Not many real estate executives can offer a more comprehensive and expert overview of the compliance implementation starting today, Aug. 17, as Sue Yannaccone, president and CEO of Anywhere Brands and Anywhere Advisors. She is responsible for overseeing both company-owned brokerages and franchise operations across Anywhere’s six brands, including Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, CENTURY 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Corcoran®, ERA® and Sotheby’s International Realty®.
As such, she has a bird’s-eye view about the next chapter for the industry post-settlement, including how Anywhere is preparing its brokers and agents while at the same time strategizing for the future. She is also the founder of What Moves Her, an industry advocacy organization focused on empowering women leaders in real estate.
Yannaccone provided her detailed thoughts on a wide range of subjects in this exclusive interview.
Michael Catarevas: Let’s start by looking back before looking forward. How has the whole NAR court case and settlement been for you as the CEO to track and make decisions about?
Sue Yannaccone: I think it certainly is a significant moment for us in our industry right now. It’s been an interesting time, and I think in these moments, it’s really important to think about what it means to lead. What do people need from us as company leaders, as industry leaders, as colleagues, to focus on what needs to get done in order to move forward? I think there’s little good that ever comes from focusing on the past. Things are changing.
We are very happy with our decision to settle early in order to put our focus forward and really lean into best preparing our agents, our affiliates and hopefully some in the industry on what’s next. It is certainly a challenging time, but I am one who firmly believes that if you look at a challenge as an opportunity for change, and the good that can come of it, it helps guide the team and gives them the comfort that you are thinking it through. You are being prudent, thoughtful, not burying your head in the sand and really focusing on leading and executing change in the best way possible.
MC: Anywhere was the first company to settle the NAR lawsuit. Is it gratifying to see how most every company followed your lead? And what are some recollections you have of those days, how meetings went with other executives to decide what you needed to do?
SY: We certainly have no regrets about our decision to settle. As a leader of a company (those decisions are) not made lightly. We have a very strong leadership team and a very strong legal team we put our faith in to help guide us, and we were confident in our decision based on the facts at hand.
And I’ll reiterate: We continue to feel it was the right decision, and gratifying is a good word. I appreciate and value the position we have as leaders in this industry. So to the degree that it helps strengthen that leadership position and helps pave the way potentially for any of our peers to take similar steps, we’re happy to have done that. So looking back, no regrets, that’s for sure.
“Nobody has an answer to every single question that’s going to come up, but I do feel very strongly that my ecosystem is the best prepared to handle what’s coming. And as I say to my team, phone a friend if you don’t have an answer. We’ve got your back and we’ll help you through it.”
–Sue Yannaccone, President & CEO, Anywhere Brands and Anywhere Advisors
MC: Can you provide some specifics on how you’ve been preparing your agents and brokers for what the next chapter will be?
SY: We’ve been super proactive about that since we settled last fall, focusing on not being paralyzed by what-ifs. There are so many things out there that we didn’t know over the last months, and we still candidly do not know. And so with that, it’s focusing on what we do know. It is leaning into communications, being transparent, direct and clear, (sharing) the answers we have on a consistent basis with our affiliates, agents, leadership team and our employees.
It’s creating new learning materials, updating any learning materials, seller-talk tracks, buyer-talk tracks, really helping our agents, their managers and our affiliates feel prepared to handle what’s coming, but importantly to also know that we’re not going to have all the answers. So how do we get a little more comfortable operating in the gray right now, ensuring that we are leading with flexibility and simplicity at our core? We at Anywhere believe in the benefit of transparency for the consumer, keeping that as sort of a core tenet. We’ve leaned into our public voice in the industry and thinking about what the future holds, our strategic choices and launching our Anywhere Voices (a webinar series designed to help broker/owners and agents find optimism amid the current uncertainty), which we did to bring that industry voice to the masses, not just to Anywhere. So it is about preparedness, awareness and education.
