Keeping it Real Podcast

When your seller says “we can’t afford to move,” don’t hear a no. Hear the conversation you haven’t had yet. There’s a three-question reframe that turns that answer into a listing.

52.5% of mortgaged homeowners still have a mortgage rate below 4% (Redfin, Q2 2025). Down from 65% at the pandemic peak, but still a majority. Most of the sellers you want are sitting on golden handcuffs. And most agents accept that answer.

Top producers ask three questions instead.

1. Net equity. A homeowner who bought in 2020 has probably built over $100,000 in equity. That’s cash they only realize on sale.
2. Life stage. Kids growing, aging parents. Life doesn’t wait for rates.
3. Cost of waiting. The target home is going up too. Sometimes the wait costs more than the rate spread.

Pick one homeowner in your database this week. Someone who bought in 2020 or 2021. Send them the three-question worksheet. Then say this.

“I don’t know if now’s the right time to move. But I know if we don’t run these numbers, you’ll never know either.”

The conversation top producers have every day.

Zillow tried to pay Compass over a billion dollars a year. To end private listings. Compass said no.

That’s what came out of two days of testimony in a Chicago federal courtroom this week.

Zillow v. MRED and Compass. The preliminary injunction hearing wrapped Wednesday in front of Judge John Tharp Jr. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin took the stand. So did MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen.

Jensen testified that a Zillow executive personally threatened her. Her phone would be dumped. Her text messages made public. Millions in litigation. A public spectacle. That was testimony under oath.

A billion dollars a year. That’s how much portal distribution matters. Compass said no because private listings are worth more. And the MLS is on Compass’s side.

Your listings are the thing being fought over.

If you’re in Chicagoland, the ruling drops in the next few weeks and it changes your listing distribution rules. Read every listing agreement you sign this month. Make sure it lists which portals your seller’s home actually shows up on. Written.

If you’re outside Chicago, this is the model. What happens in this courtroom goes national. Watch the ruling.

Today we get into the 21st century road to housing act, the future of Zillow, how Google is gate-crashing the portal party, and what AI does to agents