Do You See What Is Happening To Our Industry?

Do you see what is happening to our industry?  Computers are wonderful things.  Ever since the first one I bought in 1988, I have found ways to automate repetitive tasks and organize mounds of information; but a computer can't do everything.  And the amount of technology many in our industry are trying to throw at the process is staggering, but have you taken a moment to consider what is actually happening and where this is leading?  Electronic marketing for our listings gives consumers a wealth of data for identifying houses to purchase and approximate values for constructing an offer.  And that all seems like we are moving in a good direction.  But let's look past the promotion phase and into the selling phase once an offer is ready to be made.

Banks today have increased involvement in the selling process (remember when all they did was fund and service loans with rare instances of foreclosure?).  To help them manage this, they created databases for agents to submit offers for consideration (and pass the cost of this automation directly to the buyer in many instances, but that's another argument.)  The database ensures all the data points are neatly stacked for easy comparison. How much a buyer will pay is a numerical field, it doesn't take escalation clauses, footnotes, or percentages of other numbers, just a whole number with two decimal places - nothing else.  Desired closing date is a date selected from a drop down calendar, not a set number of days beyond another trigger date, "Just the facts ma'am." And the listing agent doesn't even need to do any of their own administrative paperwork, the buyer's agent is doing the data entry in many of these systems. (A brilliant way to have others do your job, but that's a whole different topic.)

So, fast-forward to the day when a buyer and seller log into a web based system and negotiate directly, not through conversations complete with body language and/or tone, but with data in a spreadsheet.  If a buyer's agent or listing agent can put data into a form online, why can't an intelligent buyer type it in themselves?  And if an asset manager can review offers lined up in a spreadsheet, why can't a seller do it themselves?  Where do you see agents in the process as this continues to evolve?  We already have transaction coordinators who guide the transaction from contract to closing through the inspections, disclosures, and appraisals.  Will agents be reduced to mere tour guides?  How will agents justify their paychecks at that point?  Or will real estate agent be a minimum wage hourly pay job at that point?  With real estate being one of the easiest professions to get licensed in, we all need to be aware of what impact industry trends will have on our future.  Where do you see the industry going and what impact will it have on your job in the future?