One of the things I've heard talked about a lot is how Uber is using it's drivers to plot routes so that they can ultimately be replaced with driverless cars. Brilliant! If you're Uber. If you're an Uber driver you're helping your employer put you out of a job. Not so brilliant.
In the real estate industry we've been hearing about disruptors for years. I'd like to be that disruptor! Expedia did it to the travel agents, Zillow tried to do it to us but has failed thus far. Redfin has done a slightly better job but their agents are rarely the most gifted in the business. Their rebate brings in a lot of buyers who don't know that a great agents makes or breaks the process. Trulia basically collapsed. At some point some one is going to figure it out. Let's not help them out by sucking.
Uber drivers are writing their own epitaph. Are you going to write ours?
Today's ire is focused on agents who use those auction sites instead of doing their jobs. What crap! You, the agents who can't define their worth other than shuffling papers, will be the downfall of this business and I want you out of it. Now! I want you out before Zillow figures it out and relaunches. I want you out before the Reddit guy figures this out. I want you out because you make our value seem inconsequential to the process. You may be inconsequential but there are many really great agents that are not.
There are some situations where it is all about the bottom line. REO's is a great example. Banks want out as quickly as possible for the most amount of money. They don't care who buys the house and they would be just as happy to sell it to a fund that turned it into a poorly run rental as they would be to sell it to a nice family that is going to start their new life in that home. They might as well be on an REO auction site. They just need to answer to their corporate gods and that's fine and appropriate.
But once you bring that platform to the masses you have devalued yourself and the process and you will be why the disrupter managed to put us all out of work. Agents: Bring value to the party. If you can't do your job and bring value to the situation, get out of this business. Seriously. You are useless. Get out.
How does an agent bring value? It goes on and on but here's a great example. How about my Coastie who was using his VA benefit to buy a home in the red hot Pleasant Hill California area? He should not have gotten a home there. He'd burned through a couple of agents who couldn't get the job done. I wrote a total of three offers for him. The third one I hit gold. How? Each offer was accompanied by a letter to the seller explaining how he had served his country for 21 years and was using his VA benefit to buy a home for his family. The seller in this situation was a widow. She had raised her family in that home. Several times a year her brother would show up. He was a Viet Nam vet who suffered from PTSD and lived on the street. He would visit her and he would sleep on the floor while he was there. She chose to help another veteran get a home.
If their agent was using an auction site that transaction would have never occurred. That seller would have walked away with a little more money as we also were not the highest offer, and an empty feeling. Her agent provided real value by being able to assure her that her home of 57 years was in good hands going forward. She helped out a veteran. She did it for her brother. How does a website do that? If that's all you bring to the party, what is your value? What good are you?
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