- 2 weeks ago
In this episode of the Real Trending Podcast, Alex Vidal discusses the key strategies for brokerage growth, emphasizing the importance of accountability in coaching, expanding value beyond local markets, and addressing affordability challenges in real estate. He highlights the need for real estate pros to adapt to market changes and maintain professionalism while facilitating family moves and exploring government roles in housing affordability. The conversation concludes with a lightning round of insights on common advice and habits for realtors.
Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:
It takes guts to recruit, coach, and pull the trigger on M&A.
How accountability is crucial for brokers to push their agents.
Real estate is a hyper-local business, but agents should think globally.
What the major challenge is for buyers in the current market.
Professionalism and commitment are increasing in the industry post-settlement.
Realtors need to facilitate conversations about joint mortgages and family moves.
Government policies can impact housing affordability significantly.
Understanding consumer behavior is key to success.
What is is essential for buyers in today's market.
Related to this episode:
ERA Real Estate
https://www.era.com/
HousingWire Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
To learn more about Homebot, click here.
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:
It takes guts to recruit, coach, and pull the trigger on M&A.
How accountability is crucial for brokers to push their agents.
Real estate is a hyper-local business, but agents should think globally.
What the major challenge is for buyers in the current market.
Professionalism and commitment are increasing in the industry post-settlement.
Realtors need to facilitate conversations about joint mortgages and family moves.
Government policies can impact housing affordability significantly.
Understanding consumer behavior is key to success.
What is is essential for buyers in today's market.
Related to this episode:
ERA Real Estate
https://www.era.com/
HousingWire Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
To learn more about Homebot, click here.
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00How are you prepping your agents for 2026? Today, I spoke with Alex Vidal. He is the
00:07president of ERA Real Estate, and we talked all things 2026, agents, coaching. We also talked a
00:15little bit about affordability and some of the issues he's seeing right now, some of the
00:20collaborations between agents and builders, and a whole lot more. So enjoy the podcast.
00:26And thank you to HomeBot for sponsoring the Real Trending Podcast. Alex, thanks for joining the
00:31Real Trending Podcast. It's been a little while. It has. Thanks for having me back, Tracy. I appreciate
00:36it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, happy holidays to you as well. Obviously, you're a coach. I know that
00:45that's kind of your background too. You really like the coaching side of leadership. And so when
00:52you're looking at brokerage growth right now among the franchises that you have, what separates
00:58the firms that are expanding from the ones that are shrinking? Like what growth levers are actually
01:04working this year and you think will work in 2026 as well? Yeah. And I think they'll work going
01:12forward and they have worked in the past. I know we may do a lightning round later. And if I were to
01:17lightning round this question, one word would be guts. And it's guts, honestly, it's guts to recruit,
01:25it's guts to coach, and it's guts to pull the trigger on M&A. And what I mean by that is like,
01:32the reason I'm so passionate about coaching is Mike Ferry once said, the reason I have a job is
01:36because your broker doesn't want to do theirs. And so when we look at growth at ERA, we look at it
01:43essentially a three-pronged approach. One is we have this amazing existing group of agents that are
01:49already affiliated with us. We've worked hard to onboard them, to recruit them, et cetera. If we can
01:54help them live a better life and make more money, and we do that at the ERA level, but our brokers at
02:00their level too, then all of a sudden their business grows. And so for everybody who's not affiliated
02:08with ERA, you have to have the guts to be able to stand in front of your existing agents
02:12and be willing to coach them and take them to the next level and also hold them accountable.
02:17We had a coaching call yesterday with our leaders and we said, listen, for the next couple of weeks,
02:21I don't want you to make a recruiting call. I want you to call your existing agents and set a time
02:27with them to talk about what their business plan is for, you know, 2026. And one of our brokers came
02:33on and said, well, some of the answers I'm getting from my agents already are, I'm good. I'm all set.
02:39And I said, well, Howard, what are you doing to follow that up? And they're like, oh, well,
02:43you know, they're kind of just move on. And I said, no, what you need to do as a broker is you
02:46need to push them and ask them if they tell you they're all set. I want to show me what you got.
02:51Okay. You're all set. Then great. Show me. Like you got to be willing to call them out and hold
02:55them accountable. Like it's great that you want to be their friend, but you're their leader for a
02:59reason. So you got to have the guts to coach your people, hold them accountable and push them.
