Ever since Richard Barton whipped out his Zestimates, the word on the street has been that Realtors are following in the footsteps of their travel agent cousins on the way to the dinosaur cemetery. In order to survive – we are being told – we better start proving we’re worth every penny we receive in compensation for our work, every waking moment. One main line of thinking seems to be that those who spend the most money in achieving the end result have somehow earned it more. Another contends that we need to “dollarize our services” – much like a mechanic shop. And it’s all meant to answer that occurring question during listing appointments:

Why should I pay you a single shiny penny?

Before I give you my take on this, it is definitely worth mentioning that the fear of extinction has sparked a valid debate that has gotten people in our industry thinking (and doing) about how to be better and raise our cabbie standards. And that’s a wonderful thing.

Now back to the ridiculous. Let’s take the word Realtor out of the equation for just a second – and substitute it with “district manager”  ”staff accountant” or “financial analyst”. How utterly inconceivable would be for that employee’s boss to demand a daily, detailed  report of what she had done that day to earn every dollar she will get on her paychecks? Let’s take that even further. Would the employee that spends more money on gas getting to work everyday deserve their pay more than the one that lives around the corner? He is spending more, after all.

The fact that our work is project-based, doesn’t make this any more sane. Instead of focusing on the end goal – success in selling that home or finding that perfect colonial – it seems we’re playing a game of “Let’s count your money”.

My answer to that often asked Seller question: Because I get it done!

Which brings me to this: Those among us who still contend that our worth is in being the nightguard to the gated community that is real estate information, will soon vanish if they haven’t done so already. So will the ones that give slews of powder puff reasons for their worth – my concierge service, my attention to detail. Yaaawn! Get results and like my good friend Jeff Brown says “your clients will be happier than bugs in rugs”. If you can get the home sold by making a payphone call that costs you a quarter, more power to you. If you deploy a Spielberg-led movie crew to make a short film about your listing and that won’t get the house sold – you’re in the justification business. And the light at the end of that tunnel is a train.

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(As somewhat of a postscript)

We’ve got much bigger issues to deal with as an industry than compensation justification and the paramount of these issues is the need to raise the minimum standards for our industry. But that’s another post for another day.