It is about consumers

House

Real estate evangelist and social media guru Jeff Turner announced last week that real estate is about consumers.  Even though Turner has a passion for real estate and it is about consumers he spends more time with agents because agents are more fun.

Turner reminds us that as an industry our reputation is in the basement. I don’t think he means real estate industry in the usual way I think he means real estate agents, people just like me or me even are held in low regard. Ouch! that hurt. 🙂

In other News the NAR is once again raising the bar by encouraging agents to use Instgram for marketing their homes for sale. Did I call that one or what? See (Insta property photos) They apparently ran out of space in the article and forgot to remind agents to include the name of their brokerage with their photos when advertising on Instagram but maybe agents don’t need any reminders. There are a few other things they should have added but lets just leave it be and let the individual state DOC lawyers sort it out. I guess professional photos are out and Instagrams are in. . but not so fast . .

Lets go back to consumers. I have heard it directly from consumers that they don’t like it when agents use photos taken with their Phones to market homes. How did I hear it directly? I work with consumers and they told me that they think the agents who use their phones to photograph listings are unprofessional, lazy and or unwilling to spend money on a pro.  It would be nice if consumers could embrace change you would think that real estate is all about them . . I am so conflicted between what NAR says and what consumers want.

In other news an agent is being sued for speaking out against her state Realtor association so kindly disregard what I said about NAR and the Instagrams and I did not mean it when I said that NAR sucks. If they are guilty of age discrimination it isn’t my problem. See: CAR Sues Andrea Geller for Defamation, Seeks Damages of $50,000+

On a more personal note I don’t care about consumers and there isn’t much I can do to make them all happy or change the way the industry and by industry I mean all parts of it works especially not the way the NAR encourages phone photography instead of professional photography.  Even though I am not a people person I do care about my clients and I always have their backs and would never photograph their home with my phone they deserve better. I don’t like real estate agents as much as Turner does but am trying to be more tolerant.