Perfectly Interesting Blueberries

Seth Godin is prolific and at least a couple times per week posts blogs that  provoke deep thoughts about the current state of the real estate business and how it got that way. There's often a little extrapolation involved and frame shifting and even a flight of pure fantasy on occasion--because Seth doesn't write about real estate--thank God! I'm still hoping that real estate is part of the normal world (hate to think I'd been in an alternate universe for the past 26 years!), so I push and tug till a nexus appears between his blog and a potential topic for this blog.

If you want to discover new ideas about real estate, you've got to go elsewhere--there are few new ideas within real estate. New ideas are generally looked upon with apprehension approaching a superstition state. The successful agents fear that departing from their present path might lead to failure (ie less money) and those who aren't yet successful KNOW THE WAY to find success (ie more money) is to locate the path taken by already successful agents and stay on it religiously without glancing up, down or sideways.

AND here it comes again! WHAT about the consumer, ie the public, the buyer or seller? Where do they fit?
You might think that without Buyers and Sellers, real estate is just sitting there looking pretty, along with agents, waiting in anticipation.

That's not quite right, because even without Buyers and Sellers there's a huge complex of commercial enterprises selling agents seminars, books (not so much anymore), DVDs, tech gadgets, web/social networking solutions, marketing nirvana and, last, but not least, repackaged data (that the agents pretty much already have). It's a huge industry and the trade associations (or labor unions, if you will) control a substantial portion of it. Members are captive consumers who in some cases pay for or subsidize products with portions of their dues. Free sounds very attractive, even if it's not really free and it's not the best available product. Of course the Buyers and Seller would understand why an inferior product was being used for their transaction if they knew the great deal the agent got on it---wouldn't they??

So at least in good times, Buyers and Sellers roam across the real estate landscape. How do they measure success? For the time being let's assume that actually matters in the greater scheme of things (more on that later).

Buyers probably would include stuff like--finding the RIGHT HOUSE at an attractive price and purchasing it with minimal hassle, anxiety or uncertainty-- all in a timely manner. RIGHT HOUSE (if you haven't read earlier posts) is defined as the one house, among all the houses available for purchase, that represents the best overall match to the wants and needs of the Buyer, with a healthy measure emotional resonance thrown in.  .

Sellers want the most possible money with the least cost and hassle, plus a timely close (in other words, they want the RIGHT BUYER to see their house to decide that it is their RIGHT HOUSE).

If that's what the Buyers and Sellers are after, how much of the real estate industrial complex is focused on providing just that experience as often as possible? Here's where it starts getting complicated, so we need to bring in Seth's recent blogs to throw some fruit into the mix.

Here's Seth's Perfect vs. Interesting blog, but first read Blueberries and Apples.

Then we'll be ready to explore further (I have and KNOW this is too long for one post!).