Westchester View

How on earth does the consumer choose an agent? With so much hype, smoke and mirrors that the actually process can seem about as clear as mud.   Sadly, there is no foolproof way to do so, but there are pros and cons to any method. Here are some typical methods that sellers seem to use:

You have a friend who just got licensed.…and he/she acts as if she already owns your listing….so why not?

Watch out here…your friend may be very competent – but  competence and excellence are things that are often learned on-the-job in this field.   Does your friend know the market well?  Have they marketed a home for sale before?   If prices are depreciating and your friend doesn’t know how to market and price your home, you are losing money every week you have this person as your agent.   This should not be a decision based on friendship.  A lot of money is at stake.  But take heart – I do offer a possible solution to this dilemma later on.

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A few months ago an agent responded to blog I wrote about first time buyers.   Her comment was that “First time buyers today don’t know what is good for them.  They want their cake and ice cream before they’ve had their main meal. “  I wish I could remember the blogger’s name – but I forgot the post and only remember the quote.   I had understood what she was saying, but  at the time, felt the judgment was more than a little severe.  However, recently I’ve recently had  a cooperative for sale in a very lovely building and sometimes selling something small in a complex where everything is easily compared brings buyer behavior into sharper focus.  Having observed the sales in that building – such as they are because volume was very low until just a few weeks ago – the agent is largely correct…wanting the glitz without the substance  IS  impacting the decision making process of first time buyers – and I predict that it will come back to haunt them when they sell.

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This is a tough topic for  me to address objectively.  However, I have seen many blogs recently from agents touting their expertise as “local experts”.  Meanwhile, I’m also seeing quite  a number of other agents bragging about the number of listings that they have.  Most of these agents can not possibly accumulate the raw numbers by being local. Many of these agents have listings that are scattered far and wide – sometimes in more than one state or at least in several counties.

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There is a lot of hype circulating in the real estate industry about local experts.   A recent post about the topic was posted by an agent on Long Island…Paula Hathaway “Chaff….Schmaff!  A bad attitude or just a better way of doing business.”  With all due respect to the author – I felt that the emphasis on being a “local expert” implied that agents who were not already established in the area were merely chaff – while the established area agents were actually the “wheat.”     We all start out as chaff  – and chaff has no opportunity to become wheat if they aren’t given a chance.  That appears to be a bit too convenient for the very local agents in any area.  Because it implies that they are the only game in town…

Real Estate is Surprisingly Competitive:

There is a saying within our industry that you can’t swing a cat without hitting a real estate agent.  It is also paired with “you can’t throw a rock without hitting a real estate agent”….Well you get the idea.  There are a lot of agents out there.  Many good, many not so good and separating the wheat from the chaff is a tough task for the average consumer.  Many think we are all created equal and anyone who can stick a sign in the ground or unlock a door will do.

That is as far from the truth as it gets – but it  gets to the heart of this blog – and that is that the real estate industry manufactures agents on a conveyor belt with little regard to quality. Its all about quantity.  As a result – the confused public that is supposed to do the wheat vs. chaff determination is totally confused and disappointed in the quality of agent they encounter.  Agents, for their part, try to separate themselves from the crowd by indicating that they are “special.”

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This post was inspired by Inna Hardison of HA Media in her post “Do consumers think Real Estate is a Relationship business? – one consumer’s perspective….”

Quote from Inna’s Blog:

Dear Future Client….
Upon a successful closing, I will be sending you cards, making phone calls or otherwise contacting you about 33 times a year, as it is my hope to become your Agent for LIFE!  I may also friend you on FB and follow you on Twitter, to keep in touch…
And please remember that I LOVE referrals.
Sincerely, Your Agent for LIFE!
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Waiting to buy a home could be an expensive mistake….

That’s what!  Plain and simple.  Ever since the knife dropped in on real estate – buyers have been alternately flooding into the market and holding back. Don’t get me wrong…these are difficult times.  I understand the hesitancy  – however,  for those who have a stable job and a stable income with good credit, I have to think that a little green monster called greed is entering the picture.  We all see the little green monster in ourselves from time to time – but we need to watch that monster and to tame it.   For as  Jim Crammer of “Mad Money” fame often says – “Bulls make money, bears make money, but hogs get slaughtered.”

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Real estate sales is a very funny thing.  Often – when judging the quality of the agent or broker – only one metric is used: Sales volume.   And by sales volume most people are specifically referring to how how much money was exchanged in  gross sales.  For example  – If an agent that specializes in homes worth over $1 million  has $7 million in gross sales – they may have done as few as 7 transactions while the poor schumck that specializes in cooperatives has done 25 transactions and only $6 million in gross sales. Does that really mean that the agent with the $7 million in sales is somehow “better”?

Is Sales Volume the best way to measure how “good” an agent is?

Granted this is one way to measure success – by how much you made as a agent and it is kind of perverse reflection on our mindset as a society.  But is this what really matters to the consumer?  SHOULD this be the way the consumer measures an agent?  How about overall customer service?  What about the listing agent that supervises two renovations holds 10 open houses, markets the home to the hilt, thinks outside the box in getting home “out there” to the public.  Then negotiates the best possible terms for their client and closes the transaction with as little drama and turmoil as is possible in this challenging market.  Isn’t that worth some brownie points?  Why do we just look at raw dollars like they are the crown jewel of legitimacy in real estate?

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Home buyers are often  surprised to find that their real estate agent is less  than enthusiastic when they insist  on an endless series of showings  before they will entertain any decisions.  They  think that its our job  to show them as many homes as they could ever want to see – even if that takes 6 months of Saturdays.  This has always been a major issue for agents, but the problem has reached epidemic proportions in a market where buyers have no urgency and think nothing of taking their agent on a 700 mile wild goose chase even when they are not committed to a purchase.

However, there are signs of push-back.  Buyers who are “working the system” by insisting on seeing literally every home under the sun are finding that they are wearing out their welcome as their agents are no longer enabling their addiction to to an endless  search.

Of course some agents will not fire a client directly…If your agent has made themselves scarce or is inexplicably  unavailable because they they are suddenly having root canal every day  for the next three weeks – you may have been dumped.  Here are some reasons why you may have been given your walking papers.

1. You told your agent that  you were “in no hurry to buy”.

Some buyers think this “motivates” their agent to work harder.   Freely translated this says  “I’m going to be very demanding, I’m going to take tons of your time, I’m totally unmotivated, but someday – 3-5 years from now I might buy…and if you jump through all my hoops – you might be lucky enough to close with me.”  Please explain to me what is “motivating” about that?

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This is probably an issue that resonates throughout the real estate community  throughout the United States.   In this current market many buyers just can’t seem to accept a “good deal” when they have one.  They always seem to want to push the envelope just a bit more…and if they get that…the push it again, and again, and again…until finally they finally hit a brick wall and walk away – or until the fed up seller finally pulls the plug.

Lately I have given several buyer clients offers so sweet they are literally dripping and sticky sweet with  goo – only to have them turn up their noses and walk away OR come back with extra demands that  have  left absurd behind and are now bordering on surreal.  Sure, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, but there comes a point where, like Alice – we pass through the looking glass into an alternative reality.
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First some bad news – rents in our area are headed north – in a big way:

In recent years, renting has become the new thing to do.  Sort of a post-modern version of “shabby chic”  that was so popular in the 80s  that I remember in high school and college.    Since the beginning of the recession in 2008, rents have been low which has been a wonderful  gift to  former home owners who had sold their homes by doing the unthinkable….bringing money to the closing table.  They needed a break – and ironically, just about the only break this terrible recession gave anyone was in the form cheap rent.
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