Anne Randolph - Studies Show Real Estate Brokers Are Now Below Car Salesman

Anne Randolph Studies Show Real Estate Brokers Are Now Below Car Salesman

Find out the real story: Alternative Models are Down and the use of qualified, Connected Broekrs is UP.

BrokerIPTV : Today we are talking with Anne Randolph from Murray Consultants. Anne thanks for being with us.

Anne Randolph: You are welcome.

BrokerIPTV : I love your research and I love the information you provide. So, let's jump right into it. Consumers want what from a real estate agent?

Anne Randolph: Surely and simply, they want to feel that the agent completely represents their interest. The idea that alternative service models are going to takeover and the consumer doesn't want the help of the realtor is nonsense. That actually drop by 50% and it is well under the 10% utilization now of alternative models and particularly when the market is bad, people need a professional, this is a very big transaction.

BrokerIPTV : As a realtor I think, what is the consumer want or they are interested in how high the price they are going to get for their house, how quickly it is going to sell, but it is whether or not the agent represents their best interest, is it a confident list, right?

Anne Randolph: Absolutely and whether they perceive that the agent is trust worthy, both of those things in repeated surveys that we have done since 2000 are in the 89 percentile, meaning 89% of people put that first.

BrokerIPTV : Now the bad news, because I heard you say that our reputation agents has may have sunk lower than the use car sales...

Anne Randolph: Yes, the Harris Poll does a survey thousands of consumers and ask them to talk about different job classification. They include things like doctors, lawyers, fireman and fireman always come out first, but it used to be that real estate agents were head of use car salesman and now that dead last.

BrokerIPTV : Which brings to my next question, what is that we as real estate agents do not know about the consequence?

Anne Randolph: You know something, I do not that it is that good agents do not really understand what their customer want. I think good agents do, I think one think that has been a hard transition is that many people want much faster of communication than agents are used to. Remember the average agent is 53 yers old and the average home buyer is 36 years old. So, there is a little bit of disconnect there. I think what has happened is that the number of the agents in the business went up by a almost 60% in the last seven years. So, even in California, went to my 140,000 to 210,000 in 18 months and those people have spent their 40 hours in class, but they are not managed well people are not training them well and so they go out and they have - this is an experience business. The best are very experienced, so...

BrokerIPTV : Let me flip the question. What is that the consumer does not know about agents?

Anne Randolph: I think the consumer, who goes online and spends a great deal of time, educating themselves on what they think is involve in a transaction and what is important and finding listing and picking on neighborhood. What they know have is a lot of data, what they do not really have is information and a lot of agents then have to be very patient and reeducate or reinterpret the information that that particular person has found online. There is a lot of pitfalls in disclosures and things like rate on that a consumer might not even have top of mind. Here is a great example, I bought a second home in Breckenridge and because I have lived in many places including couldn't Crustabuea [phonetic] where there was not back in the '70s, when there was only well water, I knew to ask "Is this well certified and do I have the permit to use that well?" and these agents were from California and had no idea what I was talking about.

BrokerIPTV : Really.

Anne Randolph: Really and it turned out that in fact the permit had never been final. Now, it was a technical thing, we to care of it, but that is what you look for an agent to do and I think sometimes a consumer may think know more than they know and sometimes the agents may feel the consumer are less educated than they are...

BrokerIPTV : And here is what clubs the picture more, when a consumer is out there trying to choose a real estate agent or a brokerage firm, I mean we have got to help you sell, we have got a ready real estate, we have got a RE/MAX model, we have got a traditional brokerage model, I mean there is so different business models in brokerage firms. The questions is, is there one that is really better than the other?

Anne Randolph: First of all they are really not so different anymore. When they started out both realtor executives and RE/MAX for a 100% concepts, so the agent would get a 100% of their commission, but then we would pay desk fees or other kinds of fees. So, whether you are paying them directly or you pay for them through a split of your commission, you are still paying for them, but agent wanted to know in the RE/MAX model, that they had control over that and they could really a manage their own spending, but RE/MAX now is in most cases - there are many case is longer 100%. There are something taken right of the top, they are now hiring new agents who are starting at more traditional splits as they get trained. So, I think what is and at the same time traditional brokerages has been increasing their splits to the very top agents, so you are getting into where they are just not that different.

BrokerIPTV : Yeah, exactly. Last question, best advice you can given agent in 2008?

Anne Randolph: Get connected. Just get connected through your network, through really targeted and meaning for direct response. Sending on a recipe card to somebody who does not cook is not very smart. So, you have to think about what types of information that would be very valuable to your audience and get it into their hands or invite them to call you to get that information. Everybody of courses is concerned about what is happening in their neighborhood. Is it a stable neighborhood? Is it going up or going down? Are there a lot of people at risk right now of loosing their home in your neighborhood? That is what people care about, right now.

BrokerIPTV : Anne, fascinating information, thanks for being here.

Anne Randolph: Thank you.

Posted on December 22, 2007 14:14:03 by Blog Author