Entry by Carole Helwig

Getting a Home Value When There's No Transaction

  2 Comments

Good morning everyone. Today, when I opened my Inman News alert, I clicked on an article that caught my attention about home inspectors and mold. It was good advice in a Q&A format by this guy, Barry Stone.

When I read further, the 2nd question was a person interested in what to do about finding out value for an addition they wanted to make to their home. Mr. Stone's advice was solid, if not uninformed. Please read the 2nd Q&A

I immediatley composed and sent an email to him and hope to hear back from him. Below is the email I sent:

"Hi Barry,

I read your Q&A in today's Inman News feed I receive.

In the 2nd question, the property owner asked about determining value for an add-on they wanted to make to their home. You advised to hire a real estate appraiser or a lesser expensive route of asking an agent to do a CMA for them.

I appreciated your effort to inform the consumer that it would be unfair to waste the broker's time, since they were not in the market to sell.

I don't think most consumers consciously try to waste our time. Sadly, they have been (wrongly) trained to think there is little or no value to our time or services because we, as a real estate community, frequently advertise them as FREE! We have no one to blame but ourselves if the consumer finds this a perfectly acceptable choice. After all, who doesn't take notice when something is offered for FREE?

There is a 3rd alternative that is gaining popularity and I thought I would bring to your attention.
There is a consulting model for Realtors who complete the program requirements to earn the designation of ACRE, or Accredited Consultant In Real Estate.

It is a program that has rapidly gained momentum and members and is getting more exposure by the day. Consulting is providing choices to consumers, where before there were none.
The question posed about the add on value to the house is a perfect example.
Contacting an agent who is a consultant is not unlike contacting your attorney to draft a will or contract, or any other profession where you need advice and counsel for a particular issue.
Prior to this, it was one size fits all for the consumer and the agent...get it for free or pay 6%. It really does not make sense for anyone.

I hope you will do some further investigation and check out this site on the link I provided. I am happy to talk to you in more detail.

I believe this is an additional tool you can add to your tool box in reporting and advising consumers to the alternatives available to them.
Thanks for your time. I look forward to hearing from you."

I will let you know if/when I receive a response.

I encourage anyone else who is so inclined to email Mr. Stone to further enlighten him to the alternative to the "all or nothing" model of traditional real estate compensation.

Carole

2 Comments

that was great opportunity & a great response Carole!
(finding time to read E-mail & Exchange posts from my Mom's in CA -- here for a week)
Denyce Thomas - Las Vegas

Great post Carole!

I'm not sure who Mr. Stone is (missed that post in the midst of many other issues) but I am very familiar with many of the Inman reporters since they've written many articles posted by me.....so.....I took the liberty of sending an email to several of my favorite Inman reporters to see what was up wth this ;-)

Got several emails back, but suffice it to say it still wouldn't hurt for others to chime in ( I feel a blog post in the makings on this one!)

Aside from that, tried to make a new post, but alas, since I've missed Mollie's post, the webinar, etc, it was a miserable failure ;-)

Just wanted to mention that there is an on-line convention going on now in the commercial arena with some very interesting conversation about consulting at http://www.CommercialSource@theonlinexpo.com] It's free, and tomorrow is the last day so go sign up and see if you can learn something for free.

This page contains a single entry by Carole Helwig published on June 17, 2008 9:56 AM.

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FSBOs and limited MLS service... is the next entry in this blog.

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