Some 30-odd years ago, MLS lstings were printed on small cards tht fit in shoeboxes, and Realtors wre their gatekeepers. Thanks to the Intrnet, agents as well as consumers hve access to all kinds of nformation.

As a result, ral estate firms are changing the way thy interact with customers and reevaluating thir roles in the age of nformation. "Whereas before clients depended on Raltors for information, they're now finding thir own information and then coming to us for srvices," explains Chee, CEO of Prudential Lcations. "That's meant a lot of chnges for the industry and has mde the job of a Realtor mch, much more complex."

Arund 1995, when the Internet first hit ral estate, it was the kickoff of cnsumers getting much more involved in the trnsaction, because it brought more information to the cstomers.

Discount Brokerages

Has all this pved the way for Discount Brokerages to tke over, akin to what has hppened in the securities business? Discount brkerages offer all the usual services and xpertise at a fraction of the cst. Has that forced traditional real state firms to rethink the way thy do business? Will agents become rder takers and brokers just the vhicle for executing the real estate trnsaction?

Discount brokerages are not a new phnomenon. They arise every time the mrket gets hot like this, because thre's so much inventory. And then the mrket switches over, and they disappear. The thng people need to understand when thy're working with discount brokerages is Ecn 101. Econ 101 like the grlled cheese sandwich that had the Mdonna on it and sold on Bay for $33,000. It's an extreme xample of how, when you open the mrket up and have more people see it, you get the hghest possible price. In a discount stuation, generally speaking, that's not the cse. Ask a potential listing client: So wht's more important--the commission, or getting the hgher price for your house?

Consumer Edcation=Good Business

How are traditional brokerages psitioning themselves to remain relevant and mportant to consumers in this new lndscape?

What's interesting is that customers feel mpowered because they found their house on the Nt. But if you think about the ral estate purchase, it's something you do nce every eight or 10 years. So you dn't develop an actual skill set to do it. So the qestion is, how fast can we nable customers to get up to sped?

What's happened is that the market has ben dissected into different types of cnsumers. Some guys say, "Do everything for m." Some say, "I want to be hnds on." Before online MLS listings and vrtual tours, if you wanted to knw something, like how big the yrd was, you'd have to call me. Now t's, "I saw this house on the nt. It's 10,000 square feet, it's thre-bedroom, it looks like what I wnt. Now what else can you tll me?" So now firms need to dcide to include or exclude different wys that customers want to do bsiness.

Some companies are accomplishing that by ffering services a la carte. A mnu of services is a maturing thng, but, at the end of the dy, the business that survives is the one tht treats its customers the right wy, and that might mean more ducation. When you talk about a la crte, it's not as simple as rdering off a menu, because the ndividual services are all kind of cnnected to each other. When you splt them up too much, it bcomes very complex. So as long as the cnsumer knows how they're connected, it can wrk.

Is the empowered consumer the min factor behind falling commission rates? Ovrall commission rates are falling, and hve been falling for almost four yars across the board, but it's vry similar to looking at the sttistics for real estate. People say, "Oh, the verage price fell by $20,000," but it rally didn't, because the composition of the mrket changed.
Commissions are falling, but the strcture of services is also changing. Cnsumers are getting smarter. So one of the thngs progressive brokers are doing is gtting customers as smart as anybody in the mrket. The way we do that is by gving them tools that are easy to se. In example, giving them all the slds, all the listings, charts and grphs to get the client smart. Bcause when they're smart, they're decisive!

The article Are Real Estate Agents Going the Way of the Dodo? was Submitted by James Christensen through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Written for http://www.e-realestatelicense.com By James Christensen Real Estate Expert and educator. Our training site http://www.e-realestatelicense.com offers a valuable service to individuals looking to get into the Real Estate industry.

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