* * * * WARNING!! H A R D C O R E R E A L E S T A T E T A L K * * * *
MANY REAL ESTATE AGENT HAVE BECOME DISINTERMEDIATED!
Forces worked against us to help bring about this situational disaster and some we brought on ourselves.
HISTORY OF THE DISINTERMEDIATION OF REAL ESTATE SERVICES
1988. BUYER AGENCY and the promulgation of statutory agency laws.
Prior to the statutory agency laws, real estate laws in most states operated under common law. This was truly the period of caveat emptor. Most agents and brokers represented the seller and the licensee helping a home buyer also represented the seller as a sub-agent. Agents and brokers worked hard to obtain property listings and the goal of every agent was to find the buyer and manage the real estate transaction in-house. Yard signs, open house, magazine and newspaper advertising were popular ways of attracting home buyers to their own listings.
In about 1989, by statute, agents and brokers were required to disclose to prospective home buyers that they represented the owner/seller. This was a tumultuous time for many agents and brokers and started the trend towards buyer representation for agents working with home buyers.
1992. MLS dissemination on the PC.
Prior to the Multiple Listing Services delivery of their listing information by PC, brokers offices provided listing 
information to their agents through the use of computer terminals connected by telephone line to a main frame data resource. These systems were cumbersome and slow and were apt to disconnect about 1/2 hour into entering an listing, but that's all there was. Enter the PC and agents were faced with the necessity of using a computer to access listing information. What this also did was permit agents the freedom of having access to listing information from their homes and started a trend of agents working from home. Having listing information on a PC with color property photos helped buyers and seller agents make listing agents available to prospective home buyers.
1994. Property Condition Disclosure.
Real estate commissions promulgated Property Condition Disclosure laws and required forms whereby sellers disclosed known defects to prospective buyers. These disclosures, while not always accurate, encouraged sellers to make needed repairs to properties prior to offering the property for sale. While sellers can "disclaim" any knowledge property condition, most states require disclosure of known defects.
1995. THE INTERNET and the introduction of agent and broker Internet advertising.
The Internet provided a cost effective advertising resource for agents and brokers that permitted agents and brokers to advertise their services to any one interested in real estate services around the world. With a web site, an agent could advertise local services to relocating home buyers anywhere and their listing services to local home owners. The Internet has largely replaced newspaper, magazine and other media as an advertising resource for real estate agents and brokers. The majority of home buyers start their home search on the Internet and that number has grown from 10% to about 80% in a short 12 years.
1997 - IDX and consumer access to active listing of homes for sale on the Internet.
Following implementation of the Internet Data Exchange guidance from the National Association of Realtors, local MLSs provided agentsand brokers with web sites whereby the consumer could search for and observe local listings of homes for sale. With the introduction of IDX came the "Internet Empowered Consumer". Home buyers believed that, since they could see homes listed for sale on the Internet, that an agent was either no longer needed or wasn't entitled to the real estate broker's real estate commission or fee. The fact that finding a home is not buying a home was lost on the consumer and the industry focused on "search" as a substitute for real estate services.
1998 - GOOGLE and the professionalism of "search" for Internet advertising success.
The introduction of Google produced a revolution in the "search" industry. Rather than arbitrary decisions by search engine or directory editors for inclusion in their database, a well designed web site would be included in the Google database based on patented processes to crawl the World Wide Web and indexing web sites based on Google's unique standards.
1998 - Template web sites. Real estate web site design companies began to proliferate about the time in response to obvious agent and broker demand. Prior to this time, web sites were created by skilled web design techs using html language read by web browsers, along with popular "bells and whistles" such as Flash and Javascript that created interactive or "action" web sites, which were very attractive and popular but not indexed by Google. As Google grew, the popularity of template web sites grew because they gave the agent or broker the
ability to "create" and maintain their own web site. The template companies also provided hosting services for site owners further simplifying access to a web presence by agents and brokers.
1998 - PPC Advertising. Major search engines include Pay Per Click in general search results.
Internet site owners purchased banner advertising or preferred placement on the Search Engine Result Pages by paying for clicks rather than monthly or site charges. PPC is a major source of advertising for search engines and is a way for agents and brokers to gain Internet consumer leads without the expense and risk of relying on "organic" search or Search Engine Optimization necessary to rank well in search engines.
1999 - LEAD AGGREGATORS and the struggle of agents and brokers for search engine placement.
