If only this business were as easy at it looks on Million Dollar Listing. If you've ever watched the show, all the agents ever seem to have to do is throw open the front doors for an open house, have plenty of fancy snacks handy and wait for the offers to come rolling in. Needless to say, much as L.A. Law had little to do with the actual legal profession, these snippets from Bravo barely relate to the realities of marketing real estate.

Yesterday I promised my daughter I'd only work for an hour or so. That hour easily stretched to three hours. And I still have a website to complete for a peer, a newsletter to write and a dozen other minor tasks to complete. So what has taken so much time? Marketing, my friends. Marketing.

On Saturday I took a listing on 8552 W. Rue de Lamour in Peoria. Since that time I have entered the listing into MLS, ordered a virtual tour, added a listing to craigslist, ordered an e-mail flyer and added the property to my website and posted an entry about the home on Active Rain. That still leaves me to create the individual property page for the home, create a blog post here and send send Just Listed postcards. I left the flyers in the hands of my listing coordinator and am actively working to shift additional responsibilities in the future.

The cycle actually will repeat itself tomorrow when I enter another listing, this one a 3.3-acre horse property in Wittmann, into the MLS tomorrow morning. All of the above will be done once again. And again for the other 10 properties I currently have listed.

My goal is to be working with a Buyers Specialist by the end of this year, allowing me to focus on listings and relocation clients. There are some hurdles to overcome to get there, but once I'm there I'm confident the amount of work passing through at Dalton's Arizona Homes will be much higher than it is now.

In the interim, I did take two intelligent steps. First, I am using a listing coordinator to assist in getting my marketing rolling as soon as possible on these listings. When you offer a 45-day listing period on most homes, there is little time to lose.

And second, I am partnering with another agent in my office, Jaie Wiley, to handle rental and rent-to-own leads. These have been very consistent over the past two years and bringing in help is the best way of making sure all of them are handled expeditiously.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes

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Many people enter the real-estate industry because the requirements are light and the possible rewards seem great. "I want the license for my own deals" or "I'll just do some for friends and family, here and there" are the most common refrains. And from a distance, real estate seems like a tremendous risk-reward proposition: pay $300 - $400 to attend a certified real estate school, pass the licensing exam and activate your license for $100 and change and you're off and running.

Right?

Well, no.

I just completed paying my yearly dues to the Phoenix Association of Realtors. It's almost the stuff of MasterCard commercials:

    National Association of Realtors Dues         $  94
    Arizona Association of Realtors Dues           $150
    Phoenix Association of Realtors Dues          $  75
    Opportunity to be bashed on real estate
       bubble blogs from coast to coast                 PRICELESS

Membership in NAR locally isn't exactly required but if you want access to the local MLS you have to belong. You also have to pay a separate MLS dues fee later in the year.

Everywhere you turn in this profession, there is someone waiting with their hand out politely requesting another check. And so you wonder ... with the turn in the market last year and with the seemingly easy money of 2005 gone, how many part-time sometime real estate agents are going to reach into their wallets for another year's worth of dues? My hunch is we'll see the numbers decline this year ... not an unwelcome sight, not so much for the reduced competition but simply because of the level of competence (or lack thereof) being purged from the market.


(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes

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Real estate is a service industry. In fact, you hear the word service bandied about almost constantly - we provide better service, just wait until you see our service, top-notch service, world-class service, limited service, room service ... well, the wife may question me on the latter so we'll move on.

In truth, there's no objective way to measure service. If a real estate transaction goes smoothly, the client walks away convinced on the excellent service they received. Communication may be a more useful term than service, as those buyers and sellers who don't hear from their agents tend to be the ones who believe they received terrible service. (Try using a family member in a real estate transaction and see how often you really hear from them, whether they treat you like their other clients.)

Given that there's no objective way to measure service, it's difficult to measure the true value of a real estate professional. Again, in a smooth transaction, there's little to judge by (although it easily can be argued the transaction went smoothly because of the agent's work ... or maybe it wasn't smooth whatsoever, but the client doesn't know any different because of the agent's efficiency and knowledge.)

But not all real estate transactions are smooth. In fact, there almost always are one or two challenges - some minor, some major - along the way in any real estate transaction. It is in these times that an agent's true value comes into play.

