All I read about in Inman News is regarding the new financial “deal” in real estate. Company Y is rebating commissions to buyers. I-Buying is the next big trend. Company Z is taking offers from unrepresented buyers, which will put us all out of business. When is someone going to admit, it’s still about trust and being trustworthy?
I worked in the car business for 15 years for Nissan/Infiniti in marketing and operations. Buying a car was a consumer’s second-biggest purchase behind a home. I ran the incentive program for both brands and spent $2 Billion a year. That is a capital “B.” Toyota spent a lot less. Finance and Tokyo always wanted to know why we had to offer more money to consumers to buy our cars. It was simple. Consumers trusted Toyota more and they were willing to pay for it. While we talked to consumers about 0-60 times, cool design and paddle shifters on the steering wheel, the other guys were talking about safety, quality and reliability. It was boring but really that simple. Our quality was just as good. We just didn’t talk enough about it!
In the biggest purchase of someone’s life, buying a home, it’s also about trust! Do I trust my agent, the brokerage they represent and the brand behind the brokerage? A few years back, we proved this when we showed consumers a home with a branded yard sign in front and asked them how much the home was worth, and then asked them again but changed the yard sign. One-third of the people changed the price on the same home based on the brand changing. Coldwell Banker received the highest average home price among the brands in the study. Why? People trusted us more.
I believe the majority of sellers will always list their home with a brokerage when they trust that agent/brokerage/brand will represent them honestly and competitively – whether it’s a traditional sale or an I-Buyer transaction – and will pay for that piece of mind. We have the most respected brand in the industry behind us. We are the largest branded brokerage in the US/World. We have great agents that want to affiliate with us because we have that shared value of trust. We don’t lie in our messaging. We don’t stretch the truth. We want the best for everyone in a real estate transaction. We’ve done this for a long time and through a lot of industry shake-ups.
A real estate transaction is positioned to look easy by many new entrants in real estate, but it isn’t. There is a buyer, a seller, a home that needs to be inspected, a mortgage that needs to be secured, a price to be negotiated, state and federal laws to be followed, and most importantly, a person/family going through a major life change. If it’s easy, like buying a soda at 7-Eleven, I don’t need trust. If it’s a difficult type of transaction, I really need trust.
I just sold my house. I used Flor Thomas because I trusted her ability to market my home and achieve the best possible outcome for my family. She counseled us on how to stage our home to be competitive with other homes in my town. She recommended how to price it and stopped me from panicking and wanting to lower the price after a month. We listened and my trust in Flor paid off!
Trustworthiness isn’t sexy and doesn’t sell online subscriptions or get thousands of shares. But it’s always been the real story in real estate. And Coldwell Banker NRT customers couldn’t agree more.
