Realtor Conference Hot Topic

Maria Patterson from RISMEDIA writes an interresting article that centers the debated hot topic of the 'Realtor and Consumer' relationship.

The news article contains quotes from the California Association of Realtors Conference in Long Beach, California from President and Co-founder of Zillow, Lloyd Frink. Also former CEO of REALTOR.com Allan Dalton, now President of Move.com's real estate division. Dalton, explains that sites like Zillow’s are undermining the Realtor’s true value proposition by classifying them as “service providers.”

“Zillow cannot marginalize Realtors ... and their value proposition,” Dalton added. “... If the industry allows the collective advocation of a company like Zillow to commoditize real estate to the degree that consumers believe the value of a home can actually be preordained before the value that a Realtor can add (in terms of marketing, negotiating, staging and networking), then what we will be left with is an injured consumer who believes that..."

A business relationship of service in my opinion should be customer-centric and recognize that the balance of power is toward the customer paying for representation. As a result, the Realtor and the Consumer needs to identify what is of value to them.