During this time, several companies realized the uniqueness of the Internet to attract consumers of real estate services and designed web sites that offered real estate services but provided none of the services directly, but sold the consumer "leads" to agents and brokers. Many of these companies were able to gain superior placement in Google and the other search engines through high dollar Pay Per Click advertising funded by Venture Capital and Initial Public Offerings which provided these companies with resources far beyond the average agent or broker.
BRING BACK THE INTERMEDIARY
With the years 1989 through 2000 behind us, real estate agents and brokers are working hard to "take back their business". No longer are agents able or willing to pay for leads that are not worth the fee. No longer are agents able or willing to pay ever escalating cost of PPC for Internet advertising. New agents find it difficult to start their new business because the competition for buyer and seller business is very still with about 2,000,000 licensees competing for a diminishing number of buyers and sellers.
ENTER THE SUPER AGENT
What sets the Super Agent apart from the average agent? SERVICE. There has been a trend in the past few years for agents and brokers to offer diminishing levels of services. A real estate transaction is a complicated process. The contract alone can be up to 35 pages more or less and covers matters of location, price, negotiation, financing, fair housing, environmental disclosures and testing, home inspections and negotiating repairs and concessions, title work, appraisals, surveys, settlement and recordation. The average agent spends from 3-5 years learning to represent buyers and sellers with any degree of confidence and knowledge.
FOR SALE BY OWNER TRANSACTIONS ALWAYS HAVE BEEN,
ARE NOW AND SHOULD REMAIN "FRINGE" TRANSACTIONS.
Experienced agents and brokers know that a buyer or seller without representation is risky to deal with because the unrepresented buyer or seller either relies on free advice from family, friends, or agents who are willing to risk their license by giving agency level advice to consumers whom they do not represent. So, the FSBO seller remains a small percentage of real estate transactions simply because, while the seller has the absolute right to sell their home without a listing broker, the consumer simply does not understand the complex real estate
transaction and cannot get to settlement without the help of a real estate broker/agent.
BUYERS AND SELLERS SEEK HELP BUT RECEIVE LESS QUALITY SERVICES
The trend of agents and brokers to avoid certain duties or tasks in the name of "risk reduction" has been taken 
to the extreme. While some states permit agents and brokers to manage a transaction without fiduciary to either party, more and more "agency level" duties are being relegated to assistants, inexperienced agents or left for the buyer or seller to handle themselves with the theory that "if I'm not there, I'm not at risk". This trend defies logic since one of the reasons buyers and sellers hire agents and brokers is because the transaction is complicated and when agents begin to avoid certain duties, the risk is likely to increase rather than decrease. This trend lends credence to the consumer's belief that, if they can find the house they want to buy on the Internet without an agent, that they don't need and agent for the rest of the transaction. The consumer is left to their own counsel in matters as important as home inspections, termite inspections, loan approval
processes and other matters where an agent's experienced counsel can save their buyer or seller client $Thousands of Dollars and in many cases, save the contract.
THE REAL ESTATE AGENTS HAS BECOME DISINTERMEDIATED and serves to write the contract and collect a check at settlement. Many duties from contract to commission check are either neglected, avoided or handled without true representation. Brokers should know that something is wrong when an agent has a high percentage of cancelled contracts. Agents should know that someting is wrong when they lose listings and buyers.
IT'S TIME FOR THE REAL ESTATE AGENT TO BECOME REINTERMEDIATED and manage a real estate listing or contract of sale from search to settlement.
AGENT IN CHARGE
Only then will we be entitled to our fee.
Only then will we stop the slow but sure diminution of real estate fees.
Only then will we stop the inexorable loss of reputation.
Only when real estate brokers demand quality representation will we retain the respect of the consumer. It's really up to us. The public do not know good representation, they merely take it for granted. Brokers know and agents know.
IT'S UP TO US TO TAKE OUR BUSINESS BACK.
Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988, E-Mail.
Posted by 
OK , first why the big words :) I feel like I need a dictionary, but nice timeline. Good trends. Now it's the cyber superservice agent. That's what I'm working on. Niche marketing with service that makes you feel a difference. It's like a guy once told me, look at what everyone is doing and do the opposite.
Lenn.... good history of what has happened in real estate as we have moved forward, which with technology, it has made many lazy and rely on it or others. Therefor between technology and those less experienced, it has made for many transactions to close with a bad experience or not close at all. Overall, we can sometimes be our worst enemies, depending on who we rely on. And most of all, your last sentence sums it up, something that I preach about often.