Ah, yes … May Day. Once upon a time, news organizations were guaranteed at least a few minutes of coverage and a few seconds of film of Soviet troops grimly marching through Red Square as Brezhnev or whomever the premier du jour looked on, appearing equally as grim as the sight of military might.
But then Berlin Wall fell and so did the Soviet Union and twenty years later I find myself driving down the road explaining to my 9-year-old daughter the incredible significance of Nena’s 99 Luftbalons … and singing in both English and German, incidentally.
Of course it wasn’t until years later than we learned that the Soviet Union had been rotting internally for years; what we thought was relevant never really was. Well, outside the big nuclear warheads pointed in our direction.
Introducing AgentRank
Yesterday came news that RealtyBaron has launched AgentRank.com (beta – never forget the beta) – “The Definitive Authority on Agent Performance and Reputation.” Much like the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the full description for AgentRank is imposing, especially in this day of transparency. (Even though it’s easier than ever to obfuscate the truth via the Internet while appearing to make everything more transparent.) But like the U.S.S.R. of old, AgentRank appears to have the potential to rot from within.
First off, agents enter their own sales information into the system. There’s a stern warning that agents may be asked to provide MLS documentation but such documentation isn’t always available (new builds, for example) and isn’t always correct (I closed a sale in July 2006 that still has the listing agent as the selling agent as well. Somehow, I managed to get paid so I’m pretty sure I was the selling agent.)
Second, the data’s not particularly clear. While the site purports to show only “recent” sales, on the agents I checked “recent” included sales that took place more than two years ago.
Third, some of the other data provided – particularly the Technorati rank for blogs – may look really cool but it has next to no value for a real estate consumer. A higher Technorati ranking isn’t going to cause a house to sell any faster than a lower one.
The bottom line
So the big question is … will I fill out a full agent profile complete with closings over the past however long?
Maybe. If I have time. And only in the interest of throwing Tobey’s face out there one more time in the off chance someone pays attention.
But if I do so, it will be with the knowledge that the rolling tanks and marching troops and seemingly authoritative statistics all are part of the show and aren’t nearly as menacing or important as they first seem.
