What do You Wish Your REALTOR® Association Staff Knew?

I wish our staff knew more about short sales

I’m unclear on how this would help, since AOR staff are non-licensees who can’t, shouldn’t, and hopefully don’t provide legal advice.

I wish our staff scheduled more short sales classes

That would be a more realistic objective for an AOR, though short sales were last seasons “low hanging fruit.”

I’ll give you mine, as a former AOR employee and current affiliate:

I wish my AOR had blogs for industry news, broker outreach, and rookie realtors.

Realistic, helpful, and long overdue.

Bill..I was going to list a litany of real world issues that could be addressed but instead I will list just one. How about a comprehensive plan to make the MLS kick out listings that do not have at least 6 pictures. We’ll work on the phone answering issue next time.

And…..this is where I’ll be spending my day….

(Holy Hanna! Who the $#*&$ made a math a necessity to comment!?!?! – I am so screwed! Where’s Lani, I know she did this just to keep me from commenting!) 🙂

Barry: Is Barry latin for pain in the…. oh nevermind 🙂 You’re a huge supporter of DOJ trying to screw NAR, I am surprised that you would start off proposing an anti-competitive policy, right from the top. Is that you master plan? Nah, I don’t think so. I really do think you want (what is in your opinion) the best consumer coverage and I agree. But… to invoke a policy such as this is not the staff’s job – it’s the member-leadership. And… there are a number of good agents who will take the listing, and schedule a professional photographer or even have to wait for good weather to get those photos just right. So, why delay putting a listing in MLS 30 days to get on a schedule or find the right lighting / weather? Also, like Frank said there are just some houses, where 6 pics isn’t as important as the rest.

Frank: I’ve gone from being a Broker to Staff Director of Education and I teach all over VA. Most staffs aren’t licesed, haven’t practiced etc… and I agree shouldn’t be giving out legal advise. The association north of mine is huge and has several attorneys on staff – who have never practiced and call our office from time to time to ask about short sales, agency, COE etc… I illustrate that to say that the association SHOULD be a resource. Usually when I get calls, I do know the answer, but deliver it not as opinion, but as an e-mail, link or (rarely) fax to the source, so that agents and brokers can answer their own questions (with a little guidance). I think the Association should be the place for members to come and get information on whatever their pressing needs are. Our area Short Sales aren’t just low hanging fruit (although the are) it’s a way of life. It’s getting to a point that a majority of our listings are distressed properties. (But between you and I – I am very tired of talking about them and teaching classes every month on them)

Ben: Communication is a struggle for our local association, like I wrote on VARBuzz.com, however getting the volunteer-leadership to help staff show the relevance of the Association to their business is an issue. Realtor.org, VAR and FAAR have a TON of resources, so much so, that members sometimes get lost. We need to do better at creating a road map for the members about how to use all these tools for their day to day business.

Lastly: Virginia Association does have an active blog at http://www.VARBuzz.com and (my local association) Fredericksburg Association is at http://www.FAARForum.com. I am sure it’s harder to manage at a National Level, as the state and local blogs have already had some bumps, but I think it is well worth the effort to get information out and for the associations to be utilizing the most current technology.

Matthew, short sales were the low hanging fruit here last year. It turned out much of that fruit was in fact already on the ground and getting soft. Very few short sales were completed with most being drawn out until they went to auction where the bank ended up buying them. It was so bad that agents working with buyers began avoiding short sales altogether. REO is the new low hanging fruit here. We’re seeing multiple offers and overbids on REO listings as buyers treat the discount as if it was cash. Same thing happened in southern California last year and many of those buyers are now upside down. Our area was behind the curve. Your area may be different or it may just be further back in the same progression. What percentage of short sales in your area are closing?

Our local agency needs to know sign laws…where and what kinds of signs can be posted. Our county did a “sign hunt” a few months back and lifted over 4000 real estate signs, as well as over 2500 other small business signs.

