Better speedy than good?
Eight or nine years ago a well-respected old-timer stood up at a meeting of local agents and demanded to know why we were always busting a gut to meet our clients' upward-spiraling need for speed. Wasn't the priceless, hard-won knowledge gained over a thirty-year career in real estate enough to satisfy these hyper-active whipper-snappers?
The answer, of course, was no. Not entirely no, of course, but enough no to be, for all intents and purposes, no. In real estate, as in life, it's never enough to be good. No, first of all, you've got to convince someone you're good, and in real estate that someone has to be a potential client and not just your wife. But even that's not enough. No, you've got to convince a potential client you care. And evidently the easiest way to convince a potential client you care is to drop everything to respond to her email or voicemail. It's even a good idea if she thinks she's your only client, although if she thought that through...
I accept all this but, even so, fondly remember that old-timer and his valiant if doomed defiance of the 21st century. And I especially thought of him as I read the ninth annual California Association of Realtors® Survey of California Home Buyers. Because one thing in particular stands out in that survey: why many buyers select their agent.
A whopping 44 percent of Internet-driven home buyers, and a virtually identical 43 percent of traditional home buyers, "selected their agent because he or she seemed to be the most responsive", according to the survey. The second and third choices, "most qualified" and "most aggressive", virtually tied at about 20 percent in each group. "Drives a Mercedes" came fourth, at about 10 percent. Just kidding: it was "most knowledgeable". The fifth criterion, "first agent or quickest agent to respond"—indicating either a need for speed to the x power or "they're all alike so just pick the first one you talk to"—got about 4 percent.
On the face of it, it's unremarkable that buyers would overwhelmingly prefer a responsive agent. Not only does no one want to work with an agent who seems to have forgotten they exist. It's also that home buying is stressful, even for the clients, which means that every question a buyer has for her agent is a pressing question demanding a quick answer, reassuring or otherwise.
But it's interesting to note the startling difference between Internet and traditional buyers when asked "how important the agent's response time was in their decision on the selection process". 91 percent of Internet-driven buyers thought the agent's response time either "very important" or extremely important", while only 62 percent of traditional buyers thought agent response time this critical.
Why are traditional buyers so much more patient than Internet buyers? First of all, to anyone reading this Web page it may seem archaic to differentiate Internet-driven from traditional buyers—after all, doesn't everyone hang out on the 'net 24/7?—but many of (but not all) my older buyers either don't own a computer or do but still prefer a "high touch" phone call from their agent. To them, email is far too distant and impersonal for an undertaking as important as buying a home. So when the survey mentions "traditional buyers" it's most likely talking about older buyers, although the traditionalists' median age of 46 indicates that many are still well within the age group that uses the Internet frequently.
But I suspect it's mostly the sixty- and seventy-somethings who don't mind waiting a bit to hear from their agent. Whether this is because sixty- and seventy-somethings are more likely to lead a relaxed life, or more likely to remember when life was more relaxed—or more likely to value experience and knowledge over an itchy trigger finger on a BlackBerry®—I really can't say.
Drill down further in the survey and you discover an even bigger divide between these two groups of buyers: 31 percent of Internet buyers expect their agent to "respond instantly", up from the 2007 survey's 22 percent, while "none of the traditional buyers, on the other hand, expected an instant response". So let me get this straight: nearly one in three Internet-driven (and I do mean driven) buyers expect an immediate response from their agent, while none in three traditional buyers do? Then consider the lower median age of the Internet buyer, 39, and the younger buyer's preference for email, and it seems to boil down to this: nearly one in three younger buyers expect their agent to click "reply" instantly.
I really hate to do it, but this is where I show my advanced age. Folks, I love, love, love email. Not only is email by far the best way to communicate the complex messages inherent to real estate, from the very first steps to closing and beyond. It's also by far the best way to document those complex messages. And, yes, I own a BlackBerry and have for years and don't know how I ever lived without it. As I told one of my young high-tech clients (who doesn't own a BlackBerry), "It's a great way to compulsively check your email." And I can't recall ever having a client complain that I didn't get back to them fast enough. So it's not like I'm going to stand up and publicly question why I have to work under 21st-century conditions. And by the way, back when I managed property I was often the manager on call for emergencies, and no one ever demanded to know why I took so long to respond. I'm proud to say that no tenants were harmed in the making of this career, nor did any buildings burn down or blow up.
But according to the survey, we now have a sizeable and rapidly expanding percentage of the home-buying public that expects an immediate response, apparently even to non-urgent messages, even if their agent is at that very moment:
Okay, I think you get the idea. I think you'll especially get the idea if you concede that no client finding herself in any of these situations would drop everything to return her agent's email. Not that her agent would expect her to. In fact, he'd know that email is the absolute worst way to get an urgently-needed response from a client, even with that exclamation-mark doohickey affixed to it. That's why mobile devices still have vestigial phones that make you sound like you're calling from forty feet under water.
So now that I've conspicuously identified myself to the Internet as an old curmudgeon, let me say that, yes, I know that a) life isn't fair, John, so get over it, and b) these days many younger professionals spend their workday in front of a computer, and for them, banging out a quick reply is a relatively simple matter. In fact, I'm told that there are people paid to do nothing but read emails, send emails, forward emails and reply to emails. And while they play a vital role in our economy, I can assure you that these people aren't real estate agents.
And here we get to the crux of the matter: the public has little or no idea what agents do or how they do it. And, I should add, what makes a good agent, or even perhaps that good agents exist. Because having the latest in mobile device bling doesn't make an agent a stand-out. And sitting in his cubicle in front of a computer is generally about the least productive way a busy agent can spend his valuable time. A real estate agent is expected to be out and about, with things to meet and people to do. That's how home buyers get to be homeowners.
But this old curmudgeon sees a ray of hope. Because according to the survey, the percentage of first-time buyers who "chose 'first agent to respond to inquiry' as the most important reason for selecting an agent dropped from 35 percent in 2007 to 4 percent in 2008".
They're getting it! Now we old-timers need to get it too, and then we'll all meet in the middle and stand in a circle and hold hands. And while we're doing this, please turn off your mobile device.