LET'S GAIN SOME INSIGHT


How do consumers buy and sell real estate?
1. Look at newspaper
2. Drive areas and visit open houses

3. Connect with a real estate agent

  • They know
  • Referred
  • Run into


HERE IS THE ISSUE
So far, most Real Estate agents have seen the Internet as simply another form of advertising and just another way for consumers to "run into" them. But it is much more than that.

Why is it more than that?
1. It is content rich and interactive.
2. It is transaction capable.

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN IF AGENTS DON'T WAKE UP?
The Internet starts out as a benevolent listing showcase service, but over time the major real estate portals have the brand name, the eyeballs, and the consumer relationship. Now - what will they need the agent for? Functions!

Listen to what is being said
"You agents need to get used to the fact that in the future all the data on real estate listings is going to be free to the consumer."

Free?
It may be free to the consumer, but is it free? No. To get 1.3 million listings on an Internet portal takes over 700,000 commissioned agents to go do a CMA, list the property, stage the property, and input it into their MLS. All at the agents expense. Then MLS zaps it to an Internet portal that then makes it free to the public. Free?

Ask yourself this question.
Who benefits from this? The public, which uses the service. And the internet portal, which uses these listings as their product. This is obvious. Now, how did the agent benefit? Who is watching out for the group that researches and delivers the data for these Internet portals? Who is watching out for the agent's best interest? Who wants the agent to be a fiduciary or who is quietly positioning the agent, using the agent's own hard work and listings, to become a repositioned functionary with a completely different economic opportunity? The real estate agent needs to stop and ask their broker, company, and MLS these questions. And listen hard to the answers.


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