MC: Do you feel the employees at the Anywhere brands are fully prepared to move forward, understanding all the legal aspects and the MLS information?
SY: We’re still learning about MLS info daily, it seems, and every market is different. I would say that our company, and I hear this from our agents, from our employees, from our franchisees, feel as prepared as possible and are probably better prepared than most, to handle what’s coming. And that means being prepared to articulate their value to both their sellers and their buyers, to understand what is needed in order to comply with these changes. What that means from a technology perspective, and as importantly what it may not mean, and just really helping and being there to answer questions. Nobody has an answer to every single question that’s going to come up, but I do feel very strongly that my ecosystem is the best prepared to handle what’s coming. And as I say to my team, phone a friend if you don’t have an answer. We’ve got your back and we’ll help you through it.
MC: Moving forward, do you think the industry will be improved after all that’s happened?
SY: We as a company have been longtime advocates for transparency around the transaction and the entire homebuyer experience. The addition of buyer agreements, we believe, as well as some of the other impending changes, are going to be positive in that regard. We find ourselves under a spotlight right now as an industry, under a bit of scrutiny, but it’s an opportunity to improve how we’re delivering our value proposition.
We have the opportunity to really answer that and reinforce our core values and the role that we play in helping consumers, buyers and sellers navigate the market. And to me, that’s all a positive thing. As an industry, if we can rise to the occasion, if we can succeed in articulating our value and delivering on it, we solidify that position and continue to play that role. I think we’re an amazing industry. Everyone has an opportunity to improve, but at the core of it, let’s remember what our obligation is as REALTORS®: helping consumers navigate the transaction. And if we help articulate that to them in a transparent way, that’s good for everybody in the transaction and the ecosystem.
MC: Has this whole legal situation been the most challenging obstacle of your career as a leader?
SY: It has certainly been a challenging moment as a leader. I don’t think it’s necessarily the legal aspect, however. It is the change management process. You face change management through a lot of areas as a leader over your career, whether it be a change in strategy or a change in the technology or tool you’re using, but this is a wholesale change, the likes of which we haven’t seen before. And so helping lead folks through the uncertainty, through the opportunity and again, through a lot of the unknowns, has certainly been a leadership challenge. I’m super proud of our team really rising to, and putting us in the position that we are. But yes, it has been a learning opportunity all around and certainly proving within my organization that it really does take a team to succeed when faced with significant change, whether that be your legal team, your leaders on the ground, your finance team or your communications team. It takes an entire team, and I’m grateful for the one we have.
MC: Have you enjoyed it on some level?
SY: I absolutely have. I have enjoyed the challenge as a leader. I enjoy watching people rise up and embrace it and then move forward and succeed. That to me is pretty interesting and exciting, and it just adds something to the every day for me. I think we like challenges sometimes. Not saying I would’ve run headfirst into it, but it is one I have enjoyed watching our team navigate through.
MC: Are you able to interact with the boots on the ground, the agents and brokerages, to find out what they’re thinking?
SY: Yes, absolutely. We are in constant contact with our agents on both our owned brokerage side and of course with our franchisees. I’ve done town halls, we’ve done numerous Mastermind groups led by myself or other leaders. One of the most important ways we learn our way through this is to understand the boots-on-the-ground reality of what’s going on, looking at it from what the buyer and the seller and the consumer may need.
We launched multiple versions of our buyer agreements to our company-owned brokerages and provided them to our affiliates as well for them to take a look at. And in recent conversations with those agents, there’s a lot of excitement about the opportunity with those agreements. It’s a good reminder, and I don’t do it every day, of just how much negotiation happens all over the place in the real estate transaction today. The further we are from the boots on the ground, the less we recall what that day-to-day is like. They’re leaning in, they’re figuring it out, and we’re learning from them just as much as they do from me. I probably learn more from them.
MC: With buyer agency changing as of today, what are your thoughts?
