Stephen Joyce: Nick, why don’t you take that?
Nick Bailey: Sure. So first on the international front, the thing to know internationally is the rules are very, very different by country. We have some countries that don’t even have license law. And so when I make a comparison, I look at the US and Canada, are just far ahead and more sophisticated in the organization of the business. But in some of those countries where we operate where there’s not buyer agency, it can be very difficult for buyers and difficult for consumers as a whole. In some of them, it’s just a buyer beware mentality that the seller has representation and the buyer does not. And that’s why we feel, strongly that when you look at the progress that we’ve made within the United States on buyer agency and representation, why we stand behind it and think that it serves consumers very, very well.
Your question as far as are there enough online tools for buyers to kind of do their own work and avoid paying a commission? That was a question. I know that came up in my experience about a dozen years ago when techs really started to take a center seat, not just on home search, but a lot of the data that became available to potential homebuyers that it hadn’t been in the past. And what we found in the data shows us is consumers are using agents at a higher rate today, than they ever have before, even the millennial generation which many forecasted would just use online tools and do their own business, or do for sale by owners. But the reality comes down to this. That, on average, consumers use real estate services two or three times, maybe in their lifetime, and it’s their biggest transaction.
They want a trusted advisor to make sure they’re making the right decision. Now our consumers doing more research on their own, more than they ever have before. Absolutely. But when it gets right down to it, they want that expert to come in and say, now we’re ready to transact and I want that person on my side. And so if we just look at the last 10 years as kind of a litmus test, the more transparency, the more tools available, the more things that a buyer can do, they are still turning to an agent, and we absolutely think that that’ll continue to be the trend.
Thomas McJoynt-Griffith: Got it. I appreciate the thoughts there. And then my second question is, are you aware of anything that might be brewing in Canada that is similar to the class action litigation that is happening here on the US. Is that a risk that we should be thinking about?
Stephen Joyce: Nick?
Nick Bailey: Sure. There was one suit that came up that has the large brokerages and franchisors have since been dismissed. So at this point we don’t. We’re not aware of anything else that’s pending. So it was just the one that we believe is no longer part of the landscape.
Thomas McJoynt-Griffith: Got it. Thank you.
Operator: We have no further questions in the queue at this time. I will turn the call back over to Andy Schulz for closing remarks.
Andy Schulz: Thank you, operator. Thanks to everyone for joining our call today. This concludes the session. Have a great weekend.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.
