Posted by Wendy Forsythe
It’s no secret that our industry doesn’t score high marks for customer service or trustworthiness. We are usually ranked on the bottom half of the scale, alongside used car salespeople and mechanics!
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Whether speaking about a sales person, a manager or a company leader, the ability to embrace change is the primary personality trait for those individuals who maintain a ‘hip’ and progressive persona in our business. This is not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination, but remains something that is easier said than done. The successful agent understands that as customer needs and wants evolve, so must our business vocabulary. Even more, the most successful agents that I have met actually learn to enjoy the changing business environment.
Posted by Wendy Forsythe
I’ve been hearing many people give agents advice that in order to prosper in today’s real estate market you need to get “back to basics.” Honestly, every time I hear this phrase the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
It’s not that I don’t absolutely believe that there are fundamentals that every agent needs to focus on in order to be successful. I do. However, I think to define these fundamentals as “basics” is misleading. There is nothing basic about our business. Those that are successful are so because they have adapted to the market, to consumers expectations and have worked hard at doing the right things along the way. The tasks they fill their days with today are different then they were 5 years, 10 years or 15 years ago.
Posted by Jason Steele
As you may know from my last blog post, my family and I are in the market for a new home. I began the research process of finding an agent both on the web via Active Rain and through local referrals from friends and family in our prospective neighborhoods. We chose the agent through active rain as they happened to be much more knowledgeable and in tune with our requirements for finding a new home. The agent set up an automated email from their local MLS that would send us listings as they hit the market. In addition I went to Realtor.com, Zillow & Trulia daily just to make sure I had all of the bases covered so that the perfect house wouldn’t fall through the cracks. About a week ago a very promising home hit the market in our price range and it just seemed too good to be true. The pictures on the MLS site were plentiful, good school system, taxes were in line with our expectations and most of the all the price seemed low for the amount of property/beds/baths. There wasn’t an address listed so I went off to Trulia to see if I could figure out where in the town this home was located and sure enough there was an address. The default view is “map” and the location appeared to be ideal as it bordered a large wooded area. I zoomed in a bit and then hit the “satellite” view and that’s when things really came into focus. There appeared to be a building with 4 large round towers no more than 50 yards behind the woods in the rear of the property.
Posted by Sherry Chris
Last week was interesting. I kept bumping into things that raised a question that’s floated around the real estate business since the first home was marketed on the Web back in 1994: Who should reap the benefits of traffic, advertising, and customer engagement derived from broker-supplied listings?
Posted by Nicolai Kolding
…you don’t decide when to stop.
As I chatted recently with a colleague about the collapse of Bear Stearns, he observed that the United States is now coming to grips with what individual European nations wrestled with a generation ago: we do not control our own destiny, nor will we ever again. The stark reality of the global economy is being hammered home by the day in ways we are only beginning to appreciate.
We must now accept that whenever it is that we pull out of this (presumed) recession, it will be driven in large part by global forces. Like it or not, the US economy will improve thanks to the efforts of far-away corporations and governments (either directly by buying Treasuries or indirectly through investments by sovereign wealth funds). The fact is our banks’ cash positions have so dwindled due in large part to toxic mortgage-backed securities that many are too thin to make even good loans. To get cash the banks will have to either rely on government bailouts or more interest rate deductions (though, as this WSJ blog notes, the Fed can only go to the well so many times) or raise capital that will often come from foreign sources.
The increasing influence of sovereign wealth funds is clearly starting to make some people nervous. I refuse to take a blanket isolationist view; the idea of an open worldwide market can and should be embraced. At the same time, I cannot help but lament the areas where foreign trade is just a euphemism for foreign dependence: imported oil, exported jobs, and non-existent manufacturing, to name a few. Nor do I understand the consumer-driven, borrow-to-the-hilt mentality that runs from individuals to corporations to our governments. We have collectively lost our discipline. I cannot help but to connect the dots from these places to what happened to our dear, overleveraged Bear Stearns.
What message does this young curmudgeon have to tie this back to our housing woes? For starters, whether you’re a homebuyer, homeowner, agent, or broker: recognize that our economic troubles run far deeper than the subprime crisis and therefore require a more introspective look at what ails us. We need a return to the fundamentals at the government, corporate, and individual levels. Washington must lead the charge by getting its house in order. With a national debt nearing $10 trillion, we are seriously overleveraged and in real danger of having our Treasury bond ratings lowered. At the corporate level, to our real estate brokers: now is the time to rethink your model. Trash many of the old ways and the expenses that go with it. Deliver the finest customer service you ever imagined. If you feel really daring (and now is the time for radical thinking), there are some great ideas in this 1000watt blog post. Buyers: find an agent who works with you to find a properly-priced home that’s within your means. Your investment will appreciate in the long-run and an agent worth keeping is ready to wait many years for your repeat business if they so earned it.
This bear ain’t done dancing yet, folks. What happened over the weekend matters to all of us but the full story runs much deeper. Each of us needs to recognize our role in the troubles and then contribute our part to the recovery.
If all else fails, you can either laugh or cry along with this entirely different perspective from Steven Colbert:
I recently had an opportunity to listen to Alex Perriello (President and CEO, Realogy Franchise Group) address a group of brokers and agents. While spirits of the crowd seemed high, you could sense an undertone of concern as Alex was asked to give his advice to the group on how to weather this challenging market.
You might think I am going to write about great technology applications as they relate to “the real estate brand of the future,” and I will… but not in this post. Technology will continue to empower both the consumer and agent by allowing for more transparency and greater efficiencies, and the tools will continue to become more sophisticated in the months and years to come. All of this excites me, but without the right people (as in team) in place, it all falls flat.
As the news about the unprecedented fraud conducted by Jérôme Kerviel at Société Générale continues to unfold before our eyes, it’s easy to chalk this up as perhaps interesting reading but something irrelevant to most of us. But the unfortunate truth is fraud is happening every day, to companies of all sizes, and in every industry.
Posted by Sherry Chris
You can’t imagine how many people I have spoken with since the October 8th announcement that Realogy was re-launching the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Brand. Some of the people I spoke with had something to sell or license, some of them were looking for employment opportunities, some wanted to join as franchisees or agents, some wanted to offer advice as to how to launch the brand, and some were just genuinely curious as to how you decide what a brand is going to look like when you literally have a “clean slate.” The last group is why we named our blog “Clean Slate.”
Contributors
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Sherry Chris |
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Nicolai Kolding |
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Wendy Forsythe |
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Scott Schubiger |
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Robert Albanese |
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Jason Steele |
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Kevin Doell |
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Paulette Costa |