Picture this. Bath time was over. I was tired and my back was killing me. Anyone who has kids or been around kids knows it’s hard as hell to get them into the tub on bath night, and at two years old it’s real hard. What you might not know is, it’s almost as hard to get them out of the bath when it’s over. So being a newer dad, I said the words, “Get out of the tub before you go down the drain.” Not my finest moment as a dad. My wife was so mad at me because if you thought it was hard to get my daughter to take a bath before I said that, just imagine what it was like now that I added a chance of going down the drain.
I have a lot of moments like that, and after it’s over I think about my dad now. My father had the patience of Job and I, as a new dad, did not. As an example of his patience, once I wrecked my father’s car. I came around a corner going too fast. The car slipped on the ice in the intersection and I hit a car stopped at a red light. I came home, went up to wake him up around 2 a.m., and told him what happened, and then he asked three questions:
(Dad) Are you all right?
(Me) Yes, I am fine
(Dad) Was anyone else hurt?
(Me) No.
(Dad) Where is the car now?
(Me) Parked in the drive.
(Dad) Okay, hit the rack. We will look at it in the morning!
Now my older siblings tell me our dad would have had a much different response had they done the same thing. I sure am lucky to be the youngest of six children! I realize now my parents had a lot of experience raising kids long before I came along. With experience and time they learned to change and adapt, or it could be my older siblings wore them out and I was such a good child I did not need the extra discipline. It seems if those are the keys to life, time and experience, you can’t buy either one.
Why is it that some people don’t see that, I wonder? I have been in the real estate business over 22 years, and today is nothing like it was when I got into it. At the risk of sounding like an old man, back when I started in real estate, we had just received our first fax machine. It had rolls of paper, and the question on everyone’s mind was, would a faxed signature be considered legal on a contract? Only 11.65% of households in the USA had modem-equipped computers back then. (Don’t know what a modem is, ask your parents or grandparents or look it up in the encyclopedia). Needless to say, we had no Zillow or Realtor.com back in that day. Some real estate offices were still receiving listings in books delivered every few weeks. You wanted to buy a home, you came into an office and received a list of homes; the agent pre-qualified you for a mortgage, and more times than not, escorted you to the bank to be qualified for a loan.
Now fast forward to today. Never mind a faxed signature, we don’t even use paper contracts. I meet with some clients who know more than some agents when it comes to buying and selling real estate. Today it’s odd to run into a buyer who has not already been pre-approved. Today’s sellers and buyers are asking me about information about a home that just came on the market 20 minutes ago.
Back when I started, you wore a suit to an appointment, and if you didn’t you were considered un-professional; today if you are wearing a suit you put people off and you are considered some kind of salesman from Glengarry Glen Ross.
Back then the brokers held all of the information on the homes for sale and then getting financed. Today it is a totally different business. Now clients have greater access to the actual marketplace, allowing them to make decisions based on their ability to analyze their entire market area. The monopoly of brokers and agents to control market access should have led to real change, right? Wrong, even with all of the changes, I still see and hear of real estate agents doing business like 1994. They go to a listing appointment armed with their “sales presentation” and try to get the customer’s signature on the listing agreement. They over promise and under deliver, talk about market stats, their company, and their sales. It’s all about the agent. They use ridiculous gimmicks like “A Buy-Back Guarantee program” or “Your Home Sold Guaranteed… or We Buy It” Some agents think it’s 1994 and you are stupid.
What they need to do is help you to make good decisions on how to maximize the home’s value while avoiding fundamental mistakes.
Now when I talk with other agents in the industry, they look at me like I am out of my mind. I had one guy tell me, “The real estate industry has not changed and it never will!” Can you believe that? I don’t know about him or the others in my industry, but my experience has changed me as a dad and broker.
The truth is, this business is broken. A no sale–no fee is only the tip of the iceberg. Imagine for a moment how different this picture would look if the real estate industry dropped the commission-driven 1990s sales culture and worked on a consultancy-based model. More like how any other professional service provider would operate, where the fees are based on the actual work and outgoing costs involved for serving each individual client, rather than a large % of your equity.
When you are ready to sell, call me and I will show you what 22 years of experience has taught me, and if you don’t think my approach is best you are free to hire the gimmick-pitching salesman and give away a % of your equity. It’s your money.
