One Excellent Agent
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 08:20AM So what is best for the real estate consumer? That seems to be the most important question when talking about real estate services. The only reason real estate companies and all vendors and ancillary businesses exist is because people either need or want real estate services. In actuality, underneath all the hoopla - real estate sites, marketing companies and RE vendors of all sorts - the consumer either needs to expend their own efforts buying or selling a property, or they need an agent. If the consumer expends their own efforts, then it's useful to have infomation sites where they can gather their own information to make informed decisions. If the buyer/seller wants to hire out services then they need one local agent.
What's best for the consumer who wants to use an agent is an agent who can get the job done at a fair price (no matter how good you are, at some point you will price your services out of range). The consumer interviews a few agents and selects the one most connected and knowledgable and proficient and then the rest is taken care of by the agent. It's as simple as eating grits. In each town there are agents who can do an excellent job, all the consumer needs to do is find that agent.
The internet has made the process of finding a good agent easy -- you just search and read their blogs and you will know if the agent knows what they are doing or not. If the agent doesn't have a website or a blog, the job of finding them will be more difficult and the consumer might have to rely on word of mouth, referrals or go to the offices of all the agencies and interview dozens of agents. Searching for an agent who is not on the internet is like finding an honest politician, very difficult and painstaking. But, first, the consumer has to decide if they want an agent who doesn't have a web presence. What does it say about an agent who doesn't have a comprehensive website in 2008?
The person who wants to do it all themselves has Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, Realseeker and other sites where they can find listings or advertise their home for sale. For the seller who wants to do it alone, there are FSBO sites with lots of information on how to sell your home. This requires more effort, but, again, the internet is making it easier. For the buyer, they can go from listing agent to listing agent looking at homes, and they can search the FSBOs in the area, then choose a home and represent themselves during the closing process, setting up an inspection, keeping up with all the paperwork and managing the process -- this is done all the time, but it can be a hassle for anyone who works or isn't familiar with the process. Doing it alone is not efficient and is more risky but it can be done.
So here we are. What's best for the consumer? The consumer who wants to be represented by an agent is best served by one good agent, regardless of the company they work for -- different companies might be advantageous for agents but companies don't provide services, the individual agent provides the service, and as long as the agent has the resources and expertise to do the job, it doesn't matter which company they work for, unless you just happen to prefer balloons to pictures of two old men talking in commercials, or you like ERA because it's easy to remember, or Keller-Williams because you heard they go to Sunday school.
What's best for the consumer who wants to do it themselves is the best listing/advertising site or the best FSBO site. Then it's up to the consumer to do a good job representing themselves. If the consumer screws up they have a mirror to which they can address their concerns.
So, will there be a schism between marketers of do-it-yourselfers and service-seekers, or will a partnership of real estate sites and service-providers, like we have today, continue to offer consumers choices? As more and more agents create better and better sites with excellent tools and reliable information, all the needs of the service-seekers are taken care of much more efficiently and comprehensively through the agent's local site. And with agents getting better at SEO they are being found by service-seekers. On the other hand, the real estate listing sites, Zillow/Trulia, etc., are doing a great job of providing advertising opportunities on their sites for do-it-your-selfers, and they have the advantage of taking our listings to give do-it-yourself buyers plenty of listings to look at and choose from. Another advantage the RE listing sites have is they can position themselves as the neutral country of free information where the consumer can avoid the unseemly business world where wild-eyed, capitalism-crazed agents try to capture and enslave them.
This image should change, though, as more consumers become more web-savvy and realize that agents with a 2.0 mindset are actually not trying to enslave them but merely serve them with context and personalization which is lacking in the national, RE listing sites that suffer from unscrubbed, un-analyzed information and pictures of homes out of context that may or may not still be on the market.
It's my opinion that what is best for the consumer is one web-connected, knowledgable agent who has the resources and skill to provide excellent service. That, to me, is the bottom line -- the rest is hoopla, perception, marketing, noise or tomfoolery ( I like writing tomfoolery and use it when I see an opportunity.) There will still be debates about listing sites, do-it-yourselfers, incompetent agents, high costs of commissions, etc -- but, underneath it all is the transaction and the consumer, and what is best. It's all that matters. I respect the listing sites - I respect the do-it-your-selfers, but when you look at the whole and you take efficiency into account and what is best for the majority of real estate consumers, I maintain that what is best for the consumer is one excellent agent.
Reader Comments (5)
Mike,
>"It's my opinion that what is best for the consumer is one web-connected, knowledgable agent who has the resources and skill to provide excellent service. That, to me, is the bottom line -- the rest is hoopla, perception, marketing, noise or tomfoolery."
Very well stated! Local knowledge is the critical support function to a web-connected agent. The consumer gains the best of both worlds - local knowledge, and the agent's access to the best RE knowledge available around the country. Now that's what I call a win-win!
Yes, Vance, this drum needs to be banged until buyers and sellers understand it fully. Local and fully, accurately informed is better.
Hmmm, nicely put. Local knowledge is a built in advantage for realtors. Mortgage originators have no such built in advantage. But I wonder if it isn't as much face-to-face interaction that is the important factor here? You just can't beat sitting down with someone and talking to them to get to understand their needs!
I think it's belly to belly advantage, but also for out of town buyers it's the time period of research to actual meeting belly to belly that is the other advantage, the sending out of good, accurate local information and having a source to call to discuss the area in detail.
Actually, it's such a great advantage, it's the reason I'm inspired to continue writing about it -- once consumers realize the rich information and the service that is at their fingertips they will wonder why they didn't reach out sooner.