{"id":978,"date":"2007-02-01T08:19:35","date_gmt":"2007-02-01T15:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=978"},"modified":"2007-02-01T08:20:41","modified_gmt":"2007-02-01T15:20:41","slug":"a-different-perspective-on-the-value-of-realtors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/978\/a-different-perspective-on-the-value-of-realtors\/","title":{"rendered":"A Different Perspective on the Value of Realtors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has anyone ever wondered why the price of real estate agents has been 5-7% for what seems like an eternity? I know I run a serious risk of stepping on a lot of people’s toes out there since this is a site run by realtors, but I really have been thinking about this a lot lately (particularly this morning after I read Greg’s articles<\/a><\/u><\/strong>). Additionally, several other articles got my attention (CNN Money<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, Business News<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, and The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/u><\/strong>). If you stop to really think about this, you will realize that real estate agents have created one of the longest standing monopolies out there. Let me dust off my economics text book and delve a bit deeper into this subject. [Please note this is intended to spark discussion and not personally attack anyone’s profession. As I said before, I love a GOOD real estate agent].<\/p>\n

What is a monopoly<\/a><\/u><\/strong>? Let’s simply define a monopoly as providing a good or service with very little competition. While this may be debated, humor me when I say that real estate agents have been providing their service with very little competition. This is evident in the fact that the price has stayed fixed for so long. One could argue that by using a percentage method, agents are simply hedging themselves against inflation. While that would partially explain this pricing phenomenon, the fact that the percentage has stayed the same despite significant changes in information control speaks of something else. In other arenas, when a significant technological advancement hits the market, prices typically drop accordingly or the level of service increase dramatically. Look at cars for example. As technology has improved cars have become much cheaper (in real dollars) than 70 or even 30 years ago. Additionally, an owner now gets many more standard services.<\/p>\n

So do Realtors do more now than say 30 years ago? Of course they do. With the advent of new technologies, they provide marketing over the Internet, in newspapers, and perhaps even their own website. The more important question, however, is does the consumer get a higher value for the services they Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has anyone ever wondered why the price of real estate agents has been 5-7% for what seems like an eternity? I know I run a serious risk of stepping on a lot of people’s toes out there since this is a site run by realtors, but I really have been thinking about this a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"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":[3,4,2,8,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-disintermediation","8":"category-general","9":"category-investment","10":"category-marketing","11":"category-real-estate","13":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2968,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2968\/its-1000am-do-you-know-where-your-realtor-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":0},"title":"It’s 10:00AM; Do You Know Where Your Realtor Is?","author":"Barry Cunningham","date":"April 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you know that the Realtor who you have your house listed with is actually still earning their living as a Realtor? That was the concern recently voiced and posed to us by a concerned agent in Poinciana, Florida. \"In Central Florida, for example, over 50% of real estate agents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Real Estate News } Real Estate Radio USA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.realestateradiousa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/missing.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1880,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1880\/the-very-best-alternative-to-the-national-association-of-realtors\/","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":1},"title":"The “Very Best” Alternative to the National Association of Realtors","author":"Cooksquared","date":"September 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There has been a lot of talk about how to fix the National Association of Realtors or even how to supplant the organization completely.\u00a0 As an outsider looking in, I have one simply question:\u00a0 Why are realtors paying good money to an organization that they hate?\u00a0 As an investor I\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":1187,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1187\/want-to-do-something-to-raise-standards-among-realtors-charity-begins-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":2},"title":"Want to do something to raise standards among Realtors? Charity begins at home . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Daniel Rothamel:More extensive barriers to entry do not automatically create better agents.\u00a0 As just about anyone with a real estate license will tell you, the education that you get prior to being licensed does very little to ensure your success in business, other than informing you of the legal requirements\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":253,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/253\/when-realtors-become-as-stupidly-hyperbolic-as-the-bubbleboys-thats-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":3},"title":"When Realtors become as stupidly hyperbolic as the bubbleboys, that’s news…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently, about 200 Phoenix-area Realtors got together Thursday night for some group therapy:About 200 agents gathered at the Southeast Valley Association of Realtors in Mesa to hear tips from top achievers on how to sell homes and handle clients in this transitional market.We don't belong to SEVRAR, so we weren't\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":2833,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2833\/less-is-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":4},"title":"Less is More","author":"Dave Phillips","date":"March 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If I asked you \u201cwhat business are you in\u201d and your answer is \u201cthe real estate business,\u201d you (like 98% of REALTORS\u00ae) are wrong according to Michael Russer of Russer Communications.\u00a0 Michael is a genius of sorts; he claimed the title Mr. Internet before we even found out that Al\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":413,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/413\/blogoff-post-36-ask-the-broker-why-do-people-hate-realtors\/","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":5},"title":"Blogoff Post #36: Ask the Broker: Why do people hate Realtors . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The question is Cathy's, and it really plagues her:Why do people hate Realtors?It's funny, truly, because almost nobody hates his own Realtor. Some people have real horror stories to tell, but most people don't. To the contrary, most people have very happy, funny, charming stories to tell about the Realtor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978","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\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}