Tuesday, 17 March 2015

How Must The Traditional Real Estate Brokerage Change?

By Ernesto Berturand


The future of established real estate brokers has been the subject of many reports and studies. Conjectures that the coming years might possibly begin the end of a time of real estate brokerage as it is known it at this point. The real estate industry has been forced to transform itself due to the expansion of large property websites, fee for services style brokerage companies, drastic changes in online technological innovations, and the remapping and release of control of of multiple listing service information and facts.

We are seeing the continuous consolidation into larger and larger real estate brokerage firms that handle multiple stages a transaction including residential lending, location services or a new real estate business paradigm that reinforces buyer representation, agent employed to work, technology-centric fee for products and services. These changes along with the pressure to rework the typical role of the realtor as simply a transactional middleman, has caused commission fees to decline.

Brokerages must evolve to provide a larger variety of transactional services before, during and after the home purchase to supplement declining real estate commissions. Business services have expanded into mortgage, title, insurance, warranty and home repair type services.

A new form of real estate industry has manifested in response to communication technology advancements online. The public comes armed with more detailed information obtainable through the use of nation wide real estate portals which include Zillow and Trulia and starts a home investigation well before communicating with a real estate agent. These web sites make a lot more real estate data available but have introduced a middle man in between agents and clients. As a result a great deal more money is allocated to merchandising properties targeting consumers. The "preferred agent" on many of these web sites is not the most qualified realtor but instead is the individual who paid the greatest amount of money to be at the top. The portals' published information is typically less reliable, out of date and somewhat less wide-ranging than that of local agents.

Long gone are the days where agents could simply put a sign in a yard or an ad in the newspaper to be successful. Agents must become masters of many skills that help their business and be experts in their market. Real Estate has traditionally had a relatively low barrier to entry, ability to be your own boss and high income potential. Agents only had to display minimal proficiency to pass a licensing exam and then were left to their own devices to acquire continuing education.

Much more demanding educational requisites, continuing education combined with many years of contract expertise have raised the bar to agent success. The state of mind of the more conventional agent, powered by competition and emphasis on their own benefits rather than that of the consumer, has ultimately been a detriment to industry reputation. Real estate agents cannot survive by behaving as they have in the past. They have to now provide top level service to every single person by utilizing technological innovation and being a specialized counselor. Fear of rivalry and the unrelenting guarding of five star secrets and techniques must be abandoned. Realtors who are dedicated to serving the people surrounding them will quickly realize more rewards. Agents must become multi-faceted masters of important subjects besides real estate, to include marketing and advertising, people, selling, negotiation, and financing options.

Productive realtors will likely differentiate themselves as providers of counsel to customers and co-workers while continuing to learn about each and every part of the real estate industry. This position of sharing increases trustworthiness and nurtures clients who respect the real estate agent's wisdom, consider their competence and receive reputable hints together with foreseeable ultimate results.

The only way to avoid becoming obsolete is to reinvent your role before the marketplace does it for you. When the concept of real estate brokers arose, there was no Internet. Brokers controlled all the information so that from afar, there was no way to know anything about a property. There were far fewer ways to advertise properties too. The role of the real estate agent needs to focus on what services can you provide that a client can't already do online. This means collecting, managing and sharing information rather than simply using the same information that everyone else has. Be absolutely trustworthy by doing the right thing proactively. Find a way to create and shape a role that significantly benefits clients.

This paradigm shift that is materializing in the real estate business will definitely impact more traditional brokerages that have recruited, joined with and promoted self-employed agents. Realtors continue to contribute a beneficial customer service which many of us desire and need. Currently the established broker business design focuses around primarily adding more real estate agents to the roster that are incompetent when it comes to client care, ethical values and sales techniques. The effect is a reduction in the caliber and variety of service in general. Typically the real estate broker collects a much bigger part of the commission from underproducing realtors which results in a public opinion problem for the entire business. Sales agents who are top producers see a heftier commission basically because they generate the most return. The value of the brokerage is very much diminished by this larger split with an agent.

To bolster consumer confidence in a field where there is a huge amount of information and facts available to consumers, the real estate industry must evolve. The directive for the new brokerage firm is to collect information, help define the comparable value of data and convey that knowledge to potential buyers, home owners as well as property investors. By adopting an effective means of reinforcing agent relationships and providing new advances in technology products and solutions, brokerages can better support agents. Frequent examination of computer systems and technology and implementing careful choices for the real estate agents will ensure the value of the brokerage.

