John Tuccillo is a former NAR Chief Economist and one I respect for consistently telling it like it is. I check out his website frequently to find out what he's thinking. It's always thought provoking.

Recently, John was quoted as saying that the competence of real estate professionals "has fallen to its lowest point ever." Real estate consultant Jim Sherry says "Consumers have no guarantee that anyone calling themselves a REALTOR actually knows what they are doing."

It would be hard to disagree with either of these statements. I run into colleagues with alarming frequency who clearly don't have a clue what they're doing! We all bear some responsibility for this.

Consumers bear some responsibility for their willingness to tolerate ridiculously low standards for their real estate professionals.

The industry bears responsibility on several fronts. We don't demand higher standards for ourselves. We also don't do a good enough job of self-policing.

The regulators and legislators have clearly fallen down on their responsibility to consumers.

But enough about blame. What's a consumer to do? How do you know if the real estate agent you pick is any good?

I've had a series of blog posts on how to choose your agent. But I'd also like to recommend a site where the public has the ability to rate agents they've done business with.  That latter part is important. There are a lot of sites springing up where people can rate real estate agents. But they don't have to have had any contact at all with that agent to rate them! That can lead to all kinds of mischief and certainly isn't likely to be very reliable information.

QSC, on the other hand, is an independent organization. I ask them to send feedback requests to each of my clients after our transaction is complete. Sometimes clients send them back. Sometimes they don't. But over time you begin to get a sense of whether or not I'm any good at what I do.

QSC is not the complete answer. But it's a start until the rest of us start working on doing our part!