More cyber scene

Been a few days since last post due to business, life and other distractions.

Have had a chance to talk with a few people about RPR--although most agents are totally unaware. The day to day impact of the trade organizations on their members is certainly present in a major way--but most of the members aren't aware of it. They are not engaged in the process--which works fine for the organizations.

Remember from my profile that I like to turn things around and approach a question from the opposite direction--just for fun (I have a strange sense of fun).

Regarding RPR, what doesn't it do? We're hearing how cool it is--but what doesn't it do. What will excellent agents need to add to the RPR contribution to provide impressive service to their clients to further their immediate wants and needs?

A quick aside recalls as tag line I used years ago in an ad--"we measure success the same way you do--one transaction at a time". That's the clients perspective--they want the best possible service for THEIR needs in a particular transaction. They don't care about annual production totals or average closings a month, etc., etc.

The knowledge necessary to facilitate wise decisions by a client will include some of the information in the RPR container (but not all--some of it is just extra baggage for most purposes), but it will also contain information derived from real world experiences at the property and in areas nearby.

It should include visits at different times of the day--light, neighborhood activity (noise, parking, pets) varies greatly as the day unfolds. The important thing about these off site factors is they are beyond direct control. You buy the houses, you get so much more and most of that is the way it is-can't be changed. That's an exploration and discovery challenge beyond RPR.

Spending time in the house to asses "feel", in addition to utilitarian matters, plays a big part in the final decision. If the feel isn't right, it may not be easy to change either. One of the things a good agent can do, based on experience with lots of houses and lots of clients, is understand why a house feels the way it does to a particular client. Some of those reasons can be addressed--some can't or just remain of uncertain origin.

If the Buyer is trying to get the best price on an income property, the critical assessment of emotional appeal may seem unimportant, but the next owner may occupy the house. Tenants also heed the feel factor --it may not impact rent a great deal, but vacancy factor is often affected.

You probably see a pattern. There are many things about a house that still require real world experience. Videos and photos offer a partial glimpse of those factors, but only a glimpse and the quality of visual representation of real estate remains mediocre at best.

Where's the balance? Agents certainly can't spend all their time at the computer and provide the expertise needed to deliver excellence in client service.
The flip side is that they COULD spend almost no time at the computer and achieve that outstanding service level. The caveat is that they'd spend a lot of time viewing houses in person, probably in a very limited area. Gee, that's what we did 25years ago. Current trends include wider market areas made possible with the technology boost. Service levels are the issue. If you went on a safari into the deepest darkest most dangerous jungle imaginable, would you want a guide who had done copious computer research on that very jungle or a guide who had actually lived in that jungle for 30 years?

Given technology and current business practices, there should be a balance and RPR probably sets a new standard as a means of filtering information to speed the process of indentifying likely houses to show. The danger is that some houses that might actually make the short list for final consideration may slip through the filters--and others that look good on paper, my not actually be worth considering. That's what happens with representations of reality--called sampling error in statistics. A huge number of attributes, but not approaching a couplete set, can produce a profile that looks appealing from a certain angle. Viewing the data cluster from a different angle or in person can be an unpleasent surprise and you never know what houses you didn't see at all because they didn't meet search criteria.

Real people live in real houses. The measure of satisfaction is defined by the quality of the experiences associated with living there. That resonance between house and occupant is shaped by intuition--not by endless columns of alphanumeric data.

RPR may humanize the resource in the future, but at present it seems to suggest that quality cyber space is all that matters to the agent or the public. Not true, now or ever, IMHO.

Final quick note on calREDD launch in Lake County--when have we ever experienced so many press releases about a simple MLS launch in a very small installation? Says a lot about calREDD and CAR--there is no routine success after the Fresno mystery.

Lastly, the hiatus from further expansion announced by CARETS is a smart move. Organizational and technological fine tuning is needed and with the impact of RPR still pretty fuzzy, the timing is perfect to make some adjustments for the future.