The Tucson Association of REALTORS® has released the results of a survey done this past April to determine the overall perception of REALTORS® in general, as well as how homebuyers and sellers perceived their own individual experience with a REALTOR®.
The topline results are as follows:
• 91.9% or homebuyers and sellers in Tucson are likely to use a
REALTOR in their next transaction.
• 81.3% report that their most immediate experience (based on a
transaction) with a REALTOR was a positive one.
• 69% report that their general perception (not based on a
transaction with a REALTOR) was positive.
• 68.6% felt their perception of real estate agents has remained
unchanged in the past five years.
• 6.2% reported that their experience was neither negative or
positive.
• 7.1% indicated that their experience was somewhat negative.
• 5.4% indicated that their experience was very negative.
Open ended responses to "what made it a negative experience for you" included: "I did all the leg work", "Lack of attention to details",
"Pushiness, trying to get me to buy a house I did not want", "The inability of the REALTOR® to follow through", "Very disorganized, didn't listen".
On the plus side, comments from respondents who had a positive experience were: "They did all the legwork for me. We told them what we wanted and they came up with six or seven places and we found one". "Everything went smoothly and we didn't have to worry about the details". "He was easy to work with and I felt like he had my best interests at heart". "She didn't push us at all. She gave us the options and let us choose and she was very low-pressure".
"They did some research for us that was above the call of duty".
This is the first time I've read the results of this type of survey about REALTORS®, and all-in-all I find the results encouraging.
The overall findings are very positive, but surprising too, in view of the fact that REALTORS® are so often the butt of so much criticism.
I read a lot of real estate articles online, from Tucson sources and sources all over the country. And if you scan the comments left by readers, the one thing that stands out consistently, regardless of the news source - newspaper, magazine, CNN, you name it - is that the majority of reader comments about real estate agents are negative. I'd say they're easily 65% negative, with the remaining 35% falling somewhere between mildly to wildly positive. Reading these comments, and reading between the lines, I've often felt that the person commenting was not speaking from personal experience, but just jumping on the bash the REALTOR® bandwagon. Nevertheless, aside from being very discouraging, reading all these negative comments, I've often wondered why people continue to use REALTORS® at all.
Yet in this survey we have 81% reporting that their most recent experience with a REALTOR® was a positive one, with 50% of them responding very positive, and 91.9% indicating that they'll use a Realtor in their next transaction.
Somewhat, but only somewhat more in line with the number of negative reader comments are the survey findings of the general perception of REALTORS® - that is, not based on having worked with one - at only 69% positive, with just 22% of them reporting very positive. Why is that.
The study concludes; This is likely a due to a common phenomenon in which some like the person they deal with, but are less positive about the group as a whole (similar to “my Congressman” versus “Congress”).
I think the other thing that influences the discrepency between this surveys findings and the general perception of REALTORS, as indicated by reader comments, is that those who've received bad service are much more apt to write-in to complain, than those who've received good service. I know it's true for me. I expect good service, and when I get it, I don't usually write-in to tell all about the good service. But I often do when I get bad service. At a restaurant, at the bank, with an online business, at the auto dealer, the airline, the hotel. I think a lot of people do.
And by the way, the Tucson Association of REALTORS® has released the results of this survey to it's members only, to help them understand how the public perceives them, and to identify those areas where improvement is needed. Not so we can go round tooting our horn and pounding our chests. I'm the only one guilty of that.
Reader comments invited.
