Are Real Estate Agents going to become extinct like Travel Agents?
This is a persistent, nagging question I have found myself pondering. Over the last decade technology has changed the face of the Real Estate Brokerage business and many legitimate professions experiencing sudden technological booms became unviable overnight. I can't help but worry a bit that my profession of selling real estate will too get squashed by the technology juggernaut. This article I found online answers the question of real estate agent obsolescence in a more elegant way than I could ever hope to.
Are real estate agents becoming obsolete?
This is a persistent, nagging question I have found myself pondering. Over the last decade technology has changed the face of the Real Estate Brokerage business and many legitimate professions experiencing sudden technological booms became unviable overnight. I can't help but worry a bit that my profession of selling real estate will too get squashed by the technology juggernaut. This article I found online answers the question of real estate agent obsolescence in a more elegant way than I could ever hope to.
Are real estate agents becoming obsolete?
I am a Realtor and a Broker, and if you could just jump online and buy a house you wouldn’t need me. Actually, there are auction sites where you canbuy a house online, so you really don’t need me.
But I will always have a job, and I chalk it up to human nature.
Buying a house should be easy. You should be able to go out and find a house you like, and then buy it. But there’s so much drama.
Here’s some of the issues I’ve seen pop up over the years:
A buyer wanted to buy a house near the beach, and yet seemed astounded when I advised her that she needed flood insurance.
I had a seller tell my customers as that some river rocks around the house made it “termite proof.” I had to convice these customers that there is no such thing as “termite proof” in Florida.
The first thing almost every buyer asks when they sign a purchase agreement for a home is, “How do I get my money back if…” (the question is always open ended). In other words, they’re already thinking of backing out before they’ve even made the offer.
In a sale where I had the buyers, the sellers claimed on a written disclosure that the home never had termites, yet proudly presented receipts for work done to repair “extensive termite damage.”
I’ve had the sellers in a transaction swear a home was termite free. After termites were discovered and a pest service came out to fumigate, the neighbor strolled over and said, “Well, they’re finally doing something about those termites.”
After a lender told me three days before closing that the buyer’s paperwork was good and we would close on time, the lender literally disappeared. I had the sellers and it was a very rough month until we could close again with another lender.
I once had a couple lose a house because they put off some required paperwork in order to go play bingo.
At a home inspection one of my partners attended, he opened the door to find a man with a gun drawn. The seller didn’t bother inform the tenant (with the gun) that people were coming over that morning. The tenant thought someone was breaking in.
Is a pattern emerging here?
So why do you need a Realtor?
You would think it’s the marketing, the access to all of the homes, knowledge of certain neighborhoods, the understanding of contracts, or all the background expertise about inspections. But it’s not.
Because in every real estate transaction at least one of the parties visits Crazyland somewhere along the way. And that’s normal.
The Realtor’s core value, the sole reason we exist, is to keep the other side honest and to massage away problems when they happen.
A real estate sale is probably the highest dollar transaction a regular person will ever be involved it. It creates a huge amount of stress.
Because of this stress I often see people at their very worst.
Something goes wrong and they get so upset with the other party that they are willing to cut off their own nose to spite their face.
They break promises and lie because they think telling the truth will cost them money. Usually it ends up costing them money anyway and it always takes a Realtor to iron things out. With grace and with tact.
So even though I’m the business of selling a staple product (food and clothing being the other two), I actually owe my job to human nature.
Honestly, I would rather deal with sane people. But when one of my agents comes in with a transaction blowing up I tell them, "That's our job, that's the reason they need us. Let's go save somebody's world again..."
But I will always have a job, and I chalk it up to human nature.
Buying a house should be easy. You should be able to go out and find a house you like, and then buy it. But there’s so much drama.
Here’s some of the issues I’ve seen pop up over the years:
A buyer wanted to buy a house near the beach, and yet seemed astounded when I advised her that she needed flood insurance.
I had a seller tell my customers as that some river rocks around the house made it “termite proof.” I had to convice these customers that there is no such thing as “termite proof” in Florida.
The first thing almost every buyer asks when they sign a purchase agreement for a home is, “How do I get my money back if…” (the question is always open ended). In other words, they’re already thinking of backing out before they’ve even made the offer.
In a sale where I had the buyers, the sellers claimed on a written disclosure that the home never had termites, yet proudly presented receipts for work done to repair “extensive termite damage.”
I’ve had the sellers in a transaction swear a home was termite free. After termites were discovered and a pest service came out to fumigate, the neighbor strolled over and said, “Well, they’re finally doing something about those termites.”
After a lender told me three days before closing that the buyer’s paperwork was good and we would close on time, the lender literally disappeared. I had the sellers and it was a very rough month until we could close again with another lender.
I once had a couple lose a house because they put off some required paperwork in order to go play bingo.
At a home inspection one of my partners attended, he opened the door to find a man with a gun drawn. The seller didn’t bother inform the tenant (with the gun) that people were coming over that morning. The tenant thought someone was breaking in.
Is a pattern emerging here?
So why do you need a Realtor?
You would think it’s the marketing, the access to all of the homes, knowledge of certain neighborhoods, the understanding of contracts, or all the background expertise about inspections. But it’s not.
Because in every real estate transaction at least one of the parties visits Crazyland somewhere along the way. And that’s normal.
The Realtor’s core value, the sole reason we exist, is to keep the other side honest and to massage away problems when they happen.
A real estate sale is probably the highest dollar transaction a regular person will ever be involved it. It creates a huge amount of stress.
Because of this stress I often see people at their very worst.
Something goes wrong and they get so upset with the other party that they are willing to cut off their own nose to spite their face.
They break promises and lie because they think telling the truth will cost them money. Usually it ends up costing them money anyway and it always takes a Realtor to iron things out. With grace and with tact.
So even though I’m the business of selling a staple product (food and clothing being the other two), I actually owe my job to human nature.
Honestly, I would rather deal with sane people. But when one of my agents comes in with a transaction blowing up I tell them, "That's our job, that's the reason they need us. Let's go save somebody's world again..."
