Notes on Real Estate

Our personal, mine and Shelley's, real estate business depends upon referrals. I would never ask for an "EXCLUSIVE referral". I've had people say to me, "Well, I'd refer you, but my [sister, brother, uncle, friend - whomever] is a realtor, and …"

Well, I'm just looking for an opportunity, not an exclusive. We like to compete against other REALTORS®. We believe that it mostly makes us look good.

If you feel you have to debate on who to refer, me and Shel, or your semi-significant other agent, don't feel like that. Do your friend a favor and say, "Hey, I know a couple of REALTORS® you can talk to."

Do Shel and I need your help with getting more referrals? Absolutely, positively, for certain, yes. Thanks.

If you think your home has either gone down in value, or is not increasing as it used to and should, who is at the core of your troubles?

Forget "Location,…". The new real estate mantra ought be the above heading. CBS' airing of the nearly undetectably biased 60 Minutes piece "Chipping Away At Realtors' Six Percent" allowed reporter Lesley Stahl to report "How Realtors' Commission Fees Are Under Assault" just in time to embarrass the NAR once again on the eve of its Mid-year conference. When times are good, then the media claims things are too good, warns of catastrophe until the warning becomes reality. When things follow the gloom and doom prophecies, then it's happy times for the media, and they start picking the bones.

The most recent bone-picking is about two tender morsels, commissions and the supposed MLS / Internet battles.

"Full" commissions are supposedly borderline predatory. Hooray for the discount brokers and agents, says the media. Some ludicrous assumptions go with this.

One is the idea that since home prices were going up, REALTORS® ought to be taking smaller commissions. As if REALTORS'® cost of living and cost of doing business was staying the same, and the value of their services were less, even though the buyers and sellers were risking greater amounts of money if something went wrong!

Another absurdity is the idea discount brokers are going to provide full service. The list of things highly qualified REALTORS® do for their clients is incredible. If you hired an attorney to do the same things for you, the bill would, I’m sure, be far more than the REALTORS® commissions. Plus, attorneys are usually reactive, while your REALTOR® functions proactively, often times assisting in avoiding situations that would indeed require litigation. The services list is formidable. The only way discounters can discount is to both provide less and make up for it with volume. Good luck.

As to the MLS, it is not public domain. The entire process begins with a privately created business arrangement between REALTORS® / brokers and their listing clients. Of course, the brokers want as many people as possible to be able to respond to their marketing, as do the listing clients. Usurpers of the MLS claim that if they are deprived of the MLS in total, as if it were somehow suddenly public domain, then the brokers are not fulfilling the needs of their clients.

REALTORS® use the MLS as a marketing outsource and insource. They use it to communicate with qualified buyers. Go online and you will discover that most major brokerages, as well as the smaller ones, as well as individual REALTORS®, have home pages that will give you an access to the MLS (kind of).

As REALTORS®, we actually pay for our personal access to it, and do so gladly.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, the MLS was a printed document, a huge book, that was printed weekly and distributed between broker / members for use by their REALTORS® in finding properties to show buyers. It was both proprietary, by virtue of the source of material and the right of publication, and unwieldy to copy and distribute. There were no usurpers somehow stealing copies and then demanding access and distribution rights. The Internet made it too easy.

Think for a moment about a place where there are no REALTORS®. Everybody has to market their own home like for sale by owners. Everybody. If you can't figure out why that's a lousy idea for the sellers… never mind. How long do you think it would be before someone had a really bright idea? "Hey, I've got a really bright idea! How about we create a business that helps all these home sellers to…?

Unless your driveway started a great fissure, your yard turned to bramble, your roof has developed holes and your framework is dry-rotting, who do you blame for the recent slump in home appreciation? I know I'm something of a real estate chauvinist, but come on…

Perhaps upon a time, in a media galaxy far, far away, some major media source will stop appealing to water cooler mentalities and determine that the residential real estate market is a major part of the core of a solid and optimistic economy, and champion the cause of professional REALTORS® and begin to disseminate educational, informative, enlightened and valuable information. Until then, I'm just doing my job.

If you can handle more of this info, go to:

CBS' 60 Minutes Story Almost Appears Unbiased

One really nice thing about winter is the contrast we enjoy as we move through spring into summer. For me, considering the events of last spring, this May and the smell of lilacs is even more beautiful and full of wonder than ever. Referrals are nowhere as appreciated as good wishes good thoughts from friends. Thanks evermore for those.

That’s it for now. Except this:

1. If you have interests or questions, please e-mail me or give me a call.
2. Check out my website HERE

The opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely those of Tom Crone and others being quoted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Coldwell Banker Burnet or its affiliates.