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The entire industry would benefit by becoming a full-service business in 2019 over being simply a sales transaction business, one new network chief has said.
CEO at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Simon Cashman said that the role of the agent has evolved.
“For the agent to remain king, he/she needs to be across multiple channels of the complete property journey, not an expert but the go-to guy to bring it all together — the brains trust,” Mr Cashman told REB.
“If ‘service first’ isn’t embraced, then tech will outsmart the agent, diminishing their value proposition and ability to sustain or justify charges.”
Mr Cashman said that it’s also likely that media networks will get more deeply involved with real estate in the year ahead.
“We see what is happening with the two large free-to-air networks aligning with the portals, and I must mention, of course, the strategic alignment of 7 West Media and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.
“Powerful media giants influencing trends — keep an eye on this.”
He also said that the industry might take an even further step away from the requirement of print classified ads — one that he called “a very unfortunate trend”.
“The importance of print is still there. 2019 will show how clever businesses use print for real estate not necessarily as a sales classified but as rich informative content,” Mr Cashman said.
Mr Cashman added that he’d like to see less eroding of agent value in the year ahead.
“The current market will sift them out with more industry-backed training that is compulsory. If you don’t have qualification ‘X’ then vendors shouldn’t engage you.”
Mr Cashman said that he’d also like to see a lessening of strict government intervention which leads to over-regulation of the industry.
“With the recent changes brought into effect by the Victorian state government surrounding landlords and tenants, investors are being discouraged even more,” he said.
“Stamp duty has always been a deterrent and difficult to digest for some home buyers, leading to hesitation and a conservative approach to transacting.”
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