点评：Home Services of America是MidAmerican的附属企业，也就是伯克希尔的孙公司，位列美国第二大房地产经纪公司。这项业务具有很强的周期性，根据2003年巴菲特致股东底信，Home Services 参与了 486 亿美元的交易，比 2002 年增加了 117 亿美元。约 23% 的增长来自当年的四次收购。当时有 16 家经纪公司，在 16 个州雇用了 16,343 名经纪人。
对于伯克希尔来的业绩来说比重很低，但这涉及千亿美元级别的市场和几万人的生活，Home Services of America 最近以 2.5 亿美元来解决全国范围内的诉讼，这些诉讼声称，房地产经纪公司的长期做法迫使美国房主在出售房屋时支付人为夸大的经纪佣金。
这个制度的根源是现行模式下，卖家必须支付5%到6%的佣金，而这笔佣金通常由卖家经纪和买家经纪平分，即各自获得大约3%。这会人为地推高了房价，因为买家的经纪人会倾向于带买家看更贵的房子，这样他们可以拿到更高的佣金。2024年夏天将取消这一规定，买家佣金和卖家佣金将各自独立，双方分别和自己的经纪人协商佣金。当然这一规定本身并不能降低房屋买卖的佣金，只是改变了支付佣金的模式，但一般认为，取消强制规定将促进市场竞争，迫使买卖双方的经纪人都降低佣金，从而降低房屋买卖成本，并降低房价。
笔者的观点是交易太复杂，国外并没有房产证，只是在机构注册登记，这个传统的行业还在遵循100多年前的模式，虽然相对可靠，但是也限制了市场的发展。
提问者：巴菲特先生，这是您每年举办的一次精彩会议。我叫肖恩·考利，是伯克希尔哈撒韦家居服务公司在亚利桑那州和加利福尼亚州的房地产经纪人。我的母亲辛迪、我的兄弟和两个姐妹都在伯克希尔哈撒韦家居服务公司从事房地产销售多年。我们很高兴成为伯克希尔家族的一员，与为公司销售房地产的其他 70,000 名经纪人一起。巴菲特先生，Home Services of America 最近以 2.5 亿美元的价格解决了我们关于佣金的集体诉讼。这个金额比 Keller Williams 的 1.665 亿美元高出约 1 亿美元，也比 Anywhere Real Estate（Better Homes and Gardens 和 Coldwell Banker）高出约 1 亿美元。作为伯克希尔哈撒韦家居服务公司在多个市场的房地产经纪人，以及连续 15 年参加这次会议的股东，我参与房地产的原因之一就是因为这次会议。鉴于最近的和解，您对买卖房屋有什么想法？也许也可以问问格雷格和阿吉特。您在购买下一套房屋时会考虑伯克希尔的经纪人吗？
沃伦·巴菲特：正如一些人所说，我并不经常买房。我肯定会考虑他，但我认为这种情况发生的可能性很低。我真的很感激你加入我们，但我还是会加入的。至于和解，我的意思是，格雷格一直向我通报情况，但我把 100% 交给了他。那么，格雷格，你想谈谈吗？
格雷格·阿贝尔：当然。所以，感谢你和你的家人成为经纪人，并为我们的公司伯克希尔哈撒韦家居服务公司工作。我想这里面有几个问题。第一，毫无疑问，由于和解，该行业将经历一些转变。我们和该行业的其他所有主要参与者都达成了和解。全国房地产经纪人协会以超过 4 亿美元的金额达成和解。因此，实际上每个人都被卷入了该和解，它确实为家居服务和行业的发展奠定了基础。与该和解相关的许多变化正在发生或被提议。有一件事我想你们绝对会同意，那就是房地产经纪人仍然是这些交易的重要组成部分。这是我们一生中唯一一次进行如此大规模的投资，拥有这样的建议和指导至关重要。这确实是我们业务和其他业务所依赖的。佣金结构如何变化以及如何协商，这实际上是和解的内容。买家不再会自动向卖方支付佣金。现在必须协商。这会影响事情，但我认为房地产经纪人将继续成为其中非常重要的一部分。我认为家居服务和行业将保持非常重要的地位。然后，我唯一想与我们的股东分享的是，义务在于家居服务，并且可以由家居服务来履行。这是一项重要条件，因为他们也在寻求收购伯克希尔和伯克希尔哈撒韦能源公司。我们说，你可以单独寻求收购我们，但和解协议将由 Home Services 承担，这是一项义务。他们决定了最终和解协议。然后。我们会从那里继续前进。那么，沃伦，还有其他意见吗？
沃伦·巴菲特：是的，在过去的 93 年里，我卖掉了两套房子，我买了一套，现在还保留着，但显然我买了另外两套，我没有谈下佣金，尽管最后一套房子卖了 700 万美元左右。人们确实会在某种程度上谈下佣金，但我可以告诉你，我看过这些数字，我认为这个系统确实运行得很好。我毕业的时候，他们有所谓的 FSBO 业主自售，所以我在一定程度上参与了整个系统的运作，我知道我们的普通经纪人能赚多少钱。我知道他们工作了多长时间，有时却没有实现。我不认为我们最终会有一个更好的系统，但这取决于格雷格和我们在这里工作的 Home Services 的人。但我喜欢我们的代理团队，我们拥有大量的房地产经纪人，我鼓励我们在房地产经纪业务方面进行扩张。当我们收购伯克希尔哈撒韦能源公司时，它只有一两个业务，但我们确实建立了一个相当大的公司。我认为这是一个非常基本的业务。你需要帮助——90% 的人在买房或卖房时都需要帮助。我一生都在观察它的运作，并与许多从事该行业的人打交道。但当时法院做出了一项判决，我告诉格雷格，按照他认为最好的方式处理。我很满意。我对我们处理的方式非常满意——我想我对这个决定感到惊讶，但我们在保险业做出的决定经常会感到惊讶。我的意思是，想想我们面临的各种事情，当 911 来临时，我们从未想过会发生这样的事情，但它发生了，然后我们不知道那是一个事件还是多个事件。如果他们关闭了纽约证券交易所，一群经纪人。嗯，各种各样的人都会在一段时间内失去工作或收入。那是一个事件还是多个事件？在商业中，各种各样的事情都会发生，我们只是随遇而安。我对这个决定感到惊讶。是在密苏里州吗？是的，密苏里州。是的。但我们对其他一些决定感到惊讶，我们会继续采取明智的行动。格雷格，你想吗？
