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Nearing the End For Realtors and Mortgage Professionals

Nearing the End For Realtors & Mortgage Professionals.

Web real estate firms shake up home economics - Los Angeles Times

Well....so much for having my own niche, huh? If I told you that the housing industry has only begun to "dabble" into generating sales via the internet, you'd probably think I was joking. The internet has indeed become a powerful tool for both realtors and mortgage lenders, but to what extent does it generate new business? I guess another way to ask that is:

"Can a website do the same job as a realtor or a mortgage professional?"

The answer is....ABSOLUTELY! It's already in the works. At this point, it's still used mostly to suppliment the work of realtors and loan officers. However, emerging websites like Realtor.com are providing buyers and sellers with much of the same information as their real estate agents. Zillow.com is another popular website which is used for determining real estate values all over the country. Like many other industries, real estate & mortgages transactions will soon be generated, processed, and finalized over the internet.

1.) Realtors will be the first to be eliminated.

Real estate sales are heavily influenced by outside forces. Economic
conditions, interest rates, housing prices, and income averages
are variables that directly effect the real estate
market. Realtors are often at the mercy of changing market
conditions, regardless of their ability to sell. If houses are too
expensive, people won't buy them......period. Obviously, I'm speaking in
generalities and there are always exceptions to the rule. The other major cause for their extinction is their price. For how much a realtor charges, it's far too easy to figure out a way to eliminate the need for one.

2.) Loan Officers..........YOUR NEXT!

Like realtors, loan officers experience fluctuations in their business due to a changing economy. Loan Officers, however, rely more heavily on their ability to sell than do realtors. At the risk of upsetting any
realtors who are reading this, it's the truth. Also, no matter how bad market conditions may be, people will always need money. Without doing any research, I'm going to guess that real estate transactions
(sales/purchases) fluctuate far greater over time than mortgages.
Just a hunch. You're more than welcome to do the research and prove me wrong. I'll even post it on this site for you.

Posted by E.T. Home Loan on 02/10/2007 01:21 PM

Comments (41)

This post has been included in California Information

41 Comments on Nearing the End For Realtors and Mortgage Professionals

FEB

2007

I don't think Real Estate Agents will be going away...but I feel there will be a shake out and eventually those that are left will all become salaried and each will have a very specific function in the home buying/selling process

Realtor.com is an emerging site????? Rather it's now a money-losing and increasingly useless site, as it no longer has all the listings for REALTORS® and has so far removed itself from the original concept as to be far on the downhill side of the business S-Curve.

As far as real estate brokers, those that embrace the consultant approach have a great deal of value to add to the real estate search and transaction process. I'm not as sure about mortgage brokers.

Jim Kimmons
http://realestate.about.com

I stand corrected....

Jon-

Interesting post. Thanks for the information. Something to think about.

Hi Jon...

I have commented on this topic many many times.

All I have left to say is NO....

The Internet can never give a Real Estate Transaction the human touch nor can it give a customer emotional support.

No more debates for me! I'm saying that like the soup guy from Seinfeld :)

Realtors will never be fully done away with, for many the human element is just too important.

Realtor.com is a waste of a site that does not serve the consumer with valid information and rips off Realtors. Why on earth would you declare them to be emerging, declining would be more appropriate.

I too have commented on similiar posts concerning this subject and I am sure there will be more. I believe that human touch will always win in the end.

As a loan officer there will be always be business no matter what the market conditions are. Local people will always choose their the loan officer that they personally know. Again like others have said its all about the personal touch.

Eddy

If sellers were left to price their homes themselves the world would stop spinning because of the lack of transactions. When I'm working with buyers and they say, "this doesn't look anything like the pictures online," I always reinforce the value I bring to the table.

OK OK OK! I get it. Down with Realtor.com! No soup for me! (Seinfeld)

If it makes you feel better.... Refer some other sites that you do like, and I will change it in the article.

