Karen is my travel agent.
Her services cost me $40.00 per flight.
Those services save my life.
I email Karen my travel particulars.
Within the hour, she sends me an itinerary.
I approve, she books. Runs my card. Done.
I have no interest in using the web for travel anymore.
It’s anything but empowering.
It’s not even fun.
Empowerment is delegating arduous tasks to a professional.
Someone who possess a core expertise in that which you are novice.
And produces results faster and better than you can.
Spending time booking a hectic travel schedule is not empowering.
Zaps time better spent on other things.
Playing Wii with the kids. Jogging. And after drink with my wife and wishing the moment could last forever.
Real estate.
I’m done searching for homes online.
It’s cumbersome, confusing and no longer fun.
Search sites have now narrowed it down beyond simplicity.
With advanced search filters galore.
And maps with little blue markers
I struggle to get passionate about that.
Or believe that it is the best experience the web can provide.
Or that it gets users any closer to what they really want.
Survey’s say consumers research for months prior to calling an agent.
Then, during a ten minute phone call, they tell that agent what they are really looking for.
A home with an artistic vibe to it. Close to a Montessori school. In a neighborhood where there are other kids.
And I wonder, why don’t we just do that from the onset.
How can a web search possibly find vibe?
I’m sure it could.
I guess all those Stanford grads who now decide how we simple folk search haven’t thought of it.
But an agent can do it for us. Especially a good one.
One that knows the neighborhood.
And understands what "vibe" means.
And send us an itinerary of vibey homes by email within the hour.
These days, my sands of time are dissolving into the bottom half of the hourglass.
At 51, having been at the Internet thing since the 80’s, I appreciate the immense value it offers.
I also appreciate its limitations.
For the last decade, through the web, real estate handed the agent’s work over to the consumer.
It was cool for a while. Some say empowering
But now, I think for me anyway, I’d like to hand it back to the agent.
Gladly.
I don’t want to do your job anymore.
I think, I am not alone.
You are the future of real estate.
I still believe in the web.
And there are some search sites I love.
And broker sites that help me source good agents.
They are the ones posting nice, quality pictures of their homes.
Posting them on the big national search sites.
Branding their efforts with their brokers
They are the ones who are making it easy for me to contact them.
Not through a form. Or some office number.
With a real email account. A cell number. A facebook link.
And live chat.
As for the 6% commission, I am at peace with that.
Especially in the wake of Exxon’s recent net profit report.
And the billions of bonus dollars all their execs will reap.
If my agent handles search, finds the right home or sells my home during a bad market, god bless them.
Here’s my check.
Thank you so very much for your service.
- Davison
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Great post!!
Mark, I love this, someone in my family called a travel agent this week, "I don't have time to deal with this."
Agree, just because you might be able to do something yourself, doesn't mean that you should or even want to.
Bring back gas station attendants too!
I've heard and read the answer to "Why should I use a Realtor?" in many different forms: passionate, intense, logical, subdued, concise, rambling, boring, engaging. But never have I seen it expressed in so lyrical a manner as you've done here. The visual arrangement of the stanzas, the tone and rhythm of the words are almost poetic in their simplicity. With a little editing and maybe a change of title, this could well be the the official poem for Realtors. I read this three times, just for the literary enjoyment. I so wish I had written this!
Oh, and did I mention that I agree with the content as well? Well done, Marc, the Realtor's Poet Laureate!
B@stard!
u beat me to the punch, this is exactly what I've been thinking for along time. This exact topic was going to be 1 of my first blog topics as soon as I get my brokerage site(s) up.
commissions are paid for a service performed. Perhaps 1 day there will be 2 ways of doing everything in life. Online for A$ or done by someone else for 5xA$. Sure if I googled hard enough I could live in a cave on an island with a wireless laptop and figure out how to do everything myself. That may be ideal for some but not me. I like interacting with people and enjoying life.
I love your guys work, writing, way you think…Keep up the great work!!
Marc,
You know that we are on the same page with a lot of our thoughts about the real estate industry, but I just have one different take on your post. I agree that as we get more established in our lives, our career, our world, time becomes one of those factors that seems to outweigh all others, including money.
