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Amongst the growing list of reasons some REALTOR firms are losing market share today, there’s no lack of ‘blaming the consumer’ causes. Brokers and agents who repeatedly target the “market” or the “economy” as the culprits are just substituting politically-correct keywords for “the consumer” as the problem. Buyers won’t come off the sidelines. Sellers are unreasonable and won’t price their homes to market conditions. Lenders won’t offer credit easily. The usual suspects of the downturn are either consumers or third parties working together in a full-blown conspiracy to destroy the real estate industry. Perhaps we could find a few simpler reasons?

What will it take to get REALTORS to modernize their skills? NAR’s 2008 Member Profile indicates only 11% of REALTORS use text messaging (cell phone) with current clients; 4% said they used SMS with past clients; and 5% with prospects. In a report with an “adjusted response rate” of 7.7%, you have to wonder if any REALTORS use text messaging at all. Considering one of our recent postings covered the use of Medieval technology, when I came across this next piece, I thought, maybe someone whose average audience is (only) slightly larger than mine might be able to motivate REALTORS to get with modernity.