Buyers/Sellers Don’t Know What They Don’t Know
I was talking to a friend about real estate recently, and the topic of selecting an agent came up. We have several mutual friends who are agents — and I told my friend that it is impossible to be a GREAT real estate agent for all of Seattle, and that the really good agents have specific geographic farms that they work.
My friend simply had no clue that the people we know might not be the best agent for their specific use case. They never even thought about it. They just thought that a real estate agent should be able to help them buy a house.
As you know, a huge part of being a great agent is knowing the local market inside and out. There is no way you can truly know the market for every neighborhood in Seattle, at every price band – and get your client the best deal possible. That requires knowledge of every nuance of local HOA fees, building styles, water issues, etc.
But consumers don’t know that. Until the general home buyer and seller market truly understand the difference between great agents and mediocre or poor agents (for the area they are moving too), they are going to keep on using the real estate agent they know or get referred to regardless of whether that is the best agent for the area they are moving to.
Diverse tried tackling this. As did Redfin. But neither attempt was successful (digging into the reasons behind that are another post).
Do you see a solution to this? HomeLight reaching the mainstream?
Sam DeBord, SeattleHome.com
Posted at 10:04h, 26 AugustIt’s difficult to simplify the process. Buyers who are local and definitely know they only want to buy in one specific neighborhood would be best served by a local expert.
Others are often not so sure. Lots of first time buyers are interested in 3-5 different neighborhoods. Relocation clients might be interested in 3 different cities. These folks don’t want to get bogged down with the 1 neighborhood expert who “pushes” their locale over all others. They need a broader perspective.
Like a lot of things in RE, each situation may call for a different kind of representative.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 13:06h, 26 AugustYup, there is no blanket answer that can be made for all scenarios.
Buyers/Sellers Don’t Know What They Don’t Know | Real Estate Revenue
Posted at 19:58h, 26 August[…] post Buyers/Sellers Don’t Know What They Don’t Know appeared first on GeekEstate […]
Philadelphia Real Estate
Posted at 05:48h, 27 AugustCouldn’t disagree more. A great agent can be a great agent anywhere, any time. Style and experience are paramount to buyers because they want to feel comfortable and if you’ve found an agent you have good chemistry with and who has sufficient experience he or she can make up for the lack of daily/weekly familiarity with a neighborhood by performing careful and thorough due diligence on a property or neighborhood. All of the agent rating services to date have done more of a disservice to consumers than a service.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 20:01h, 09 SeptemberRating services, maybe. But what about performance services? Why aren’t those super crystal clear by now? The data is clearly there. It’s because brokers (make money from agent fees) & MLS (money from agent dues) have an incentive to NOT allow it to happen — because they know it will lead to fewer agents.
Philadelphia Real Estate
Posted at 08:02h, 10 SeptemberI think the industry is trending towards fewer agents anyway. Transaction are increasingly difficult and barriers to entry consistently increasing. The days of the part time agent are gone because agents are no longer that gate keepers to information and unless the agent is in the trenches every day the consumer who shows up with his iPad and
the Zilllow/Trulia/Realtor app will have more information about the properties and neighborhoods than the part time agent would so there would be no value add other than opening the door.
The problem with sales performance data is that it doesn’t
reliably indicate whether or not an agent is “great” and it certainly doesn’t necessarily indicate how knowledgeable an agent is for a given market. Some really great agents only a few deals a year, more deals doesn’t always mean better agent. The emergence of large real estate teams confounds this even more because all of the transactions technically are attributed to the team leader yet often these teams have buyers agents who hit the streets every day with buyers and know the inventory better than most yet would show have no production according to MLS data. It’s an interesting debate.
There Are Agents Everywhere - GeekEstate Blog
Posted at 20:10h, 09 September[…] What jumped out at me? Someone asks for a C21 agent in a parking lot, and the guy standing 20 feet away turns around and says “I’m a Century 21 agent”. Great, that just beats the message into consumers heads that “agents are everywhere” and “any agent can help you for any need you might have” — indicating performance/experience doesn’t matter (which I believe to be false). […]
Agent Match, Some Competition for HomeLight - GeekEstate Blog
Posted at 10:56h, 11 November[…] What do you think? And, as I mentioned in my previous post about Homelight, the real question is whether consumers will care? Consumers don’t know, what they don’t know. […]