What is the market value of integrity to a Realtor? In the first place, you sell your best advice to the people who want your best advice. And you aren’t stuck with the unhappy consequences of having sold your clients a bill of goods just to get their business.
Daniel Rothamel at the Charlottesville Area Real Estate Blog:
When I first started my career in real estate, I assumed that it worked much like most other service/consltative industries, i.e.– when someone called you about selling a home, they wanted your advice and expertise in the matter, especially with regard to pricing, staging, marketing, etc. I quickly discovered that this is not the case at all. Many potential sellers aren’t calling you to ask for your expertise and advice in pricing or marketing, they are calling merely to reinforce their own opinion. My standard comment on the matter is, “I don’t set the price of your home, the market does. I am merely telling you what price this home will bear on the open market, not what the intrinsic “value” of the home is.”
For example, there are homes out there that people have lived in for decades, and are therefore very important to their owners. These homes are filled with irreplaceable memories. This makes them very valuable in the minds of their sellers. Unfortunately, the free market is a cold thing. The market doesn’t care what your memories are, it doesn’t care how much sweat, blood or tears you have invested in a property. The owner may have his or her own opinion as to the value of a home, but the market is going to tell you the price. Sometimes, those two things don’t match. That is where the Realtor gets caught.
I deeply admire the serious cast of Daniel’s mind — and not just because he weaves this moral tapestry with threads spun here. Go read the whole thing…
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
