Good grief. I hate vacuuming. I hate ironing even more, no matter how extreme.

There was an interesting article by June Fletcher in the WSJ called The Gofer Broker which basically said:

>With the housing market in a dive and homes lingering unsold for months, the relationship between real-estate agents and their clients is beginning to change. Both buyers and sellers are demanding more from their brokers, and getting it.

What can this mean?

Are the days of full service agents over? No, look at Foxtons.

Are menial tasks to become a duty of a full service agent? Not if they are providing a valuable service to their clients.

If an agent is expected by sellers to do menial tasks, it means:

* They are not providing marketing expertise.
* The service they are providing to marketing the home is not worth the commission.
* The agent is not viewed as a professional in their presentation.
* The agent actually says yes to the requests.

Its hard to have sympathy for their plight. Selling homes is a full time profession, not suitable for part time work. Part time agents can sell during a housing boom. In fact, anyone can sell during a housing boom because its essentially order taking.

I’d look for agents that can actually sell my house, because, in the long run, its a lot cheaper for me to vacuum my own house, even though I can’t stand doing it.


3 Comments

  1. John K October 10, 2007 at 6:45 am

    When I was in college I spent a summer on Martha’s Vineyard. I found a job helping a lady make boat sails and awnings / tarps.

    The first morning I showed up, ready to start making sails. She showed up about an hour later, walked by me, and said, “First things first, my car needs to be washed.”

    That was the first time and last time I ever did something outside my job description.

    My real estate clients can clean up after their own poodles. I’ll be on the slopes if you need me.

  2. Lori T October 10, 2007 at 6:34 pm

    I’m a Realtor and I would have no problem arranging for a cleaning service, landscaping or minor repair work as part of my services as a listing agent. I would never undertake to do those jobs myself. My time is much better spent actually marketing the seller’s property. Any reasonable seller should understand that if it is properly presented.

  3. Marin October 20, 2007 at 4:48 pm

    I have always asked myself, how much is my time worth and I always come up with the same answer…TOO MUCH, to be handling jobs that take away time from my goal.

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