Sean Cutright
Delta Media Group
Teresa Boardman, a real estate broker in St. Paul, Minnesota and founder of St. Paul Real Estate Blog, had a good story on Inman News today about embracing the Internet to help sell homes (read the article here).
In Ms. Boardman's story, her continuing education instructor saw the Internet as a threat to the real estate industry, particularly because the local multiple listing service is now providing sold listing data. Ms. Boardman took a different approach. She has seen the value of providing information to her potential customers via the Internet.
"Withholding information is not job security; people will just find the information elsewhere if it is available," she wrote. "This is the information age and the Internet has exploded with Web sites where consumers can learn more about real estate...The Internet has made it easier and less expensive to share information. The interesting thing is that the more I share and give, the more business I get."
With the growth of the Internet has come a generation of consumers who would rather do their own homework before speaking to the "experts." Many consumers look at "experts" as sales representatives who will often say anything to get a sale. Unfortunately, they have acquired this apprehensive attitude from working with sales representatives who will often say anything to get a sale (not necessarily sales reps in the real estate industry, but a sales rep is a sales rep when you've been burnt bad enough by one).
The Internet, as Ms. Boardman highlighted, allows consumers to research their interests, and find the true experts in the industry based on how they have shown themselves to be experts, instead of how much they claim to be experts.
Titles, designations, rankings and achievements only go so far, because the average consumer doesn't know what they mean anyway. But it doesn't take much for the consumer to see if you know the market and area, or if you appear to be bluffing. That consumer will respect those that provide them with helpful information, and, even if they don't end up buying or selling, they are more likely to tell their friends and relatives about the help they received.
