JudiB

When I was a young Mom, Real Estate called to me as a way I could keep myself available to my two small children, earn extra income to help my family, and do something that I thought would be both fun and challenging...helping people through one of their life's "benchmark" moments...the purchase or sale of a home.

That was well over two decades ago!  Now years have passed, the kids are grown and building families of their own...and I'm still helping people through those benchmark moments...I'm even helping SOME of them for the third, or fourth time or more!!!  And what an experience this has been!

As when I first started, my market is primarily the western and northwestern suburbs of Chicagoland (northern DuPage County, northwest suburban Cook County, and eastern Kane County...though I live in DuPage, I'm less than 5 miles from either Cook or Kane County, so those inter-country commutes are very short!).  My market consists of single family homes and a variety of attached home  alternatives as well, including condos, townhouses, duplexes, manor homes,  quads, and attached single family homes.  Over time, as my clients and their referrals have moved around, my business has expanded throughout the Chicago area into other counties as well.

In late 2006, when Mollie Wasserman launched her new consulting program (ACRE...Accredited Consultant in Real Estate), I was one of the first agents to enroll.  A year later, I was honored by being recruited to be on the ACRE Council which oversees the entire program, and became one the ACRE Coaches...positions I currently maintain.  I've long believed that our industry has to make some serious changes.  Certainly the arrival of Buyer Agency was a good start, helping to level the playing field between buyers and sellers.  But much more needs to be done.  When we, as agents, are charged with full fiduciary responsibilities as agents, yet must operate a "sales" people, there are frequent conflicts between those roles.  The consumer certainly understands that.  There's no doubt that fact is, at least in part, at the root of much of the consumer mistrust of agents.

And the consumer has also been making it abundantly clear that our "one size fits all" mentality of only offering "commission paid at close of escrow" is no longer enough.  Unfortunately, not understanding the what we really do, they often get hooked into believing that they can have everything we offer at ridiculously low prices, and get hooked by the "snake oil salesman".  Though the price they pay may be really cheap, the experience generally is not!  The handwriting is clearly on the wall...the consumer wants options!  And as many of those fsbo and online services have proven, they are also willing to pay up front for them.   Why aren't we, as the  industry professionals, offering them?

Through consulting,  I can offer my clients and customers a host of alternative services as well as a variety of ways to pay for them.  The commission model is generally the most expensive way for the consumer to pay because it assumes a very high premium for "risk mitigation".   When the consumer is offered alternatives, like specific fees for specific services, like assorted bundled services, like paying by the hour, not only do they benefit because they have choices, so do we as an industry.  They are getting "transparency"...understanding WHAT they are paying, as well as what they are PAYING FOR.  And offering such alternatives means being able to provide services for people who would never have contacted us in the first place (like the fsbo who simply needs someone to help them write a contract, and negotiate/troubleshoot the transaction).

I've long believed that if we, as an industry, do not make the necessary evolutionary changes in response to changing market conditions and consumer demands, someone else will do it for us.  Including consulting services is, in my opinion, a giant leap in the direction of giving the consumer what they want while still remaining integral, as an industry, to their real estate needs.