Anthony: Inman Connect recap. I was there Tuesday to Friday in Las Vegas at the Inman Connect event, and I have to say it was a very good event. They put on a good show. There were a lot of good speakers. I was grateful to be involved and to be a moderator for two different things, the Broker Track and the portion of CEO Connect, and it was fun.

Anthony Lamacchia here with Crush It In Real Estate and just want to talk about my observations from Inman Connect and from connecting with so many different broker-owners, team leaders, and realtors, literally across the country. It was interesting to hear the different observations that people had depending upon their geography, depending upon where they conduct business. By and large, overall, everyone agrees we are in a market shift. That’s the term that keeps being used.

Everyone agrees with that. There doesn’t seem to be any disagreement with that. As far as areas of the country goes, it’s pretty obvious that those on the West Coast are pretty much in a buyer’s market, and we don’t feel that way here on the East Coast. We conduct business in New England and in South Florida. Neither place are we in a buyer’s market. We are leaning more in that direction. The seller’s market is not as strong, but we are still in a seller’s market.

West Coast, different story. Pacific Northwest, definitely a different story. They’re definitely in a buyer’s market. Now, I will tell you, what does that tell me is on the way for us here on the east side, on the East Coast? That tells me that a buyer’s market is on the way, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened this fall. Maybe not, maybe. I think it depends on rates.

I think if rates can continue to stay around 5.25 to 5.50, I think we might be able to maintain staying around that level and having more balance, but not necessarily being a buyer’s market. We’ll see. It’s interesting what’s going on out there, but they are clearly in a buyer’s market on the West Coast and particularly, in the Pacific Northwest. If anybody disagrees, wherever you’re watching around the country, if you agree or disagree, please chime in and give your thoughts.

This is a great opportunity for people to share and to make sure we get this accurate. Other pockets of the country that are also still pretty darn busy, Austin, Texas. South Florida, I’ve talked to you guys about before. Good morning in Los Angeles, Vivian. Why don’t you chime in and tell us what’s going on in the market? Go right ahead. Also, find it interesting in Missouri. They’re just starting to see a market change, and it didn’t shock me to hear that. I met two people that talked about that.

It didn’t shock me because I was in Lake of the Ozarks two weekends ago or three weekends ago, and they were all saying the market just started to turn. Which is incredible to me because I noticed we were starting to see a change in March here in the Northeast. Now, I’m a bit more statistically obsessed. Maybe I would say I did realize it before most did, but most realized it here in April and the fact that it took till July to realize it Missouri is very interesting to me. These are things that I wanted to share with you all.

I have more. I want to talk about technology as well. As far as the market and the market shift goes, those are some geographical observations that I have. Again, I remember back to ’05. Things tend to go West Coast to East Coast, not just the weather, so just be aware of that. Now, look, my buddy, Rob, you got a lake house in New Hampshire. Good for you. Now, let’s talk about technology. Technology investments are literally falling out. That was something that we heard all over Inman.

There was a lot of discussion about how tech entrepreneurs are having a hard time raising money from venture capital, from institutional investors, et cetera, because it’s just dried up. People are realizing, investors are realizing they overplayed their hand a bit with technology. Any companies that are connected to technology or technology– Actually, that sounds stupid. Every company is connected to technology. Let me rephrase.

Every company that is dependent on technological investments, you are likely going to have a harder time raising money. A company that we do business with in our companies that handles the locks on our buildings that we can open from our cell phones, we got an email the other day that, “Oh, they’re going out of business August 31st. Their funds have dried up.” I wasn’t surprised. I sent it to our exec team. I said, “Here we go.”

We’re going to see these companies that are investment dependent have a very tough time. There are some in the real estate space that are investment dependent that are going to have a very tough time. I’m not going to name names, but they’re out there and many of you know who I’m talking about. You’re going to see that is going to be a struggle. That was tech. The other thing is litigation, customer complaining. We have been noticing in our companies that complaints are up a bit since about the first week in June.

I started asking around, as I do with everything, to friends around the country, and everybody is seeing the same thing. Brad Inman who– Brad’s been interviewing realtors and broker-owners and team leaders for 25, 30 years. He talks to people all over the country at a level probably higher than me, even though he’s sold the company. On stage, the other day, he said, “We are right on track. Litigations are increasing already.” Part of that comes from buyer’s remorse, keep in mind.

Our VP of operations said this in June. She said, “A lot of these complaints are connected to those who did not get home inspections. Now, they can see that values aren’t going up as fast, and they just start complaining.” That’s something to be aware of, realtor friends, have in mind. I know there’s always people, “I’ve been a business 30 years. I’ve never been sued. I’ve never had a complaint.” “Okay. Then you haven’t done that much business.” “No, I’ve done a lot. I’m special.” “All right. You’re wonderful. You’re a one-off case.”

Most companies, most organizations, most people, you do enough business, you’re going to piss some people off once in a while. That’s just the way it goes. Having awareness, there’s more grumpiness out of buyers right now, buyers that are buying homes and they’re remorseful after the fact. That was one area. There’s also realtors.

Now that money is getting squeezed, gas prices are up, food prices are up, home prices are higher than ever, all that going on, people are feeling aggravated, financial aggravation. My brother runs a family landscape construction business, and he told me he’s noticing more grumpiness. Having awareness that this is going on with consumers as a whole, and that’s just people being frustrated and it’s causing that. We talked about the market geographically speaking. We talked about technology. We talked about complaints.

Let me think what else I heard. Got another one, leads. I did a video on this two weekends ago or last weekend and I said, “Why are you surprised that there are less buyer leads? There are less buyers. Tons of buyers got knocked out of the market.” The quality of buyer leads has also decreased a bit, but don’t be fooled into thinking that this is going to be something that’s forever. Anytime you see an initial market adjustment in any industry, buyers always get a little bit hesitant, and that’s what we’re seeing.

Right now, there are less buyer leads. I’m talking about online. Well, actually, there’s less buyer leads as a whole, but the online buyer lead industry is undoubtedly slower. There’s no denying it.

I heard it from several players at several of the big portals and even mortgage companies that give out leads. Everybody is talking about how it is noticeably slower with buyer leads. Having awareness of that. Don’t be surprised by that. I think there will continue to be less because people got knocked out, but the seriousness of buyers and the motivation of buyers, it won’t stay low forever. Maybe, it’ll stay lower till the end of the year. It’s a long time.

Usually, it’s weeks when the market slows down, but we’re in an adjustment period. There’s a bit of a struggle going on between buyers and sellers. If masses of buyers don’t buy or pull back on buying and masses of sellers try to hold the line on their prices, in the end, who wins? Buyers always win. We’re seeing some of that as the market, as I say, is finding its equilibrium. Let’s see. Buyer leads. What else did I want to talk about?

A lot of great speakers at the event. A lot of great speakers. Jon Cheplak crushed it. The broker track that I did with Wendy– co-moderated that with Wendy Forsythe, and that was great. Cheplak, I appreciate it. He said to everyone, “You want to learn how to recruit? You want to learn how to attract people to you? Check out Crush It In Real Estate.” That was pretty funny and obviously appreciated by me.

That’s about all, my friends. I just wanted to give you a recap. I’d say that’s my four biggest takeaways from the event. Great to see people. Great to connect at Connect and have a good time. That’s all, my friends. Have a wonderful Sunday. Thank you.