Being selective
Or, how does Buyer Agency/Buyer Brokerage/ Exclusive Buyer Representation benefit the agent and the Buyer? There has been a lot of discussion at RCG and Bloodhound recently about Buyers' Agency and the associated compensation. I can speak specifically about the Commonwealth of Virginia's Buyers' Agency…
Default position
I had occasion to show a new construction development this afternoon. I arrived early, before my clients, and talked to the on-site agent for a few minutes. They have a stock form for the public that states "Buyer Brokerage is available." I asked her how…
The HVAC company who will get my business
This afternoon I am sitting in a condo in Turtle Creek in Charlottesville waiting for the HVAC people to come between one o'clock and three o'clock. Lo and behold, my phone just rang (at 1:16 pm) and she told me that they were on their…
Are ethics stronger today?
In my Broker's Law class the other day, the teacher made an interesting comment. She said that ethics today were stronger than they ever have been. I disagreed somewhat in class, but vehemently inside. In a very-unscientific analysis, I turn to Google Trends to see…
Lessons learned
I had an interesting conversation this morning from which I learned several things - 1) Everything is a learning experience. 2) There are two sides to every story. 3) People actually read this thing. 4) Perception may not be reality, but it most assuredly affects…
The MLS is merely a guide
With every day of innovation and aggregation by competitors, the MLS is becoming fast becoming a guide toward property offerings and valuations rather than "the" or even "a" definitive source. There are at least two reasons for this change - 1) The innovation of data…
The 80-20 rule
There is a rule that says 20% of the Realtors do 80% of the business. Apparently this is called the Pareto Principle (it's amazing what I learn by blogging). With that in mind, I ran some quick MLS numbers: 290 Realtors have had more than…
Weekend links
Predicting population growth Virginia land use to follow road plan - yeah, we'll see. Real estate advertising is focused more and more online. The share of spending on online real estate ads grew from 10.3 percent to 14.7 percent, and is expected to grow to…
Towards representation
My wife called to me last week to watch a segment on the Today show (no link to the story) focusing on Sellers choosing not to have representation when selling their houses - some call them FSBOs. The gist of the story is that the…
NAR comes out swinging
In response to today's Consumer Federation of America's report lambasting the real estate industry, the National Association of Realtors releases a statement that fills me with great pride: America's real estate industry is one of the most competitive business environments in the world, characterized by…