03:03You also have to have the guts to recruit people. A lot of what's super interesting is a lot of leaders,
03:08even though they are leaders, they're afraid of rejection and recruiting is a very high rejection
03:14business. So you got to have the guts to put yourself out there and go after those recruits
03:19with the, and go after the right recruits, not just like, let me recruit anybody that has a pulse.
03:23It's the right person who can add to the culture and to the growth of the company. And then the
03:29third prong to that is willing to pull the trigger on M and A's like organic growth is great. Uh,
03:35but that's ones at a time, one at a time, or if you can pull off an acquisition and grow your company,
03:41which we've done several times this year, grow your company by substantial size. Uh,
03:47that's, that's it's guts to do it, but not everybody has the wherewithal or the guts to want to pull the
03:52trigger on a, on an M and A. Yeah, definitely. I also think that not a lot of people want the
03:58accountability part of it because you feel like you're, you know, a parent or, you know, a task
04:03master. So how do you, how do you do that in a way that I don't know, suits both parties, makes you
04:12feel good and makes them feel good? Well, you know, I, it goes back to how you even brought them
04:17in to begin with. Right. So I always believe my, my philosophy in life now, and I'm going to be
04:21approaching 50 in a couple of years is radical honesty. And I think if you can approach it with
04:27radical honesty, if you can approach it from a perspective of like, all right, Tracy, you know,
04:31where do you want to be in your life? Like we're here, right at the end of 2026, what does your life
04:37look like? Right. What does it look like at the end of 2028? What does it look like in 2030? And,
04:42and say, listen, like, I want to be your friend. Like I want to get along with you and that's awesome,
04:46but you're not here just to be my friend. You're here because you want to take your business and
04:50your family and your life to another level. I can help you do that. And having the confidence to
04:54push them. And oftentimes a lot of brokers are afraid to like piss off their agent for lack of
05:01a better word, or like, you know, Oh my God, I don't want to be that person. I just want to leave
05:04them alone. No, that's not your, your responsibility is not to leave them alone. Your responsibility is to
05:09push them and get them to their next level. And they're going to thank you for it.
05:12Yeah, absolutely. You also have said before that agents limit their value when they only think
05:18locally, but real estate is a hyper local business. So how does encouraging clients to explore out of
05:24market opportunities, elevate an agent's value proposition today? Or what do you mean by that?
05:30Yeah. You know, that's a good question. I think it's crazy. And I live in Dallas,
05:35the amount of people that have moved to Dallas from outside of Dallas, let alone within the
05:41Metroplex from like, I'd moved from South Lake to Dallas proper is huge. And you have to be able to
05:47be an expert at that in that local market per se. But you also have to have the ability to say,
05:52all right, Tracy, hey, you're coming to us from California. And I want to be able to help you here.
05:58But I'm a part of this expansive network, whether it be within ERA, or whether it be within the
06:02anywhere network, that we can not only guide you here, but there is a benefit to me being able to help
06:08you in whatever market you're coming from. And I can work in tandem with that agent, not only refer
06:14you to a great agent, but because it's a timing thing, right? So I think understanding, particularly
06:19if you can get a good education about what the relocation process is like. I've been a part of
06:25that when I moved from Miami to Dallas, it's completely different than a normal real estate
06:28transaction, just get a better understanding of it and understanding where can I help you directly?
06:33And where can I help you that I can put you in the right hands? And all of a sudden,
06:37you become somebody that just helps them in this overall life transition, than just helping them
06:43buy their home in Dallas, Texas. So that's how I would do it.
06:47Yeah, I mean, I'm in Florida. And I know a lot of Florida agents, I'm Central Florida, but even
06:52Central Florida, mostly South Florida, though, really have big connections with their feeder markets,
06:57whether it's internationally, or, you know, within the US. So it's really important for our state.
07:05Where are you from, Tracy? What part of Central Florida?
07:08I'm north of Orlando, suburb, Lake Mary.
07:11Yeah, I love Lake Mary. I'm from Miami. So when we had, we were looking at the time before moving
07:15to Coldwell Banker, and within anywhere before ERA, we're looking to expand in Lake Mary. Funny story,
07:21the only time I've ever been in a helicopter was flying over Orlando to kind of get like an idea of
07:27where we wanted to open. And I was it was cold. And I was in sweats, because I was terrified.
07:33But you look at the feeder markets, Orlando, you look at Miami, the international component to that
07:38is huge. And the best agents in those markets are the ones that like, hey, I can help you here
07:43locally in Miami. But you're coming from Columbia, I have a great agent network in Columbia that I can
07:49refer you to to help you over there. In the event that they're looking either one, to sell their
07:54property in Columbia, or two, have that Colombian connection to get them excited about Miami,
07:59and then refer them to you when they ultimately make the move.
08:02Yeah, yeah. Our big claim to fame in Lake Mary is we've hosted two presidents, personal,
08:08personal people have hosted two presidents, Obama and Trump. So that's our big claim to fame in our
08:14city. So, so I want to talk about affordability, because that's such a huge issue right now. And,
08:21you know, making homeownership attainable to first time buyers is really important. And do you think
08:28that builders and brokers are aligned on the affordability mission? And where are there
08:34opportunities for collaboration? Sure, I think they're absolutely aligned. One of the biggest
08:40frustrations for agents across the country, not just, you know, my friends here in Dallas, but across
08:45the country is, I have these amazing buyers, but there's just nothing for them to buy between what
08:50interest rates being high and the pricing of whether it be resale homes or new construction,
08:55they just, they can't break into the market at the moment. And builders are saying we would love to
09:00build it for them. But we just it's not it, we just can't build it. I don't want to say cheap
09:05enough is not the right word. But it's just, it's too expensive to build it the cost of, you know,
09:09I read something the other day, like the cost of permitting and everything involved with the city and
09:13planning and architects and all, it's like 25% of the overall cost of a bill. That's huge. You know,
09:18so if you have a $400,000 house, and 100,000 of it is going to the government and regulatory
09:22agencies, etc. You know, that makes it that makes it hard. And then you look at the cost of just the
09:29overall cost of goods. You know, we talked about a remodel that I'm doing. And part of it was maybe
09:34doing some work on my wood floors. And what's expensive, like significantly more expensive than
09:39what it was, let alone just what it costs from a labor perspective, etc. So realtors want to be able to
09:45sell them product, builders want to be able to build a product. But at the moment, it's just
09:50either too expensive because of the government or because of what's happening with material labor
09:55costs. Can they absolutely petition our local and federal governments to lower those costs? They can
10:01and they should and they are. So yeah, they can work together and they're absolutely aligned.
10:05So how are you talking to agents right now about the 2026 market and how to find success? I mean,
10:14I think the fundamentals for success are in place no matter what market it is. But what makes this
10:20coming year different? And and what have you seen as far as trends that that have changed some of the
10:29the way you coach? Yeah, great question. So I'm going to go back to I, listen, I love coaching,
10:36but I've had some great people along the years that I've learned from another Mike Ferry line. He said
10:40the market's always hot for great realtors, right? And understanding that there are certain things in
10:45this economy or in this life that we just cannot control. We can't control interest rates. We can't
10:51control inventory. We can't control how price housing pricing. But what we do realize is right now there
10:58are people that are getting married, getting divorced, having kids, kids are moving in, but kids are moving
11:04out. My son just went back to college, right? Job promotions, job losses, relocations, deaths in the
11:08family. There are still things that are happening in people's life that are going to require them
11:15to have some sort of a real estate transaction, right? Yeah. And when that the key is, what are
11:21you doing as a realtor to make sure that when when someone in your sphere of influence experiences one
11:28of those nine things, plus plus plus, those are just the big nine. Why are they calling you out of
11:34the other 11 realtors? This is an NAR stat. The average consumer knows 12 realtors. What are you
11:40doing to be what I call the clear favorite that they're calling you over the other 11 realtors that
11:48they know? So from, and by the way, even in a hot market, that's the thing. So there's, everybody wants
11:54to talk about like, oh, the market's changing the fundamentals. Like it, it doesn't, it really
11:58doesn't. Um, it's real estate one-on-one, you know, that's, that's really the foundation for
12:04everything. So our coaching hasn't changed. What we've changed in our coaching is understanding that
12:09one, the way consumers transact and find their realtor has completely changed 20 years ago.