For example, one of my listings is in the midst of an extended escrow. Why? Because the buyer was unable to qualify for his loan as the closing date approached because his FICO score had dropped. A less experienced likely would have tossed in the towel and started the search anew for a new buyer. Instead, the buyers' agent and I have spent the past 10 days working on alternate solutions to complete the escrow. Again, why? Because my seller wants to sell and the buyer has nowhere else to go. It's the right thing to do. And we have the knowledge to pull it off (if we can get the lender to sign off on the solution.)

On another potential deal, my buyers and I have waited more than a week to hear what is happening with an offer made. My buyer is getting increasingly frustrated, and for just one reason - communication from the listing agent has been negligible. This one's a short sale (the seller owes more than the home is worth) but still ... a little communication will go a long way.

Many confuse experience with time in the business. I think Ardell was on the right track when she tied the idea of experience to the number of transactions completed by a given agent. Or as Greg said over at Bloodhound today, experience comes one painful lesson at a time.

(And yes, I fell victim today to what many real estate bloggers have found - you think up a great topic, then watch it appear on Odysseus' blog before Tobey had a chance to clear his throat.)

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes

With getting some listing paperwork signed late yesterday afternoon, spending some time with the family and then attending an Executive Committee meeting for my local synagogue, I was out of the electronic loop from about 4 p.m. yesterday until mid-day today. Little did I know the new real estate world that would be waiting for me today.

That, of course, is an exaggeration. But from the proliferation of articles today on one topic - an upgrade to Zillow that allows property owners to "list" their own properties and set a "make me sell" price (a dream price at which they'd start packing, even if they had no intention of moving) - it would seem the real estate industry as we know it has come to a halt.

Well, yes and no. And it seems opinions on the ultimate impact of Zillow's changes depend greatly on the author's already-established opinion of the direction of the real estate industry.

Merv at the Northern Virginia Real Estate Guide opined ...

The significance of this might well be to make every MLS obsolete, realtor.com irrelevant, Google Base old fashioned, Craig's list history and significantly transform the role of a real estate agent as a central figure in the transaction to one of a real estate transaction advisor as buyers search for homes and sellers are empowered to market their own homes on a massive scale.

I believe we're several steps short of every MLS being obsolete or even making Realtor.Com irrelevant. For all of the discussion of local Multiple Listing Systems pulling their listings from Realtor.Com, the fact remains that the vast majority of brokerage-listed properties not only can be seen on the site but are automatically populated. Zillow, at this juncture, is relying solely on property owners and enterprising agents to enter homes for sale. Kris Berg at the San Diego Home Guide discusses this further.

As for the impending obsolescence of the MLS, I believe this is a notion fed by a misconception of the MLS' purpose. As I have stated many times, the Multiple Listing Service is nothing more or less than a database that allows real estate brokerages to communicate their listings to each other while also offering cooperation to those brokerages who bring buyers to the listings. Since Zillow does not have all the homes for sale, and there is no offer of cooperation, it in no way replaces what exists in the MLS.

Now call my a cynic (I'll wait while you do so) ... but if Zillow attracts a great number of people to the website to list their homes, and in time it is proven that this service provides value, isn't it logical to expect the big Z to charge for the service? And once they cross that threshold, are the Zillow listings anything more than a better marketed FSBO site?

Also, Zillow has decided to allow agents to add their property listings to the site. I've tried it here and others, including Ardell in Seattle and the aforementioned Kris Berg, were doing the same. And again, if it is proven that there is value to a Zillow online listing, wouldn't it be natural to assume that Zillow ultimately will charge for this service? And when they do charge for listings to be added, does the site then become more or less relevant than a Realtor.Com that also charges for upgraded listings?

I'm going to wrap this as much of today's discussion across real estate blogs has been duplicative. But before I call it an afternoon, I'll add one final twist.

So far I've added one property to Zillow. Why? Because in the other cases, the Zestimate provided is lower than the list price of the home. While it seems like a simple difference in calculations, consider the possible ramifications over time:

1) Does a lower Zestimate, accurate or not, provide a prospective buyer with a starting offer or, worse yet, a perceived notion of value that will not or cannot be overcome with additional information?
2) Since Zillow allows property owners to adjust the estimated value of their home, are we going to see homeowners adjusting their prices to the values they'd rather see to justify higher possible list prices? (In theory this can happen now, but I believe the side-by-side sales price and estimated value will create an inexorable link in the mind of a buyer.)
3)  Can a property owner opt out of the system when the estimate can impact their ability to sell for fair value? Sellsius wrote about this one.

