The Virginia Association of REALTORS has founded an organization dedicated to protecting the interests of Virginia homeowners. It's called the Virginia Homeowner's Alliance. Their web site provides a place to get information on how to improve the value of your home, lets you monitor what's going on in various government entities that may impact you as a homeowner, and will also provide you with an easy way to contact government about your concerns.

With the flood of paid lobbyists at all levels of government this seems like a terrific idea. Citizens come together to make their voices heard. It's one of the things the internet does best.

Once you go to the site and sign up you will not be flooded with a ton of spam! But you will have access to information that I think will be useful to you. In addition to giving you a voice in governement, it also provides useful information on neighborhoods and schools and practical information on things like lawn care. By the way, the site is relatively new. It will continue to grow and expand and your suggestions on how to do that are welcomed!

Now I have a favor to ask. If you do go to the site and register, it asks for the name of the REALTOR who referred you. I'd like to ask that you please enter my name. In the interests of full disclosure this enters me in a drawing for things like an iPOD or a Wii.

But I hope you do this for yourself! And I'll be interested to hear what you think of the site!

There's a new trend among local real estate agents. It's the sign that says simply:  

JULIE

There is, of course, a company name and phone number on this sign. But only a first name. Clearly, the agents using these signs are either convinced they're so famous that they're a household name or they're hoping to be.

If Cher ever decides to go into real estate, she can get by with putting just "Cher" on the sign. Same with Prince.

For the rest of you...

There are about 770 real estate agents in the local REALTOR association. I'm not the only Julie. You're probably not the only Bob or Carol or Ted or Alice. Get over yourself and put your whole name on the sign!

And, by the way, have you filed that "Doing Business As" form with DPOR allowing you to use just your first name in advertising?

I had an interesting incident with another agent recently. I wrote about that in another post. When I wrote it I promised to reflect in a later post on some of the larger industry issues involved.

In many professions there's a tension between the desire to protect the public and the desire to protect the members of that profession. And so, while the Hippocratic oath has doctors promising to "First do no harm" there is also a very strong taboo against criticism of other doctors.

It's really no different in real estate. (Although the stakes are a lot lower!) Part of our code of ethics says that we'll speak no ill of another agent. And, most agents are careful to adhere to that. I have no problem with not indulging in idle gossip about my peers. And, it's certainly much too easy in a very competitive industry to decide it's your job to cast aspersions at those you deem less "professional" than yourself.

But you can carry this too far. It's a thin line you walk and I think we've leaned too far towards protecting our colleagues at the expense of protecting the public. When another agent thinks I have a greater responsibility to protect her and her business than to be honest with the consumer, I think it's a problem.

The thinking in the industry is that my responsibility is to clients who have hired me. The agency relationship with them obligates me to put their interests first. However, even to a customer (otherwise known as the general public) I still owe the duty of honesty.

You can ask whether "honesty" is defined by answering direct questions with honest information or whether it obligates volunteering information for which we weren't directly asked. I'm going to suggest that splitting such hairs is the kind of behavior that makes real estate agents rank very poorly in polls that gauge trust by profession.

As I said, the line is thin. But I think it's time to start leaning the other way!

I hope this is who I am and what I bring to every real estate transaction.

Tom Peters on Passion! from Tom Peters on Vimeo.

(But I bring the experience with it!)

A rare Saturday post as birthdays put me in a reflective mood! (And, clearly a self-indulgent one!)

I got a call yesterday from another agent. This gentleman has been in the business a long time and is very successful. And yet, he's always eager to learn more and he's open to learning from anyone and everyone. I've always been impressed with this man's professionalism.

He called me because a former client was ready to make a move but was worried about using his services. You see this man is in a business networking group with me and felt bad about not giving me the business. But his family's relationship with this agent goes back decades.

I was touched by the call for a couple of reasons. First of all, the other agent certainly didn't need to call me and see if I was OK with his working with this family. But it was certainly courteous and generous of him to do so. We had a great chat and I was happy to tell him that I'm a firm believer in abundance and that there's plenty of business out there without fighting over it!

And I was honored that his client respected me enough and valued our relationship enough to worry about offending me by taking his business elsewhere. I'd love to have his business, don't get me wrong! But no networking group is going to replace decades of loyalty and good service!

These are two great guys trying to do the right thing, the honorable thing. It's not a quality we get to see every day and I am impressed! The real estate industry could use more people like this! But then, what industry couldn't!

As this blog is designed for consumers, not real estate agents, I try to stay away from the navel gazing! After all, it's always too easy to focus on internal industry matters that don't matter at all to you!

However, there's something I came across today that definitely has a bearing on you as a consumer as well as on the industry and on me! This letter was released recently by the Minnesota Association of REALTORS to their agents members.

http://mnrealtor.hhpubs.com/1p_10112006/index.html

This letter makes the case that there are simply too many real estate agents. The volume of business can clearly not support that many agents. It's bad for the industry but it's also bad for the consumer.  And, since this is focused on you, the consumer, I'm going to focus there.

The average real estate agent clearly does this as a hobby.  If they do, say, an average of 3 deals per year, clearly they're not making a living at this. The problem is that a real estate transaction is an increasingly complex deal. Someone who does three deals a year is not well prepared for the bumps in the road, the inevitable obstacles that occur. Now, should you use a hobbyist as your agent and you have a deal that goes smooth as silk, you'll probably never know. But that's a pretty large risk to take with a financial transaction of this size! Three transactions in a year is less than a lot of professional agents do in a month!

It gets scarier! The amount of training required to get into real estate is woefully inadequate. Most agents have their license and do not know how to write a real estate contract! And, while they work under a supervising broker who should have the knowledge and experience to help, there's often too little supervision. And, the system usually puts the burden of asking for help on the agent. Let's face it; some people are great about asking for help as soon as they need it and some will wait until they're drowning! If it's your transaction they're drowning in, that's a problem!

And, it's a problem for me on many levels. If you have a bad experience with one of these agents, it will color what you think of my profession. And, when I work on a transaction with an inexperienced agent representing the other side, it can make my job a lot harder!

We as an industry should definitely continue to encourage people who are not serious about this to move on. We should also be working to require higher levels of education prior to entry into this profession.  But this affects your wallet too!  And the consumers should absolutely be screaming for higher standards!

I'd love to hear what you think of this Minnesota article and if you've had any experiences that reinforce what it's saying!