The Saint Paul Condo Blog

This article was in our recent Realtor Resource magazine, I thought it was such a great article, I called and asked them permission to use it in my blog.  I have felt strongly there is a huge difference in real estate agents for quite some time.  Article below...

Provide ‘Full Service’ and You Will Be Well Compensated

We hear a lot about the difference between full and discount service. For 23 years I have heard a lot about REALTOR® ethics and, like all other professions, most REALTORS® work hard to behave in accordance with treating customers ethically.

Well, the real estate industry now has a chance to prove that they mean what they say and say what they mean. As an industry we were angry about the bogus “pre-approval letters” that many lenders issued to borrowers over the past ten years. We said they were not worth the paper they were printed on and most of the time we were right.

Well, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. What exactly does the real estate business mean by “full service”? Currently, I would argue that most mean full-commission price (whatever the particular broker decides he needs to compete in her/his marketplace). But what the industry needs to do, particularly as a result of this soft market, is spend less time focused on compensation and more time defining the services that it provides to sellers and buyers.

Since a buyer’s market is defined by more inventory (supply) than buyers (demand), pricing, staging, negotiating and risk reduction (informed consent disclosure of material facts) are skills and services competent real estate professionals provide that distinguishes them from their less productive counterparts. Real estate sales, like all sales, will always have a heavy dose of relationship building associated with it. The most critical components of that relationship have shifted with the demographic shifts our society is currently undergoing from “soft relationship building” (sales), to hard, concrete relationships built on the foundation of services and skills provided that get the seller’s house sold and the buyer the house they want and can afford.

REALTORS® must break the “union mold” that all agents are equal. They are not. Some agents are more competent than others. Some are better negotiators, are more detail oriented, careful readers and explainers of complex forms, astute observers of human nature, great stagers, etc. We must distinguish our services based upon a careful and comprehensive examination of the complexity of steps and skills necessary to bring about a satisfying transaction for our represented sellers or represented buyers. 

Gen X and Gen Y have been raised on 200 station TV’s, iPods, the Internet, podcasts and blogs, all of which have created an expectation for immediacy in service. Get the house sold at a good price. Get me the house I want at the price I want to pay and I do not want to wait 6 months. Email me the paperwork and I will electronically sign everything and get the deal closed fast.

This is the new world of real estate. We have never been through a “soft market” like this before. There are two distinguishing characteristics of this market that makes it different than any previous down market: (1) the Internet (immediate availability of a complex of information) — that needs to be translated into usable knowledge at the customer level (2) the current 1st time and 1st repeat-consumers of real estate are the products of this technological revolution. Sales techniques will only be successful with these “new consumers” if they are grounded in knowledge of forms, markets, economics (tax benefits), community knowledge, negotiating skills, etc., as well as an ability to clearly explain how a real estate professional’s compensation relates to the services performed and the individual skills used.

If brokers manage their agents and companies in the direction of carefully delineated quality services for buyers and sellers, they will do more to demonstrate professionalism to consumers than all the professional standards talk ever could. In the process, these broker REALTORS® would radically professionalize the business while adding to their bottom lines. This is no time for business as usual. Just ask the securities and travel businesses.
Reprinted with permission from the Minnesota Association of REALTORS®.

This is where I feel we (The Kleppe Group) excels, we specialize in the Saint Paul Market.  We don't chase buyers all over the metro, and we don't take listings that are out of our area of expertise.  Current market conditions dictate you have an agent is is extremely competent.  We feel we know what we are talking about for Saint Paul.  Looking outside of St Paul?  We have made many good contacts with other realtors who might be better suited for that market.