I am a boy Scout leader and last night I had the chance to present a few boys with their merit badges and rank advancements at our year end court of honor. It’s so much fun working with these young men and getting to see the joy in their parents’ faces when they see their sons experience their accomplishments. During the dinner, I was speaking with a father who happens to be a real estate agent and he was sharing with me how over this last year he has lost more and more listings to Redfin. He was pretty frustrated because he is feeling the pinch in his pocket.
Essentially Redfin is an industry disruptor as they offer a program that allows homeowners to sell their property at a 1% commission. They also are fast at getting on the phone with you through their call centers. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, DC, and Seattle they offer Redfin concierge. It’s a 2% listing service that essentially does everything that the 1% program covers plus it manages the property as a project getting ready to go live on the market and covers the staging of your property. There are other services competing for that space as well. Some of them are: UpNest, OpenDoor, Zillow(now allows sellers to post their properties for sale), ForSaleByOwner. Does that mean it’s over for the real estate agent or investor?
For those that do not adapt; then yes it is only a matter of time. We need to look at these services and realize that what they are offering is speed and full service at a huge discount. What we need to do is carefully take a look at where their strengths and weaknesses are. And believe me there are weaknesses and that is where you and I will win.
For example, we have the ability to build a relationship with our sellers and with our referral partners. Relationships and the bond that I have built with my sellers has often helped me win over a buyer offering more money.
And now more than ever, we must roll out the red carpet for those that we are serving. Especially in probate, we have the advantage because we are dealing with a market that needs a true expert to come in and facilitate the probate process when it pertains to the liquidation of real estate. You already know that there are so many problems that the personal representative will face when they are working through a probate case. At this current moment in time, there is not a single corporate company that has figured out how to serve this market. Probate is a more personalized niche which means, for the small business owner, that you have an incredible open opportunity. I will in weeks to come continue to share my thoughts on how you can position yourself as the authority in your community and for those that have expressed an interest in the mastermind, coaching, and master classes we will get to go deeper in building out your game plan. To your success, Ernie “Scout Master” Vargas
P.S.
One of the fun things about being a scout master it is that I get to award my own son.
P.P.S.
I will be sending out the information to the master class within the next 24 hours so if you are interested keep your eyes open and if you sent me an email regarding the upcoming mastermind and expanded coaching that will follow (if you haven’t done so and you’re interested then reply with I’m interested).
