Part 3 & of the Series...
What if Transparency Didn't just describe Cellophane?
What if it was possible to readily distinguish between "fluff " and substance. What if MLS systems allowed the people subscribed to them through the use of their members to indicate or grade their experience with a certain real estate agent or company?
It makes little sense that real estate agents who do a fabulous job traditionally earn the same fee for a transaction as agents who do the job poorly. In NO other profession is this the case. Specialists, be they doctors, lawyers, researchers or accountants are recognized for their superior skills & knowledge and are compensated accordingly.
What if consumers clearly understood that certain real estate designations can have a significant impact on the way a real estate transaction is handled or mishandled. Less than 5% of agents nationwide hold the CRS designation & while they do earn more, it is currently more a function of doing more transactions, not for doing them in a superb fashion. Real estate agents who have taken the time to gain more knowledge & skill, which is at least in part evidenced by a variety of courses and designation, should reap the benefits of this investment.
What if consumers who wanted superior service could request the skills of a specialist as a Value Added Service through their local MLS provider? What if agents who choose, as their business model, to provide minimal services could not charge for what they did not deliver...what if transparency in the real estate transaction allowed consumers to clearly know what they were paying for? Perhaps this would encourage agents with a low level of skill to upgrade their service levels so they could increase their earning power. This would also enhance the perception of professionalism in the real estate industry.
What if consumers were able to pre-view a company or a real estate agent's sales record by subscribing & paying for this service through the MLS? What if consumers could judge their hiring decisions based on real time statistics? They might discover the real truth about how much time it truly takes to sell a home! They might make different decisions about an agent who indicated they have a 95% success rate but sold most of their listings at 20-25% below market value. Consumers might be willing to pay more for companies which provided value added benefits like staging, foreclosure counsel or investment consultations. Consumers might be willing to pay more for agents who demonstrated and could document a successful history or significant improvement.
What if Transparency would also allow real estate agents to showcase their areas of expertise? What if MLS systems provided opportunities for agents to up-load their resumes on-line & created or linked to member's blog as well as website? This would provide a vehicle for agents to talk about the full range of their knowledge to consumers who need much so much more than simply the data of information. Real estate blogs can highlight specialized skill sets or connections such as community/local knowledge, special financing programs & insight into the real estate process.
What if Keywords...Not Just Price Re-Defined Property Searches?
What if MLS searches were conducted the way people search on-line? Today, most MLS systems insist on searches that don't adequately support how the real estate consumer uses the Internet. Most buyers don't look for a home on ABC street, they search for a homes with a variety of keywords in mind or at least in the back of their mind.
Buyer's don't simply want a certain price range...they want homes with certain characteristics in certain price ranges. For instance..."I'm looking for a good deal," or "I am first-time home buyer so I'd like an AFFORDABLE home." While some of these searches can be customized behind the scenes if a real estate agent initiates the search, most systems offered to the public are very, very basic. The more options the MLS offers for consumers to search for data & get what they want, the more they'll come back. It's called Relevance. That's what fuels Google...why can't it fuel our MLS systems too?
What if Delayed Gratification made the MLS System a Deli cious Visit?
What if consumers could create a Wish List of the type of information they were interested in subscribing to BEFORE they entered the real estate market? I'm talking way before...you know the 6-12 month period in which most people think about the real estate process before they actually venture into it. What if the largest aggregate of real estate information, MLS systems, catered to this desire and allowed consumers to subscribe to a variety of real estate related services for FREE?
What if real estate consumers through the portal of the MLS could link to professionals in the home building, remodeling industry or the home staging industry therby cross-linking related service industries and cross marketing services? What if these industries saw Value in this service & paid a fee for this access to the MLS system?
I wonder if any of the following would occur as a result of these RE-Imaginations...
RE-Imagine... Would our MLS systems provide more Value to the consumer?
RE-Imagine...Would this increase in Value translate into Potential for Increased Generation of Revenue?
RE-Imagine...Would there be a better capture & integration of consumer needs and desires?
RE-Imagine...Would there be a Cost Savings to the Consumer in paying less for Services which do not impact the transaction significantly & allow them to have the option to Determine if they are willing to Pay More for Services that have a Proven & Superior Track Record? Would this make Sense?
Copyright 2007 Audu Real Estate All rights reserved
Lola Audu, is the Designated Broker & Owner of Audu Real Estate. Our company specializes in helping people buy and sell homes in the greater Grand Rapids, West Michigan area. You can contact us via e-mail @ info@auduhomes.com or by phone at 616-791-0511. Thanks for visiting our blog. Here are links to some of our most popular posts for you to enjoy!
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Lola, I agree that better and more easily available statistics would be very useful for both consumers and agents. But certain terms don't lend themselves to being quantified: what does"affordable" mean? Every person you ask would have a different answer depending on their own circumstances. If affordable only meant low price, then the consumer could just pick a price range. If affordable only meant priced lower than comparables, all they would have to do is compare prices.
That's one of the reasons that eventually consumers have to come off the internet and talk to a real person who can interpret the data. That's where our value is.
Hi Brian, Appreciate your thoughts & comments. The point I'm making is that our industry would be well served to start thinking of things in ways that are outside our norms & conventions. Affordable may be a little tricky, but so is luxury & spacious. But we use these terms all the time in our descriptives of property in on-line listings. Perhaps, it's because we all instinctively understand that they convey a particular message to the intended audience.
Perhaps, consumers might be aided in their search by being able to easily search using these type of criteria in addition to what is now offered in most public searches..i.e. price, area, bedrooms etc. I think that the result of better utilization of the medium of the Internet will be to create Value to the Relationship the consumer has with the real estate agent...can we RE-Imagine these possibilities?
Lola,
I appreciated your post very much. You raise some very valid points. As an exclusive buyer broker, who does not list property for sale or represent sellers, I specialize in buyer representation. I know that I can expect a hailfire of rotten tomatoes for saying it, but I believe that hiring a specialist is in the consumers' best interest. Yet we continually see buyers being underserviced and underrepresented by inexperienced agents or sub-agents. The problem is lack of consumer education, in my opinion, and NAR is doing very little to remedy this problem, encouraging the traditional business model to the detriment of all others.
Hi Stefan, Thanks for your insightful comment. What I find most interesting is that these "degrees of specialization" are often offered through NAR! Agents sign up with the stated purpose of increasing & enhancing their level of skill & professionalism & then this is not promoted through our channels of distribution...i.e. MLS systems. I think that most member of the general public are confused or do not care about what all those initials & extra education stand for...because we haven't effectively communicated why this should matter to them!
In contrast, organizations such as the American Medical Association provide all sorts of opportunities for the consumers of health-care related services to connect with Specialist in their area of concern. In the real estate industry, we continue to pay lip service to more training but don't truly throw our support behind promoting the benefits & value to increase public visibility & respect. This has greatly contributed to public misperception about the Value that a real estate agent, particularly one with specialized skills or knowledge, can bring to the benefit of the consumer.