In response to Rick's comment:

Don't you think at some point the laws of "supply and demand" would take over? Sellers will eventually realize that they're not getting what they hoped for and be forced to lower the price.

Jon,

I don't think changing the website in your post would be the right thing to do. You wrote it, made your points and some of us do not necessarily agree. That is the beauty of a social network, we get to discuss things and learn from each other. Also, if you change the website the comments would no longer make sense, so what would be next, deleting the comments that were not relevent. Where would it end? Refining the post and deleting comments until the post finally agrees with the point you were originally trying to make? Just my opinion.

As Mark Twain once said "The statement about my demise is somewhat premature."

No Jon,

Everybody thinks houses are overpriced EXCEPT for their house. I'm still waiting for a seller to tell me, "I agree, we should price our house 10% less than ALL THE OTHER HOUSES THAT AREN'T SELLING."

My stock broker explained to my years ago that every stock is a winner. The theory goes if a stock makes money two out of three times you have winners, Right? ..... Well, on each deal the house makes money, the broker makes money so no matter what happens to the investor.... WE HAVE TWO WINNER!!!

When Zillow.com determines real estate values I'll turn to flipping houses. As long as I can pick the right two I'll be doing ok... Here are the last three closings on our MLS and the ZILLOW price.

96 Windsor Court - Closed $786,000 2/5/07 Zillow Price = $418,560

2143 Durham Road - Closed $518,000 1/31/07 Zillow Price = $460,154

23 Carmel Court - Closed $455,000 1/31/07 Zillow Price = $455,340

Touche David, Touche...

By the way Laurie, I meant on my own personal blog. I don't want to refer someone to the wrong place. You seem to know something about the website that I don't, and since more than one of you feel this way, I would prefer changing it. Like you said, it's good to discuss it here and make sure we get it right for people out there.

Jon: If your intent was to make a splash with a provocative topic—you may have succeeded! You got me to respond, anyway.

As it’s already been stated Realtor.com is in deep doo-doo, and Zillow, designed by propeller-heads, who don’t seem to understand the art of real estate, is generally a joke—their “Zesitmates” are so far off as to do as much of a disservice than service to the consumer.

Virtual tours lie—a pair of original equipment eyes viewing the home from inside the home coupled with standard equipment nose and ears—give the prospective buyer a far more accurate impression of the home. Those same original-equipment, non-electronic senses will take in the surrounding environment—neighborhood, noise, traffic, et al.

Realtors® for good reason prefer the sellers are away during showings and open houses. Why? Because owners are often effective deal-killers. So who exactly is going to show the home in your cyber-world?

I am of the opinion that the savvy Realtor® will play the internet like a fine musical instrument with locally oriented blogs & websites, and will not only survive, but THRIVE in this coming new world order.

Jay (not a Realtor®) Merton

This was cute. Fictional and lacking a understanding of the nature of real estate and mortgage brokerage, but cute. Good luck, Jon and congrats on the gold star

Jay,

Not to be rude, but there are still people out there who haven't figured that out yet. I'm trying to keep competition levels to a minimum, at least for little a while. ;)

Why a gold star on this post? I have never asked that question but what a waste!

Jon: No rudeness detected. But if a codger in his seventies can figure this out—don’t you think there are any number of savvy Realtors® out there that already have, and are seeking and finding their voice on the ‘net? Take a spin around the ‘Rain—you’re sure to find several.

Jay Merton

Well said, Jay!

Jon - I hate to be the one to tell you - but it looks like your website has been eliminated. Clicking on the link in your profile takes you on a journey to www.phosphorart.com !!

That's exactly it. Realtors are limited to a local area. Mortgage brokers, at least in my area, haven't aggressivley marketed towards the local online client base. It's a big pool with a whole lot of fish in it.

"Long-Tail"

Thanks for pointing that out to me Tony. I'll get it figured out.

OK, so I have to ask, at what point did we start featuring sci-fi posts? :)

Jon,

I found your post interesting and perhaps thought provoking but don't agree with your premise.

