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{oops, correction: Why don't you become a Realtor, become a Realtor/Broker-Owner and hire 10 agents you have trained? } With your keen knowledge of the business, your talents are being wasted.
Because they would rather sell useless yet expensive marketing ideas to gullible realtors.
You promised to put me on ignore. I'm holding you to that promise.
Just calling you on your inability to read my posts correctly. I generally ignore you otherwise. If you don't want me to respond, probably best not to say crazy things, and you didn't answer my question. If you are going to call me a liar on my opinion, are you a real estate agent in Salem Oregon?
Because they would rather sell useless yet expensive marketing ideas to gullible realtors.
More likely because they don't have the Chutzpah to make an honest living on 100% straight commission, supporting a family (many often as a single parent), putting children through college etc., all on straight commission while paying 100% of their own expenses and having the law on their heels at every turn.
Handling all of the above while enjoying their careers and being proud of their success.
Having the satisfaction of being able to dismiss the judgmental know-it-alls who don't know what they don't know.
More likely because they don't have the Chutzpah to make an honest living on 100% straight commission, supporting a family (many often as a single parent), putting children through college etc., all on straight commission while paying 100% of their own expenses and having the law on their heels at every turn.
Handling all of the above while enjoying their careers and being proud of their success.
Having the satisfaction of being able to dismiss the judgmental know-it-alls who don't know what they don't know.
The posts remind me of those infomercial type classes that once in a while get approved for continuing education credits. And I really do want to know, how much?
First of all, I know plenty of good brokers and agents...but I think, very generally, the real estate business simply attracts a number of people who have no business being agents. A lot of people seem to enter the real estate business thinking it's just an easy way to make big bucks. And since real estate is primarily commission-based, there is too often an inclination to merely push a particular sale, whether or not it's in the best interest of a client.
I think what troubles me most, however, is when I gather with fellow brokers and agents to fulfill the yearly continuing education requirements. There must be little state oversight of these courses since, too often, the "instructor" seems more intent on telling people how to best avoid certain regulations and laws--particularly those dealing with wetlands or local ordinances--than why it's important to be aware of and comply with these laws. Most of the crowd nods in agreement, or relates stories of their own personal avoidance success...which I find very sad.
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I think what troubles me most, however, is when I gather with fellow brokers and agents to fulfill the yearly continuing education requirements. There must be little state oversight of these courses since, too often, the "instructor" seems more intent on telling people how to best avoid certain regulations and laws--particularly those dealing with wetlands or local ordinances--than why it's important to be aware of and comply with these laws. Most of the crowd nods in agreement, or relates stories of their own personal avoidance success...which I find very sad.
I'm glad I haven't run into these type instructors. All the ones I've had here are sticklers on obeying the law.
{oops, correction: Why don't you become a Realtor, become a Realtor/Broker-Owner and hire 10 agents you have trained? } With your keen knowledge of the business, your talents are being wasted.
To be perfectly blunt about matters, I don't think I have the patience to deal with almost all real estate agents, at least on the residential side. Why do that when I make excellent money doing what I do? I'm just answering the OP regarding the obvious image problem the profession has.
Actually, I've handled four different real estate companies. One actually continues to be my client after several years. However, when it comes to dollar volume, the real estate brokerage/realtor end of the business is analogous to dealing with a buyer who has mediocre credit, short attention span, wants to look at dozens of homes in the under $100,000 price range, and jerks the seller around nine ways to Sunday an hour before the closing. Very few brokers have the discipline to build a brand, and are typically the equivalent of committees. Try and roll out a marketing program to 50 realtors, some of whom have been in the business all of three weeks, and get them to agree on anything. I mean, two years ago, you wouldn't believe the gyrations I had to go through to get an established realty company to put together a website with decent search capability. Never mind that a good website is about as important to being a thriving brokerage as having a telephone number. Never mind that national franchise operations were making inroads because of that capability. They just were too unfocused and didn't want to invest. And that's kind of mindset I see among local realtors across the board. They are too stupid the realize that having a boffo web site with excellent search capability and good SEO is an ideal way to attract more SELLERS to list with you. I mean, Jeez, people. This is 2012, not 1992. The Internet works as a marketing tool and a credibility builder. I promise you.
And the individual real estate agent's idea of marketing is slapping her photo on everything, which makes them look like escorts more than anything. I'll give you the perfect example. I have done highly effective marketing programs for more than 25 successful developments. So several months ago, I was asked to develop a marketing plan and brand for a new development breaking ground in my region. Following my experience with similar developments with similar price points, we developed a plan based on the absorption and market studies available to us, developed a really good campaign that provided an elevated brand and would prove unique in the marketplace. We hammered out a likely timetable for public relations, realtor caravans, receptions, events, ad placements, you name it. It was just a freaking textbook case. All the guy had to do is say, "Go," and we would have been off to the races.
