Real Estate Agents and Bloggers: Marriage Made in Heaven

It seems that blogging has taken over the world. When I first started blogging, it wasn’t yet cool and was still in its early stages. Bloggers were being recruited to join the large blog “companies” where they would feel strength in numbers.

I started my own blog “Baseball Garbage” and was focusing on minor league baseball, when I was recruited to write at the Most Valuable Network and the recruitment continued until I joined The Baseball Digest this past winter. Did my “base” grow because of the names associated with these sites? Yes and No. They gave me a nice “background” to share my work. But these were niche readerships, not often would someone reading about tennis flip over to independent baseball.

However, it was the “selling” point for the company to recruit “volunteer” writers.

And that was in some extent true. But really, how many bloggers would read the other people’s blogs? Well, not that many.

And sitting in listing appointments, Toby is quick to point-out the similar rationale works within real estate companies. Of course, every agent wants to sell his/her listing to other agents in their office and make everyone within that large corporation a ton of money.

Or do they …

Well, no they don’t. In a perfect world, these agents are looking to secure buyers for their listings and find homes for their buyers. Do they care if it is my listing or the guy in the cubicle next to him? Yes and No.

And if he does, then we have two issues at play here.

• First, he’s lazy. He wants to sell the product that he “knows”. It is always easier to sell something that you have more information on. But is “easier” in his clients best interest? No.
• Second, he’s getting a “kick-back” to sell the home within the company. Which would be illegal — similar to the old radio stunt of payola — unless it was disclosed in the listing agreement and on the HUD-1. And that would be an awkward moment during the listing presentation.

Neither of these scenarios make listing with the “big” company any more appealing for the consumer.

Am I suggesting that the “big” companies are bad? Of course not. Am I saying they have bad agents. Yep, but then so do independents.

All, I’m saying is look past the glitzy presentation materials and find out what makes the agent you are working with tick. Make sure s/he’s the best agent for you and your situation.

Or you just may find yourself hoping for a tennis player to buy your baseball diamond.

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