House Shopping on the Web means Realtors must bring more to the table!
Just a few years ago, REALTORS held all the information. If you wanted to find out the price of a home for sale, you either hoped the price was advertised in the local newspaper or you would have to call the listing REALTOR. Then if you wanted to see inside that house, you had to book a showing with a REALTOR. If you didn’t like that particular property, and wanted to hear about others for sale in the area, you needed to make an appointment to meet with a REALTOR to get a list of homes for sale. Gaining information was the key reason many people consulted a REALTOR.
Times have changed! Information on homes for sale is readily accessible on the internet with interior photos normally available. In fact, so many buyers start their search on the web that we now we refer to web hits on SCHMIDT listings as “First Showings”. In the past, buyers would look at 20-30 homes and then pick their top 3 homes to view for a second time before making an offer. Today’s buyer can easily view 100 homes onlines while sipping their morning coffee, and then book their top 3 to view for a “second time”. On our website, buyers can search all MLS listings at their leisure, without ever speaking with a REALTOR. They can choose to view our newest listings, receive emails when we have new listings or even set up a permanent search so they are notified of all properties in a particular neighbourhood or price range.
So what’s the benefit of having a REALTOR? Seth Godin is a marketing “guru” I admire and he addressed this very issue in a recent blog post about the changing role of the “middle man” in industries such as travel and real estate. Gone are the days when a REALTOR could get a license to sell, a license to drive and be in business! What an “agent” in any industry must bring to the table today is “added value”! In the case of real estate, this includes area knowledge, contract and negotiating expertise, and the experience to know how to take their clients successfully down the many twists and turns on the road to “SOLD”. Helping a client create a focused search for a home he or she can afford that meets their wants and needs is not as easy as it sounds. With literally thousands of properties on the market where does one start? House or condo? Urban or suburban? New or re-sale? Custom or spec? Upgraded or ready to renovate? Helping a client analyze their real needs vs their wish list can save thousands of dollars through ensuring the right property is chosen. Moving is costly as well as time-consuming. Taking the time to do it right is a smart investment, and a good REALTOR can make all the difference in the world. Think about re-sale for instance. What you might love in a home might be something very unique, and that’s great. But if you think you might be transferred in a couple of years then that “unique” home just became a potential roadblock as you search desperately for a buyer who wants exactly that rare shade of pink granite countertop or black bamboo flooring. And what about inspection issues? Surveys? Condo documents? Conditions? These are just some of the areas where a skilled REALTOR adds invaluably to the process. No longer simply the “keeper of information”, today’s REALTOR needs to customize their approach based on each client’s needs, bringing focus, clarity, knowledge and experience to the table.
At SCHMIDT, we understand that you expect a lot from your REALTOR. We’re OK with that!
Contributed by Kathy Schmidt, Broker Owner of Schmidt Realty Group Inc.
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