The Future of Real Estate?

While we continue to do the real estate business the way we always have: list it, mls it, wait for a buyer, sell it, the world of real estate is evolving. Not that its new, real estate auctions are beginning to become a serious alternative to the way we've always done it. Raise your hands if you are concerned. Raise your hands if you have tried to figure out how a realtor can fit into this process. Raise your hand if you have and you are now more concerned. Ok, Ok, put your hands down and get ready to adapt. Business processes are not static, even though we seem to think that real estate will always be what it has always been. A large part of the world is already beginning to lead the way with a concept known as real estate auctions. Instead of auctions signaling the demise of something or someone, they have now become a true alternative to traditional real estate marketing. Countries like New Zealand and England are selling a large share of their real estate through auctions. In fact, even in America the volume of sales contributed to real estate auctions has significantly grown. As realtors, we will need to adapt our marketing plans to include real estate auctions if we are to keep up with this growing trend. In fact, we may even be considered negligent if we don't offer it as an alternative. I recently heard about a realtor in England that was being sued, because his clients were not made aware of the auction process as a method for marketing their home. There are ways that the realtor and auction house can work together to successfully sell a property. There are a number of blended processes that maintain the realtor-client relationship and successfully sell the property at auction. Perhaps the future is here and we must now adapt our marketing to at least include real estate auctions as another tool to serve the needs of our clients. I would love to hear from any and all that have had a real estate auction experience.