If you are out in the market trying to make a living in real estate, I don't need to tell you that our industry is going through some tremendous changes right now:
1. Revolutionary growth in technology which continues to transform our industry.
2. A huge consumer backlash that, contrary to conventional wisdom, is not just challenging our commissions but challenging our very value as professionals.
3. A growing bewilderment by both the consumer and ourselves over what exactly our role as real estate professionals today is supposed to be.
And in the midst of all of this, when we clearly need some new direction, it seems like all we're getting is the same old advice from the same pundits that have been around forever saying the same things like:
"It's time to get back to basics."
"The market will recover and be like it was."
"Just use the market downtime to sharpen your traditional sales skills and when the market comes back, you'll be ready."
Deep down we know that this traditional advice just doesn't fit our current realities. But, let's be honest. We like hearing it. It's comforting. It's familiar. It's sort of like a broken-in pair of shoes -- when we put them on, our feet can just naturally settle in to where they are comfortable. Unfortunately, those shoes won't get us to where we need to be today! Now, it is true that real estate works in cycles, the housing market will come back as will business, but it will increasingly be a very different type of business. And this business will be going only to those practitioners who are trained and ready.
It's time to take our industry back. And as difficult as it is to stretch our comfort zone, it's time to break in a new pair of shoes. In our business, the new pair of shoes is Real Estate Consulting. The consulting model is built on a very simple principle: that of elevating the role of the real estate professional to one of a true fiduciary, enabling real estate professionals to provide, not what consumers needed thirty, forty, or fifty years ago when typewriters, dial phones, and Polaroid cameras ruled, but what consumers need TODAY in a world of laptops, cell phones, digital cameras and the Internet.
Some in our industry have told me that they find the ideas behind the consulting model strange and controversial. I find this response to be very curious since it's not as if consulting is unheard of in the larger business world. In fact, most professionals, such as CPA's, financial planners, and attorneys, professionals who need to be able to provide objective, fiduciary counsel that is in the best interest of the client, usually provide choices in the services they offer and they are usually paid by a non-contingent fee.
By the way, "non-contingent fee" is a fancy and rather high-brow way to say these people actually get paid for their work! Imagine that!
Of course, to us REALTORS®, actually getting PAID for one's work is a rather foreign concept. We have a hard time with the idea because, after all, real estate has always been a sales profession, paid by commission. We're not supposed to get paid for our expertise, experience and time - just closed transactions, right? But, when I hear these "absolute truths", I'm reminded of so many other "absolute truths" that have been expressed over the years. For instance:
In 1899, Charles Duell who was then the director of the US Patent office declared: "Everything that CAN be invented HAS been invented."
In 1927, H. M. Warner of Warner Brothers, when confronted with a newfangled thing called the "Talkies" growled: "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?'
In 1943, IBM Chairman Thomas Watson surmised, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
In 1962 when rejecting the Beatles, Decca Recording Company stated, "We don't like their sound, and besides, everyone knows that guitar music is on the way out."
And in 1981, no less than Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates famously stated that: "640K ought to be enough for anybody."
There's no two ways about it, change is a very difficult. And changing an entire industry from one where real estate salespeople are paid to move product to one where real estate consultants are paid to provide vital counsel, guidance and representation is certainly a challenge. But if we want to survive and prosper we MUST take the lead. We need to recognize where our industry is headed and proactively embrace practices that work in our favor as well as that of the public we serve. Otherwise, changes will be dictated by enterprises that seek to diminish our value and commoditize the consumer.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky was asked once why he was so great. Interestingly, he didn't comment about his speed on the ice, the way he handled the puck, or even how he took his shot. He simply responded: "I go to where the puck is going to be, not where it currently is."
There is no doubt that consulting is where our industry is going to be. In fact many of us believe that it's already here. Today s consumer is demanding transparent, quality choices in the real estate services they receive and how they can pay for them. The only question is: are you prepared to offer what the consumer is demanding? And let's be clear: being prepared does NOT mean simply calling ourselves a "Consultant" or putting the title "Consultant" on our business card because it sounds better. That's just words and the consumer can see right through that.
Being prepared means developing the tools to provide today's consumer with what they need, and, more importantly, what they are willing (and even anxious) to pay for. Because, stubbornly refusing to provide choices doesn't mean the consumer will do without. It simply means they will go elsewhere.