Anywhere CEO: ‘Our industry needs more leadership’ 

Anywhere Real Estate CEO Ryan Schneider has remained bullish on his company's ability to navigate the tricky housing market — particularly via its luxury-focused brands — and he believes Anywhere's leadership and agents are prepared for the industry practice changes set to go into effect this weekend. 

The industry titan also continues to tout Anywhere's move to settle in the commissions suits nearly a year ago — a big bet that paid off and helped Schneider earn the top spot on this year's Swanepoel Power 200 ranking of the industry's most powerful and influential leaders.

Schneider spoke with Real Estate News about what he has been focused on in recent months — which doesn't include NAR — and shared his perspective on themes like cooperative compensation, forms and competition within the brokerage world. 

Preparing agents for the big shift

"We tried to be both a first mover and the fastest learner," Schneider said about refocusing efforts on the business after reaching a settlement last September. 

"I think we showed foresight, settling our litigation under the best terms. And that's also given us longer to work on preparing our agents and franchisees to be hopefully disproportionately successful with the changes that are coming."

'Use our forms,' not the ones offered by associations

Schneider said that as consumers and agents adjust to a new world of buyer agreements, forms "cannot have legal jargon" and "they've got to be simple" — a theme that other brokerage leaders, Realtor associations and consumer advocates have promoted in recent weeks. 

Anywhere's forms meet that bar, he says. 

"I am not wasting my energy on the forms that state associations are doing because I don't think they're meeting my simplicity and flexibility requirements," he said, explaining that the association forms he's seen are too long and difficult to understand. "I'm really encouraging our agents to use our forms."

He's also "willing to let everybody in the industry" use their forms because "we think simplicity and flexibility is good for consumers, good for agents, good for franchisees and it's good for the ecosystem" — meaning other firms that are doing deals with Anywhere-affiliated agents can borrow the form language for their own clients, a spokesperson for the company clarified in an email to Real Estate News.

He also acknowledged that "it's not going to be a one-size-fits-all world," so brokerages, including Anywhere, should be open to change.

"Because of the deadlines, we are doing a lot at once, but there is a free market and if someone else has a better agreement than mine, I want to learn from that right? So don't assume that we're just going to do it and then be stuck in cement."

Advocating for cooperative compensation

Schneider said that voluntary offers of compensation to buyer agents are "actually quite helpful" in getting sellers the best offer on their home. 

"We think they help sellers secure the best offer for their home and the highest certainty in closing the transaction," he said. "While we always encourage our agents to educate their sellers on their options — they always act in their sellers' best interest — but boy, you know, those things are powerful and are still going to be part of our ecosystem."

NAR is secondary

"As a company, we're not a member of NAR and we don't require agents to be a member of NAR," Schneider explained. 

"My focus is not in that ecosystem. My focus is on preparing our agents, franchisees and consumers for these upcoming changes and staying focused on growing our really successful luxury business, expanding our franchise business, and using generative AI to make our operations and marketing better."

Leaders need to step up

"Bluntly, I think our industry needs more leadership in this moment, and we're trying to step up and do more of that and tell people what we think and how we should operate going forward," Schneider said.  

"Again, by settling in our litigation early, not only did we get what I believe is the best economic deal, but we had the most time to help prepare people for the future. And we had the most time to focus on our business, not on litigation."