I apologize and know I mentioned that I wouldn't be posting here anymore as my "journey" in buying and selling a home is near completion, however the 60 Minutes segment last night really got some good "water cooler" discussion at work today and got me thinking. (See my previous post...).

Once again, let me clarify this...I am not a realtor. I am not an advocate for the real estate industry. I do not have any relatives, friends, etc who work in the real estate industry in any way, shape or form. I am simply a consumer who has recently been involved in the sale and purchase of a home. As I've said before, I've learned a lot about the industry during my tenure on AR and have dug deep to find the information I am looking for and thus have switched gears in regards to my opinions. I've always learned that what's fair is fair and this is a great conduit to speak your opinion. With that being said, I think the 60 Minutes segment brought to life a subject bigger than just commission percentages and/or discount brokers using the Internet to attract a new type of consumer.

As I said in my previous post, the segment was poorly done and way too one sided. However, with all that happened during the segment, RedFin did one thing right: They used the often misinformed and negative perception that a majority of consumers have about the real estate industry to their advantage. Besides getting huge attention to their business and website, they also may have used that negative perception to attract future clients and also continue to sway the consumers opinion's that selling/buying a home is as easy as baking a cake and you can save thousands of dollars not using a realtor. It also didn't help that the agent they used to provide a positive connotation to the industry was by far the worst person you could have chosen. From a consumer's point-of-view, I can just see how someone would watch the segment and walk away saying "I'm going to do this myself and save thousands of dollars."

Okay, I'm not going down that road. I think all realtors and knowledgeable consumers know this is hardly the fact. However, if you were to poll viewers, what would you think they'd say about the segment and how it reflected the industry? Personally, I would think it would closely match the last sentence in the paragraph above.


Where am I going with this? Well, in my opinion, maybe its time that the industry comes together to promote the positives regarding real estate. While the industry is primarily individual-based, maybe its time to unite and change the skepticism of the general public. Unions do this all the time. On a job site, if there is a non-union employee, the first thing the union does it put a 20 foot inflatable rat smoking a cigar outside the limits of the site. Union members begin to picket and march up and down the block stating their cause. While it may be tacky and bold, it's what non-construction people see everyday and wonder who is in the right. The union takes the time to promote their cause and thus gains (in some ways) the popularity vote. In order not to shut down the job, the contractor usually folds and the union wins (in some cases).

Today, you rarely see any real estate promotion (in a group manner) promoting the industry, its benefits in using a realtor, and its stance on morals. Instead, you commonly see ads on shopping carts, billboards, and flyers representing a brokerage office or an individual realtor. Why not come together and start a campaign that doesn't promote an individual or brokerage, but instead promotes the industry itself?

Driving around Chicago, you'll see a few billboards promoting a certain industry, group, coalition, society, association, etc. Unfortunately, I've never seen one regarding real estate.

Here's an example: My parents bought their first home in 1984 (in Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood) for a modest $52,000. Back then, they needed 20 percent down and I believe the interest rates were around 10 percent or so. The one thing I remember about the whole transaction was the realtor my parents used. Her name was Barb and she wore the gold Century 21 jacket on several occasions. I don't remember much, but I remember how kind, professional and cordial she was anytime she was around. She brought coffee and juice anytime she came over before taking us on showings and often "kept an eye" on us when my parents wanted to really focus on looking at a certain house. Everyone in the neighborhood knew, trusted, and referred her for any real estate transaction. I don't remember (on any occasion) my parents ever having a negative perception regarding real estate. Everything went fine and we were in our new house in no time.

Today though, it seems as if there are a slew of realtors out there and finding one is as easy typing a query in Google or looking down in your shopping cart at the grocery store. In time, you'll have about 20 agents calling you trying to tell you that they are simply the best agent out there and you'd be a fool not to go with them. You sign with them and then things start to go downhill. Of course, there are always a few bad apples in the bushel of good ones; however, this has seemingly been the premise consumers have used to give the industry a bad name.

It's just my opinion, but maybe its time this industry unites and starts a campaign to overhaul this negative perception and get more consumers to understand the true facets and positive results a realtor can bring to the equation.

In my research about real estate, I was bombarded with about a million individual realtor websites all promoting themselves, what they do and why they are the best. I completely understand this, however, nothing exemplifying the benefits of using a realtor from a group consensus. Then I found ActiveRain, did a couple blog posts, communicated with a few realtors and wow, my opinion changed overnight. I thought it was odd that the number of members were so low considering the amount of realtors in the profession. What better place to unite and provide knowledgeable insight to other professionals AND consumers?

I'm not saying that realtors need to spend MORE money on marketing than they already do, but maybe its time to get together as a group and force associations such as NAR to focus on public perceptions and marketing instead of just serving paying members. Besides, isn't this what you pay for?

While writing this, I thought of something that could possibly be used in every major city market. A billboard with the following:

"And you thought real estate was just about a sign, MLS, and commissions...Go to http://www.activerain.com/ for more information and see what's real about real estate..."

Tacky, hokey (use any adjective you wish) and expensive, however, it might be just the right formula for giving a good business a better name in today's era. Besides, how much does the CEO of NAR make anyways? I'm sure they could find funds to generate such a campaign to better serve their members in terms of public interest.

Just my two cents, would love to hear your feed back (sorry for the long post:)