{"id":1004,"date":"2007-02-07T03:49:50","date_gmt":"2007-02-07T10:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2007-02-07T03:52:57","modified_gmt":"2007-02-07T10:52:57","slug":"yes-consumers-do-need-to-understand-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1004\/yes-consumers-do-need-to-understand-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Consumers Do Need To Understand You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cathy Jager<\/a> wrote this in a comment<\/a>, and I responded briefly, but I really think the response needs some expansion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I tend to disagree consumers should be expected to understand agents. Would anyone suggest that it’s important for patients and clients to “understand” doctors and lawyers?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cathy is correct.<\/strong> They don’t need to understand real estate agents in the same way real estate agents need to understand them. But they do need to fully understand why they need to use a real estate agent and it’s clear to many that they don’t.<\/p>\n

Why don’t I have to “understand” doctors? Because I already do.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I’m going to go to a doctor, I first have to understand what a doctor does and why going to a doctor is going to help me. It’s easy to say “I don’t have to understand doctors” in this example, because on the whole, we trust doctors. We’re taught to trust them very early on in life, by our parents. Our parents hold our hands and lead us to the family doctor and explain what the doctor does and why we need to be there. So, we understand not only what they can do for us, but that we can trust them to do it for us, and this development of trust starts very young. So, when we get sick, we go to a doctor. We don’t really have to think about it. We only have to think about which one we choose.<\/p>\n

The same can’t be said for real estate agents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our parents don’t drag us to a real estate office when we’re a child to meet the family real estate agent. They don’t lead us by the hand and walk us through an understanding of what they do, and why we need them. Value has to be explained and trust must be earned. The consumer isn’t just thinking about which real estate agent to choose, they’re wondering if they should choose one at all.<\/p>\n

Consumers are obviously confused.<\/strong> For whatever reason, consumers don’t trust real estate agents. Cathy covered this topic very well herself.<\/a> In the Harris Interactive Poll<\/a> Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cathy Jager wrote this in a comment, and I responded briefly, but I really think the response needs some expansion. “I tend to disagree consumers should be expected to understand agents. Would anyone suggest that it’s important for patients and clients to “understand” doctors and lawyers?” Cathy is correct. They don’t need to understand real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1148,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1148\/buyer-representation-fells-another-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":1004,"position":0},"title":"Buyer representation fells another one","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ya see?! We should be listening to Russell Shaw. You can list all day and all night, and never be too busy to scratch your nose. It's that chasing around with buyers that downs perfectly good Realtors. Cathy had a buyer-rich day. A final walk-through on a new build. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1547,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1547\/niggling-peeves-the-nar-and-how-not-to-conduct-pr\/","url_meta":{"origin":1004,"position":1},"title":"Niggling Peeves: The NAR and How NOT to Conduct PR","author":"Jeff Kempe","date":"June 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a wonderfully grumpy week. Please indulge me: When the NY Times came out with its piece on the Madison, WI FSBO market, the NAR typically over-reacted and sent out another set of talking points. Last time they did that -- Sixty Minutes -- they received some well deserved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3630,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3630\/ironically-ironman-is-just-a-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":1004,"position":2},"title":"Ironically, Ironman is Just a Man","author":"Chuck Marunde","date":"July 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I love the word Irony.\u00a0 Maybe its because Ironman has been my favorite song forever.\u00a0 Or maybe it's because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie Ironman.\u00a0 Oh, wait.\u00a0 That just takes us back to the song Ironman, which is the theme song of the movie.\u00a0 No, I know why I love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":830,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/830\/real-estate-resolutions-cough-less-earn-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":1004,"position":3},"title":"Real estate resolutions: Cough less, earn more . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"When I get sick, I get really sick. I've had full-blown pneumonia twice in recent years. I have always been able to blast through illness, but, sometime after my arms got too short to read without glasses, that privilege was revoked. In consequence, when I get a respiratory infection now,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2199,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2199\/birthing-bloodhoundblogtv-in-time-for-the-nar-convention\/","url_meta":{"origin":1004,"position":4},"title":"Birthing BloodhoundBlog.TV in time for the NAR Convention","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We're going to do the first run of a BloodhoundBlog.TV taping this Sunday night. My own life is a blur, but events are ganging up on me. I expect to have video posted by Monday early morning, before I take off for Las Vegas. Cathy won't be with me, alas.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":487,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/487\/butterflies-might-be-free-but-home-buyers-pay-for-real-estate-advice-whether-they-know-it-or-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":1004,"position":5},"title":"Butterflies might be free, but home-buyers pay for real estate advice — whether they know it or not . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Ardell raises some questions at Rain City Guide about my column in this morning's paper on negotiating the buyer's agent's commission. I'm going to address some of her remarks here, but my fullest statement on the topic is quite a bit more comprehensive. In the newspaper, I get 350 words\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}