Hey consumer….Yeah YOU ~ I want to earn your business but I’ve allowed too many non-real estate companies in the way. They got bigger than us agents because us agents and our organizations allowed them to! How did that happen? Well some would say via having access to all of the listings, others might say by getting us to be ‘experts’ or ‘bloggers’ on their sites, and many others may simply disagree with this statement altogether.
First of all let me preface this by saying that I am ALL for capitalism and businesses filling a void and earning a profit for said service or product.
What I do not like is when this diminishes the consumer’s experience or overall professionalism of an industry.
As a consumer you probably do not have a great deal of understanding as to how the real estate business works. And why should you care? As a consumer myself I am only concerned with how something directly affects me. Perhaps that makes me ignorant but that is how I handle my life. I prefer to live in my own bubble.
But now there are outside influences attempting to break into my bubble. I admit it ~ I allowed it for the most part. I added great content to many different online real estate information websites. Why? Well because at first it was actually helpful to my business. It was easier to spread my knowledge across the net through some of these companies. In turn, I was able to get in touch with many more real estate consumers and assist many more families with their real estate needs.
But now it is becoming challenging. Companies that used to just be a blogging site have added additional revenue streams to their sites (don’t blame them in the least for wishing to be profitable) however now they have been ‘bought out’ by largest companies who are changing things around and costing agents more to be involved and they want to take our content, get you the consumer to their site, then make us (as in US I mean any agent who subscribes to their paid plans) pay to be able to contact you. Heck, the large one that most of us pay dues to belong to is also doing the same. Don’t you want to get in contact with the source of the information you were seeking and found valuable? Or do you like finding a great article or listing, asking for more information and having your name and number be sold to the highest bidder? That agent buying your name and number may not have a clue about your needs or know anything about that article that someone else wrote.
In recent days very large companies have been acquiring other fairly dominate real estate service provider companies. My issue is that soon perhaps every real estate service provider will be owned by maybe just a handful of large corporations or even just 1 or 2 of them.
My concern is how that will affect our real estate industry as a whole. Will it diminish your experience? In most instances a monopoly is never good for the end user. Great for the owners but not so great for those who are forced now to do business with that company.
I am not a fortune teller but I definitely see where this could go.
As a consumer what are you looking for? Obviously you’ve spoken and you want access to the best information around. You want to look through listings without having to necessarily speak with a real estate agent. You probably want to get your real estate questions answered without having to commit to anyone specifically. But do you really want to give your information to these huge conglomerates who in turn sell your information to ‘just anyone’? I’m curious. What are your thoughts?
Yours in Success,
Susan Milner, REALTOR Broker/Owner ~ e-PRO, GRI, SFR, CDPE, and (TRC) TransNational Referral Certification
Florida Future Realty, Inc
(239) 542-8521
I’m always looking to hire more motivated and professional licensed Florida real estate agents. If you are interested in learning more about Florida Future Realty, Inc. feel free to contact our office at 2816 Del Prado Blvd. S., Unit 1, Cape Coral, FL 33904, via phone at 239-542-8521, online at Cape Coral Real Estate Career or via email at FloridaFuture@gmail.com. Susan Milner, the broker in charge & owner of Florida Future Realty, Inc. can also be reached on her personal cell phone at (239) 218-2229. All contact will remain strictly confidential.
Unless otherwise noted all content Copyright 2004-2011 Susan Milner.