Matthew, we have a local broker who does a lot of tracking and he suggested similarly low numbers. He also attended auctions and reported that the majority of those homes went back to the lender, so today’s short sales seem likely to be tomorrow’s REOs, in many cases. As I mentioned, we are seeing movement in REOs, but it appears to be very haphazard. Prices are slashed dramatically, multiple buyers come rushing in, and one buyer walks away with a “prize” for well above the “bargain” price. I’m reading the San Diego, Sacramento, and Inland Empire bubble blogs to search for patterns and the one I’m seeing is knife catchers who assume that if a property has dropped from $800K to $600K, they can’t possibly lose. That’s probably true in the long run if they can afford to hold the property, but in the short run some of those $600K bargains are now underwater.

The one constant, which was lost at the height of the bull market, is “location, location, location.” I’m starting to see some 2004 prices, but only in the least desirable areas. During the boom we saw “a rising tide lifts all boats” as even the undesirable areas showed double digit appreciation, but those areas have been the first to fall. How far the desirable areas will fall remains to be seen, but we have seen slowing across the board which suggests that migration from less desirable to more desirable is over. Now the big question is how many already owned homes are sustainable in a post-ATM world.

Sorry for hijacking this thread.

To get back on track, my local AOR publishes a monthy newsletter, a bi-monthly e-newsletter (every other issue is mostly reruns), and e-mail blasts that mainly promote events and classes. All of this material could be delivered more efficiently through a blog, so it is more a question of adopting new methods than generating new content, at least to get started. Once the blog is established, AOR directors and committee chairs could submit items to PR/Mktg for approval. It doesn’t seem difficult.

I have many grumbles for NAR all revolving around the lack of compatibility the technology involved. I work hard to be a part of new technology and feel like I’m dragging the services offered by NAR and my local board behind me.

Primarily:

– WEB STANDARDS FOR MLS!!! 50% of my traffic comes from Firefox, I use Firefox and Safari. MLS needs to work with multiple browsers. Successful websites are compatible with many browsers and I carefully design my sites to work with all browsers.

– Release IDX API to agents as well! I don’t want a iframe on my site, I want to customize search results and have them available on my site without shelling out my hard-earned money to someone else with the same knowledge I have. I am a web developer, I want to develop my own site. Until I’m a Broker (which I will be soon), my website suffers which makes me look bad in an area where I have special knowledge and talents.

– Don’t make me use a stupid Treo or d-Key. I have a Treo for the convenience of not having to plug in a dkey and remember to carry something else with me each day, but I loathe it. I want a choice of cell phones and lock boxes with more up-to-date technology. Seriously, infrared is antiquated, why are we still using it? Give us options for opening a lockbox. Many cell phones have bluetooth, can’t we use that instead of IR? And for those without bluetooth, can’t the same lockboxes accept IR, a card swipe, or other options?

I always get the feeling that NAR drags its feet with new technology insisting that shell out loads of cash for its partners to offer my a service that isn’t even really what I want.

In a nutshell, I want NAR to understand and comply with web 2.0 and technology 2.0!

This listing on Zillow has eight photos, but they all look pretty similar.

https://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=2144581526

Former jails don’t have a lot of curb appeal.

Barry, I think I know where you are coming from, but I’ve spoken with several top producers who intentionally limit the number of photos to show the property in its best light or, if it has no best light, to get interested buyers to actually come and see it in person. Despite frequent lectures from the 1000Watt pulpit, listing photos are not a “one size fits all” issue.

Century 21 went to a policy where only listings with six photos would be allowed on the site. Right now I’m at an office that encourages the maximum 20 or 25 or whatever it is for REALTOR.com.

I’m sorry, but on a 1000-square-foot townhouse there are only so many things to shoot. Six angles of the same room or the same front elevation is silly. Pictures are meant to enlighten and highlight the best aspects of a home; they’re not meant to fill a quota.

I’ll now scroll up to figure out what this post actually was about …

@ Jonathan – Agree you can only take so many photos. We have sellers of 1 bedroom condos wonder why they don’t have 25 photos like the 4 bedroom house does. Seems like simple logic to me, but some sellers just can’t get the concept that a buyer doesn’t want 18 photos of their outdated kitchen.

To the original purpose of the post: I think that being compatible with FireFox is a must. Seems silly that we would have to include this as FF has been gaining SO much ground over the last 3 years that this is old news.

Barry, I can’t argue with someone who closed 19 transactions in 2007. There is more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak. I’ve retooled my research to target results, then analyze the process that got those results rather than looking at the process and trying to find a top producer to justify that process. The results yielded by this approach have been surprising.

