Are the internet and sites like Zillow making the Real Estate Agent obsolete? Not likely.

[James Wise]

For quite some time now there have been many people saying sites like Zillow and Trulia were going to make the real estate agent as obsolete as the analog television or the travel agent.

I don't buy it. Either do the numbers, and as we all know numbers never lie.

Speaking of numbers, is zillow ever right when it comes to home values? 

Ok maybe that last jab at zillow was a low blow, but how else could I work in this Kevin Hart meme? 

In 2014 ONLY 9% of homes were sold for sale by owner. Of those measly 9% of FSBO sales 44% of them already knew the buyer. Zillow has been around for 10 years now. When is zillow going to put the real estate agent out of business?

What percentage of homes were sold for sale by owner in 2004? The year before zillow was founded. 14%!

[Joel Owens]

I think many miss the mark in understanding brokers and agents roles.

A lot of experienced investors might do FSBO's on re-sales. Even if that's the case there reaches a point where the investor understands it is important to work on their business and not in it. They make more money having experts in key positions of their business and doing everything themselves would actually cost them more money then make it.

For example I pay for a tax accountant, website team, etc. It's not that I couldn't do these things if I spent umpteen hours on it but I make A LOT of money transacting commercial real estate deals. I cannot touch my earnings per hour doing any other activity. So it makes sense to have experts on my team getting things done fast for me that they do everyday. What would take me a week or a month to solve they do in hours or days. Removing those roadblocks helps me excel even further.

A big majority of the population in the residential space sell or buy once every five years. A lot of contract changes and regulations happen in that time. I haven't looked at residential in about ten years. A friend of mine bought a residential property recently and the amount of paperwork and disclosures I had seen since last time was incredible. More crap to look over from our friendly government helping us means a lot of hand holding for buyers and sellers in the residential space. The landscape is ever changing and I believe that brokers and agents will always be there to serve a need. Cost and what brokers/agents are worth is in the eye of the beholder. I think I am worth every penny for what I do in the commercial space. 

For example if I have 50 clients that believe in me where I make millions a year then I do not need the other 500 naysayers who try to devalue what I do and are a pain to deal with.

I can tell you that many of my colleagues are having record years including myself. I have been hearing brokers/agents are becoming obsolete for decades. I used to have an engineer neighbor across the street say that brokers/agents were ( useless blood sucking vampires! ) lol

Some people see a dying industry. I see a thriving industry reaching heights never seen before with endless opportunities. You can create what you envision and believe if you put time into it and not buy into the negativity of others.