Comments on: "You Realtors Are All The Same!"

By: George O'Neill

George O'Neill — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:25:07 +0000

I should also note that the person I mentioned above did not sell his property through the first realtor. The listing expired, and after some time with the property sitting with no action he contacted me to ask me to take on the listing. I do so, and made some recommendations which he implemented to help sell the property (adjusting the price, installing new appliances, completing some minor touch-up work, and staging certain rooms), the property sold for 99% of the asking price after just one open house weekend.

I may not have changed his overall opinion of realtors, but he certainly did thank me for selling the property, and I think I demonstrated my difference and value.

George

By: George O'Neill

George O'Neill — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:15:21 +0000

Thanks for your note and congratulations on your start-up, and on your blog documenting the process at http://4customers.wordpress.com/

I can’t say I agree with all of your comments, for example your phrase “No one believes realtors.” is just wrong. There are lots of clients who put their trust and faith in excellent realtors every day. However, there are some consumers who will never trust realtors, for one reason or another, some reasons are justified and some are not.

But I do applaud your efforts. Open conversation is good, and sharing information is the best way to move forward. That is the key reason for this real estate blog and if any of my clients would like to leave a comment about the services I provide I would certainly welcome that.

I think sites like yours should be encouraged and will succeed if consumers choose to use them as a conversation platform.

Now, if anyone could recommend a good realtor in Montreal I would appreciate it since I have a commercial retail space to lease there.

George

By: 4customers

4customers — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:31:07 +0000

I love this line you wrote:

“I think we Realtors should never forget we must always justify our existence.”

It’s sad… but most realtors know it’s true. And most customers/clients take a while to get on board with the idea of forking over a fistful of cash for “putting a for sale sign on a lawn and waiting for a buyer to come.”

That’s why [good/great] realtors need to let their best customers talk about them. Online. So that others can read the words of a person like them and begin to understand the value of realtors.

No one believes realtors. OF COURSE a realtor is going to argue that he’s valuable. But it’s when you let your customers do the talking for you —- and scrap those marketing messages altogether —- that your profession becomes more legit, you become credible and your services become invaluable.

Check out my blog (4customers.wordpress.com) for more about this. Or check out http://www.what-customers-say.com, a new realtor rating site in western Canada, to see how online word of mouth can be very effective. (We just launched the site 2 days ago, and already one legitimate referral/connection between a new client and a well-ranked realtor.) I really think there’s hope for realtors in this online environment —– so you don’t have to work so hard to get people to buy in to the value of your profession.

Best of luck……..