http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/114665
NOTHING! Glad I'm paying a flat fee for it, or that other people in my office are paying as much as $0.99 after they send more than 200 in one month.
For some of us, this type of information is useless, however for me this is upsetting because I text A LOT, and I mean 2,000+ times a month a lot. On a common work day I'll send 60 - 80 texts, and while many are to buddies and my wife, there's also a bunch to fellow agents, lenders, and clients. Many of us have embraced the amazing functionality of texting, where we can confirm appointments, pass along quick updates, and simply keep in touch when needed. During a CE class or longer meeting I can text clients or agents without having to to step out of the room, it's an incredibly useful tool.
I see the mention of price fixing lawsuits now, good.
However it gets me to thinking about Realtor service, here I am complaining about being charged for a service that costs my cell phone company nothing at all to preform. Meanwhile the same thing is happening in our profession, I hear or read about consumers not being happy with Realtor service because a bunch of what they believe they're being charged for is info/services they can get for free, usually online. The Realtor value proposition is shifting people, and many of us are failing to see that.
I hear this statement a lot, "We need to get back to what we used to do, these consumers don't know what they're doing, it's a scary world out there and we're the only ones that can help. I used to ____________ (action that a 1980's / 1990's power broker used to do a lot) and it worked, we just don't do that anymore!"
Uh-huh, that's because it doesn't work anymore. There is such a huge monumental shift afoot within the Realtor community it's scaring a lot of people, heck I'm scared by it too. The modern consumer doesn't want us to withhold information, they don't want to be held in the dark, they also want to feel involved and informed in the entire process, they want it all online, and they want to be able to blog/chat/discuss/tweet/complain/rate everything they go through.
Consumers want instant information, they don't want to call an agent and hear, "I'll have to get back to you with that." That's why sites like Zillow (See recent blog post on Zillow conspiracy), Trulia, Cyberhomes and others have hopped in to provide instant valuations, or instant home searches, etc. Meanwhile associations and Realtors refuse to come together to have Realtor.com provide instant values, or collect consumer feedback.
Divided we fall, and 3rd party non-Realtor owned companies jump in. Wow... this kinda spun a long way off from text messaging, I'll shut up for now, but look for continued thoughts on where I believe our collective body of Realtors should be shifting to.
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