The manifestation of online real estate search engines, sales and buying tools with links to all that the MLS previously afforded real estate consumers - and much more is scaring the shit out of certain individuals who have chosen the profession of home realtor.
Realtors mistakenly view themselves as the most motivated party to sell your home or help you buy a home.
This assumption is incorrect.
They are NOT the most motivated to do either. They are motivated to make sales commissions which are directly proportional to the sale price of a home.
The truth is that home sellers and home buyers are more motivated. And they no longer need realtors in the same way they did before to intermediate on their behalf. If 80% of prospective homeowners are no longer looking at newspaper ads, no longer phoning up Joannie Loves Chachi Realty Group, and prefer to research home information, sales history, prices and neighborhood data online, including crime and school district statistics, then the realtors job and importance suddenly becomes less significant.
Realtors might be tempted to assert that only they "understand your needs" when it comes to buying or selling a home. But those days are over. A computer really can perform the light lifting regarding the research.
So why are realtors necessary? What tasks or duties of the home selling and home buying process make them so indispensable?
Perhaps there are certain duties and legal paperwork items to which realtors have traditionally attended.
Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin offers the following in the Ad Age article:
"The most motivated advertiser is the seller and millions of homeowners are proactive now. If people can see a home without an agent, where does that leave the industry? It's kind of marketing itself off a cliff."
Right off a cliff, indeed. Sometimes CEOs like to use the damnedest of metaphors to get their point across.