Perhaps technology will eventually render some of the old guard obsolete, but right now I can say that many of them are still doing well using traditional methods and approaches that rely more on psychology than technology. The rationale I was given for limiting pictures or not using them at all was that the agent didn’t want to “give it all away.” He’s using curiousity as the draw.

Again, it would be arrogant of me to dismiss the success he is having using that approach, especially since I know avid bloggers who can’t blog anymore because they had to take full-time jobs.

Barry, when I worked at the title company I had access to reliable data. If I was ever going to take Realtor claims at face value, that experience would have cured me. It’s remarkable how many people touting the strength of the market have somehow missed their share of it. It’s also remarkable to look at the difference in closing ratios. We’ve seen agents locally who had $10 million worth of listings during a season and ended up selling nothing because they had overbid for those listings.

80% of the agents in Santa Clara County close between 2 and 0 deals per year. 19 closings here, in a year when the median price was $800,000, gets my attention and earns my respect. Believe me, I start from the paychecks at the closing table and work my way back. What I’ve discovered is a variety of approaches with very little correlation to the use of technology. As a tech trainer, it’s not necessarily in my best interest to admit that, but as Brian Buffini says “the truth is never inappropriate.”

The old saying is “Price is the problem that solves most other problems.”

Are you saying “Pictures are the problem that solves most other problems?”

I’m not trying to argue with you, Barry. I’m just reporting what I’ve discovered in my local market. To be fair, despite the catchy “Silicon Valley” nickname, Santa Clara County does appear to be lagging behind the curve on real estate technology adoption, so perhaps things will change, eventually.

Ok Frank..I understand..it’s just wholly frustrating to see listing after listing with no picture. In your market it might be a plan…down here it’s often just plain laziness!

Barry, I agree and I don’t recommend a “no pictures” approach, but to paraphrase “Glengarry Glen Ross”, I would argue “Don’t post a picture unless you are sure it’s going to help.” In some cases, the three best pictures might encourage someone to visit your listing while eight pictures might give them enough information to cross it off their list. At the risk of offending by comparison, car dealers don’t sell cars with pictures, they sell cars by getting your butt in the seat and getting you to imagine what it would be like to do that every day. In my limited experience choosing housing, it was the feeling of being there that sold me, not the pictures. The pictures should be used to put butts in the seats. 🙂

#1 Understanding that many 3rd party real estate sites (trulia, zillow, etc, etc), on which many REALTORs are participating – may develop into parasitic relationships. By participating on these sites, the REALTORs themselves are creating “new” content for those sites (which search engines like and which will eventually help those sites outrank the REALTOR’s own personal site) – and it establishes in the consumers’ mind that if they have a question about real estate for a particular area, you go to THOSE 3rd party sites for the answers. Its creating a dragon that will come back and bite the REALTOR. Those 3rd party sites may be “free” now – but their revenue model can change, especially once they have established themselves as an authority. And then those same REALTORs that helped create that dragon, will then in turn feel compelled to spend money on pricey advertising that those sites are then offering, purchase leads generated by those sites, etc.

I am not leaving my office…

Barry, now I understand your objection.

Matthew, I think it’s based on Barry wanting to check the place out from the comfort of his desk before he tells his clients about it. I sympathize, particularly as I’m about to spend $70 to fill my tank, but again there is more than one way to skin a cat and appealing directly to buyers rather than trying to make life more convenient for buyer’s agents is a valid approach.

Matthew, thanks for the correction, but the point remains that Barry is making this argument because he personally wants to be able to see as much of the property as possible from his office. Whether enabling him and everyone else online to do that provides better service to the seller has not been proved. I haven’t seen a strong correlation between the number of photos and successful sales.

Ben Davis: That’s a good point about the time. I tend to get phone calls on my cell and home number on nights and weekends. As a staff member I’m not too thrilled about, but what are ya gonna do?!?!?

What time do you think association offices should be opened and closed?

@ Matthew: Quite simply – the only reason they are growing & gaining in popularity, is because real estate agents are furnishing them the information (listings, answering questions by consumers to try and pick up leads – which provides new content, and establishes THEM as the authority, etc, etc) in the first place. Without the information provided by the real estate agent, the majority of those sites would wither and die. Continue to provide them the information, and the real estate agent will have it come back and bite them in a big way later.