12:16It was about like 70 or 80% of, of consumers worked with a realtor that they knew or that was
12:22referred to them. The other 20% was either like online or in a magazine or like a grocery cart thing,
12:28you know, magazine, that number has now dropped to 50%. And the other 50% are finding their agent
12:34either through AI or Zillow lead or et cetera. And so what we're doing is we're looking at AI and seeing
12:40how is AI recommending agents? How do they go about it? Where are they searching? What, where are they
12:46pulling from and coaching our agents to become the realtor that AI is recommending? Um, so that's one
12:54thing that we've added. So we stick to the fundamentals, but then we've added on like AI and then we look
12:59at, okay, how does the average consumer that comes in through Zillow or who are the consumers that come
13:04in through Zillow and understanding like, Hey, it's somebody who knows nobody in the marketplace. It's
13:09somebody who, um, knows the 12 realtors, but there was no clear favorite. And so they'd rather work with a
13:15complete stranger than have to pick somebody among the 12 that they know. Or it could be somebody that says, Hey,
13:21listen, there is a clear favorite, but I'm very private about my life. I don't want anybody knowing
13:25how much money I make or how much money I have. And yes, the mortgage broker is not supposed to talk
13:29with the realtor, but they do. So I'm going to go with the straight and just understanding the dynamics
13:32of how consumers are choosing their realtor and then coaching them to either make sure they don't
13:40go to those websites and that, and that they ultimately pick you, um, or just getting AI to recommend
13:46you and then the fundamentals on top. So it's not changing. It's been adding what we're doing.
13:50And how, you know, I mean, it's been over a year since the settlement. And I think that it was,
13:57it was really thought to change the way real estate is done. And it hasn't had as big an effect
14:08on real estate as people thought. Um, you know, I know Florida realtors hasn't lost a ton of members.
14:15Um, you know, I, I think that I haven't seen a huge drop off in the number of realtors practicing
14:22real estate. Um, but what do you see as the fundamental changes after the settlement? Um,
14:31you know, do you see more professionalism in real estate or what are, what are you seeing out there?
14:36Um, not only do I see more professionalism, but I see actually more commitment to each other.
14:42Like if you think, and again, it depends on what state you were in, because there were certain
14:46states that were already practicing a lot of what the settlement, you know, reached, but there were,
14:52I think it was only 18 states. So you had another 32 states that weren't practicing that way.
14:56And what we're seeing in those states is, and again, I'm sorry, I don't know if you can hear like
14:59the tape being pulled from the contractors up there, but what we're seeing is it's forcing
15:04realtors to have genuine conversations with their consumers. You needed to do it on the listing
15:11because you had to talk about pricing and you had to talk about commissions and length of contract
15:14and expectations, et cetera, but you just didn't see that on the buy side. And what that has done
15:20is it's forcing that same listing conversation, but to be had on the buy side. And I love that
15:26because it won a lot of agents didn't know how to do that. Uh, it provided us an opportunity to
15:32coach our agents up on how to do that and stand out. But what we're seeing is commitment to each
15:38other. And that's a beautiful thing because if, if they didn't sign these buyer agreements,
15:42then it was like, all right, I'm going to go look at one house with Tracy and I'm going to go here and
15:46look over there. And there was no commitment. And when I was selling real estate, I remember showing a
15:50million dollar home and you know, Florida doesn't practice at the time, didn't practice buyer rep
15:54agreements, at least not in Miami. And they went and wrote the offer through their cousin,
15:58their cousin who had just gotten their license, you know? Uh, and you're just not really seeing
16:02that anymore as a result. So I love the changes. It's brought more professionalism, but more
16:06importantly, it's brought more commitment between the realtor and the consumer.
16:10Do you think we could go further? I know there is a lot of talk about transparency around referral
16:15fees and things like that. Um, do you think it should go further or do you feel like we're,
16:21we're covering what we should be covering? You know, I think transparency is a beautiful thing.
16:29I think we are in a very transparent business already, uh, where I would like to see changes
16:35is making it stricter in certain markets or certain States for realtors to actually get their license.
16:41Give you a perfect example. So in Miami or in Florida, sorry, in Florida, you can get your real
16:46state license in 63 hours. Okay. You can fail the state test as many times as you want. You can take
16:53it in different languages. You can literally take it every day, a hundred days straight until you pass
16:56and you're good. Yeah. Texas it's 180 hour course. If you were to fail the class, the test, the state
17:05test three times within, uh, in three times, you have to wait a year before you can retake it.
17:09And so I would like to see the barrier of entry to be raised, um, in terms of just even getting
17:16into the business, but from a transparency perspective, you know, we're, it's pretty
17:19transparent. Like a lot's being disclosed as it is. Um, so could there, maybe, maybe there could be
17:26more being done, but I'd actually like to just see the barrier of entry to be raised. Yeah, absolutely.
