Agents Versus Buyers – The Transition

Benn – I am finding that my buyer clients need me more than ever. They find “home valuations” that are all over the place. They find some of the listings on one web site and some more of them on another site. They read a national web site for advice but the advice does not apply to our local market and state regulations. They call, they write, they ask what this means and what that means and why one web site says one thing and another web site says something else. They read my blog, they see me as a person, not as a company. They see were I work and what I do and they read about how I do it. They see someone that they can count on. I love what the internet has done to educate buyers in my market. When they contact me they are totally ready for my help.

Benn — You pose the question, “Is our future more hands off and less hands on?” and I wonder if our future isn’t more a question of “WHERE and HOW do we place those hands?”

Today, we’re caught in a sometimes-difficult period of transition. Clearly, the role of the agent as the “gatekeeper of information” is diminishing. But the transition isn’t a neat one. As Teresa correctly points out, today we’re faced with, “some of the listings on one web site and some more of them on another site”. And as professionals, we know that this lack of consistent information is not in the best interest of our buyers. But time will cure these transient kinds of issues.

The real question to be wrestling with is, “Now that we’re less hands on as the keepers of information, how can we be more hands on as the deliverers of outstanding service or the developers of brand new business models and customer experiences?” And these are tough questions. Agents can keep repeating the mantra that “as long as I take care of my clients, I will always be able to make a living.” But I would argue that there were some great blacksmiths and buggy-whip makers who got swept away with so many more inefficiencies as the industrial revolution grew. it’s likely to happen to some great realtors, too.

You point out that “revolution = chaos”. Well, chaos = opportunitiy. And we each have the opportunity to assist in the re-invention of our roles and, to a larger extent, of our industry. If you look at the web sites attracting today’s buyers (google, zillow, trulia, etc.) none come from within our industry. And that’s just giving away opportunity to those who, by definition, start out knowing less about our business than we do.

It’s time for the great majority of realtors to abandon their defensiveness and stop building protectionist walls around their industry and start becoming agents…of change.

This is a really difficult question to answer but an extremely valid one. Of course there are clients that will find our value and will be loyal to their death, but we are encountering a lot of stand alone buyers that only want a key turned.
I have been able to convert many of those stand alone buyers into loyal customers – but many are not remotely interested. We can take 2 roads on this – make it complicated for those stand alones to see your listings (ie. are you pre-approved, fax me the letter before I show you the property) – or simply make it easy for them and empower them even more. Both business models are interesting….in the end, for listing agents, the job is to sell the property. Rick and I accommodate everyone knowing we all have different personalities and different needs. (and there’s also an “obnoxious” factor to take into consideration)

There always will be people who view me as an extension of my lockbox and want to see a house right now or never because it has to be right now. Those folks are going to have a lower priority than clients who see the value I bring and want to work for me. I’m not going to cancel appointments I have with loyal clients to meet with someone who only wants my key. It makes no sense to do so.

You need to ask yourself what happens after you open the door and then lock back up. If they decide to write an offer, are they going to call you? Or are you incidental to the process? If you’re not sure that they’re going to use your services to purchase, why show the property?

This all assumes we’re not talking about one of your own listings, incidentally.

Benn, you asked, “Is there a way you believe that this trend will actually hurt the buyer in the long run?”

Don’t you think the current real estate downturn is a direct result of buyers who thought they knew it all and didn’t bother to read the fine print?

I am seeing 2 extremes – those that just want the key and nothing more and then those that are our best referral source. Unfortunately I come across many people who didn’t get “professional” services from a previous REALTOR and their thought is I can do better than that – getting past the wall is a major hurdle – when we do they become great clients.

Benn;
Great post – and really interesting questions – Our market in the Philadelphia MSA is one of those where there is some adjustment but we’re not as severely troubled as states like California or Arizona or Nevada since our incredible appreciation wasn;t as huge as there’s so the “adjustment” is not as severe. And we still see the buyers who don;t think the agent adds value to the transaction – but I’m not sure that its just because of the proliferation of information – All the information a buyer feels they need is the information about the specific property that they are going to see at any given time – “Back in the day” (pre-computer MLS – let alone pre-web) buyers who had less information still wanted to disengage with the agent at the earliest opportunity because they didn’t want to be “sold” they wanted to buy – so it was necessary for agents (who at that time were caught in the dilemma of being seller’s representatives who needed to build relationships with buyers who would become their referral base) still had to prove their value to the consumer really quickly, or lose the opportunity to work with them for more then one showing –
As I watch the discussion of qualifying buyers before showing properties, I think that the agent’s situation hasn’t really changed as much as we like to think (at least from the consumer viewpoint) Though we know may represent the buyer, and bring them even more value as well educated advocates for their cause, we still need to demonstrate to them (very quickly) that we add value to their experience – when I was an agent taking my CRS courses 30 years ago, we talked about the sales process being qualifying (building trust rapport, determining needs) them demonstrating (showing properties, comparing properties, weighing benefits and options in properties and financing) and then closing (asking the consumer to do something in their best interest which they might not have done if you weren’t present) – The accompanying visual showed the first part of the process as an uphill effort – the demonstrating as a level amount of effort and the last part as easy if the first two parts were done right like /Q==D==\ C but the point was made that most people made the process look like this ___Q _____D /C with all of the effort taking place at the last part of the job –
I would posit that the situation today is the same – when the agent takes the effort to build the rapport and demonstrate the value of the their services, the rest of the process becomes easier –
I would submit to you that good real estate agents need to engage the buyer in a dialog that will demonstrate what they can bring to the experience – regardless of the amount of housing information the consumer enters the process with – I know that when I bought my last personal second home- in Los Angeles – a continent away from the markets I know best- the knowledgeable agent who worked with me there made the buying process much less stressful – and I brought decades of experience and financial stability with me to that process that was stronger then many buyers we work with on a regular basis- Sometimes I think we should all be forced to be consumers every couple of years in a strange marketplace so we feel what our buyers feel when they come to us in the beginning 🙂

@Bill – I would agree with the entirety of your comments 100%.

@Greg – “the more they learn, the more they they realize how much they don’t know” – dead on.

The problem didn’t originate with the buyer, but with the glut of inexperienced agents turned loose on the public during the boom by brokers who abdicated their responsibility to train their new recruits who thought the job was simply to be an order taker.

Bob, call me Howard. And I agree that many agents do little to nothing and add no value to the transaction in new home sales as well as preowned. As a result, it is up to any agent that cares about reputation and an opportunity to do business in the future to do *more* than just open the door.