Whilst the media across the board has done a horrific dis-service to the consumer with its salacious false promises about cost and price slashing - maybe appeasing certain advertisers or co-owned entities who might profit from this, at the expense of the consumer?
In reality, not all that much will change going forward as lots of what has been agreed to has existed for years: buyer agent agreements have been used for years in many areas, and commissions have almost always been negotiated and disclosed (no they are not all 6% and higher!), including who gets paid what. So what may be the most important change we should hope comes out of all of this?
What if going forward as of today, we as a profession focused more on being truly professional? What if we messaged more substantive, useful, insightful messages? What if we stopped belittling the message around how (falsely) easy the work of a buyers or seller's agent is most times? What if we stopped broadcasting our earnings and/or spending habits excessively, even though most agents actually don't earn nearly as much as many perceive?
What if we broadcast the reality of what it takes to sell or help buy a home, all of it, not just the door-opening part? What if we messaged all the work we do that is never paid for? What if by our extraordinary actions we demonstrated our true worth? What if we provided more than the data anyone can find via a simple Google-search?
More importantly: What if we all called out and discouraged/berated the bad behaviors and players within our profession so that they clean up their act or choose another field to besmirch and tarnish? What if we see stupid antics on social media/reality TV and call it out for what it is, denouncing it loudly, rather than ignoring it, lauding it, or worse, emulating it? Self regulation and positive peer pressure can be incredibly effective!
I feel 100% certain that if we do all the above - over time - we will reap enormous rewards. I say over time because the past decade or so we saw an escalation broadcasting the worst narrative about our profession, globally.
In reality just a small group of D-list 'celebrity' players with huge influence did the worst damage, enriching themselves at our expense. Sadly, many others attempted to emulate them. Now we are paying the price for this rotten behavior and the fix will take time. Thankfully, we have truth on our side.
Maybe if we do all the above, the next time a group of self-enriching individuals who attempt to 'save the consumer' with distorted reality, results in a jury that does not have this preconceived (and false) impression of who we are, what we do and how overpaid we are for 'simply opening that door'....?