Small brokerages are able to manage business activities much more efficiently because of the vast technological innovations and can do so with significantly fewer people. The most effective approach for tackling challenging problems and is a prevalent way for real estate brokers to offer full value to a team of sales agents. Establishing rigid requirements for client care together with instructing realtors on common software systems fosters first-rate performance amongst agents. Cooperative collaboration between agents and brokers produces a smoother, more routine delivery of services for the customer. Agents feel like they are part of something that benefits them and reduces agent attrition. The team strategy promotes more specialized individual skills which contributes to the groups' knowledge base. Individual achievements are more recognized with the team approach.

The consumer trend is to seek trust, transparency and a better real estate experience. Mobility, speed and personal service are critically important in serving today's savvy consumers. Success in real estate requires that agents understand local markets and sharing that information with consumers through their preferred communication channels (email, phone call, text, social media, etc.) Most buyers now prefer to spend hours searching portal sites like Realtor.com and Zillow largely because of the trust issue with real estate agents. They are demanding greater transparency at every stage of the buying process. But when a buyer is ready to act, they want an immediate response. Consumers are also relying on their Facebook friends and other online sources for referrals to real estate professionals. Social media is where everyone looks but you have to build trust online and provide valuable information not sales pitches. Consumers still rely on agents for help sorting through data, negotiating the transaction and walking them through the whole process.

A strategy that is working well has the brokerage taking more control over agent training, technology and service delivery to create a strong consumer brand. The broker has to generate online traffic in order to compete with lead-generation companies and find other ways to provide value to their agents. The broker builds the web experience, creates videos and reaches out to the consumer so that the agents can deliver outstanding service to the client. The mobile, social and digital technology opens up a new world of information making consumers less dependent on agents, brokers and MLS systems for information. The real value that agents provide is asking the right questions and providing wisdom. This is a uniquely valuable service provided by real estate professionals. Simplification in all areas will provide a market advantage to the agent or broker.

A rarity in the real estate industry, the ActiveLife Realty Team has adopted this style of business and puts focus on truly helping customers. The goal of an optimal real estate experience for clients is achieved by the brokerage cultivating cooperation and excellence amongst the team and encouraging agents to work together. Just as in virtually any industry, whenever the team workers are satisfied, are non-rivals and assured of their competencies, their happiness is conveyed to the buyer.

With the guidance and supervision from Broker, Alice Gardiner, the boutique real estate brokerage was started in 2009 as Gardiner Real Estate. Accompanied the same year by Sandy Hanner, the brokerage firm was established upon a strict standard of ethics, tightly held values and championing the rights of every single client. The primary business scope was focused on the specialized niche of Sun City Texas simply because of the lengthy work experience with the builder by the founders. With a combined career background with Pulte of over 25 years, familiarity with every facet of newly built as well as resale houses in Sun City Texas serves as a beneficial body of knowledge available to each customer of the real estate brokerage.

The brokerage was renamed Sun City Realty in 2011 to reflect the niche market in which the brokerage primarily worked. Then in 2013, it became evident that the active adult market would be expanding in the area as other builders sought to take advantage of the largest wave of retiring baby boomers. Sun City Realty then became the ActiveLife Realty Team and added two agents to assist clients. In late 2014, the builder of Sun City Texas announced the expansion of the community with the purchase of an additional 1500 acres. The ActiveLife Realty Team has expanded their marketing niche to include all master-planned communities in the Central Texas area with emphasis on 55+ communities.

Now the ActiveLife Realty Team has developed methods to manage clientele, transactions and promotion, delivers instruction and support to real estate agents, administers and sustains the best quality of real estate transaction operations, and also encourages a cooperative group mentality to every facet of client service. The brokerage firm has undergone many changes to provide greater value to consumers. Having always been dedicated to offering high quality leads to sales agents, the ActiveLife Realty Team has produced a web site that delivers so much information to potential customers that there is consumer trust. As soon as these individuals agree to sign up for a newsletter or to receive a free "Buyers Guide," potential customers have discovered a trustworthy and transparent source for real estate information and are pre-qualified. The simple fact that the ActiveLife Realty Team of real estate agents are strictly buyers agents and the website educates consumers about the clear benefits of receiving impartial advocacy in real estate deals, confirms that trust. The ActiveLife Realty Team certainly is the way forward in a rapidly changing industry to deliver customer oriented results.




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