These are
turbulent times in the world of real estate.
There are complex issues that the industry is dealing with that have
heavy ramifications for the future.
One of the
biggest has to do with the issue of transparency, and changes are definitely
afoot.
What is “transparency”? For the purpose of this conversation,
transparency simply means making each individual agent’s sales history
information publicly available online.
Why is this
an issue? It’s layered, and complex, but
here are the key arguments the “anti-transparency” people make:
Consumers will be pre-disposed to choose agents based solely on sales production instead of competence, ethics or harder-to-quantify criteria like micro-market knowledge;
Agents who form teams
will lump all production under the team leader’s name, which will drive
consumers toward teams (which often have several inexperienced agents working
under the name of a team leader) instead of better-qualified individual agents;
As you can
see, there are some legitimate concerns with this information going public. There is also the very real fact that every
agent who belongs to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) pays hundreds
of dollars a year in membership dues, whether they sell four houses or
forty. And since the average number of
transactions per Realtor per year is about 7.5, you can see how the vast
majority of dues-paying agents may have real concerns about this disclosure.
NAR is going
forward with a controversial new platform called “Agent Match”, which is now showing
agent production in a few beta markets around the country. (Denver is not one
of these test markets, but Fort Collins is)
But here’s
the problem – thanks to Zillow, Neighbor City and other third party
aggregators, the data is already getting out there.
Zillow’s
solution (introduced just this year) was to simply step outside of NAR’s data
reporting controversy and allow agents to certify their own production (mine
can be viewed by going to www.ZillowReviews.com).
Zillow went
one step further, encouraging agent reviews on their site (I currently have
over 60 verified past client reviews posted, also available at www.ZillowReviews.com) which supports this growing trend of consumer
transparency.
The consumer
wants information and transparency, and since NAR is engaged in a giant
fistfight with its members, Zillow simply stepped around the fray and filled
the void.
Agents need
to get over it. Sales production may not
be the only criteria that matters, but shouldn’t we let consumers be the ones
to make that decision?
The
in-fighting at NAR and in the real estate community is damaging the Realtor brand,
and agents need to suck it up and realize that transparency isn’t going
away.
As an agent,
it’s up to you to determine how the world views your brand. Having a blog is a good first step. Verified client reviews are also extremely
helpful. A social media presence make a
difference, too.
Yes, it is
work to build a brand and maintain a great reputation online. The dinosaurs in my business don’t like it,
but change is inevitable. You adapt, or
you perish.
I’d rather
put my energy into going forward than trying to protect a closed-data world
that no longer exists.
