5 ms·

There are a few things the Internet is incredibly good at. Content delivery, communication and administrative services. If you're in any of these industries, do

by tybris 17y ago

There are a few things the Internet is incredibly good at. Content delivery, communication and administrative services. If you're in any of these industries, don't expect your job to be around 10 years from now. It's time to evolve.

Shooter 17y ago
EVERY industry needs to evolve along with technology or suffer the consequences. I think there should be far few real estate agents working in the US. And that the level of innovation should dramatically increase. But agents will not become a completely endangered species in the foreseeable future...certainly not within the next 10 years. The best agents will just become better at their jobs and BENEFIT from technological advances. The future usually doesn't shake out like people think it will, and disintermediation due to the internet is one of the forces that is usually overestimated. People who think real estate agents will cease to exist because of the internet don't fully understand what a good agent does. I know, because I was one of those people just a few years ago. There's a reason some people need agents, just like there's a reason I never ordered my dog food over the internet, Pets.com be damned. I started a real estate brokerage after working in the software/internet and finance industries. Getting the license was just a legal formality because I was all about disintermediation. I was going to help eliminate those greedy, good-for-nothing agents. But then I learned that the good agents DO serve a purpose. And that the industry is much more complex than most people understand.
- tokenadult 17y ago
  I learned that the good agents DO serve a purpose. What is that purpose?
  - randallsquared 17y ago
    Two good purposes that they might serve are providing search results you may like that you didn't actually search for (obviously this can be automated to some degree, since Pandora and Netflix try to do it), and reducing transaction costs by vouching for one side or both.
  - Shooter 17y ago
    A GOOD real estate agent performs various professional tasks requiring expertise that save you time and money, protect your interests, and keep you out of trouble, at a cost that is less than doing it yourself. Kind of like a GOOD lawyer (I noticed your JD) or a good accountant. You can do it yourself...just like you can fix your own car or plumbing, but the results may not always be what you intended. It may SEEM like a super simple task until you're knee deep in shit and then you start to appreciate why there are professionals with training who stay up-to-date and have E&O insurance for the field, etc. Specialization is a good thing. The bar to get a real estate license is lower than getting most other professional licenses, though, so there are many more BAD agents than bad plumbers/accountants/mechanics. I think most real estate agents suck. Just like I think most lawyers suck. It doesn't mean that either shouldn't exist, though. I've got to go to bed...I'll come back later.
    - mikeryan 17y ago
      I don't disagree that there's some value to having an agent. But as someone looking to buy in the Bay Area, the amount realtor's (particularly buyer's realtors) get paid relative to the work they put in, is all out of whack. Finding houses is easy, that's what MLS listings do. So that leaves the hidden "gotchas" in the actual sale process, For a buyers agent to get 3% of an $800,000 home is ridiculous. I'd rather pay a lawyer $500/hr to do the 10-20 hours of work closing a deal.
      - wglb 17y ago
        I have done by-owner transactions twice--it was lots of fun. The lawyer time in each case was not more than two or at most three hours. If it is more than that, there is something unexpected.
      - encoderer 17y ago
        When I was in school still I was a researcher for an appraisal firm. Mostly commercial but also a great deal of jumbo-loan-sized residential business. One of many lessons learned was that most the best properties never make it onto MLS.
      - 17y ago
  - wglb 17y ago
    Customer service. I have had the same real estate agent since 1997 and have done four transactions with her during that time. All have been in the same local area, which she knows extremely well. The in-depth knowledge of the community, how a house will resell after you bought it, the unwritten history of some of the homes comes into play. Additionally her helpful tenacity got a house sold under very difficult circumstances that I thought made the sale impossible. Granted, this might be rare, but the lesson for the real estate agents is that customer service can give them an edge in competitive environments. And while that commission might look rather large, the last time I bought a house we looked at something like 20 houses, so you need to figure that into the agent's cost.

by tybris 17y ago

Shooter 17y ago

EVERY industry needs to evolve along with technology or suffer the consequences. I think there should be far few real estate agents working in the US. And that the level of innovation should dramatically increase. But agents will not become a completely endangered species in the foreseeable future...certainly not within the next 10 years. The best agents will just become better at their jobs and BENEFIT from technological advances. The future usually doesn't shake out like people think it will, and disintermediation due to the internet is one of the forces that is usually overestimated. People who think real estate agents will cease to exist because of the internet don't fully understand what a good agent does. I know, because I was one of those people just a few years ago. There's a reason some people need agents, just like there's a reason I never ordered my dog food over the internet, Pets.com be damned. I started a real estate brokerage after working in the software/internet and finance industries. Getting the license was just a legal formality because I was all about disintermediation. I was going to help eliminate those greedy, good-for-nothing agents. But then I learned that the good agents DO serve a purpose. And that the industry is much more complex than most people understand.

tokenadult 17y ago
I learned that the good agents DO serve a purpose. What is that purpose?
- randallsquared 17y ago
  Two good purposes that they might serve are providing search results you may like that you didn't actually search for (obviously this can be automated to some degree, since Pandora and Netflix try to do it), and reducing transaction costs by vouching for one side or both.
- Shooter 17y ago
  A GOOD real estate agent performs various professional tasks requiring expertise that save you time and money, protect your interests, and keep you out of trouble, at a cost that is less than doing it yourself. Kind of like a GOOD lawyer (I noticed your JD) or a good accountant. You can do it yourself...just like you can fix your own car or plumbing, but the results may not always be what you intended. It may SEEM like a super simple task until you're knee deep in shit and then you start to appreciate why there are professionals with training who stay up-to-date and have E&O insurance for the field, etc. Specialization is a good thing. The bar to get a real estate license is lower than getting most other professional licenses, though, so there are many more BAD agents than bad plumbers/accountants/mechanics. I think most real estate agents suck. Just like I think most lawyers suck. It doesn't mean that either shouldn't exist, though. I've got to go to bed...I'll come back later.
  - mikeryan 17y ago
    I don't disagree that there's some value to having an agent. But as someone looking to buy in the Bay Area, the amount realtor's (particularly buyer's realtors) get paid relative to the work they put in, is all out of whack. Finding houses is easy, that's what MLS listings do. So that leaves the hidden "gotchas" in the actual sale process, For a buyers agent to get 3% of an $800,000 home is ridiculous. I'd rather pay a lawyer $500/hr to do the 10-20 hours of work closing a deal.
    - wglb 17y ago
      I have done by-owner transactions twice--it was lots of fun. The lawyer time in each case was not more than two or at most three hours. If it is more than that, there is something unexpected.
    - encoderer 17y ago
      When I was in school still I was a researcher for an appraisal firm. Mostly commercial but also a great deal of jumbo-loan-sized residential business. One of many lessons learned was that most the best properties never make it onto MLS.
    - 17y ago
- wglb 17y ago
  Customer service. I have had the same real estate agent since 1997 and have done four transactions with her during that time. All have been in the same local area, which she knows extremely well. The in-depth knowledge of the community, how a house will resell after you bought it, the unwritten history of some of the homes comes into play. Additionally her helpful tenacity got a house sold under very difficult circumstances that I thought made the sale impossible. Granted, this might be rare, but the lesson for the real estate agents is that customer service can give them an edge in competitive environments. And while that commission might look rather large, the last time I bought a house we looked at something like 20 houses, so you need to figure that into the agent's cost.