I am a licensed real estate agent and sold real estate in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. Prior to real estate I worked in the computer industry in technical, marketing, sales and general management roles.
I don't think the major franchises have built their brands at all. They use their size and big advertising budget to attract the attention of the consumer, but I think that consumers see all of the companies as delivering the same services in more or less the same way for the same price. Agents have a hard time differentiating their offer from their peers. A challenge in building a brand in real estate is that consumers use our services infrequently so we are not top of mind for long. We are not often a routine purchase. There are a few exceptions - local brokers that have specialized, teams that have specialized in their market, but mostly our industry has wanted to be all things for all people so we cater to everyone. Don Stewart Agent Invitation don@agentinvitation.com
I don't think the major franchises have built their brands at all. They use their size and big advertising budget to attract the attention of the consumer, but I think that consumers see all of the companies as delivering the same services in more or less the same way for the same price. Agents have a hard time differentiating their offer from their peers. A challenge in building a brand in real estate is that consumers use our services infrequently so we are not top of mind for long. We are not often a routine purchase. There are a few exceptions - local brokers that have specialized, teams that have specialized in their market, but mostly our industry has wanted to be all things for all people so we cater to everyone.
The villain here is not the Competition Bureau or the DOJ – they are trying to speak on behalf of the consumer. If it seems like then have a grudge against the real estate industry it may be because we fight like the devil to resist any change. It has to get wearing. Also, let’s not forget that the data regarding any home sale begins with the seller – it is their information that we gather and treat as our own. It would seem to me that our industry is fighting for the survival of an infrastructure that made sense 50 years ago and makes much less sense today. Local MLS was needed when it was a paper based system that was labor intensive and expensive to operate. Today the agents capture the data, enter it into their computer and distribute it in seconds. The consumer and the agents are the important parties here – everyone else is overhead. Agents feel good about by the cover provided by their associations valiantly defending their “rights” and it makes the associations feel like they are doing their job, but really, I think many agents might prefer to get as much unproductive cost out of the system as we can and just let things evolve. As the world moves on we should relax our death grip on the past and make a positive contribution. Don Stewart Agent Invitation don@agentinvitation.com http://blog.agentinvitation.com/