17:31And I think of other industries where, you know, ironically, like the attorneys who, um, kind of
17:38do have a similar setup. Um, so it's interesting how that all, um, how that all. Yeah. But it's a
17:46completely different, it's a completely different skillset. You know, just when you're dealing with
17:54you literally, as a realtor, you literally wear every single hat. Yes. You, you, you're, I don't
18:01want to say you're, but you're handling, you're handling negotiations based on a form that you
18:05fill out. You just fill out blanks. I get that. Yeah. But you're also dealing with the emotional
18:09rollercoaster that comes with a real estate transaction. It comes with finding the property,
18:14having the vetted. It has to deal with sometimes a lot of times you're dealing with a not so great
18:18realtor on the other side. So you're having to do double the work. Maybe you're dealing with a
18:22that may not have the client's best interest. So it's just a completely different. Yeah. Plus
18:26attorneys make a lot more money. Yeah, definitely. Um, so moves driven by family are up 26%. And you
18:34talked about encouraging clients to coordinate moves together, pursue joint mortgages, even
18:38explore multi-generational, um, options. So how can brokers facilitate these conversations? So agents
18:47don't miss those opportunities. Well, one is understanding the mortgage lamps,
18:52scape and what can and can't be possible. Now, do you need to be an expert? No, but you need to know
18:56enough about what's happening and what's allowable and what's able to be done from a mortgage perspective
19:00to even have that conversation with the client. But then it's also having the confidence to be able
19:05to sit down and have that real conversation with the client about what their expectations are.
19:11Are they realistic? Are they not? If they're not, um, pushing them and letting, letting them know that
19:17they're not realistic. But then also importantly, it's like, if they have a, let's say a non or an
19:23unrealistic expectation, understanding what part of it is unrealistic, where can you push to,
19:29where can you like maybe guide them somewhere else? And I'll give you a perfect example.
19:34You know, I got divorced three years ago, my ex-wife and I get along amazingly well. We have three
19:39beautiful boys together and post-divorce, we actually bought a house together. And for us,
19:45it was like, we were living in South Lake, Texas. It's a great community, a great city. Um, the
19:51public school system is amazing. Their football team is like number one in the country. You know,
19:55my son plays, you know, football for them, et cetera. And when we got divorced for us, it was
20:00like, Hey, we want to remain in South Lake because we don't want to disrupt our boys life in their
20:05school and their friend circle. But it was unrealistic as a divorced couple and me having moved to Dallas,
20:11et cetera, for, for us to be able to buy again in South Lake. So what we looked at was, okay,
20:16that's an unrealistic expectation, but what's most important to us? Well, most important to us is
20:22that staying within the South Lake school district. Okay, great. Well, if it's not possible in South
20:27Lake, are there any other pockets that will give us South Lake schools, but not necessarily the South
20:34Lake address and having that tough conversation? We said, well, listen, you know what? There's
20:38Grapevine, Texas, which borders right up to South Lake. And there are certain pockets
20:42that will provide you the South Lake schools, but with a Grapevine address for half the price,
20:49like literally half the price. And so it was like, okay, Hey, we don't care so much about South Lake.
20:54Like it's great. If we have it, we care more about the schools. Can we accomplish what we want?
