Each state has different rules about charging for an opinion of
value,
so it is possible that this may not be available in all states for a
fee, but real estate agents routinely do a "comparative (or
competitive) market analysis" for homeowners as part of a listing presentation.. Agents have software and solutions for providing this information to potential clients.
When a bank is taking back a home in foreclosure, agents perform BPOs, "Broker Price Opinions", which is much like a CMA, and they do this for a fee.
If you'd like to have a report with the probable buyer's value for your home, an ACRE can do this for you and can be 100% unbiased because the Consultant is being paid to simply provide you that report - "getting the listing" is not part of the formula so there will be no temptation to either inflate or deflate the price (which can sometimes happen when an owner is interviewing several agents: some will tell the sellers what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear).
I've taught consulting before ACRE® was born and have had several requests over the last three years which I've always put aside, mostly for lack of time. However, I received a request two months ago that changed my mind.
]]> This request came from a broker in my home state of MA. She started her own brokerage two years ago with the idea of making it a "all consulting" office. However, she felt that she was "reinventing the wheel" and then found ACRE®.She wants all fourteen of her agents to become ACRE®s but she wants the class taught live as she feels that with a new model, a live class gives agents a chance to ask questions.
Frankly, a live class offers some advantages: we can teach the content in the morning, have them take their exam online before lunch, and then have the whole afternoon to review using the Coaching Exchange, The Consulting Times, and most importantly, break into groups to calculate rates and fees. That way, by the end of the day when they receive their certificates, they have everything already done, and can join the Exchange as a group.
This broker had an interesting observation. She said that she thought that the future for ACRE would be concentrating more on brokers rather than individual agents. Agents who become ACRE®s by themselves are going back into hostile territory...they have to convince their brokers and managers and deal with other agents that don't get what their doing. Whereas, if we concentrate getting the word out to brokers, we can get whole offices to become ACRE®s as a group.
Anyway, I gave this broker a dirt-cheap price in exchange for two things:
Actually, this is a good situation to start with: I can drive there and I even had a Jet Blue credit that I have to use up so ACRE® Coach Paula Bean is flying up to give me a hand on this class.
If it's successful, and the demand increases to offer ACRE® live as an alternative to the online course, we will be looking for ACRE®s to become certified ACRE® trainers, able to teach the entire course. Given the amount of requests that we've already had in the last three years, I think the live class will be a very popular addition!
If you have thoughts, please comment here.
]]>Once the new course book is completed, it is our intention to raise the bar in terms of the requirements to become an ACRE®. Clearly, in order to become a successful consultant, one needs to not just understand the model, but also have developed a strategic focus (I don't want to use the phrase "business plan" as it makes most agents' eyes glaze over) and most importantly, have calculated your hourly rates and any fee packages that you want to offer. Without this practical work complete, the theory is useless.
]]> Originally, we felt that we could test on the theory and then, since we were offering a year of access to the Exchange, the practical work could be completed "after the fact". I don't need to tell you that this experiment did not work as planned. This is not to criticize: irrespective of those who took the course just to get the letters after their name, most took the ACRE® course with the intention of completing all the work. But, let's face it, life gets in the way and the urgent of working IN our businesses takes priority over working ON our business to transform it. The end result though is that the vast majority of you have not developed your rates and fees.So, to remedy this, once the new course book is complete, we will be requiring that the candidate's strategic focus, rates, and fees be completed before awarding the ACRE® designation.
Of course, the practical question now becomes: what to do about present ACRE®s. On one level, we shouldn't care. After all, they paid for the course, and if they don't practice consulting, it's the individual ACRE®'s issue, not ours. But here's the problem: it has come to our attention that in at least two instances a consumer has contacted an ACRE® through the ACRE® Locator for consulting services only to be told that they "don't really offer consulting choices". YIKES! This makes ACRE®, as an organization, look really bad. So, what to do?
Our decision is that going forward, if you've earned your ACRE® designation, no one will take it away from you. You can continue to call yourself an ACRE® if you wish. However, once the new edition of The Consulting Times is launched, if you want the exposure on the ACRE® Locator, you will need to complete your focus, rates and fees. We will give all ACRE® grads different avenues to do so: you can re-take the course if you want a refresher, you can download just the worksheets and do it on your own, or we are certainly willing to offer webinars to complete this work as a group if there is enough interest. But, suffice it to say that once the new course is online, if you have not completed your rates and fees, you will be designated as a "Future ACRE®" on the map without a link to contact you, until your work is complete and submitted.
BTW, I'm excited to tell you that with the new course, you will have the opportunity to learn the content in two ways:
Please feel free to add your ideas and comments.
First, a new course site will be integrated right here on The Consulting Times. The current course site was set up before the TCT was envisioned and the two sites have never talked with each other, not only providing conflicting information, but making for a lot of extra work behind the scenes.
Looking forward to having one site for everything ACRE® very soon!
]]>Frankly, my goal has always been, not just to have an organization that promotes, teaches, and supports real estate consulting, but eventually have ACRE® become the BEST training program in real estate, bar none. But to reach that goal, we need to make some major changes and we have quite a few that will be coming over the next few months into the beginning of 2010. I'll be posting them in the next days and weeks.
If you've been thinking about registering for the ACRE® Program, please do not use these upcoming changes as a reason for putting it off. All new materials will be available through our Resource Library so you won't "miss" anything.
