Diane Guercio

Raise-the-Bar Initiative

A while back I wrote in my other blog about a grassroots initiative that has been started to improve the real estate industry. Since then, ideas have been flying back and forth on twitter and in blogs about ways that can help the industry improve.

home sweet home- working to improve the industry

I am borrowing heavily in this post from my own post and from the Towne & Country blog (with permission).

Without a doubt, industries that do not try to change and improve are dead in the water. Looking at the way our industry is structured, I think the most change is going to occur locally, on the brokerage level.
Our brokerage is already different, and we have many ideas in the wings that are directly intended to raise the bar for real estate.
But we need you. We can talk about improving the industry, but we can’t do it without the input of you, the consumer. What was your last real estate experience like? What would you have made better? What did you like the best- that you would keep just the same if you did it over again?

- Towne & Country
Gerry, our broker/owner, has a slightly different slant here than most of the conversation on twitter suggests. Change WILL need to be initiated by the consumer. Change also has to come at the agent level. The individual agent needs to be aware of what the consumer wants- what is important to the consumer- and be the one to provide it.
We are no longer the gatekeepers of information. Consumers get upset if the information that they want about a property is withheld in hopes that they will call- and with the number of listings available in most markets they will just move on to the next one.
The NAR article that I quoted in my last post sums it up:

Sellers largely want agents to price their home competitively, find a buyer, market the property and sell within a specific timeframe. Reputation was the most important factor in choosing an agent, cited by 36 percent of respondents, followed by trustworthiness at 21 percent.

Home buyers thought the most important services agents offer are helping find the right house, and negotiating sales terms and price. The most commonly cited benefits of using an agent are helping buyers understand the process, pointing out unnoticed features or faults, negotiating better contract terms, and providing a better list of service providers. Comparable to sellers, buyers chose agents based on a referral or had used them in a previous transaction, with trustworthiness and reputation being the biggest factors in selecting an agent.

Agents- pay attention! The consumers have spoken! You provide expertise, NOT information. Let’s work on raising the bar together.

NAR stats

at home

I am a numbers girl. I can’t help it- it has always been the way that things made sense. I know I have mentioned it before, but my dad was an engineer at Raytheon and I apparently inherited the mindset.
So I loved when the National Association of Realtors sent out all of its aggregated stats in one big post. These stats are useful to consumers, and also helpful to me no matter what hat I happen to be wearing when I read them.

Some numbers I want to drag out:

• First time home buyers comprised 47% of the buying market- median age 30
• Buyers searched 12 weeks and saw 12 homes, on average
• 42% of sellers offered incentives to buyers- such as home warranties or help with closing costs
• Trustworthiness and reputation were the biggest reasons that buyers and sellers chose their agents
• Less than one percent of sellers chose an agent based on commission

But this is my favorite,  straight from the buyers’ mouths. No guessing or wondering- just the facts:

When asked where they first learned about the home purchased, 36 percent of buyers said a real estate agent; 36 percent the Internet; 12 percent from yard signs; 6 percent from a friend, neighbor or relative; 5 percent home builders; 2 percent a print or newspaper ad; 2 percent directly from the seller; and less than 1 percent a home book or magazine.

So yard signs were, on average, 12 times more effective than a home magazine, and 6 times more effective in finding a buyer than a print ad!! Something to consider when you are interviewing an agent to list your home.

So here you are…

this is where I try on my new WordPress shoes, so to speak. Brand new theme today, trying it out to see if I could tweak it and get it to work the way I wanted it to. And I could.

This is how a photo looks on it:

Nice and bright because it is against the black background