But have we forgotten the exciting aspects of discovering information and trying to analyze and make sense of a complicated task like buying or selling a home. I have been in my first home for almost four years now and I can honestly say I was so excited about the discovery process when my wife and I were looking to buy our first home. Heck, I could have taken the easy route, because I was working at a brokerage at the time, and just handed the process over to my agent and said call me when you have houses you want me to look at. But I relished in the fact that I handed my agent a list of the houses I wanted to view.
Now she still gave me advice on neighborhoods, schools and amenities, heck she even pulled some other houses into the mix that I had not found, but at the end of the day I was involved in the process and knew what I was getting myself and my family into.
I agree what you stated about travel because I’m right there with you….no enjoyment at all. But we’re not talking about a $250 plane ticket here; we’re talking about the single most expensive purchase most people will ever make. I for one want a little knowledge and involvement in that process.
Derek Overbey
Sr. Director of Partnership Strategy
Roost.com
http://www.roost.com
http://blog.roost.com
"But have we forgotten the exciting aspects of discovering information and trying to analyze and make sense of a complicated task like buying or selling a home"
This is an important comment Derek.
I believe that the maestros of "Search" for real estate – brilliant minds as they are – overestimate the consumers ability to analyze data, navigate complex mash ups and hundreds of little blue markers that are now the accepted replacement/icons for homes.
You are part of the exception in the consumer marketplace given your technical and real estate background. The average, regular, human being does not possess the analytical prowess to decipher through complex data sets. That's why AOL still exists. It's functionally simple.
This is the crux of the conversation and the basic thesis of my question – have we made something so personal and so important as search, too advanced and technical thus overly complex and sterile for the consumer denying them a truly progressive experience?
Websites are great seeking out, learning and experiencing a brand online. Being able to search property holds so much promise but honestly, given the fact that so listings still have few to no pics and the ones that have… well how does 8 pictures of a 5000 sg ft home really do anyone any justice?
Is searching by zip code, city and state really the way people look for homes and is the best search sites can offer?
It's important to question conventional wisdom and logic here because it's quite possible no one has it right yet.
I know this: We the consumer now do the work we used to hire an agent to do. Search for our house. We don't understand the market, we don't go on Caravan, we really don't know anything other than the fact that we might like a picture of a home. Plowing through a database, weeding through little blue markers, drawing polygons and deciphering through local demographics, pie charts and graphs, presented on heat maps is well, a lot of work. I wonder outloud, how many people feel all that empowered looking at this stuff. I wonder how many people can actually nail down the perfect house that way themselves.
And I am pretty sure if they could, most agents today would be out of business.
Books, shoes, Pez dispensers, that's another story. That stuff is great to search for online. You don't need buyer/seller tips for Pez or heat maps for shoes.
But a home… well, I think technologists have assumed a lot over the last bunch of years and have given the consumer quite a bit to do to distract them from this thing we call life.
I know when I go to the NYC Public Library, I ask a Librarian to help me find something. I don't think it's all that empowering to go find it myself.
Somehow I think this has been taken into account.
So. I believe in search sites. I believe in what they could be. What they should be. I also recognize what they aren't.
I hear you Marc and hopefully I'm working at a company that will continue to simplify real estate search and get it closer to what it should be. I always appreciate your perspective.
You could very well be D. Simplify is important. Fulfilling… that's everything.
I hope that more people feel as we do, the internet is wonderful but it is a tool just as fax machines, cell phones etc. If we make it the most important thing in our lives we will miss out on meeting live people. I want the corner store back, I want the local book store back, I want the local hardware store back, and more. Try to shop local and use the internet less. It may save some time but I'm into saving local businesses. Sue Whelton
What a refreshing perspective.
Finding the home online and merely opening the door is an over simplification of a Realtor's job.
Thank you
You are so right. Technology can help make life faster but not always better. It's those personal interactions and insights that make the difference.
Jessica Beganski, REALTOR
http://CTRealEstateUnleashed.com
I've heard and read the answer to "Why should I use a Realtor?" in many different forms: passionate, intense, logical, subdued, concise, rambling, boring, engaging. But never have I seen it expressed in so lyrical a manner as you've done here. The visual arrangement of the stanzas, the tone and rhythm of the words are almost poetic in their simplicity. With a little editing and maybe a change of title, this could well be the the official poem for Realtors. I read this three times, just for the literary enjoyment. I so wish I had written this!
Oh, and did I mention that I agree with the content as well? Well done, Marc, the Realtor's Poet Laureate!