Tag Archives: Realtors
One Way that Real Estate Agents are Like Lawyers
The New York Times notes this regarding law schools:
“The fundamental issue is that law schools are producing people who are not capable of being counselors,” says Jeffrey W. Carr, the general counsel of FMC Technologies, a Houston company that makes oil drilling equipment. “They are lawyers in the sense that they have law degrees, but they aren’t ready to be a provider of services.”
The same holds true in the real estate profession – except in Virginia, it takes a bit less than three years (try less than 100 hours of “education”) to get your real estate license. And the state-mandated real estate exam (and Broker’s exam, too) is so mind-numbingly easy and irrelevant as to be farcical.
Expertise comes with practice, time, production and learning from mistakes. More from the NYTimes:
Fun with the Code of Ethics – Is it unethical to Overprice a listing?
Someone asked me this question last week, and after a bit of deliberation and thought, I think that the argument could be made that a Realtor “buying a listing” – telling a Seller what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear – could be considered a breach of the Realtor Code of Ethics .
…The services which REALTORS® provide to their clients and customers shall conform to the standards of practice and competence which are reasonably expected in the specific real estate disciplines in which they engage; specifically, residential real estate brokerage, real property management, commercial and industrial real estate brokerage, land brokerage, real estate appraisal, real estate counseling, real estate syndication, real estate auction, and international real estate.
…The challenges to a viable Code of Ethics are (at least) two-fold: 1 – The system is self-enforcing (and I could make the argument that if I were to file a violation against another agent, I could be violating my fiduciary duty to a future client) 2 – Few members of the public know that they can file a violation and don’t care enough to do so. … This is one of the many reasons that I share all market data with my buyer and seller clients – I want them to be educated, informed and competent as to the decision that they are making based on my professional advice. Continue reading
Part-Time Realtors, Disclose Thyselves!
From VARbuzz, initially quoting the Swanepoel Report –
When real estate agents take on second and third jobs and decide not to disclose that fact to their client, it raises questions concerning their level of commitment and service.
…I mean, if the pilot on my flight was a part-time freelance writer, I’d kinda want to know that he may spend some of his cockpit time on his laptop. … And Lenn hits the nail on the head in the comments – if brokers didn’t hold licenses of part-time Realtors, they’d have nowhere to go. Continue reading
The Onion Speaks – About Real Estate Signs
I Wasn’t Going To Buy This House Until I Saw The Realtor’s Headshot On The Sign Have you seen our signs ? It’s about our clients and their houses, not us. Continue reading
This Should be Fun – Raising the Bar
The prevailing theme that I took away from the experience was “for the most part, we agree that the bar DOES need to be raised in real estate…but how, my what means, and by whom?” Finally, we at Professional One have decided to continue the conversation in this format and have created “Raise the Bar” radio , which you can find at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/raisethebar . We plan to kick the show off with our inaugural broadcast in early February (details to follow on Twitter), and the following guests have already graciously agreed to appear on the show:
Read more: http://p1fran.com/2010/01/rtb-on-the-radio/#ixzz0ddsqIZey Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Share Alike Raising the Bar is another reason that we at Nest have such high standards for our agents . Continue reading
Realtor Alphabet Soup – Valuable?
GRI, ABR, CRS, EPRO, SRES, ALC, GAA, SIOR, RSPS … The above are some of the many designations Realtors can earn (with the accompanying annual fees) … the education provided by the courses can be valuable, but cluttering up a business card? Why? 
Consumers don’t care . Continue reading
Light Blogging Next Week – I’ll be in New York
I’ll be doing a session at the REBarcamp on Tuesday and sitting on a panel on Thursday. Importantly, we’ll be discussing the RPR – the Realtors Property Resource, which is a product which should give Realtors far more information on properties – which will be available only to Realtors – and will offer (hopefully) the most comprehensive information all in one place. … If you’re a consumer interested in real estate data, information and analysis, automated valuation models you’ll probably find the 30 minute demo interesting. “An incredible accumulation of data from multiple sources the in a graphical manner that really can give a listing agent a perfect snapshot of what’s happened to a property.”
Continue reading
Radio this Weekend – WNRN Sunday Morning Wakeup
We’ll be discussing year-end statistics about the Charlottesville region’s real estate market, prognostications for 2010, real estate and technology trends that consumers need to pay attention to and probably quite a bit more. … Maybe a little plug for Nest Realty – Charlottesville’s newest real estate brokerage If you’re going to buy a home in Charlottesville in 2010, when should you start looking? … ) ( now ) (Same if you’re looking to sell a home in Charlottesville ) … … (have you noticed the Meebo bar at the bottom? … I love doing radio for some of the same reasons I love writing this blog – one of the foremost reasons is that live radio forces me to prepare … Continue reading
