealing with your, product so that you can build that expertise, build some failures in there, like get your feet wet, you know, get dirty. Kevin. Thoughts I think the one philosophy I've always had which is simple I prescribe to the keep it simple method which is really. Yes definitely. I try to wear the same thing every day. I try to go to bed at the same time, workout at the same place and eat the same food. That's true, that's true. That all being said. I really. I think, I think this is just me. I don't know how other people were this in their minds. I've always wanted to sleep well at night, and it's been really important to me when I lay my head down on the pillow, you better believe it takes me like 30s to fall asleep. Like I'm out like that. And that comes from living a life where you've done what you can every day. You've put yourself out there, you've made honest decisions and been honest with people, and then you don't have to worry. At night when you lay your head back, head down. Yeah. Very good. Well, trust isn't earned just once. It's reinforced through every interaction. The more sellers feel seen, informed and respected, the more likely they are to refer you right to their other clients. And, this is a this is an investment in you servant's heart. Find a mentor, have an actual transaction. Those are great practical steps to take away in helping to build trust.