Stevens: Internet Won't Kill Full-Service Real Estate

REALTOR® Magazine Online
Tom Stevens, president of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, has sent a letter to The New York Times Magazine, criticizing an article in Sunday’s issue that claims full-service real estate practitioners are headed for extinction.

The article, Endangered Species, is authored by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, who are known for their book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

In his letter to the editor, Stevens calls the March 5 article “a vicious attack” on real estate practitioners and says it contains “so many errors of fact and false assumptions that there is insufficient space here to put the record straight.”

Drawing comparisons between the real estate industry and the pre-Internet days of travel booking and stock trading, the article states that home sellers will use free tools on the Internet to price their home and locate buyers — making real estate practitioners a thing of the past.

“What real estate agents do is very different from travel agents or securities brokers,” Stevens says in the letter. “Every piece of real estate is unique, the transaction process is complex and, if you will excuse me for pointing out the obvious, real estate is the original bricks and mortar business.”

Visit REALTOR.org to read the full text of Stevens’s letter to the editor, which he mailed to The New York Times Magazine on March 6. (or Read Below)

Editor
New York Times Magazine

March 6, 2006



To the Editor:

Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt’s vicious attack on real estate agents (“Endangered Species,” New York Times Magazine, March 5) carries so many errors of fact and false assumptions that there is insufficient space here to put the record straight.

The authors could have lifted their thesis from Bill Gates’ The Road Ahead, published a decade ago. He predicted the Internet would reduce the number of real estate agents in half, but instead, there are about a third more members of the National Association of REALTORS® today. And the percentage of home sellers who choose to hire professionals continues to rise, despite the fact that we have just witnessed what may prove to be the greatest seller’s market in history.

What happened? First, the real estate industry adapted to the Information Age and changed the way we work to meet consumers’ needs. That’s why studies have consistently shown that home buyers who use the Internet to search for a home are more likely to work with a professional than those who don’t. The industry also spawned new business models and gave consumers more choices in how they work with professionals.

Second, what real estate agents do is very different from travel agents or securities brokers. Every piece of real estate is unique, the transaction process is complex and, if you will excuse me for pointing out the obvious, real estate is the original bricks and mortar business.

Finally, the plain fact is that hiring a professional pays off. The typical home represented by a professional last year sold for 16 percent more than those sold without a professional’s help. That profit more than pays for the agent’s commission. Millions of homeowners know it, and that’s why they will continue to call on experienced real estate professionals.


Sincerely,


Thomas M. Stevens CRB CRS GRI
2006 President,
National Association of REALTORS®