A cheesy well-known nationwide newspaper that you only read when there is nothing else to read on airplane rides asked why real estate commissions stayed above 5% as home prices surged? Or why an agent of 20 years gets the same commission as a rookie? Or why the Internet, which has revolutionized other businesses, has had relatively little effect on real estate? My question is where have you been? Have you been hiding your head under the sand or are you just indulging in sensationalism, something you excel at these days knowing your newspaper won;t exist anymore in ten years due to poor reporting quality?
Some people want to do the foot work while others cannot or will not. Simple as that. Having a choice is the real question here, and I am for that. I am not defending NAR either but saying the industry is intent on keeping things the way they in an article that does not allow for comments is at best a cheap shot and clearly sends a clear message across, we report what we want, how we want and do not care you think about this.
Pay ridiculous amounts of money to buy a home? Why do some people buy Mercedes and go to a Mercedes dealership to maintain them? Because they see quality and value in it, maybe? Some people like to have professionals help them navigate through the thirty to fifty page contract pitfalls it takes to buy a home. Can everyone do it on their own? No, but some people can if they studied the laws, the market and have an on-site knowledge of the local market. Do you also tell your lawyers the same thing when they protect you from a tricky situation in court? Or you tax accountant when he helps you waddle through the IRS laws?
The real estate industry hasn’t been revolutionized by the Internet? When you say revolution, do you not mean evolution? If so, MLS’s are not an evolution? How so? What information are you looking at? Emailing lists, virtual tours, should I go on or have you not bothered to look into products companies offer? I agree that there are some unethical people in our profession, come to think of it, like any other profession, I am sure you would agree looking at the state of yours. In fact, I heartily offer myself as a study for you to see what goes on behind the scenes in real estate.
So here is a question I am dying to ask, if you pay $2000 for information on an article you are writing and someone comes along, wants little info, gets the gist of it for $500 and publishes it. Would are your thoughts when people will get seemingly the same coverage from it than yours? Should that person be able to access at a rebate the database you use and pay for at a premium, make money from the work and dollars spent other from full-fledged agents? In other words, should I open all my hard earned work to someone who is not willing to put in the same amount of work and money into it and make money off of my work? Why is this not fair? Like you, I am not in the business of giving all of my time and effort away. I also need to pay my bills and get compensated for my knowledge, my studying the state laws and learning the ropes of the business. Would you find it fair if someone had full access to your database at a discount price and publishes the same news? Again you are only looking at one side and yell out loud something you do not fully grasp.
Full-service brokers cannot see discount brokers as a threat if they have work ethics and really give the extra service discount brokers cannot. It’s as simple as that. Some people want full service, others do not. I pay for an MLS service that gives me other’s information that pay the same amount. I don’t pay full service so that a discount broker that puts back less than I do use my information to make money. I would not either.
Can you guess which newspaper it is?