Remember, the changes we are seeing in real estate are not going to go away once the market recovers - rather, the changes are systemic in nature and if we are to survive, we need to heed their call. "On the road of life, there are drivers and there are passengers." It's time to become a driver!
]]>
I was chatting with a friend of mine last week when he admitted that he had been without health insurance since he got out of college. Given that he's a real estate agent, that's not so surprising: as an independent contractor he's on his own regarding health insurance and many in our industry have simply taken their chances, especially when they are young and healthy like my friend Jack.
But as part of the approximately 15% of Americans who are uninsured, Jack has a window on a phenomenon that few of the rest of us ever see: what health services actually cost. You see, Jack was playing softball one Saturday a couple of weeks ago and sprained his ankle. As luck would have it, a member of the team was a physician and offered to take a look at the ankle at his office. After his ankle was wrapped up, Jack offered to pay him.
But here's the interesting phenomenon: the doctor-teammate didn't have a clue as to what to charge him because he had no clue as to what his services were worth! As any doctor today will tell you: their charges are handled by insurance. And the truth is that if the good doctor had not been playing softball with him, Jack's lack of insurance would have dictated that he wouldn't be going to a doctor's office at all - rather he would have to go to the ER if he wanted his ankle looked at and the cost of his care at the ER would have been absorbed by the insured.
Meanwhile, most of us who have health insurance never ask a doctor what they charge because we don't pay for the lion's share of our care - insurance does, so we have been quietly oblivious until the last few years.
So, what does this have to do with real estate?
Likewise, in the real estate industry, we continue to practice in a way that is not so much broken but hopelessly outdated. The traditional sales model was conceived in years past when we, as real estate practitioners had a very different role. If you think about it, real estate as a sales profession, paid by commission, made total sense when the agent's only job was to "move the merchandise". But in the 1990's our national and state associations expanded our role - it was no longer enough to simply sell the product, we now were asked to act as fiduciaries: working in the best interest of our client and putting their needs above all others, including, and most especially our own. In fact, our responsibilities as a fiduciary became a part of the NAR's (National Association of Realtors®) code of ethics that we are obliged to adhere to.
Yet, when our role was expanded and fundamentally changed, when we were asked to provide objective counsel that was in the client's best interest, no attention was given to how this new role fit with a compensation system that is geared toward salespeople who are free to work in their own best interest. Consequently, real estate professionals today are put in an impossible bind that no amount of "ethics training" can address: we are being asked to provide objective counsel that is in the best interest of our client when how much we are paid, (or whether we are paid at all) is wholly dependent on the client's decisions which we are advising them on!
]]> Performing in these two conflicting roles is an incredible balancing act. I believe that most real estate agents are hard-working, honest, and ethical professionals who strive, sometimes at great financial sacrifice, to do right by their clients. I've seen many an agent counsel buyers and sellers to not buy or sell when the market doesn't favor a profitable transaction, even though they have talked themselves out of a job. The fact that the vast majority routinely put the needs and interests of their clients before their own is a testament to our industry and makes me very proud but the truth is that agents are doing so in spite of the commission system, not because of it.Here is the truth boys and girls: no matter how it's presented or dressed up, there is an inherent conflict of interest when a real estate professional is expected to act as a fiduciary providing objective, unbiased counsel to clients, while at the same time being limited to contingent-on-an-outcome compensation. In my book, "Ripping the Roof off Real Estate" I call this conflict of interest the elephant in the room. Deep down, our industry knows there's a problem because the consumer just doesn't "buy" us as fiduciaries when we're being paid like salespeople, but no one wants to acknowledge it and certainly no one wants to talk about it.
Please understand: there is nothing wrong with being a successful salesperson. I personally have the highest regard for good salespeople. But that is not what we, as real estate professionals today, are being asked to be. And like health care being tied to our "employer", the sales model, payable only by commission, just doesn't fit today's reality.
]]>As I posted on Facebook last night:
I've been struggling with how to get my book and company more noticed without much in the way of funds, and after reading this book, I feel like I have a new lease on life and work. If you know me at all, you know I don't swoon over much but this book is incredible.
Like many of us ACRE®s, David challenges the conventional wisdom on how to bring online eyeballs to whatever you do. I found myself nodding my head and saying YES! out loud.
AND...if you want to get a taste of what I'm "raving" about, you can go to his site and download his free e-book that started it all: The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How Word of Mouse Spreads Your Ideas for Free.
But, it gets better...
]]> (I still find using that term weird but understand why FB uses it given their origins). I figured he's a big muckety-muck author and wouldn't respond to me.Monday (TODAY) 12:00 - 1:00pm EDT(Full Disclosure: I use Constant Contact for the ACRE Alert and Hot off the Wire - they are a leader in permission based marketing).
How to Blog Effectively for Business
Ann Handley and Mack Collier, Marketing Profs
Tuesday (Tomorrow) 12:00 - 1:00pm EDT (GMT-4):
Social Media and Building Community
Chris Brogan, New Marketing Labs
Friday 12:00 - 1:00pm EDT (GMT-4):
Successful Email Marketing
Eric Groves, Constant Contact
AP - New York
]]>DJ - Illinois
]]>LH - Texas
]]>GC - Washington
]]>Can you shed some light?
AS - Washington
]]> ]]>