Given the state of the market you’d think that, if for no other reason than pure self interest, agents would stop taking listings at unrealistic prices.
If all agents did that - don’t worry they won’t - and also retired existing listings that are not at a marketable price and where the owners refuse to budge, we’d have a shot at getting to where we need to be.
But that won’t happen, because, just like the owners, agents believe that they’ll somehow defy gravity, get lucky, and sell that house. And even if they don’t believe that, if they don’t take it, another agent will, so what’s the point. And the Realtor® culture has always been to get the listing. Period. That’s the culture. And if you’ve ever worked at a big company, they have a culture, and if you don’t adhere to it you’re out on your ass. The NAR, by the way, is the largest trade group in America.
This Realtor® thinking, this culture, comes from the NAR. From decades of the NAR doing their best to bluff their way into the hearts and minds of the American homeowner. Kinda like GM did. By delivering a mediocre product and glossing over it with PR spin and advertising. And like GM, it worked for a while, a long while. But also like GM, that era has come to an end.
Why doesn’t the NAR - instead of organizing another rah-rah sales conference in New Orleans or San Diego, bloated with a bunch of hucksters charged with charging up the troops – concentrate their efforts on doing things that will actually help the consumer and thereby further the value of Realtors®.
What an opportunity for the new President of the NAR, Vickie Cox Golder, who, by the way, is from right here in little old Tucson. Imagine that.
Ms Golder has an opportunity to turn off the pipeline of bs at the NAR and put in place practices and systems designed to level with and help consumers, rather than going with the flow of more misguided and self defeating efforts to further, at all costs, the agenda of the NAR.
If that happened, a big if, that new culture might eventually dribble downhill to real estate brokerages in cities and towns all across America. And it just might instill a real sense of purpose, more ethical behavior, and eventually, a well earned and more trusted relationship between Realtors® and consumers.
