WELCOME

Hello! There’s are an awful lot of real estate news right now and it’s really easy to become distracted by it all. That’s why today’s theme is about keeping your eye on what’s important—your clients. Because when you do that? Everything else is just background noise. So let’s talk about putting your head down and your focus where it counts.

STORY TIME WITH GLENNDA

The very worst part of the current real estate news cycle is that these social media influencers are making a million videos, putting their spin on just everything. Y’all, I find it so ironic that all these self-proclaimed industry leaders and gurus are commenting, yet none of them are actually selling houses. I would not have such an issue with them if they were in the trenches, donning their blue booties and working their millionth Saturday afternoon open house.

While these so-called experts are busy ruminating on what the Zillow and eXp pre-emptive strike means, they’re losing sight of the way that you win as a real estate agent. The only key to success here is keeping your client as your primary focus, and whatever it is your client wants (as long as it's not illegal). That's where you need to focus your energy.

That is the whole lesson I want you to take away today. Focus on your clients, hard stop.

Now, that said, I am more than just someone who just makes real estate videos. I am in the trenches every day, so I want to share what I thinking because I’m living it. Let’s be real—Zillow is not in the business of putting the clients first. That’s not how they operate. So when Zillow threatens a lifetime ban on any property that isn’t uploaded to the MLS within 24 hours, it’s because they see a clear threat to their business model. They want to make the consumer go to their website for data, and they're getting the data from us, so if we don't give them the data, their site has no value.

Let me tell you a couple of little stories here about private listings. I was the listing agent on 123 Banana Street five years ago. A different buyer’s agent represented the husband and wife in the transaction. After they moved into that house, the wife passed away. The man’s new fiancée is a friend of my friend. My friend said, “Hey, GIennda, I just want to let you know that 123 Banana Street is going to come back on the market. I told them that they should work with you, but they may work with the person who was their agent when they bought it.”

I said, “Okay, great!”

So sure enough, I knew the house was going to come back on the market and the seller went with his original agent. What was the first thing that other agent did? She reached out to me, saying, “123 Banana Street is coming back on the market,” because she figured I have buyers. Well, guess what? That house was perfect for one of my buyers, so I brought him there directly. My buyer would have never known about that house without me. Okay? He wouldn't have found it on any of the portals and he wouldn't have found it if he worked with any other real estate agent. That is the value in working with us—when we focus on the clients, we have our fingers on the pulse of what’s happening in our markets.

Not only did I know about the house, but I had intimate knowledge. I worked with the original homeowner, the one who hired the builder. The agent who listed it didn't even know who the damn builder was! She didn't know that it was the last house finished in the neighborhood. She didn't know why they had picked this or that finish or feature. She didn't know why the guest bedroom and the primary bedroom were grouped all together in the layout. That agent had no idea I had all that knowledge, and she had none. When you don’t know what’s important, how does that help your clients? And this is why I have such an issue with the new rules—they take the focus off the client, which is the one thing we should focus on. We’re being distracted by what we should be devoted to.

As for Zillow? Zillow is now essentially saying, “Hey, if you don't enter that property within 24 hours, and if we find out that you that you kept it for longer than 24 hours, we're going to ban that property for life.” Talk about intimidating the seller! They are literally scaring the seller consumer into having agents publicly list properties.

This is the opportunity for us as real estate agents, individual real estate agents, people in the reeds, people in the grassroots of the industry, to control what we do. Your brokerage can't make you. Zillow can't make you. You should have the control.

If y’all read my newsletter last week, you’ll see that I have a private listing right now, but it's just between me and the seller. There are maybe 25 agents in the country who might have a buyer for this house. So me putting it on Zillow, me putting out MLS doesn't do my people any good. I mean, it's a specific area, it's a specific product, it's a specific buyer. Brokerages like Compass say, “But we have 32,000 agents that can give us pricing feedback on 123 Fancypants Street.” Here’s the thing—32,000 agents don't know anything about 123 Fancypants Street.

I think that the consumer should be scared to death of what Zillow is saying. Because, again, any corporation, any person who’s trying to mandate what I own rubs me the wrong way. That's what’s killing me. Every seller should think, This is my home. I own it. I make the payments on it, I pay the taxes. Why in the world should anybody be able to mandate what I do with my house? I swear to you, it's so outlandish to me that I almost feel like I'm not comprehending correctly. We’re talking about privately owned homes. These are not REOs. These are not HUD homes. These are not homes owned by a corporation. If I, Glennda Baker, am the homeowner, how is it that I don't have the right to do with my home that I bought and paid for by myself?

And nobody, not one single person making videos is saying, “Wait a minute, if the seller wants a pocket listing with a real estate agent who is connected to the community and other agents who will sell the house, why can’t they just do it?”

It’s not like Zillow is any great friend to agents. Did y’all know that only 2% of the people who contact an agent off of Zillow actually buy a house from the agent that they contacted? 

The thing is, IDX syndication is allowed under NAR whether or not you support clear cooperation policy. But I feel that it is never acceptable for a real estate portal to threaten agents in this way. Real estate portals must remain neutral whether you're a buyer's agent or listing agent or both. We all support agents. Yet Zillow is a lead diversion model. So they're taking my income from all of my content, they're putting it on there, and they're selling that lead to a Zillow agent. This lead diversion model is anti-consumer and anti-agent.

Zillow‘s model hijacks your hard earned listings to generate commission splits for them and grow their business at your expense. The bottom line is that people don’t go to Zillow and look for 123 Banana Street. People go to Google and put in 123 Banana Street. What happens is Zillow is at the top of the SEO and that’s how Zillow gets the people. We as agents have devalued ourselves by making the information available through portals that are diverting leads to agents who are much less qualified than the agent who listed the property, but that barn door’s been left open and there’s no closing it now that the horses have fled.

While we can’t fight the new rules or swim upstream against the ever-more-powerful Zillow system, the one thing we can do is service our buyers like none other. Because in the end, that’s what’s going to move the needle. That focus is our salvation.

If y’all want to get more in the weeds from someone who actually sells houses, check out my recent Instagram Live:

glenndabaker

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GLENNDAISM

Today’s Words of Wisdom

GLENNDA BAKER & ASSOCIATES

Walk This Way

Oh, my stars and stripes, I have the best new listing in one of Atlanta’s most desired areas!

The home is absolutely turnkey and will charm you from the second you set your eyes on its white picket fence and welcoming back and front porches. With a nicely appointed primary suite, a chef’s kitchen, and a vibrant community which boasts a clubhouse and resort-style pool, you may never want to leave the neighborhood… yet you’re still just steps away from everything the dynamic Westside scene has to offer!