SY: We talk a lot about the buyer-agent agreements and getting agents ready on the buy side to enter into agreements with their consumers. We have multiple agreements out there to meet every situation. Similarly, situations are different with every seller, but we as a company believe strongly in voluntary offers of buyer/broker compensation. We believe that is a good thing. We believe it helps the sellers secure the best offer for their home, and highest certainty in the transaction. We are encouraging our agents and franchisees and offering them guidance on how to educate their sellers on their options. So as always, act in the seller’s best interest. Offers are voluntary, but it is something that we feel is a good thing and are continuing to help encourage our agents to continue to support in the marketplace.
I think homebuyers are going to benefit from a lot of transparency and the value the agent is providing them and exactly what they’re doing to earn that agreed-upon compensation. We’ve done a lot of work to focus on keeping things simple and flexible, because buyers don’t come at the same moment in their journey with the same needs or expectations. The consumer will ultimately sign the agreement that is based on their intentions and what they want to see when working with an agent. Homebuyers, when approached correctly and given the opportunity to enter into the agreement that best works for them, are going to enter into a strong relationship with that agent, and it’s going to benefit them down the line to get the transaction done.
MC: Are you concerned with a potential agent exodus from the business?
SY: Nobody can predict the future. What we can focus on is our controllables and ourselves, and how we are going to address the change. If you are educating yourself, if you are secure and able to articulate your value to a consumer, you should be just fine navigating these changes, even though we are going to be doing things differently in certain instances.
I do think some agents won’t make the cut, and I’ve not been shy about saying that. Agents who are not embracing change, who are not leaning into learning what the new world is or able to truly articulate how they help a consumer navigate the complexities and what they’re doing on behalf of the consumer may have a hard time in the business. But I can tell you that when I talk to the vast majority of our agents, they feel very, very well prepared for what they’re going to do. And I expect to see them here and thriving.
MC: Changing course a bit, you’ve been recognized and won many awards as a female executive. Are there still strides women need to try and achieve in the real estate industry?
SY: I think that is a really important question, and I believe there’s more work to be done, of course. I think it’s helpful if we think about reframing the conversation, not necessarily about what else women need to do, but how the entirety of the industry can continue to work better to support them. Just like navigating the changes we’re going through now. To navigate a village, it takes a team, it takes all parties to be vested in and invested in driving that change. And I think that’s the same case with driving leadership opportunities for women and all of our diverse colleagues around the country.
MC: When you lead the number of companies that you do, even if it’s under one umbrella, they all kind of have their own style. How do you try to focus on each?
SY: That’s where the team is extremely important. We have tremendous depth of leadership running each of our unique brands, whether it’s Philip White running Sotheby’s International Realty, Pam Liebman and Stephanie Anton with Corcoran and our leaders at the other franchise brands. We have an exceptional depth of leadership. Mike Miedler is 121% with CENTURY 21 every day. So it’s about leveraging how I can bring the Anywhere value, the scale, the strategy, just the bigger picture of forward thinking within the industry and marry that with what each of them are doing to ensure that their brand’s uniqueness continues to shine, because they are all unique. They all have their own personalities, and it’s me partnering with them to help them continue to grow their brands.
MC: Are you still able to be involved with What Moves Her?
SY: I sure am. I have two amazing women leading it as co-executive chairs, and they have the day to day. But I am involved in the blog. I’m involved in steering committee meetings. I’m participating in some events and panels. So that’s something I’m not walking away from. I’m just helping to bring more people to the table to help support it. It’s a passion project for many.
MC: It doesn’t sound like you have much free time!
SY: No. I don’t sleep a lot!
MC: What other accomplishments are there for you to undertake? What do you look forward to for yourself?
SY: I’m looking forward to continuing to drive this industry forward, to change it, to improve it, to just be a part of this next generation of our industry. I was joking with you about sleeping. I look forward to a vacation one of these days. But look, I’m always eyes forward and driving us to what’s next. And right now, I’m not focused on much more going forward than the 17th.
