Realtors are supposed to sell, how come we get SOLD?

Kathryn,

Actually I believe these comments should be directed to David, but as I found this on your site, I'll respond here.

No doubt there are several companies in the industry that utilize substantial marketing investment to offer their services to consumers and to market to agents.   That is the crux of the paradigm for lead aggregators like HouseValues, Reply.com, and HomeGain...as a part of the services these firms offer. Each of these companies also offer direct to broker services, including linking to consumer sites (like RealEstate.com, Weichert, RedFin, John L Scott, Baird & Warner) that offer real estate listings via IDX to empower consumers to take the first step of their real estate journey - finding a home.    Reply.com and HouseValues also offer substantial training programs for agents as (to David's point) 90% of the closings occur with a small % of agents (actually it's more accurate to say that 20% of licensed REALTORS(r) deliver 80% of all closed business, but now we're really splitting hairs).  Why the majority of agents do not succeed in this business is the subject of much discussion in real estate, but I don't find the statistic that surprising.  The very act of becoming an agent is the equivalent of starting your own small business.  The percentage of small businesses that fail in the first several years mirrors what we see in real estate for any number of reasons.  Sometimes the person is excited and empowered about effectively owning their own business, but is not marketing savvy, sales savvy, or focused.  Sometimes events beyond their control take priority.  Sometimes the person cannot effectively manage to balance priorities.  Regardless of the reason, not everyone who works in an open environment thrives, and I have an immense amount of respect for those who are willing to take the risk.  The lead generators I reference above are all trying to address both the sale and marketing piece of the paradigm for the agent.  Services like Point2 help with the prioritization consideration - effectively there are any number of entrepreneurial players in real estate who are trying to answer a question or need for the consumer, the agent, the builder, or the lender.

It's interesting that David brings up LendingTree and RealEstate.com in this discussion.  LendingTree is a competitive marketplace where consumers who are looking for loans can evaluate competing lenders who base their offers on the consumer's information and a soft pull of their credit score.  The LendingTree Broker Network is operated by RealEstate.com but is a national network of broker partnerships where the only fee exchanged is a referral fee upon a successful closing.     The consumers who find us through the broker network are generally tied to Affinity Partnerships, those who are pre-qualifying for a mortgage and indicate they are interested in working with a local real estate agent, or those consumers looking at listings who indicate they would like to speak with an agent outside of our brokerage footprint.  Our core real estate business is RealEstate.com, REALTORS(r), a full service brokerage operating in 10 states (14 markets) nationally with over 1,000 agents.   Our agents are not charged for any company business they receive unless they close that business.  

At one point we had a direct to agent lead generation business (closed in 2007), but frankly we found that agent satisfaction was low due to the agents paying for leads up front, and that the training provided was generally not adopted or leveraged for success.   Our brokerage business enables us to provide training to agents who have a desire to succeed and want help generating incremental business on top of their own sphere and marketing efforts, and effectively aligns us directly with that business...without having to give up being a company that excels at online marketing to consumers.

As small business owners on tight budgets (the sales cycle for an agent is a lot longer than retail sales), most agents don't set aside dollars for marketing, or expend dollars in areas where they are not equipped to succeed (the internet is a key area where those who are well equipped do very well, and those who are not drive up costs for everyone else).  They often exhaust their sphere of influence quickly, and unless they have a broad network of relationships we find that their time fully committed to the business is brief.  Those that stay long-term figure it out and try alternative solutions.  As with any small business, when you throw several competitors into the mix, those who can figure it out will thrive, the rest will move on to try something new and constantly reinvent themselves until they find success.

Sorry to take up so much space on your page, but I'm an advocate for agent growth and success - not all of them can do it alone, but more will succeed than fail if they can leverage tools and partnerships that make sense and help them move ahead.  If anyone has questions or comments for me - feel free to email me directly - rick.finch@realestate.com.