20:59And that's something that we actually coach our agents a lot on is just understanding what are
21:05their non-negotiables, right? So a non-negotiable for us was the school system, that particular
21:12school system. The negotiable was if we, if we can do it in South Lake, great, but can we do it in
21:18Colleyville? Can we do it in Grapevine? Can we do it in Roanoke? Can we do it in Trophy Club? Whatever
21:21it was, and then going that route. And that's what we're trying to coach our agents on too, is like,
21:26you know, affordability is really hard right now for a lot of people. And it's just getting them to
21:31understand like, Hey, you, okay. You want South Lake. It's not affordable, but what is it about
21:36South Lake that you want so much? And the customer as an agent, knowing that you've communicated to
21:44that customer, that you've exhausted everything to try and make that possible. Now let's look at
21:49what like plan B looks like, which is these are the non-negotiables. I can still accomplish this,
21:54but on your negotiables, I got, I got to budge a little bit over here, but that comes through
21:58communication, radical honesty. Uh, that's where having these buyer presentations comes in really
22:04well. Um, and then guiding them down that path, you build the trust. And once you've built the trust,
22:09away you go. And so as far as affordability is concerned, obviously the administration kind of
22:15floated by 50 year mortgages, assumable mortgages. I think everything is like in flux right now. They're
22:22kind of coming up with things. I don't know. Um, what, you know, in your opinion, what can the
22:28government do to help affordability? Well, I, you know, it's, it's super interesting. A lot of people
22:34came out, especially there was a, not assumable mortgages, but a portable mortgages now how that
22:39works. I have absolutely no idea, but let's take the 50 year mortgage. The amount of people that
22:45immediately came out and bashed the 50 year mortgage was like, it was, is like everybody jumped on the
22:51bashing train and took no time to actually sit down and think about, okay, maybe that doesn't
22:57work for a lot of people because you're going to pay so much more in interest and who's going to
23:02stay in their home for 50 years, et cetera. But if I'm an investor and I can go and buy this home
23:07and at, and at a 30 year mortgage, I go buy this home, I'm not going to cashflow or I'm barely
23:12cash flowing, but I can put it into a 50 year mortgage. I'm going to own the asset. I'm going to
23:17cashflow. And when you look at the amortization schedules, if I'm going to keep an investment
23:21property for five or 10 years, the amount of the amount of principal being paid down doesn't
23:25really vary much. Right. But it gets me into a home. It gives me all the tax benefits. It gives
23:29me the appreciation, et cetera. A 50 year mortgage may work phenomenally well for an investor. And so
23:36I think that everything that's being presented is super exciting because it shows that the
23:41administration is willing to think differently, think creatively, think in a big way. And I just
23:49think as a, whether it goes through or not, as a, as the public, we need to not knee-jerk
23:54react to, Oh my God, 50 year mortgages and understand that there are scenarios in which
23:59it does work. And all we're looking for is scenarios that work for certain people, right? Not everything
24:04works for everybody. Like that's okay. But if it works for a small population, awesome.
24:09Yeah. And I, yeah, portable versus assumable. I don't know the difference. Well, I guess I do
24:13know the difference, but you can take one with you. The other one you can give to someone else,
24:17but you can, you know, listen, I have one of my best friends, Jose, like when he, when he takes
24:23listings, the first thing he looks for is, is the mortgage assumable? How much equity do they have
24:27in the home? Cause if you have somebody who is sitting on a 3% interest rate, 4% interest rate,
24:33and let's say they have a hundred percent, a hundred thousand dollars in equity and you have a buyer who
24:37can put that a hundred thousand down and essentially cash the seller out. Well, it's a beautiful thing.
24:42They cash the seller out and they, they assume mortgage, portable mortgage. Yeah. I, I, I have no
24:49idea how that would even, how that would even work, but. Well, I'd like to take my mortgage, uh,
24:55my mortgage rate with me if I got another house. So I think it's like, you know, Tracy, that's a great,
25:01that's a great thing. When, when we got divorced, the house that we owned in Southlake,
25:05our interest rate was 3%, right? I'm at six and a half percent right now. Yeah. And I couldn't sit
25:12there and say, Hey, I'm going to wait till interest rates drop. I'd be three years later
25:16renting. Yeah. Right. With zero appreciation, zero and zero, the tax benefits, et cetera. So
25:23I bought because I got divorced and I wanted to own home. And so there are people that are
25:27transacting regardless of what's happening with the rates. Yeah, absolutely. Um, okay. We're going to
25:31do a lightning round. So quick answers. Um, most overrated advice agents give buyers right now.
25:38Ah, all right. So I, I went, I was like, all right, let's do a lightning round. So the most
25:42overrated advice is the fact that agents are giving advice without necessarily understanding
25:46what exactly a customer needs. So I don't think there's one piece of advice. I think it's just
25:51general advice being given without the proper, you know, let's say the proper vetting of what the
25:57customer wants. Um, I'm going to change this to one habit. Every agent should start today.
26:03Ooh. Uh, one habit, every asking, how are you? Okay. One habit, every agent should stop
26:10immediately asking for business. Okay. Um, biggest, biggest brokerage growth killer in 2025 in one word.
26:19Oh, overthinking. Okay. Um, if you could wave a wand and fix one industry inefficiency,
26:26what goes first? Closing's taking so long. I love that one. Um, last one buyer mind shift,
26:33uh, mindset shift agents need to encourage more often expand your radius or adjust your expectations,
26:39adjust your expectations. Great. Alex, thanks so much for joining the real trending podcast. I really
26:46appreciate you coming on. Thank you, Tracy. And our, my contract has cooperated, so we're good.
26:50Yes.
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