This week’s headline news comes from #Fortune, “90% of homebuyers have historically opted to work with a real estate agent or broker. Here’s why that’s unlikely to change, according to the National Association of Realtors”.
This headline is a far cry from the mythical headlines of 2.5 weeks ago (3/15) claiming the end of Real Estate fees and plunging home prices due to the NAR (National Association of Realtors) settlement. President Biden perpetuated the Hypenews Headlines with his repeating of the hypenews. Where was the fact checker? Everyone makes mistakes, take a breathe.
“Markets are driven by supply and demand and professionals
are paid for services, I cannot say it anymore simply.”
I have extremely deep roots in the building of this country as my ancestors stretch back to those who traveled to an unknown land in the early 1600’s to become part of the First House of Burgesses and known as Ancient Planters. When I cannot find a birth or marriage record, I can find Land Records. Owning property is fundamental to everyone in this country, regardless of when or how you arrived here. Right now it is time to take a breathe, have a little Grace and Be Kind to one another as an industry that is fundamental to the country evolves.
NAR Settlement and What it Means
The President of Real Brokerage, Sharran Srivatsaa, (my brokerage) provided a great 1 hour presentation regarding the settlement just days after the hypenews headlines began. He discussed what will change, how we handle it and, of course, the details of implementation are not clear as of now and some folks continue to react. He asked for Grace during this period of unrest and summed up the human element as:
Technology is not the Enemy
Having been an IT Professional who jumped the fence to the B2B Start-up Software world in the early ’90’s, we are experiencing the same change. As automation comes in for the commodity tasks, we should embrace it and use it as leverage. Functions and importance of human intelligence is not being replaced, even AI has a place. It helps me be a better writer, but I supply and/or edit the core content.
IT jobs were not lost, they were elevated to manage more than they could have done without intelligent monitoring. For instance, in 1987 I brought down a distributed node (small data center) while with EDS in my first job out of college. Medicare claims processing for 4 states came to a halt for >7 hours one day. To this day I will tell you my manager was not mad that I made a mistake, he was angry it took 7 hours to FIND the mistake and apply the 5 minute fix (restore some trashed files) and everything was up and running. The intelligent automation we have today gets us to proactive monitoring, downtime avoidance, thwarting of security threats, etc. However, it takes a professional to leverage the tech to reach this level of potential.
Industry Change
The Real Estate industry is quite the same. Search has been lost to the tech companies, but a Real Estate Professional is so much more tha “Search & Show”. Zillow remains an advertising platform to Real Estate professionals willing to dish out large dollars to be the one phoned when someone “finds” a home they might want to see. Now it is time for the Real Estate Professional to convert the call into a client. I struggled at first in real estate trying to control the search and pointing my clients to homes that best fit their defined requirements and yet they would send me a different Zillow listing. A colleague had to tell me, “your value is not Search & Show, it is the guidance for the offer, the history of the home, the negotiation, etc.”.
I personally thrive in environments of change and new challenges and yet I am human and have a healthy fear of how it will play out. That’s the analytical in me that likes to know “How” while planning.
Also, we have to remember who the client’s we meet are and their expectations. There are two sides to this coin today:
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Young Buyers – Tech saavy and not so concerned with contracts, responsibilities, negotiation, risk management, etc. Afterall, a commodity item, a car, now comes out of a vending machine.
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Boomer / X’er Sellers – Who remember the days of landline phones, days before SMART Devices and yet, have not sold a home in 10-20-30 years and need to understand how to find, market, sell and negotiate with their target buyer.
The point is, the value is not in the “Search & Show” and/or “transaction execution”, it’s in understanding of the humans in the transaction, the 3 contracts that govern the transaction, the product and it’s condition in the sale, understanding the law, consequences, risk and reward of the transaction, etc.
“The Home is the product and it is an asset to one carrying past emotional attachements and an asset to the receiver who
dreams of their future. The Real Estate Professionals are there to guide both participants through the details of the investment.”
I cannot break down the intricacies of the NAR Settlement as well as Sharran Srivatsaa and will provide the link here to the video session he held 2 weeks ago explaining the near future, but rest assured, there wil be continued evolution for this industry. CLICK ON THE BELOW PICTURE TO WATCH
Future of NAR
There are many mixed feelings within the Real Estate Professionals across the country and the general public does not understand who they are or what they do and likely never heard of them until March 15th, 2024 with the Hypenews Headlines. As Professionals we belong to a trade organization, it is not a union, but it gives the entrepreneuers in this industry a bigger voice as a collective group of Professionals is the simplist way to describe NAR.
The night the news broke an agent I follow out of North Carolina, Leigh Brown, went online and held a LIVE video session that explains many things about NAR, the Professionals in the industry and the impact of this settlement. She makes good points in the vein of “Don’t cut your nose off despite your face” – don’t be too quick to judge based upon Hypenews Headlines.
Collectively we need to process the situation and align as a group of professionals – I did not say agree 100%, but rather align for the common good. Another throwback to my Tech Industry days. When holding product meetings we came up with a process by which we could Align as a group, without having to Agree 100% as a group. It was the only way to move forward for the greater good of the organization and I believe Leigh Brown describes this situation similarly and very well.
On the contraian side of NAR, there is an article posted by NotoriousROB: What Leadership Looks Like … And Doesn’t Look Like. He gives high regard to Sharran Srivatsaa for offering leadership quickly in times of change and contrasts that to the message delivered to all of us hardworking, ethical Real Estate Professionals by the current President of NAR, Kevin Sears.
I have to agree that his message was scripted, not heart felt and not human. More like a person operating in the “definsive mode” of this sue happy world (minority), instead of “playing offense” as a leader working to win the game. You cannot win playing defense and afraid. However, I’m not suggesting anyone jump ship without due diligence and considering points raised by Leigh. We need a voice and consistency across the industry and NotroiusROB points out, a shoring up of ethics across the base of hardworking professionals, because we deservie it!
BOTTOM LINE
“Home prices are driven by supply and demand, professional services have fees,
change is inevitable and homes do not come out of vending machines.”
Each home has it’s own story and maintenance history, everything is negotiable and everyting comes at a price. Hypenews Headlines are “click bait” and the world “CLICKED” and even our President perpetuated the headlines. Home Buyers and Home Sellers beware, do your homework and enlist a professional to support you with you investment strategy because you deserve it!
As always . . .
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