One of the main concerns that an agent-broker panel voiced at the recent National Association of Realtors convention in San Diego was a prevailing rudeness in today’s highly competitive market.
Speakers traced the cause to a lack of education, communication and etiquette during the boom years, when when not enough time was spent mentoring new members of the nation’s largest trade organization.
Calls for training
That same message of improved education and communication went out — especially to older Realtors: Get on board with today’s social media avenues (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) because the future generations of homebuyers will expect that mode of correspondence. The transition to new social media may not seriously reduce the number of agents — as happened to old-guard Realtors a decade ago with the advent of online listings — but it will whittle out some.
The association has gone out of its way at its national convention to help prepare its rank-and-file members by offering more than 20 classes in basic computer applications, including Microsoft Photo Editor, Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher and Windows 7, plus a session on the BlackBerry. Clearly, most of the participants are not tech savvy. The Technology Learning Center at the annual convention drew more than 4,200 attendees to the classes last year and 5,700 in 2007.
Limits on outside help
The Technology Learning Center was canceled at this year’s convention. That’s because Stewart Title had sponsored the popular program in the past. A new California bill places significant restrictions on the types of training a title company can provide to the real estate industry.
The California law seeks zero tolerance in any incentives to real estate sales agents, forbidding title insurance representatives from even participating at a real estate company’s community service day. California violations would include:
Promotional items with a permanently affixed company logo of the underwritten title company, title insurer or controlled escrow company, with a value of not more than $10 each. A promotional item does not include a gift certificate, gift card or other item that has a specific monetary value on its face, or that may be exchanged for any other item having a specific monetary value.
Furnishing education or educational materials exclusively related to the business of title insurance for a person if continuing education credits are not provided.
I thought about how California got to that $10 number when a San Diego-based writer reminded me that a few years ago California-based Southland Title Corp. and its subsidiaries, Southland Title of Orange County and Southland Title of San Diego, were alleged to have spent at least $174,000 on food, beverages and entertainment plus $62,000 on gifts and gifts certificates and $218,000 more on business support services. The amazing piece was that the same company was fined $1.5 million two years before for similar practices. That’s a lot of free lunches — and it gives you an idea of what Southland felt it had to do to stay in the game.
Handouts can hurt buyers
I am all for reining in the lavish lunches, blocks of ballpark tickets and free advertising that title companies provide for top agents. I thought Mike Kreider, Washington’s insurance commissioner, was absolutely correct three years ago when he exposed and fined title companies for luring agents with all of the above and more.
Washington state mirrors the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act, which limits the amount third-party providers can spend on individual agents to $25 a year.
The intent of the regulation is to safeguard choice for consumers and housing representatives. Consumers have a right to choose escrow and title companies and to know why lenders prefer certain appraisers and credit companies. All salespeople should choose services in the best interests of their customers and not themselves.
Restrictions no cure-all
In fact, a larger problem is the pressure some real estate agents receive to use in-house providers — appraisal, loan, title — without indicating outside services are available. That’s not serving the consumer, either. And some in-house agents say it’s not serving their needs, either, because they don’t like the in-house choices.
Has the regulation pendulum swung too far? Tweet me @boomerwriter.
Tom Kelly’s book “Cashing In on a Second Home in Mexico: How to Buy, Rent and Profit from Property South of the Border” is available in retail stores, on Amazon.com and on tomkelly.com.
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