Lesson Plan For The Future

Creating your “Menu of Services.”

What is your Value Proposition today?

And…what is the business model of your “real estate practice of the future” and how will technology and the Internet shape that model?

Whatever that model is, you must stand ready to substantiate it with the value you bring to the table.

To begin to answer these questions, it is useful to create a detailed list of your current services, a “menu” of the services you are capable of providing to consumers.

To make this determination, look carefully at, what I refer to as the 5 phases of the real estate transaction. They are:

1) Educate

2) Locate/Market

3) Negotiate

4) Administrate

5) Communicate

To build your “Menu of Services,” list each of the above on a separate sheet of paper.

Now go through your last 6 transactions where you represented the seller and list everything you can think of that you did in the transaction.

Leave nothing out, no matter how small or insignificant you may think it is. From putting the sign and lock box on the property, to advertising, to having a carpet shampooed at the last minute to satisfy a buyer whose expectations were that the property would be in better condition then the condition it was left in by the seller.

Do the same for the last 6 transactions in which you represented the buyer.

You now have a “Menu of Services” for both buyers and sellers. Determining the value of each of these tasks and/or services will depend upon the time, skill and training level required to accomplish each. A task that requires a real estate license may be of more value than one that doesn’t require a license.

Most real estate companies today offer their “Menu of Services” bundled in a “one size fits all” pricing model. A few, such as the Real Estate Café, offer services ala Carte. Some package services together. The future holds more choice for the consumer.

How will you determine what services you will offer to the new Internet empowered consumer and how much will you charge for those services?

That is probably yet to be determined but it all starts with defining the services and the value the “agent” brings to the future transaction.