Why is Client loyalty important in real estate?  Being in the real estate business has become a tougher industry to survive in than ever before.  Why?  There is just no client loyalty anymore.  What do I mean by that?  Lets take a look back in time how the real estate business used to work before people found real estate on the internet.

Back in the day, if you needed to buy or sell a house, you would go to your local real estate office and sit down with a realtor and discuss your goals.  During that initial meeting you form a relationship with the real estate broker and actively decided if you wanted to do business with that person based on how the meeting went.  Assuming the meeting went well, you would either hire that broker to sell your house, or commission them in helping you find a new home if you are looking to buy.  Because that initial face to face relationship was formed, the client would  trust their broker enough that, they do not feel the need to get in contact with another broker since they already found someone they feel will do the job right.

How is this different from the way things work today?  The difference is night and day.  What is the first step a buyer or seller takes in todays world ?  They go to google and look up what their property is worth or check countless listings on websites like zillow, and trulia and contact dozens of agents.  This experience can be disappointing for both the client looking for real estate info/advice and for the broker looking to provide it.  Clients believe that there are all these “new listings” or “great deals” out there, only to find out that most of those listings are too good to be true or just flat out fake and fraudulent.  Realtors get the illusion that they have a new client, when in fact they do not, since that person has been clicking away for the last hour or so, contacting many real estate agents.  Clients get discouraged by the sea of fake listing content and realtors get discouraged by the lack of communication or loyalty from the client

Think about it this way and put yourself in the shoes of a realtor for a moment.  You make strictly commission, and only get paid when you make a sale/rental.  Now in order to close a sale or rental, you need a client that needs to find or sell a property.  But if that client is working with several different realtors, then none of them stand a decent chance at earning a commission.  So then, what is the incentive to help you, the client?  From a realtor standpoint, there really isn’t any.  Realtors don’t trust that the client is being loyal, and the client does not trust the broker is really working for them.  This is a major problem in the real estate business today and that is why I am writing this article, to create awareness of this disconnect.

This online real estate way of doing things creates a human disconnect, in a human and highly personal, face to face business.  This is a factor everyone should consider before doing their next real estate transaction.  Consider this, how are you going to trust a broker that you have never met and just contacted from a listing you found online, and you don’t even know if the listing is real or if the broker is legitimate or experienced?  How can you make one of the most important purchase or selling decisions of our life based off of a simple google search?  I don’t know about you, but that just sounds crazy!  Would you buy a car without ever test driving it?  Or how about giving over all of your personal information to a financial advisor that you haver never met who promises to make you money in stock market.  I think not.

So what are some of the benefits of interviewing a broker in person?

• You will get to know them from a personal point of view

• You will see first hand if they really have the knowledge to sell your home

• Do they know the area you are interested in?

• Any questions you have before signing a contract can be answered

• Find out what makes them stand out and what they will do differently for you

• If you don’t like them, you can find someone else before its too late!

• If searching for a new home, all of the work is done for you (this is our job, not yours!)

So, if you really want to get comfortable with your next real estate transaction, the best thing you can do is meet your broker face to face before doing business with them.  This will give you the confidence to do business with them or not and allow you to make an informed decision.

While technology definitely serves its purpose in today’s business world, we all need to remember that we are all still human working with other humans.  I will definitely stay true to this article.  If you made it to the end and are interested in working with me, please call, text or email me and I am happy to setup a face to face meeting with you either at my office or in a more casual setting like a coffee shop to discuss your Miami Beach Real Estate needs.