60 Minutes -- "Et tu, Brutae?"

Note the comments by the public.  They are NOT siding with Realtors.  We have not been successful in selling our value to them.  Let's focus on how we can differentiate ourselves from limited service providers and prove our commission (which is NOT 6%).  The difference in cost between limited service providers and full service providers now is narrow.  We have not done a good job in explaining the difference.

As Mike Montague's neighbor astutely observed, if you have a home with problems list it with a limited service broker who won't send an agent to your home.  Let's get the other side of the story out.  Saving $25,000 in commissions is great Redfin, but not buying a toxic mold home for $800,000 is priceless (than you, full service Realtors). 

NAR response:  http://www.realtor.org/about_nar/NARRespondsToSixtyMinutes.html

I read their documents on line...they suggest taking a GOLF BALL with you to check for slanty floors, and make sure you look in the attic..so bring your ladder, oh and don't forget your flashlight for the crawlspace, all while you are touring the open house on your own without representation!

If these poor uneducated home buyers just realized most of us trained professionals could save them more than the rebate off the asking price because we are TRAINED to be good negotiators, they would run from companies like these! 

If anyone EVER asks me for a rebate, I'm yelling FORE!

I read in a comment either on active rain or another blog in a post by a Seattle agent that he had checked the list and sell prices of the homes the couple in the 60 minutes piece claim to have saved $26k on in Real Estate fees.

According to this agents research of area values they undervalued their sale and paid too much for their home by as much as the savings claim they made to the nation. I wish I could find that post to link to here. Anyone else see that? 

Rich, Awesome effort / blog, you did it great with this one, thanks for all links / information, keep the good blog :P

This is both what I like about the real estate community, loathe about news in general, and dislike about my own industry.   First what I like about the real estate community: you are a mobile, active, and cooperative community all while being competitive with each other at the same time.  You are all chasing the same business but then when something like this comes along you mobilize as a single unit and get results.  Second what I loathe about the news: every story is a partial truth, or a completely biased opinionated one sided view of a situation.  It is rarely factual, in most cases it is alarmist propaganda that leads to misinformation and causes more problems for the public, rather than educating the pubic about facts of a situation.  Think of this while you watch the news, if they got it that wrong about your industry, how good do you think they are doing on the rest of the topics they report on.  Lastly, what I dislike about my own mortgage industry.  We are too busy being competitive with each other to work together as a community the way that real estate agents do to combat misinformation in the news, protect ourselves and our lively hoods by creating advocacy groups for lobbying for regulation changes, etc.

Astute observations Brian.

I often wonder how much of the shift in the real estate market in the US can be attributed to the bombardment of headlines and news stories on the bursting bubble?

The Canadian market saw a record first quarter and there is only an invisible line separating our markets. 

Some interesting comments were made in response to a market update story I posted here in active rain recently, have a look click here to view post

Good job of your letter you sent to 60 minutes.  I missed the show but, I will click on the link to get more information. 

I don't know much about Redfin, but I do know that the National Association Realtors have publicly stated their reasons for being opposed to it - which are many. From what I've read, Redfin is the Walmart of real estate, and why would you trust one of your biggest investments to a discounted warehouse store? I know my average days on market for my listings is 78 and on average I sell those listings for 98% of asking price. It's funny, Redfin doesn't publish their stats.

Christina Asad Edwards, REALTOR
2006 & 2007 Sales Masters Top Agent
Christina.AsadEdwards@RealLiving.com
www.teamedwards.info
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