News from our Director of Productivity, Colleen Barry

Our Director of Productivity, Colleen Barry, works thoroughly
with our talented team of real estate agents enhancing their
services. Offering both one-to-one guidance and group coaching,
Colleen significantly helps our agents to grow their business.

As a contributor to Inman News, Colleens most recent article
focuses on the quality of third-party websites. She voiced a
controversial opinion: In spite of the prevailing opinion, our
industry is actually thriving in the age of consumer-driven,
third-party real estate websites.

Although the real estate industry has been ever changing in the
past 10-15 years due to third-party websites such as Trulia and
Zillow, Colleen highlighted four facts of what has more importantly
NOT changed. These four include:

1. Most people still select their agent through a personal
connection. NAR says that 50 percent were referred, 12 percent used
the agent they used in the past, 6 percent met the agent at an open
house, and 3 percent were personally contacted by the agent. This
is a total of 71 percent of buyers selecting an agent because of a
personal connection.

2. Buyers still need the same skills from us. Though more than
90 percent of buyers are using the Internet to search for homes, 53
percent of those polled wanted help finding the right home. They
are perhaps spoiled for choice, and so they are in need of expert
guidance in specific areas: 23 percent of buyers wanted help with
negotiating, 8 percent wanted help with determining the sale price
of comparable homes, and 7 percent wanted help with paperwork.

3. They still rank our honesty, reputation and skill as
important when selecting us. When polled, trustworthiness (25
percent), reputation (21 percent), personal connections (16
percent) and knowledge (8 percent) were the most important factors
in choosing an agent.

4. Buyers note multiple benefits in using an agent. Those polled
said the agent provided many benefits, including help with
understanding the process (59 percent), pointing out unnoticed
features/faults of the property (53 percent), negotiating better
contract terms (44 percent) and knowledge of search areas (44
percent).

Ultimately, searching on third-party websites allows buyers to
meet with a real estate agent knowing specifically what they are
looking for. From there Colleen says to connect, guide, educate and
maintain that relationship with the buyer after the sale leading to
a possible rehire.

Click here to read the full
article from our Director of Productivity, Colleen Barry.