It looks like the storm's dying down a little bit. To those of you who participated in this debate with challanging and well-formulated arguments, I thank you. For those of you who responded with your emotions rather than logic...well, I'm sorry for bringing up such a touchy subject. I'll have to include some sort of disclaimer on my next article so we can avoid any further misunderstandings.

For future reference, some of you may want to think of better arguments than "what a waste of a gold star," and, "you don't know anything." I never said that I was right, or whether I even agree with this position. Maybe I thought that this was just a good way to get everybody to talk about it.

Anyways, I concede this round to Jay Merton, Dan & Sandra Cummings, and Rick Beal, who also contributed some good evidence to support his case.

Well Done! Until next time...

Jon, Have you ever bought or sold a house? Have you ever used a real estate agent? I just don't know if you are joking with this post or if you are really serious?

Not really sure why this became a featured post.....

FEB

2007

I don't agree totally. A shake-out is on the way. Any REALTOR who thinks that s/he will be unaffected by the increased availability of real estate services on the Internet is delusional. Just like stock brokers in the late 90s who said that etrade.com and other web stock brokerages would soon be extinct. However, just as the best stock brokers survived the rough years in the market since 2001, so will the BEST REALTORS survive the evolution of our business.

I'd agree with Laurie. There are way too many Realtor sites emerging.

As TLW has commented many times before. Your computer can never take the place of a good advisor.

Sure, computers and fancy websites will forever be an intrical part of the process and I'm sure there is some percentage of buyers that may prefer to work in the virtual world, but for most people buying a home is a touch n feel transaction. They want hand holding and reassurance that their doing the right thing.

However, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the travel agency business was once a thriving business in the pre WWW days. Then came Orbitz, Priceline, and the Travelocity's of the world; and this industry has all but ceased to exist.

The real estate community needs to embrace computers and the web for the value they add and recognize that the true value resides in the knowledge and understanding of the truly qualified realtor or loan officer.

I love the travel agent example. One word stands out in Martin's comments, and that's "advisor." It's possible to plug a scenario into a computer, but it lacks the element of life experience. I think that by interacting with our clients, we automatically create a profile based on their personalities and characteristics. I would never put someone in an Option Arm if I didn't think they were responsible enough to handle it. It doesn't matter how good their credit is. Obviously, this would get looked over if everything was automated.

Jon:

I simply had to come back for a visit, just to see the comments you received.

In my first comment I wrote: “If your intent was to make a splash with a provocative topic—you may have succeeded!” I expected you would receive some very negative comments from some of our members (and unfortunately I was not wrong in that expectation), others would politely disagree and add to the debate, some applied humor to the debate and some thought it thought-provking.

I was pleased to read your replies to the comments—with good grace and humor: “Touché.”

That your post was featured is no surprise to me—it deserved to be featured!

Some members disagreed with your original premise and could not imagine why a post they disagreed with should be featured. This makes no sense what-so-ever to me. How boring the ‘Rain would be if we all agreed with one-another!

Jay Merton

If I go down I'm taking the car sales people with me.

................"If I go down I'm taking the car sales people with me."..............

Now there's a laugh on line :)

TLW...ROAR!

I remember hearing about this when I was in the car business in the mid 90s. Everyone predicted that car salesman would be extinct and websites like Autobytel and Autonation would take over and sell cars online. Well that never happend and never will. When it comes to items that are of a large amount of money, such as homes and cars, people will never forfit human contact. Ever try to get a mortgage on E-loan or lending tree? I wouldnt recommend trying, getting people to call you back is difficult, and you are just a Number to them. Mortgage brokers and Agents will be around forever.

"If I go down I'm taking the car sales people with me."

I needed a good laugh this morning, great to see you have a really good sense of humor.

I made a new blog thanking all of you for your participation yesterday. You might get a kick out of this one too!

Hey Jon, I think you are assuming that everyone in the US has a computer, knows how to use it really well and speaks English. What about the people on the margins? Sherry

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