This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link):
Skilled Realtor bargain of lifetime
We own 65 Internet domains so far. Of those, 29 are actually hosted on the Internet, sites you can visit with your Web browser. The others are “pointed” at the hosted sites.
If you forget that I work for BloodhoundRealty.com but remember my name, GregSwann.com will take you to our main Web site.
We build custom sites for our higher-priced listings, which accounts for many of the hosted sites. We also have sites for our Weblogs and a site we use to test new versions of our software to make sure it’s ready to deploy.
We are a high-tech real estate brokerage trying to stay ahead of the curve in a high-tech era.
Looking over one shoulder, we compete against traditional Realtors. But looking over the other, the Realty.bots — venture-capital-funded Internet real estate start-ups — make the traditional real estate marketing message harder and harder to deliver.
Is Zillow.com, or another automated valuation method, a useful tool for pricing homes? No, but I have to be prepared to show why, perhaps first overcoming my client’s skepticism.
Is a $199 Internet listing as effective as the full-service marketing package we bring to the table?
My view is that a skilled, experienced Realtor is the bargain of a lifetime. Under one hat, you get pricing and sales expertise, advice about staging and repairs, an expertly executed marketing campaign, a professional negotiator, thoughtful and knowledgeable hand-holding through the escrow process — and more.
Unlike a Realty.bot, your Realtor has actually bought and sold houses — dozens or hundreds of times. With expertise that stretches from little things, like hiring a landscaper, to topics as big as the Internet itself, the professional advice you will get from a good Realtor cannot be matched by canned Realty.bots, no matter how much fun they are to play with.
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
Austin Realtor's Wife says:
A skilled REALTOR is always the best bet and NAR has done a somewhat effective job at promoting the “don’t go it alone concept.” In the world of McDiscount brokers, and realty.bots, it sometimes seems like having to explain to the consumer why buying a paper thin cheeseburger at McDonald’s will never compare to buying a triple cheeseburger with bacon at Fuddrucker’s. What seems common sense to the real estate world is often foreign to those outside of the realm of the trade.
I anxiously await NAR’s new campaign “Every market’s different. Call a REALTOR today.” Hopefully they will smother the airwaves and print media with this concept that no matter how flashy a McDiscount is (or a McBurger), it never compares with what a fully immersed REALTOR (or triple bacon burger… mmmm) has to offer with their local knowledge of the market.
March 30, 2007 — 10:46 am
Lake Martin Voice says:
Agreed Austin Realtor Wife – as well as I know my own area, if you blindfolded and parachuted me in to Austin, I would have a hard time finding north without the help of an experienced agent.
March 30, 2007 — 2:09 pm