IMPERSONATING TODAY’S AGENT
By Buddy Kane
Greetings...
BK comin at you with another self-realization to help you all feel better about yourselves.
As the misfit I appear to be as an agent, I’m little more than an imposter in the local real estate industry and all its foibles. How could I possibly fit the mold of an accepted agent in this elite club even if I wanted to? I don’t close a volume of deals. I don’t receive Gold, Platinum, Titanium, Round Table achievement awards, and I don’t drive a Range Rover. I’m doomed to remain a mid to low level agent that leverages a real estate license as merely one stream of income amongst other revenue sources.
A “loser”, some may say. Guilty as charged, I suppose…
So why do I assume this role that the more esteemed members of “the club” would cast upon me? It’s simple; I’m just being me, for better or worse. There’s freedom in it.
And…. for my own selfish amusement of keeping things light enough to find a certain level of enjoyment in even the most seemingly mundane of pursuits.
Laughter is the ultimate elixir. Especially when I’m able to write my own script in lieu of being handed one to recite.
What’s more, it can afford any of us the opportunity to remain an outsider, a highly underrated position. This prevents us from being typecast as just another talking head, beholden to a manufactured professional image we feel obligated to project, regardless of our own true beliefs.
You know what I’m referring to; the exhausting personalities that don’t stop talking, but never actually say anything. Starved of a relevant message, but still posting “content”. Personally, I’d rather dine on a menu of personalized initiatives that nourish my own irreverent honesty, aimed at myself first.
Make no mistake, there is a line to be walked that straddles a personal and professional balance, but I’ve always deferred to the former. It can be a daunting task, mixing certain levels of art and science. I truly respect those who can pull it off. I’m merely an aspiring soul on this front.
Ultimately, rather than getting you information I’ve been handed through a secondary medium of exchange, I’d prefer to give you information we’ve dug out of the dirt ourselves. Measurable data is the name of the game if we are to effectively communicate a relevant and telling message that transcends fluff.
But….. if I felt so inclined to join the choir of agents all singing the same tune, I’d begin parroting a lot of the phrases being scripted, rehearsed, and recited at this time. It’s some rich material to say the least, to unsuspecting consumers.
A common theme on the street right now is, “Avoid Homebuyer’s Remorse”.
This is news? Do they actually think they’re getting ahead of this one?
Where the hell have you people been for the last few years?
We’ve advised multiple buyers to stay put in many instances and been laughed out of the room.
Maybe the joke is on us.
Many agents are changing their tune and trumpeting a message governed by a certain brand of boiler room rationale:
(Now that there isn’t much inventory left to sell, interest rate hikes abound, real estate investment firms have vanquished many first-time homebuyers from the market, and we’re on the verge of World War III, why not take cover under the guise of advocating on behalf of the clients’ interests exclusively? Give ‘em the warm soap and water feeling. At least this promotes goodwill with prospective new clients and creates a future pipeline of commissioned revenue. Once the market returns to a more “transactional friendly” environment, then revert back to business as usual and recover lost revenue from the dire circumstances we currently face. Unfortunately, it’s just business and agents gotta make a living. For now, engage “spin” mode until we’re able to ring the register again.)
This is the reality of the market right now and the justification for many agents writing purchase offers that waive appraisals, inspections, and other safeguarding contract contingencies. Inevitably, many recent buyers will get burned by taking such an undisciplined approach to home ownership. They’ll end up owning much more than a home. They’ll inherit the financial burden that could put them behind the eight ball for quite some time.
The underlying theme of this new “Buyer’s Remorse” content smacks of longer-term coaching techniques that have run their course for now, forcing the hand of this evolved messaging we now hear from agents on the street.
While most of these coaching students would receive an academy award for reciting market-tested “scripts” to recruit new clients, additional inquiry into their core Real Estate Philosophy off the record reveals that many wouldn’t know whether to shit or go blind. This should beg further questioning on the topic.
I’m all for the “fake it til ya make it” mantra. The fake part may be of some concern, absent any mooring to a deeper inner calling of sorts. To some degree, we’re all impersonators. Some better than others.
While the new messaging being pushed by agents makes for entertaining theater, it’s mostly lip service, largely precipitated by the fact that buyers simply do not have the inventory available to purchase at this time or they’d be buying right now, with their agents handing them the pen to sign on the dotted line, regardless of the financial implications at stake.
Add to this an unprecedented number of new agents entering the fray, historically low levels of inventory, and rents rising to uncapped amounts, renters are more motivated than ever to buy, even at elevated interest rates. They just want to know their monthly housing debt service won’t increase. Its a tightrope for sure.
So where does all this lead?
We don’t know. We can’t know right now.
What we can do is identify the largest potential risks on the horizon and protect against massive downside first. Guard against blowing up financially.
It’s largely a waiting game to see how the multitude of forces currently unfolding on the Local, State, National, and World stage multiply, neutralize, or cancel one another moving forward.
Right now, the conservative play is the obvious course of action.
Offense wins games, Defense wins championships.
We must think long term, strategically. Or learn how to.
As for my own ability to impersonate one of these freshly coached agents?
I would most definitely fold under questioning…
-Buddy Kane
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