格雷格·阿贝尔：不，我想我唯一想补充的是，也许是模式发生了怎样的变化。他问了一个问题。是的，我们总是，我不能代表阿吉特说话，但我们总是会使用家庭服务代理。但这很有趣。我在国外买了房子。我住在英国纽卡斯尔，在那里经营我们的公用事业。在美国以外买房是一种完全不同的体验。我们的代理商对整个交易负有很大的责任。在美国，正如沃伦所说，他们冒着时间和资金风险来确保交易完成。当你完成交易时，他们会确保你最终得到的是你认为你购买的东西，而这在世界各地并不总是如此。还有更实惠的模式，但俗话说，一分钱一分货。所以我认为我们的房地产经纪人仍然为我们的业务提供了令人难以置信的价值，正如沃伦提到的那样，它会生存下来。形式可能有点不同，但毫无疑问它会继续蓬勃发展。
沃伦·巴菲特：是的，我们仍然希望以合适的价格收购房地产经纪公司，我希望我们 10 年和 20 年后在这个行业中比现在更大。我确实卖了一套 700 万美元的房子。我没有谈下 6% 的首付，我觉得我得到了物有所值的东西。我生性吝啬，所以不是我对此漫不经心。我只是。我得到了物有所值的东西。那么让我们继续谈谈贝基。
Questioner: Mr Buffett, this is an incredible meeting that you host every year. My name is Sean Cawley. I am a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in Arizona and California. My mother, Cindy, my brother, and my two sisters all sell real estate with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services for many years. We love being a part of the Berkshire family, and along with the 70,000 other agents that sell real estate for the company. Mr Buffett, Home Services of America recently settled our class action lawsuit, regarding commissions, for $250 million last week. This dollar amount is about 100 million more than Keller Williams’ 166.5 million, more than Anywhere Real estate, which is Better Homes and Gardens and Coldwell Banker. As a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway home services in multiple markets, and a shareholder who’s been coming to this meeting for 15 straight years, that’s one of the reasons I got involved with real estate, is because of this meeting. What are your thoughts on buying and selling a home in light of this recent settlement? And maybe ask the note to Greg and Ajit, too. Would you consider a Berkshire agent when buying your next home?
Warren Buffett: I don’t buy them that often, as some people have noted. I certainly would consider him but I say the probability of that happening is low. And I really appreciate the fact you’ve joined up with us, but I’m going to. In terms of the settlement, I mean, Greg kept me informed, but I turned it over 100% to him. So, Greg, you want to talk about it?
