Here’s How I REALLY Feel…
ARDELL on 08 10, 2006
[photopress:bow.jpg,thumb,alignright]Let’s hit this nail right on the head.
Truth is I’m not taking any bows for kudos and props on my blogging efforts to date, because I haven’t yet said what really needs to be said.
Zillow is “good enough” because agents aren’t.
Redfin is “good enough” because agents aren’t.
Inspectors and Disclosure Forms aren’t “good enough” because agents aren’t demanding better service from these areas for their clients. Don’t get me started on the lead based paint debacle…CYA is the order of the day.
Lead generators are needed because agents aren’t “good enough” to attract clients based on their own merits.
Agents aren’t “good enough” because all of the education is about how to cover your butt, thanks to the lawyers, and all of the education classes are about how to “get more leads” and not about how to “deserve” them or what to do with them after you’ve got them.
“Lower the price, lower the price, lower the price”…is NOT how you sell a house.
“Sign this huge pile of disclosures” so that if you get ripped off you can’t sue me, is not how you represent a buyer client.
If your clients think they are paying you too much, they are probably right.
Consumer: The answer isn’t to find someone who will charge you less, the answer is to find someone who will cover YOUR butt instead of their own.
Now I’ll take that freakin’ bow. Thank you Sellsius and Dustin and Bloodhound Blog and Uberator and Kate and…I don’t know, maybe Dave Letterman.
About the Author: Ardell DellaLoggia
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18 Responses to “Here’s How I REALLY Feel…”
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BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-rdb.sellsius°
Outstanding. Out-freaking-standing.
–Jim
[...] Here’s How I Really Feel – By Ardell DellaLoggia [Rain City Guide] [...]
Other than you left out brokers in your rant… you’re spot on.
[...] The best real estate blog post of the year By Jim Duncan Ardell’s post this afternoon gets my nomination. Zillow is “good enough” because agents aren’t. [...]
Great post- very true…
You go girl! So right indeed!
But tell us how you really feel…
A good open letter to the industry at large, and to its less ethical/responsible/serious members and educators.
BTW, there are some possibly related comments and points — about how the real estate service industry should evolve with the advent of increasingly available information — in an interview with Roger McNamee, managing director of Elevation Partners (which invested $100M in Move last year), at http://www.rismedia.com/index.php/article/articleview/15423/1/879/
Ardell, this really hits home with so much emphasis on the CYOB aspect of our business. I now am doing what I think is right instead of worrying about being sued.
OMG, bobb0,
If I am in any part responsible for what you have just said up there, then Sellsius
http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/?p=1664
may have been closer than I originally thought
I wish I could say that this situation was thrust upon us. But playing the role of the victim, now is….the real estate agent.
But the cold reality is, that, we allowed it to happed to us.
How does that speak to the public? What about those nice folks not yet in our business?
Somewhere we lost our focus and our vision.
How, pray tell, so we get it back?
Hi Alisa, nice to see ya!
Actually, as much as technology has been a Godsend, in many ways, technology, generally speaking is also the culprit, to some extent.
No victims…no villians, as they say. There are some very good reasons why the industry is “in the state it is in”, and none of it has to do with people not caring enough.
It is time to fix it, if possible, and I will post more on how we can do that this week…but “Never on a Sunday!”.
I think you nailed it right on the head. There is a lot of inefficiency in our industry which is why Zillow and other sites are making such a large impact on our industry.
RJ
4MySales.com Agent Tools
[...] Zillow vs. “average” agent August 18, 2006 When I wrote my “Baby Takes a Bow” piece which took about 30 seconds, I knew I was opening Pandora’s Box, and would have to back up my one liners with some extensive writing on each topic outlined therein. [...]
About It……
I have talked about It, RCG has articles about It, Jim Duncan has blogged about It and Inman has articles warning about It. What is It? The real estate AGENT bubble. Inman has another article posted this morning in……
In passing, I heard Hugh Grant in “About A Boy” saying, “That’s the problem with helping people…you have to MEAN it.” Apparently that totally ticked him off…to have to MEAN what he says.
Reminded me of the agents who tried to “train” me by saying “If you think you are in this business to help people…you are in the wrong business.”
[...] Taking the necessary steps to make changes that benefit both consumers and the industry at large, so others have a working model to follow, is my lofty goal. Telling everyone how I really feel is not about telling everyone how I feel. It’s about targeting some of the ways I can improve the system, one step at a time. [...]