How do Realtor Associations protect their data? Well first off, what they call protecting their data…. I call hiding it from the public. Redfin recently decided they were going to publish agent performance data from 14 local Association of Realtors(R). What this means is Redfin was going to post to the public exactly what agents are selling properties and what agents are not. In short, Redfin was going to tell the public exactly what agents in their area are productive and what agents are not. They were going to use the factual MLS data from each area to produce this information. What happened next? Realtors and local associations cried bloody murder. Why would they care? Simple, Redfin was going to expose to the public just how few properties that “local Realtor”(R) down the street from you actually sells. (The Realtor(R) who calls himself the neighborhood expert) They were going to arm the public with knowledge that the public had never before had.

Everyone has heard the rumor that 80% of the Real Estate is sold by 20% of the Realtors(R). Redfin was going to tell the public the names of the 20% of the Realtors who are selling the Real Estate. The local board of Realtors(R) has a vested interest in keeping as many members as possible b/c each member pays dues to the association. If the public figures out that “Ricky” Realtor(R) from down the street has accounted for a total 3 real estate sales over the past 2 years, they are going to reject his listing presentation when he tries to sell himself as the neighborhood specialist. However, if the public doesn’t have the info, they have no idea that “Ricky” Realtor has next to zero real estate experience in negotiating contracts, marketing, etc… Hiding the data helps “Ricky” Realtor.

Why would companies like Congress Realty want this data to be published? Simple, we sell a ridiculous number of properties and want the public to know about it. I always laugh when a local Realtor(R) tries to sell his/her service to the homeowner by trying to explain that the owner needs a local specialist or their home won’t sell. If only the homeowner could be given the factual data to compare the agent performance data…. it would make life on the homeowner so much easier….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Real Estate - General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.