The Decline in the Relevancy of Agents

The real estate industry has long served the consumer at a local level, but in the opinion of many leaders it has never really had a firm understanding of consumers as a collective, let alone understood that consumers are constantly evolving and changing. The industry’s most frequently cited weakness is its inability to understand what the consumer wants. The problem is that consumers don’t care about agents—as much as agents would like to think consumers do—and the role of the agent not only can be, but is being redefined. Furthermore, numerous participants in the industry are guilty of violating key parts of The Consumer Bill of Rights, especially the consumers’ rights to be informed (of all the facts), to choose (from among competing services), and to be heard (to have all their questions understood and answered). The root cause is often the failure to listen, or worse, appearing to listen but failing to respond by focusing on the transaction and not the consumer.

Agent photos and self-branding are omnipresent in home sales. In many cases the promotion of the real estate sales person surpasses the importance of the house being sold. That’s uniquely different to most other sales industries where the role of the sales person is secondary. Too many real estate agents believe their role is critical and their relationship with home buyers and sellers is beyond reproach. It’s that kind of overconfidence that often results in failure.