Greg Abel: Sure. So, thank you for you and your family for being an agent and working for our company, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. I think there’s a few questions in there. One, there’s no question the industry will go through some transitions because of that settlement. Ours and the every other major player in the industry settled. The National Association of Realtors settled for more than 400 million. So effectively everybody was swept up in that settlement, and it did set the grounds for both home services and for the industry to move forward. There’s a lot of changes that happen in, or are being proposed associated with that settlement. The one thing that I think you hopefully would absolutely agree with, the real estate agent, is still an important part of these transactions. It’s the one time in our lives where we make these massive investments, and having that counsel and guidance is critical. And that’s really what our business and those other businesses rely on. How the commission structures change and how it’s negotiated, which is really what the settlement was. It was no longer that a buyer would automatically pay a commission agent to the to the selling agent. That now has to be negotiated. That’ll impact things, but I think the realtors will continue to be a very important part of that. And I think home services and the industry will remain very relevant. And then the only thing I would share with our shareholders on a broader basis is that obligation resides with Home Services and can be met by Home Services. And that was an important condition because they were also pursuing Berkshire and Berkshire Hathaway Energy. And we said, you can pursue us separately, but that settlement will reside with Home Services and be an obligation of that. And they decided the ultimate settlement. And. We’ll go forward from there. So, Warren, any other comments?
Warren Buffett: Well, yeah, I’ve sold two houses in the last, well, the last 93 years, and I’ve bought one that I still have, but I obviously bought the other two, and I have not negotiated down the commission, even though the last one sold for 7 million or something like that. People do negotiate down commissions to some extent, but I can tell you, I’ve looked at the figures and I think the system has really worked out very well. When I got out of school, they had what they called FSBO for sale by owner and so I’ve been involved to some degree in watching the whole system operate, and I know what our average agent makes. I know how long they work on things sometimes that don’t materialize. I don’t think we’ll end up with a better system, but it’s up to Greg and the people at Home Services we work through here. But I like our agency group, and we’ve got a very large number of real estate agents, and I’ve encouraged the expansion we’ve done in the real estate brokerage business. It was just one or two operations when we bought Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and we really built up quite a company. And I think it’s a very fundamental business. You need help - 90% of the people need help in buying a home or selling one. And I’ve watched it operate all my life and been involved with lots of people who have been in the business. But there was a decision in court, and I told Greg to handle it, whatever seemed best to him. And I’m quite. I’m perfectly happy with the way we’ve handled - I think I’m surprised at the decision, but we get surprised in decisions in the insurance business lots of times. I mean, just think of the various things we faced, and when 911 came along, we never thought something like that could happen, but it happened, and then we didn’t know what was one event or more events. If they closed down the New York Stock Exchange, a bunch of brokers. Well, all kinds of people lose their jobs or lose their income for a while. Is that one event or multiple events? There’s all kinds of things come up in business, and we just play the ball wherever we find it. And I was surprised by the decision. Was it in Missouri? Missouri, yes. Yeah. But we’ve gotten surprised by some other decisions, and we’ll keep doing sensible things as we move forward. Greg, do you want to.
Greg Abel: No, I think the only thing I would add back, maybe to how the model has changed. And he asked one. Yes, we’ll always, I can’t speak for Ajit, but we’ll always use Home Services agents. But it’s interesting. I have bought a home abroad. I lived over in the United Kingdom, in Newcastle, running our utility over there.And it is a completely different experience to buy a home outside of the US. Our agents take great responsibility for the whole transaction. In the US, they put, as Warren said, time and capital at risk to ensure the transaction closes. And when you do close, they make sure what you bought, you actually what you thought you were purchasing, you end up with, and that’s not the way it is always around the world. And there are more affordable models, but it’s the old saying, you get what you pay for. So I think our real estate agents still provide incredible value within our business, and as Warren touched on it, it’ll survive. The form may be a little bit different, but there’s no question it’ll continue to thrive.
Warren Buffett: Yeah, we still will want to buy real estate brokerages at the right price, and I hope we’re bigger in the industry ten years from now and 20 years from now than we are currently. And I did sell a house for 7 million. I did not negotiate the 6% down, and I feel I got my money’s worth and then some. And I’m cheap by nature, so it isn’t that I’m careless about it. I just. I got my money’s worth. And so let’s move on to becky.