With today’s technology at your fingertips one question that keeps coming up to REALTORS® is
“why use a REALTOR® when you can sell the house yourself?”

Talk to help answer that question.

1. The consuming public still believes the myth that advertising actual sells their individual home, and it really does not. This has always been the case. Before Internet advertising (and advertising is advertising), only one out of 60 buyers actually bought the home they called on in an ad. The margin is probably smaller today because Internet advertising allows the consumer to see more homes quicker, but I would bet the principle remains. In fact, does anyone have a reliable statistic on how many internet buyers actually buy the home they found on the internet and inquired about? The reality, I believe, is that they still connect with a real estate agent who finds the home of their choice for them in the majority of cases. 80% of buyers may start on the Internet, but 90% still use a REALTOR® to find their home. Buyers still pick the home while standing in the living room and placing their furniture, not by looking at the most high-def virtual tour every made. This means that REALTORS® still have the majority of the buyers, and a seller would be extremely wise to list with an agent who knows how to cooperate with those agents and expose the listing to the customers of those agents, which still represent the bulk of potential customers. That agent will also know how to present the home, both using technology and in person, to make it as appealing as possible to the consumer.

2. Since the vast majority of residential properties that are sold across America are listed by one agent and sold by another, a seller would be wise to have an agent who has listed the property and is working with the seller's interests in mind.

3. A good listing agent will not only 'splash' the listing across the Internet indiscriminately, but will
know how to manage customer's, track responses, and practice good Customer Relationship Management, probably using professional CRM software, to make the most of every buyer inquiry.

4. There are a multitude of AVM sites that claim to price a home, and many are able to ballpark it. But pricing is an art and requires a level of skill and experience, especially in the local marketplace even more important is the management of the pricing as time goes on in the marketing process. Relying on a broad automatic algorithm to price your most valuable asset is, for most homeowners, a major risk.

5. A good buyer's agent is a professional negotiator. A wise seller would have a good listing agent to negotiate in return. There are a few websites that are popping up that claim to make this possible directly between buyer and seller over a sort of social networking/email environment. However, this process is highly adversarial, and is one of the foundations of the real estate industry. If buyers and sellers could routinely negotiate without conflict, perhaps there would not be a real estate industry. Negotiating the transaction will always be done best face to face, and person to person through agents.

6. Real Estate as a process becomes more complex and risk-oriented every week. A good listing agent knows how to make it through the shoals and know where the rocks are, and especially the sharks. The seller may have an attorney for the legal questions and legal risk, but an attorney is not going to go 'out into the field' where the issues and problems are.7. A real estate agent manages the documents, and the list of documents grows larger and larger. As good as a good attorney is, a listing agent's focus on the transaction will assist even the attorney in guarding the transaction process and ensures everyone in the transaction gets what they need. There are document creations and management websites springing up that are available to the public, but it take a professional to manage the entire document cloud. In many instances managing the documents electronically is for most people more complex, not less. In addition, electronic document management adds an important level of security and confidentiality that the real estate professional must maintain, and the 'civilian' may not be as aware of the threat and need for protection.

8. Perhaps the most valuable service is the reality that a transaction must be sold on average at least 3 times during the same transaction: once at the signing of the agreement, once at the cold-feet stage, and once more (or twice more) as the inevitable problems crop up. A good real estate agent helps make sure the property remains in the transaction by solving the myriad of questions, issues, emotions and problems that accompany every sale. This can only be done by a person, not a PC.

9. While the internet has automated the search for financing, and even the application process,
someone (s) needs to oversee the process. Too many transactions still fall by the wayside because no one was watching the process, and good agents do that. Interestingly, as I read this back to myself, I realize that while all these areas are touched by the internet and technology, they are still the services that have always been a part of the trade. Since this question seemed obviously targeted toward the impact of the internet and technology on the value of the real estate professional, let's make sure to talk about that.

10. Technology itself is more complex and growing evermore hectically chaotic. More sources, more devices, more websites, more services, more software, more products. If today's professional can barely keep up, how can the typical homeowner? A real estate professional, whether working with the buyer or the seller, must be able to manage the technology jungle better than the homeowner or buyer can for themselves. While all the above principles are timeless, an agent must now be technologically competent in an industry that is now technology based. Managing all the technology for the buyer and seller is the newest value added service.

11. The Internet is an information fire hose. The buyer and seller can get all the information they
want, more even than some professionals I know. We are no longer the gatekeepers of the information, but the managers of it. Most consumers will admit they need a real estate professional to make sense of the overwhelming torrent of information they face.

Source: John Hicks, e-PRO
CVR MLS
Director of MLS Training and Outreach
CVR MLS Commercial Division
Certified e-PRO Trainer