Will REALTORS be Extinct in Near Future?
There is a blog post at inman news that is getting lots of comments... mostly pro-REALTOR... never extinct kind of stuff. Very interesting reading for those who take the time to view all comments.
Overall, it seems that must think the REALTORS job will simply change since they don't control the information anymore and they will act more as interpreters of the information consumers find.
We believe that there will be a much larger push towards FSBO not necessarily out of desire but more do due to "need" with homeowners not having enough equity in their homes to sell using an agent.
What are your thoughts... are agents here to stay or go the way of a dinosaur?
Overall, it seems that must think the REALTORS job will simply change since they don't control the information anymore and they will act more as interpreters of the information consumers find.
We believe that there will be a much larger push towards FSBO not necessarily out of desire but more do due to "need" with homeowners not having enough equity in their homes to sell using an agent.
What are your thoughts... are agents here to stay or go the way of a dinosaur?
5 Comments:
There is no doubt that what realtors do is changing, and there maybe less of us in the future, but not much to suggest we'll disappear.
People are always emotional about houses, plus the complexity of the transaction with showings, offers, counter offers, multiple offers, contingentcies, inspections, appraisals, etc will ensure that there is going to be no "transaction in a box" that can be brought.
I am a REALTOR® specializing in Naples Real Estate and I wouldn't say that we'll be extinct. All biases aside, the fact of the matter is that realtor.com has made MLS information available for quite some time. Even with that, I have people calling me and asking for more information. People will call and ask where a good place would be for a given price range where they can walk to a public beach. This type of knowledge is out there, but we provide a service. Just today I read an article in the Naples Daily News about a scam that is circulating where buyers go to For Sale By Owners and purchase a home. They put a large deposit down with a cashier's check and then a few days later decide they are not interested and ask for the deposit back in a wire transfer. The sellers wire the money back only to find out that their "cashier's check" was counterfeit. This is where a Realtor® and the escrow service proves to be worthwhile. There will always be for sale by owners and that's fine. There will always be more and more information made public, but the knowledgeable real estate professional will always have a service to provide. Just my $0.02.
I do agree that those who have equity and significant appreciation in their home have no excuse in not using a realtor. However, there is a large part of the public who own houses especially affordable starter homes that have little equity because it was financed 100%. And most folks move out of their starter home before they make much of a dent in the principal. Thus,private sale is very attractive to this sector.
Regarding the comment on the scam in Naples Fl stating "This is where a Realtor® and the escrow service proves to be worthwhile" obviously hasn't heard of an attorney offering an escrow service. Let's see, an attorney charging $800 - $1,000 for legal representation vs. a real estate agent charging $15,000 - $30,000 for an escrow service...., I think I'd vote for the attorney. Just another baseless scare tactic. For sale by owner is here to stay. In areas of the country where there is a strong regional for sale by owner service, the actual numbers of "successes" are far greater than the NAR will ever report as they only track MLS data. Even that is scewed now with flat fee listings attributed to private home sellers.
As a broker/owner I am concerned with the fact that there is a population that thinks we do not earn our commission. Why doesn't everyone just fix their own cars and tend to their own boilers etc.. If more people were aware of what is involved in selling a home they would have a little more respect for us and if they knew where the money was going, they would see that a good portion of the commission goes toward advertising, then to the staff to handle the incoming requests for showings and overhead to keep the office open so calls on your home can come in, flyers for the home, virtual tours and an endless list of incidentals relating to marketing and then finally...the agent gets their split and from that they take out for their gas expenses, wear and tear on the car to do the showings, entertaining the client when making the offer, and finally, uncle sam gets his cut so if you think about what our paycheck acutally works out to....it's pretty pittiful.
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