a few steps along the path

Mother's health took a turn, so was barely in office yesterday. At the end of the previous blog I posed questions about the nature of the real estate industry and the answers are still emerging from swirling billows of fog or smoke or cosmic debris.

Before we wander down this path a bit, winding between sales and fiduciary duty, let me disclaim any special qualifications as a legal scholar. I've been called a scholar on several occasions, but never a legal one--not sure how I'd take that if it did happen--LOL.

Let's start with where the money originates--the BUYER. What's the Buyer want? Most want to choose the Right house (or other property) from among those available for purchase. "Right" being variably defined as satisfying some sweet balance of emotional feelings, practical aspects, projected future value, anticipated maintenance expenses, etc etc. Moreover the Buyer desires to pay a fair price, maybe even a bargain price, with the least possible trouble (risk and liability). In general terms, those are the Buyers wants and needs. To meet them Buyers typically engage the services of an Agent, who serves in the capacity of a fiduciary, who employs utmost care in applying knowledge, experience, analysis to define the Buyer's wants and needs, then uses a host of special skills to meet the best interests of the Buyer in the resulting property selection and transaction. An attorney once offered this analogy at a seminar--a fiduciary is like a super clone- like you, only possessing additional skills and knowledge that are applied to achieving your best interests.

Interestingly, each Buyer has different wants and needs in terms of property characteristics and in terms of the degree of assistance they desire from a fiduciary. You might notice that this description of what the Buyer wants probably hasn't changed a huge amount over the years.

That's a quick look at the actual fiduciary/entrustor portion of the real estate ecosystem, a complex hyperspace formed of overlapping components that combine to form the real estate industry.

Next we'll look at how the fiduciary achieves the Buyer's individual wants and needs and consider changes to that process attributable to shifting technology.