After yet another late-night surfing binge, I came across a fascinating glimpse into the mind of the next-generation real estate buyer… Is this you? I suspect that most of my new clients fit this profile. read
I'm Your Guy!
775-722-4011
GreenNV
Yeah, this is sort of a version of me, and I’m a dinosaur. No Ipod, no IM, but give an address or an APN and I have a house’s history in 30 seconds. Photos, aerials, tax history and delinquencies, prior sales, permit history, and just about any other data I might be interested in.
My point in posting is to say that the MLS needs to adapt to this new reality or lose any relevance as a real estate tool. It will take the geeks at Zillow maybe 10 minutes to write a macro to track inititial listing date and price. Pendings will take another 15 minutes. Adding a sort of the FSBO listings probably less.
The “new buyer” wants a lot of information, wants it now, wants it anonimous, and wants it without the biases and filters built into an industry controled data base. How do you trust statistics from an organization that allows properties that relist daily (40 Old Reno since August) to accurately effect DOM? Percent of asking?
The MLS is no longer the property of the agents – it is now the property of the buyer. It needs to adapt to OUR requirements, or we, the buyers, will orchestrate a work-a-round. It is probably already too late to save the current system.
And what will the new paradigm be? Incredibly informed buyers AND sellers. And where will that place the current seller/agent/MLS relationship? Back in like, 1970. We simply won’t need you or your comission structure in out RE transactions.
Yeah, yeah. We are on the ground , we understand the micro markets, we are imbedded in the community. It just doesn’t work for me anymore. The RE industry has to morph into something new and relevant, or it is toast as we know it today.
reno buyer
This is me 100%. From using the spam email to not wanting to be flooded with phone calls. I would rather conduct business over email and I will make sure to gain as much information as possible through my own means before I head to a realtor. If a website requires registration, I move on to the next (thats how I found Dianes website – no registration required to search the MLS). When I go to a realtor I already have a list of what I want to see. Being my realtor would be easy – I do my own research and you take me to the homes I want to see. I can’t imagine relying on someone else to find a home they THINK I’d like.
Same thing goes for loan agents. One of the loan companies I went to (e-loan??) made me actually fill out an application-type form in order to tell me what kind of rates they offered. No thank you. If you dont list it in plain English on your website you won’t be getting my business. It will also be a turn off if you call me a thousand times trying to get my business. Because of this, I avoid giving out my real phone number until I have made a decision about what company to use.
One last thing – if it can be faxed, it should also be able to be emailed. Faxes are inconvenient and sometimes very public. I can get my email anywhere or email anything from any place. So please – unless its the deed to my home, be ready to accept emailed documents as opposed to faxes.
Mike Van H
Hi Diane;
This is SO me. I have two IPODS (because one alone cant hold my music collection), a smartphone, a backup pda in case the smart phone fails, and two laptops…one for extended travel and one for toting around town.
I thought your Sommerset Youtube video was 1000% more effective than seeing 10 print ads about Sommersett….
Lynne Black
“The RE industry has to morph into something new and relevant, or it is toast as we know it today”
Very true, but when I sell my house, I will use a full service realty firm, why? because houses are unique, and even though pricing is determined by comps, in a market where there are 10 times as many houses up for sale as there are buyers, you need to find a way to market your house, and differentiate it from the rest of houses that are listed. But I won’t pick just any agent, I will shop for the best one I can find, and my criteria includes:
1. They have to love my house, but they also have to be realistic and honest with me about what it can sell for.
2. They need to know how to prepare the house for listing and be willing to spend time advising me on things that will give me an ‘edge’ on selling my house
3. They have to have a great network within the real estate community, I want an agent who is connected, involved and in constant contact with other realtors who have potential buyers for my home.
4. They must have a track record of their listings selling in the same or fewer days on the market than average for the area.
Could I sell it myself and find another house without a realtor? Probably, but I don’t think I would be saving money, or getting top dollar. My neighbors have a ‘for sale sign’ on their house from one of the ‘sell it yourself’ places. The house has not been staged, it is priced at about 70k over what it will realistically fetch, and in two months they have had maybe three people look at it. They say they REALLY want to sell, my advice to them – get the best full service realtor you can find, drop the price, spend 10k in upgrades to take this house out of the 80’s decor, rent a storage and put all your junk in there and even in a crap market you will sell it.
Lazy realtors, realtors who think they can get 6% by taking a listing and doing nothing else are irrelevant- even now. The state of the market is such that only the best and the brightest agents will survive.