Jennifer that is a valid point. I just don’t know that it’s fully practical. Again, just thinking out loud, but MLS is making money off your work as an agent. Realtor.com is making money off your listing data. A matter of fact they are charging you to put your data on their systems, as opposed to the current aggreators. My thought is that MLS systems should be using the technology that makes Zillow and Truila popular with the consumer. If I had to corral all the agents to one effort it would be to build a better MLS, one that was more client centric, rather than fighting the existence of systems that have become very popular with consumers.

Again, I think you’re right, I am just of the impression that the industry has relegated their responsibility to be innovative to the point that it’s trapped in this slippery slope. Almost to the point, where one must use the systems to be relevant to the consumer.

Barry, I merely gave a legitimate, truthful example. First you implied I was gullible for taking the agent’s word for it (which I hadn’t), then you claimed the same agent would be more successful if he provided more photos. At this point I don’t care if you or “more than a few readers” think it’s preposterous because I’ve seen the numbers. I respect those numbers.

Once again, it doesn’t further my agenda as a tech trainer to claim that fewer photos could be an effective selling technique. If I was like most tech trainers, I’d be hyping photos (blogging, virtual tours, videos, and whatever else I could sell, support, or collect referral fees from) despite the lack of evidence. I chose to be honest. I guess it was an inconvenient truth.

“Meanwhile, the vast majority of agents who don’t understand Internet marketing are starving for business – especially in this slow housing market.” – Joe Crump, in my spam folder

Barry, Barry, What would David Gibbons do? Remember comment marketing is there forever.

Now as far as MLS goes- How about MLS working with not just Firefox, but how about Safari? Then we could all run our web 2.0 businesses on iPhones. If NAR were to push this, we could also get Realtor lifetime Disney passes, Steve Jobs is Disney’s single largest shareholder and 2 million Macintosh sales plus a million iPhones to Realtors would really get him in a generous mood. By the way, ERAHouston is Kiplinger’s #1 city to live and work for 2008! https://agent21.featuredblog.com/?p=23

@Benn: Nice job on #6, though!

Barry – I have told sellers that I will deliberately NOT display pictures on certain properties. My job is to sell the property. The more people I get through, the better. Pictures frequently act as a filter. In certain instances, pictures not only don’t do a property justices, but they dissuade buyers who really do need to see the property to appreciate it.

Not everything is cut and dry.

Looking at the comments above I thought I had wandered into Athol Kay’s blog.
Don’t know how I missed the earlier brawl discussion, but I’m sure I won;t miss the next one.
Benn, nice 🙂

Sort of a shame that with all of the Association business available for discussion, most of the non-photo comments revolve around MLS issues – which is, in most cases, a different organization with a different staff structure. Its sort fo sad that with a great question like the one that Ben started this post with, the level of knowledge about the Association’s mission is so low, that there were only a couple of Association related responses – rather then MLS requests –

I guess my request of Staff would be to fix that, but frankly, in the words of Beuaty and the Beast. “its a tale as old as time…”

Ben;

Kudos for getting things back on track. Another thing I’d like to send to our board:

-@the subject
We currently have a comfortable surplus budget wise. Ideally, this should go back to the REALTORS and when you actually feel the crimp of the market a bit, what truly is important and needed will become more clear. It does for us.

I wish my local AR would recognize that not every member works in the major metropolitan area the AR is formed around and that I’d appreciate my dues being spent on advertising that would benefit me JUST ONCE.

Pretty much the same sentiment echoed to the NAR, stop giving away so much money to charities and start helping members with some actual benefits (10% of car rental does not qualify) like health care, etc. The national advertising sounds like a broken record too “it’s a great time to buy…it’s a great time to buy…it’s a great time to buy”…you’re making people stop believe the honest agents that only say it when its true.

Point2 did some research on photos which suggested a pretty strong connection between “inquiries” and the number of photos displayed with a listing.

Norm, does Point2 upsell the ability to include more photos with a listing?

Frank (and Norm) –

The photo limit for the Point2 Standard level is 15. Pro and Premium = 36.
( https://nls.point2.com/Content/FeaturesServices/FeaturesServices.asp )

I just came this close to blowing the anti-spam math quiz of 9+3. I apparently need more sleep.