Once Upon a Time…
In my last post, I shared some of the history around real estate and the commission structure. I highlighted that the way we get paid (the percentage model based on a sales price at closing) hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years.
There are, however, many things that have drastically changed in our business, and I’d like to talk about one of those things today by telling you a personal story.
In 2003, when I entered this profession, I spent a lot more time in person with my clients. The main reason is that back then (really, all the way up until the COVID years), I would drive my buyer clients in my car - as would most Realtors. Sometimes, there would be a baby with us or young kids, and other times, a dog or a mother-in-law may even join us. I’d drive my clients all over the city, and we’d get to talk about neighborhoods in real time while we were driving through them.
I got pretty good at using the Thomas Guide map that came in a thick ring binder, but truth-be-told, it was every Realtor’s nemesis! It wasn’t unusual for me to have to pull over and find the coordinates on the map to reorient myself if I got lost. There were no smartphones in 2003! I believe I was still in my BlackBerry days. There was an intense amount of coordination and multitasking that went into driving clients around: playing chauffeur, tour guide, babysitter’s helper, house scheduler, key shuffler, and (sometimes) comedian, depending on the mood. :)
I don’t miss having to coordinate a seven-house tour all over the city without Google Maps, but I do miss spending more time in person with my clients. I feel like I got to know them so much better when we spent a lot of time in the car together.
Another fun memory… In about 2005, I was working with a lovely couple looking to purchase their first home. We looked at many houses before they landed on “the one.” Unfortunately, there were already offers on this home—it became a pretty competitive situation. I was a newbie in the biz (which certain elders in the industry loved to point out to me, not kindly, and then try to use against me in negotiations). It often felt like the school of hard knocks back then! Thankfully, with this particular listing, the seller’s agent, who was decades older than I was at the time and very well-known in the industry, wanted to share some wisdom with me. She liked the way I had positioned my clients’ offer, but she told me she thought it would best if my buyers and I met her and her sellers in person. She wanted me to verbally present my buyers’ offer at the dining room table in front of all of them. Yikes!
Well, it ended up being an absolutely lovely time (thanks in part to my English major skills coming in handy), and even though I’m sure some of the other buyers and their agents also presented their offers in person to the sellers, my presentation was a slam dunk, and my buyers got the house. It didn’t hurt that one of my buyers bawled about how much she JUST HAD TO HAVE THIS HOME! Of course, the sellers adored hearing that. These buyers were ecstatic, their home inspection passed relatively smoothly and lived many happy lives in this home, raising their two kids. I even got to work with them again when they were ready to sell it and move to another state several years later.
When I look back at listing photos of houses like this one that I’ve sold over the years, I remember so many stories like this—stories in which people’s lives change in an instant, a house can propel a family onto an entirely different life path, and meaning is made through big transitions.
I miss being with my clients in person more often, although I know I probably spend more time in person with them than the average Realtor out there. Still, I’ve decided recently, with the increase in AI involvement everywhere, that I’m going to go back to some of these old practices so that I’m in person even more often than I am now. Even though I’m always at the home inspection, for example, I plan to also commit to not missing a signing appointment at the escrow company. And I’d like to offer a ride to my buyers more often than I do—it’s a heck of a lot less stressful with online mapping tools! Meeting up for a cup of coffee mid-process is one of my favorite things to do, as well. Because clients navigating something as big as a house purchase or sale generally appreciate as much hand-holding and human connection as possible from their agent.