So the developer asks me to present to -- you guessed it -- the local Remax outfit who were handling his development. Mind you, none of these realtors had ever marketed anything beyond a house in their lives. During my one-hour presentation I showed them the market research, showed the absorption studies, developed a budget that fell well within the industry best practices for developments, and showed how the creative would tell an effective story to the prospective buyer. You know, the way I have successfully handled 25 previous developments, some as large as 2,000 homes.
It was a freaking nightmare presentation. The first question I got? Some person who had been in the business for THREE MONTHS raised her hand and said, "Well, where will our pictures go?" My reply, "We're marketing the development, not the realtors." "Well, in my real estate marketing seminar, they said we're supposed to put our photos on everything." A general murmur of agreement went up among these people. Even though I stressed the supreme importance of a brand for the development in order to build value and the resulting benefit to the agents I watched months of hard work get pecked to death by people who couldn't market their way out of a paper bag. A developer with any backbone would have told them to **** after about five minutes, but this guy was worried that they wouldn't be enthusiastic about selling his development. Then things went totally downhill when we got to the budget. It was like these people had never been exposed to what actual marketing costs. I just got a call from this guy last Friday. After having these nitwits hold his marketing hostage for three months because he was dumb enough to give them say-so, he finally fired them because he finally realized they didn't know what they were talking about. But I've lost three freaking months, which gives me only three more to get a real deal campaign on track before key selling season arrives. And shooting nice outdoor photography during winter is like shooting high-end fashion advertising under bad fluorescent lights.
THAT, in a nutshell characterizes my experiences with realtors, particularly from the development side. A precious few ever see the long game, and precious few don't realize that the market has changed.
Here's the thing. The entire history of business over the past thirty years has been about the destruction of traditional distribution channels. Wal-Mart has eviscerated the department store. iTunes has almost completely wiped record stores off the face of the planet. Newspapers continue to shutter their offices. And yet, most realtors continue to blithely operate in essentially the same way my mother did when I rode shotgun with her in the early 70s. The only difference is that she carried a huge multiple book with her while most realtors today print out some search results before squiring the client around town.
But the problem with that? That information is available to anybody now, and a halfway-savvy homeowner can sell his house without a realtor. Unless realtors learn to re-establish their value in the marketplace through true expertise and true service, you're going to continue to see this steady erosion of faith and trust in what you do. Hey, I know that's not a popular sentiment to have, but unless a realtor really is an expert who delivers value, really busts his ass, or really develops a system to help buyer and seller get from A to Z in the transaction in the fewest number of steps while being satisfied with the result, then you guys are going to see more and more of your business fade away.
1) That of subconscious association with used car salesmen and insurance sales people
2) The ease of entry into the field . . . Realtors are "a dime a dozen"
3) The general public has no clue about the complexity of real estate sales - they think a Realtor just looks on the MLS, drives people around and writes up simple contracts - not a clue of the behind-the-scenes realities, problem-solving skills that are needed or anything . . .because the public doesn't perceive the "reality," they just assume it is "filling out some paperwork" . . .
4) The glut of Realtors in a market makes them desperate -and buyers and sellers can see that - from people bothering them knocking on doors, leaving cards, to descending upon them at an open house . . .the desperation breeds contempt.
5) Other.
I agree with much of what you're saying. There are a lot of bad agents because of the low bar to entry and once they enter they find that they must then become educated, and learn that the education is expensive. I was just recently told (don't know the source) that about 90% of new agents quit after the first year. And a smaller percentage of those remaining quit the second year. So there is a lot of turnover in the industry.
The agents who make a study of what buyers and sellers need, and who work at developing their business model around those needs are able to compete successfully with the agents who will go and compete on price, and not market the house properly, and don't know have any negotiation training.
So it sounds like consumers should steer clear of the brand new agents --- all the more reason for the industry to adopt a one-year apprenticeship model or something like that.
They probably have an unfavorable reputation because so many people have unfavorable interactions with them.
In my case, in Louisville KY by the way, last fall I was pressured to accept a very low offer for the sale of my condo. The buying and selling agents were both with the same local brokerage, Paul Semonin. It turns out the buyer was best friends with one of the senior people at the brokerage. There was an extremely long wait while the buyers secured financing, despite the fact that they were wealthy. That entire time my home was off the market, since it was under contract. My agents seemed far more sympathetic to the plight of the wealthy people buying my condo (like saying "you have no idea how insulting it is for people like this to be turned down for financing" "it's to their credit that they're still trying"). The way things went I had trouble believing that the agents didn't communicate.
Since the brokerage was in effect double-dipping for their share of the 7 % or 7.5% (I forget which it was) commission fee AND were charging me a $500 fee (for no known reason except it was on their contract) at the time of the sale I asked if they could drop the $500 fee, or reduce their share of the commission by .5 % or something like that. No dice.
It left me with an unfavorable impression of realtors.
Last edited by ellemint; 11-19-2012 at 12:07 AM..
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