Matthew Hardy of Real Estate Success Tools sends along a copy of the NAR’s press release on this Sunday’s 60 Minutes Redfin PR puff piece.
We are led by buffoons, avidly drawing attention to the stuff they want everyone to ignore. Two words is too many in reply to this crap: So what? Discount Realtors are nature’s perfect revenge on people who crave real estate discounts. The intelligent response is not to shout, like Redfin, “We’ll do nothing for even less!” but to offer a quality product at a fair price — and then actually deliver it.
Technorati Tags: compensation for buyer representation, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
Matthew Hardy says:
Gee. I wonder if the show will highlight the almost incestuous relationship between Homestore (now Move.com) and the NAR and their ownership of TopProducer (queue “The Tubes: I Want It All Now”). The NAR acts as a quasi-governmental entity that has the right to own the industry and many agents regard fealty to the NAR as part and parcel of their submission to their state board. Ain’t it great that agents are actually independent?
May 10, 2007 — 3:39 pm
Mike Thoman says:
It’s my understanding that David Lereah is predicting atypically-low viewership for the segment. Not because of Mother’s Day, but because of the weather.
May 10, 2007 — 4:35 pm
Matthew Hardy says:
Yes. My understanding is that both Mother’s Day and the weather are excellent times for changing the name of one’s company from Homestore to Move.com.
May 10, 2007 — 4:48 pm
Matthew Hardy says:
All right. A story and a lesson; but first a disclosure: our company is a vendor; a software company. A couple of years ago, I went to the NAR Expo in San Francisco and bought space on the showroom floor. We were really, really nice to everyone and they treated us like f*****g s**t in every way I won’t elucidate here.
So, when I spend 30k in cash (that’s the way, uh uh, uh uh, they like it) to join them under their banner of Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Realtors, and now have them say in this press release that they’ve “harnessed technology” (please read with dripping sarcasm accompanied by an undeniable expression of contempt for anyone who would presume to control an entire industry) I’m a little upset.
This is what I think they mean by “harnessing technology”. I’ll try to say this carefully (ok, not too carefully), but having looked at this closely for both myself and my investors, their “offerings” are not always in the best interest of real estate agents. (Retain your guffaws.) Without getting into the kinds of things that can get me in trouble (I’m not chicken and I’m not stupid), I sometimes use an example trainers and coaches use when explaining to agents the value of owing their own real estate business. When a doctor or dentist sells their practice, what are they selling? The furniture? The equipment? No. It’s their database. So, if you’re a dentist, you’re not going to house your entire business (your list of patients and their histories) on the servers of some National Association of Dentists. And you’re certainly not going to embrace their end-to-end system when leaving that system means leaving the business history you’ve built. No kidding. Check it out. This is the mentality of these people at a deep, business-structural level. If you want to leave their system you can’t export all your patient histories, you can only export your base contact data. Go ahead, make a call and ask the question “what can I export and what can’t I?” I heard them say: “Well, you get your base contact data, which is really your business.” To which I replied: “No. My business is made up of both my patient’s histories (I’m losing some of you now) and my base contact data. Indeed, my base contact data without their histories is pretty useless if I want to retain the value I’ve built in my business. I mean, without the histories, I’m pretty much starting over, aren’t I?” Them: “Sir, would you like to sign up for our monthly service now?”
I’ve been in the data business all my life and there is a code concerning the proper use of data: the owner owns it and you’re not suppossed to mess with it. Don’t hurt it, always leave the owner where they have total access to it and absolutely don’t take it for your own use. Digital has become the new “real” and I remember learning in real estate school that the real estate business is honorable because it’s premised on “real” property (not chattel) and was to be taken seriously and performed with great care because it is integral to society itself. To me, this still seems a worthly thing to uphold.
Time always brings about the dissolution of the old. Things, industries mix up. Care for your plants so they give you fruit. And be a good dentist.
May 10, 2007 — 7:23 pm
Dave Barnes says:
Never write every word in italics.
It makes you appear incompetent.
May 10, 2007 — 7:55 pm
Robert Kerr says:
Mike Thoman … good one! I actually laughed out loud.
Thanks for the belly laugh, I needed that.
May 10, 2007 — 8:01 pm
Robert Kerr says:
Mike Thoman …good one! I actually laughed out loud.
Thanks for the belly laugh, I needed that.
May 10, 2007 — 8:02 pm
Brian Brady says:
Why do you think I get angry when Padres or D-Backs fans chant “Beat LA”? The more you talk about your foe, the more you elevate them in the crowd’s eyes.
May 10, 2007 — 10:38 pm
Mike Thoman says:
Robert – glad you liked it. I didn’t think the weather reference was overdone just yet.
May 11, 2007 — 7:39 am
P.J. Dean says:
Bravo Matthew…I am still laughing, couldnt be said any better!
May 11, 2007 — 9:34 pm