"Why should people who, for ten or fifteen years, have been competent suddenly become incompetent? The reason in practically all cases I have seen is that people continue in their new assignment to do what made them successful in the old assignment... Then they turn incompetent, not because they have become incompetent, but because they are doing the wrong things." - Peter Drucker, On Asia

As news stories continue to bemoan the "slow" real estate market, it's amazing to see how many real estate agents are quick to point to everyone else around them as the "cause." Rates are high. Buyers are picky. Sellers are unreasonable. The internet sucks. Well, maybe.... but sometimes, it helps to look in the mirror.

Here's what I mean:

The last NAR report of Buyers and Sellers indicated that less than 5% of buyers found the home they actually bought in a newspaper. But the same report showed that more than 60% of REALTORS in the Northeast continue to market property in the newspaper (only 40% in the South). But that's ok: Those newspaper-savvy agents still "profess" that they use the internet! Their listings are online! Just look at them on REALTOR.COM.

Ok. Let's do that.... Here's a quick search on REALTOR.COM for homes in Hartford.

I just picked randomly, but chose HIGH price settings, and scrolled to a random page. Here' what shows on screen for a Hartford, CT search:

Now, if you can't see it clearly in this image, let me spell it out for you:
These are million-dollar-plus listings WITHOUT photos on REALTOR.COM.

That's right; a seller trusted a licensed REALTOR to market their home online. No, not "trusted" - the seller agreed to pay the REALTOR - and let's just say that even 1% of a million bucks is some pretty good dough.

But don't feel bad, Hartford. Here's Chicago:

And let's not leave out the South - here's Houston:

Need I go on?

So, either the REALTOR submitted it to their MLS a) with photos that didn't transfer from the MLS to REALTOR.COM or b) or without photos at the time of submission.

Either way: someone dropped the ball. Either the data service was incompetent (hmmmmm) or the agent didn't submit the photos with the listing. Maybe their digital camera was broken that day....

On million-dollar-plus listings. Wonder what the poor, lowly $250,000-listings look like? (Actually, most of the listings in these searches UNDER $750,000 had photos... but it got less and less the higher the prices went....!)

Oh, and notice how some of these are marked "SHOWCASE"... very nice....

Now, maybe this would be so bad - IF the consumer didn't tell NAR that the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE ONLINE THEY WANT TO SEE is PHOTOS of the property. Followed by property remarks, then virtual tours.

Nor would it be so bad if the FSBO listings didn't have photos either, but if we look at a FSBO site... and look up a million dollar listing... we get this:

A listing with TEN PHOTOS.

(It's a little hard to see in this graphic, but look beneath the picture and you'll see "1 of 10"...)

Now, I'm open to all sorts of explanations. That listings don't really sell online. That photos don't count. That it's all about networking. That REALTORS don't get any leads online anyway. But I just can't believe any of that. I can't believe it's the marketplace, either. Unemployment is low; properly-priced homes in my neighborhood have been selling in under 30 days. Virtual tours are being made by owners with $100 cameras from the local electronics store (and they don't get any training either).

How is it that the real estate industry is suddenly (was it always, really?) in a slump?

Maybe Peter Drucker had the answer. Maybe there are just too many REALTORS who think it's okay to keep doing things the "way they were always done." I mean, you didn't have to submit a photo when you ran an awful classfied ad in the newspaper. And since nobody else was running competing marketing tools (there was no internet back then...) why should today be any different?

Maybe the problem isn't the market. Maybe it's not the competition, either. Maybe the real reason too many REALTORS are struggling isn't discount brokers; or higher rates; or unreasonable sellers; or buyers who only want to communicate by email. Or any of that.

Maybe it's about time we looked for the answer somewhere else.

In the mirror. And a good place to see a REALTOR's reflection is right there on REALTOR.COM

(c) 2007 Matthew Ferrara & Company. Visit our Website.