How to Adapt to Changing Industry Concerns

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Transcript:

Today, I want to tackle how the consumer views agents and the implications of their perspective.

Increasingly savvy consumers are skeptical of real estate agents in general, demanding higher standards of expertise and customer service, while discount brokers compete on price rather than value. You can't argue that there's a lot of information available to consumers.

When I first got into the business, I realized that I was in an industry where there wasn't a lot of respect for what we did; however, I didn't see it as frustrating, I saw it as something that could differentiate me from the others. Your ability to get the consumer to take action really relies on your ability to let go of your ego. 

Today's consumer has more real estate information at their fingertips than all of the Realtors combined pre-1995. Increasing consumer knowledge has changed consumer expectations of the role and competence of Realtors. With Zillow and Trulia and all the different portals, consumers have access to price changes, how long homes have been on the market, tax records, estimates, and much, much more. 

There is no greater motivation than the person planning on buying or selling. Armed with greater motivation than the agent and a seemingly endless supply of data, clients these days are involved with all aspects of a transaction.

Not only does the public get short changed, but even highly skilled real estate professionals, operating as either a solo agent or a traditional team leader, cannot overcome the inherent flaws in the traditional models, even if they attempt to consistently deliver superior consumer value.

What Will Your Response Be?

Traditional team leaders can generate more income and gain time leverage by distributing leads to their agents. However, these benefits are gained at the expense of losing control of delivering the value proposition as well as hanging over the lifetime value of the client.

To make matters worse, commission-based top-performing agents in the traditional team model typically leave to compete with you after they demand a commission split that exceeds your budget. 

Clearly, running your business like a business requires the CEO, that's YOU, to implement systems, policies, and repeated processes to meet or exceed your net profit goals while maintaining control of your mission as consumer champion and the lifetime value of your clients. Too many agents get caught in the trap of trying to be superman or superwoman - if you try to do everything in your business, you are destined to limit your income and burn out your lifestyle.

Remember, if you don't have a business, you have a job!