And the final question ... while the technological side of things seems wonderful, is there anyone else wondering how strong a structure being built upon a house of cards possibly can be? Keep in mind I have no issue with Zillow adding listings - while the bubble heads are off praying for the destruction of the real estate agency, those of us in the industry with any kind of a clue already are adapting in under a day.

But given that Zillow's estimates only are as good as the last few sales, that in areas where there are no sales the data can be shaky, that there are any number of unzillowables out there ... with an increasing amount of information presented as fact versus conjecture, will this great real estate Tower of Babel come tumbling down if the underlying stones mentioned in the previous sentence aren't anchored more securely?

That's it for me ... I'll be going through the rest of the posts in a bit. If you're interested in the varied reactions, here's a list compiled by Drew at the Zillow blog:

Greg at the Bloodhound Blog on the 900-pound AVM
Ardell's first blush at Rain City Guide
Future of Real Estate Marketing, Zillow Offers Free Listings
Transparent RE's Zillow Primer
Kevin Boer at Three Oceans on the world changing
Galen's always unique perspective at Rain City Guide
Jim Duncan at Real Central Virginia
Maureen Francis' first-ever Zillow post. (Really?)
Jonathan Miller at the Matrix on the make me move price

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Daltons Arizona Homes

The notion that technology in real estate is a passing fad, something that easily can be ignored as a potential for building a business, has rated in my mind somewhere between fantasy and lunacy. Otherwise sane individuals who personally use the Internet to pay bills, to shop for holiday presents, to balance their checkbook and the like still manage to say with conviction that technology serves next to no purpose in selling real estate.

Sellsius wrote about the phenomenon of buyers using the old-fashioned real estate newspaper classifieds to search for homes. The comfort of print, of the black ink staining your fingertips, seems to carry considerable weight in many people's minds. Some sellers still demand print ads, with the four lines of abbreviations virtually devoid of any creativity in lieu of the much richer, much more detailed marketing available through the Internet.

Century 21 has adopted a policy, effective the first of the year, that any listing not containing at least three photographs will not be included on Century21.com. Why? Because statistics have shown buyers viewing properties on line, when confronted with dozens of similar homes within a city, narrow their search by arbitrary factors such as the number of photographs available and/or the presence of a virtual tour. Put another way, why would an Internet buyer with an Internet attention span (roughly 1.2 milliseconds) waste their time looking at a home with one or zero photos when there are dozens of others to view?

Amazingly, this policy has been met by grumbling from agents with my company and presumably with agents throughout the rest of the state and the country. And I have to ask ... why? Why is it so impractical to provide a bare minimum of photographs to help market a property that you have listed? Three photos cover the basics that 99% of buyers want to see - front yard, back yard and kitchen. Other photographs are great, but the vast majorities of buyers I've worked with want to see the kitchen and the two years. No debate needed.

Our company's technology guru wrote in part, "rest assured people are definitely on the Internet looking for properties that meet their specific criteria" and that "every web site counts, every bit of exposure helps."

Why this is a debate in 2006 is absolutely beyond me. Why sellers continue to hire agents who don't understand the importance of technology in real estate sales also is beyond me.

This week I discussed real estate blogging in my office's weekly sales meeting. One or two agents asked questions. The rest stared blankly at the projected images as if they were 3-D art, unaware of the potential ... or the need.

Technologies currently available allow a single agent to service exponential numbers of clients than otherwise possible. For example, online property listings can be sent, allowing buyers to narrow their choices themselves and save themselves and the agent time wasted on homes without the right curb appeal, the right kitchen.

While many agents alternately cringe from and bash Zillow, I've started running Zestimates on homes I'm about to list so I can see what my client presumably is seeing. Knowing the answer allows me to counter objections in specific terms versus the nebulous "well, only an agent can truly calculate a home's value." Maybe the fine tuning, but a market average is a market average regardless of who's calculating the price.

This isn't to say real estate can exist solely on a technological basis, as the industry remains relationship-based. A human touch is needed somewhere along the lines, especially considering the dollars being spent and the nerves and egos being soothed.

But to deny the possibilities, to say nothing of the necessities, of using technology is enough to make you wonder where they find movies in BetaMax format to fill otherwise client-less days.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes