Flight to Quality

Yet again Inman News has posted a really interesting article.  It is a Q&A with a Seattle-based Agent, Kirsten Mohan, who has some great insights into where the market is going and how it will get there.  

I particularly like this part of her answer to "how do you think the real estate market will be different when we recover from the current downturn?"

"... we'll see a return to quality after years of mediocrity. This will happen primarily because a more educated consumer base will demand better service from...real estate agents in particular...for many years, a part of the real estate agent's perceived value was the possession and dissemination of raw data to the consumer. That same consumer now has the opportunity to find an abundance of information online before ever contacting an agent..."

The whole interview is here...

This is a very, very astute observation.   Kirsten is absolutely correct that the agent's role is no longer just as a diseminator of information.  That information that was once closely guarded is now, thank to the internet, very free and available.  

Most agents will take that statement as a threat, but I view it as an opportunity, and I think that Kirsten does too.  It is an opportunity because it creates a marketplace where only agents that bring real value to their relationships with clients will succeed.  They no longer can rely on the intrinsic value of their proprietary information.  

Now, agents will present value by being the expert in negotiating for their clients, being able to help them navigate through the complex buying/selling process, and also will create value by leveraging their networks.  Not only networks of other professionals that clients will need to utilize, but also networks of contacts that present the potential buyer (or seller) that their client is looking for.  

That will be the value, going forward, that each person engaging a real estate agent should be looking for in thier business partners.