The proliferation of real estate websites that give consumers unprecedented access to property listings and other information has led to widely publicized predictions of a diminishing role for full-service real estate agents.
But are Internet-empowered consumers really starting to buy and sell the family home on their own, just as they book airfares online and trade stocks with a mouse click?
As someone who’s been in real estate for decades, I’d like to interject some reality. And the reality is that, even in this Information Age, more people – not fewer
– are trusting the major investment that a home represents to none other than their local real estate agent.
Let’s look at some very real numbers.
Today, upwards of 77% of home buyers go online during their home search, according to a 2005 National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) survey. They go to broker websites like weichert.com to browse listings and get a feel for towns and prices. But when people get serious about finding a home, an overwhelming 90% – that’s 9 out of every 10 – call on the expertise of a real estate agent.
What about home sellers, you ask? For the folks who typically pay the real estate commission, it’s the same story. Last year, over 85% of home sellers used a real estate agent. That’s up from 82% in 2004 and less than 80% back in the late 1990s, when real estate websites were in their infancy. That same NAR survey also showed that “For Sale By Owner” home sales have declined from 18% in 1997 to just 13% today.
Those findings make one fact abundantly clear: the more knowledgeable home buyers and sellers become, the more they recognize the need for a real estate agent’s professional guidance.
The transfer of real estate is a complicated, high stakes process, where emotions often run high. The professional agent – and by that, I mean a licensed member of the National Association of REALTORS® who abides by its strict code of ethics – fulfills a vital function by assisting at each stage and instilling confidence. More often than not, the agent’s role is pivotal in bringing the two parties to agreement and then keeping the sale on course as inspection issues, from underground oil tanks to radon and lead paint, are resolved.
Certainly, technology has affected how real estate agents conduct business. It’s getting harder to recall a time when Weichert agents didn’t routinely e-mail new listings to their customers or display cell phone numbers on their business cards for 24/7 access. Yet while computers, fax machines, cell phones, and e-mail have become irreplaceable, no high-tech device can ever substitute for the high-touch professional service real estate agents bring to the process. Our agents know that they’re going to be most effective when they become truly knowledgeable about a home’s features, inspect it from attic to basement, routinely walk the corners of the lot, and get to know the sellers and their motivations. When an offer comes in, our goal is to present the contract in person to make sure its terms are fully understood.
As I tell our agents, “The web provides information. It’s full-service companies like Weichert that provide the high-touch service that’s so vital.”
Any compilation of an agent’s services would take up far more space than I have here. At Weichert, our agents follow a detailed chart that notes every activity required to secure a sale. For buyers, the steps from start to finish are just as long. What’s more, full-service real estate companies like Weichert continually develop and refine such related services as mortgage financing and insurance, with the goal of increasing convenience, relieving stress, and saving the customer that most precious of commodities, their time.
A little while back, one of our agents wrote a letter to a major newspaper, citing the many roles that real estate agents play – including “psychologists, marriage counselors, interior decorators, haulers of trash left behind by sellers, problem solvers, information providers on environmental hazard issues and disclosure laws” – you get the picture.
A real estate agent’s immersion in every detail related to the home sale is total.
That’s because good agents are tirelessly devoted to their customers. Putting the customer’s needs and dreams first is deeply ingrained in their psyches.
Take one Weichert agent, seven months pregnant at the time, who was working with buyers anxious to make an offer on a property. Knowing the value of a face-to-face presentation, she put her dinner plans on hold to drive to the sellers’ house to make her buyers’ case in person. What followed was nearly five hours of grueling negotiations that lasted until midnight. When the sellers then insisted that her buyers sign that night, it never crossed her mind to reply, “That can wait ’til morning.” Instead, her long night’s work didn’t end until she obtained the signed paperwork and got it back to the sellers . . . at 2:00 a.m.
Another Weichert agent received a tearful call from two sisters who’d lost both parents and needed to sell the family home. The sale came quickly, but the sisters were distraught about what to do with the lifetime of memories inside. Our agent immediately volunteered his own time to conduct an estate sale, even finding an antiques buyer to purchase a few items.
I mention these stories because they underscore the intensely personal nature of real estate. There’s simply no comparison to booking an airplane seat, no matter how sophisticated online services become. For this most meaningful of all investments, people overwhelmingly seek out the human touch: the hands-on expertise, counseling, and extra-mile involvement of a professional real estate agent. The bonding that often occurs between agent and customer no doubt explains why experienced agents typically get more than 70% of their business from repeat customers and referrals.
I’ve always believed that people buy people before they buy a product or a service. Real estate is a people business and it will remain a people business, however much its tools and technologies change with the times.
Which brings us to another Real Estate Reality. If the idea of buying a home online and trying to flip it for a fast profit gives you an adrenalin rush, then websites like eBay are tailor-made for you. Otherwise, after some preliminary online research, go with the growing trend among today’s Internet-savvy buyers and sellers: partner hand-in-hand with a full-service real estate agent who will take your best interests to heart.
James M. Weichert is president and founder of Weichert, Realtors, one of the nation’s largest privately held families of real estate companies.