10 Stories REALTORS should be Telling Today

The Housing Industry has Come a Long Way but Many Consumers Don't Know It - It's time for us to tell our story!

We've come a long way, real estate!

For decades, we've heard real estate is “stuck in the past.” We were told, “It should be as easy to buy a house as calling an Uber!” Since same-day delivery hit the economy, consumers demand instant access to listings, immediate showings, and mortgage approvals in two clicks. For as long as I can remember, our industry has been told to get with the future, full speed ahead.

Today, you can say with confidence: Challenge completed!

In fact, today’s real estate consumer experience has never been better.

Especially compared to what they face after they buy or sell a home.

Let me tell you a story.

Faster than a driverless Uber

I recently purchased an investment property.

On Tuesday, our neighbor asked if we’d buy their home. They’d do the deal FSBO. We toured their home and told them we’d buy it, but only if they got themselves representation. That’s my job, after all! I explained how today’s transactions are much more complicated than they were when they bought 20 years ago. They said they knew someone, and they’d ask for help.

We shook hands, and I left satisfied we’d begun a good deal, and they’d get the help they deserved.

The next day, I suggested we meet in their kitchen to work out the final price and terms. “Let’s do it in person,” I suggested, rather than sending documents back and forth through an impersonal platform. “Bring your agent,” I said, “and let’s create a win-win over a cup of coffee.”

We met, reviewed market data together, and pencilled out everyone’s concerns on a blank piece of paper. We worked through the list and finalized the price and terms. Then, we shook hands. Our agents would send the paperwork out that evening.

On Thursday, we reviewed docs and signed the P&S on Friday morning. Three days earlier, I’d texted our mortgage broker, who pulled most of the financing paperwork together using digital connections to payroll, bank accounts, taxes, and credit reports. We logged in, signed the application, and uploaded a few stray PDFs from my smartphone.

By Monday, escrow was open, and the inspector and appraiser were booked. Ten days later, everything was done. By the third week, we were cleared to close. We picked a closing date that gave the sellers time to pack at their leisure. We learned that it was important when we met in person; it wasn’t a formal deal item. We made it our gift to them in what was an emotional sale of their vacation home.

Maybe that’s why they even left us their golf clubs :)

Not everyone has downloaded the app

Here’s where the real fun begins.

Overall, we were ready to close as fast as we wanted. Faster, I’d say, than had Uber itself disrupted the housing industry. That’s because our industry has worked hard to achieve this kind of convenience for over the 35 years I’ve been here. Yet we hardly receive the credit we deserve. Kicking real estate agents around is a favorite pastime for the press, know-it-all neighbors, and social media.

We don’t help ourselves, either, spending too much time making noise about interest rates, inventory shortages and brokerage/portal wars. When consumers hear anything, it’s too often from the perspective that the industry is a bit of a mess.

Meanwhile, nobody bothers to ask the question:

As compared to whom?

We know that real estate is a complex transaction. It’s not a car ride completed in a few minutes. Properties are unique, unlike hotel rooms that look exactly like all other hotel rooms in a market. Our closing documents are typically larger than those $4 e-books we can download to our Kindles.

In other words, real estate isn’t anything like Uber or Expedia or Amazon. And yet, we’ve worked hard to make it like them. And we did a pretty good job!

Three weeks and counting

In fact, I’d say other industries could take a lesson from the modern real estate industry.

One of the minor changes we’re making to the new house is replacing the front door. After 20 years, it doesn’t fit snugly. Changing the door should be fast and easy, you’d think. There’s a big-box-home-improvement-company on every corner in America. They should be able to “uber-one” into the home in a few hours.

Or so you’d think.

Not so fast, homeowner

To buy a door these days requires an appointment with an estimator (for a $40 fee). They’ll measure it for us, because my iPhone doesn’t come with a measuring app (it does.) Also, most doors in 20-year-old neighborhoods could be tricky sizes (they aren’t). Yet nobody in the store could “guess” at the cost, so we had to make an appointment.

A week later…

After the door was measured, we had to schedule a second appointment to pick the material, handle, lock, and frame. That required the careful tutelage of the company’s Door Expert (that’s what we call him). So another week passed until the next available appointment, where we finally discovered how much it would all cost and we could —

Make a third appointment to have the door installed!

If only a REALTOR could sell us a door

Some people claim all REALTORS do is open doors. Truth be told, we’d have been thrilled if our REALTOR could have sold us a door! Buying the home took only 21 days. Imagine if the Door Expert had undertaken the same innovation as the housing industry has over the past decade. It probably would have been replaced before closing!

The real lesson for the housing industry

We need to spend more time sharing the good news about what’s working better than ever in our business!

Enough with the focus on rising inventory, longer days on market, or higher-than-once-upon-a-time interest rates. Forget about external competitors or brokerage lawsuits. The real story is showing consumers how far we’ve come since the last time they bought or sold (which is an average of more than a decade).

They have no idea how cool their next housing experience is going to be!

That’s the app consumers need today

There’s a great story to be told to consumers today, and I promise you it’s not about private listing schemes or undoing decades of industry cooperation. Forget about trying to wrestle data away from the portals consumers love, either. They couldn't care less what mistakes we think we made twenty years ago because they’re more interested in selling just one home every ten years.

So let’s inspire, not tire, the consumer’s attention!

I’m in the industry and was massively impressed at the speed and convenience of our last transaction. My mortgage broker, agent, inspector, appraiser, and title company put the pieces together almost seamlessly. I talk to these people all the time, but experiencing it firsthand made me realize how much our industry kicks butt!

And how much more we better start talking about it.

How many are hesitating to enter the market because the last time they applied for a loan, it was a pile of painful paperwork? How many first-time buyers are misinformed by TikTokTwerkers harping about inventory shortages and assume there’s nothing for them to afford? Meanwhile, we’ve got more inventory than in a decade (and we’d have even more if we’d stopped trying to hide some of it).

Our industry is light-years ahead of what they believe because it has been a decade or more since they experienced it firsthand. We’re delivering an uber-experience. And most of it still happens around a kitchen table without an AI chatbot involved!

You’ve done your job, real estate pros.

I bought a home unexpectedly in just three weeks. Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for a simple home repair, though everything is sitting in stock. There’s a story to be told there, and it’s your job to do it!

It’s time to put to rest the old tale of an industry that’s stuck in the past. Show the world what you can do; Dare them to experience it themselves. And if they still don’t believe you, look ‘em straight in the eye…

... and show them the door!

PS: Here are ten stories to tell consumers about the modern housing industry 👇👇

Here are some of my favorite storylines that will “show” people how buying or selling a home today is nothing like the last time they did it. Combine these storylines with a real-world success stories, and you’ll start bringing hearts and minds back to the marketplace.

Use these themes to prompt your personalized versions for social media, newsletters, and more. You can even copy and paste them into your favorite AI to generate drafts, then bring them to life with your personal experiences!