After all, is Real Estate THAT bad?

Hello to everyone and I wish you to have a wonderful new month. This month is the beginning of a hotter period (in terms of temperatures) but also a more interesting one, from Real Estate point of view. Today I decided to start this month by replying to a reader of mine, quite upset I might comment.

“Real Estate market is controlled by slickers, as yourself”

On April 11^th Mr George wrote to me:

“Indeed, sir, there are paradoxes and it is the natural thing that this should happen on a market controlled by slickers, as yourself. People that are not willing to work and think that they can take advantage of the real estate brokers and who think of themselves to be specialists in this domain. Experts in what, I would ask? In purchasing properties with others capital? And what do they have to offer for  their big fees? This is just for misleading them. But losers will continue to exist, losers which think that work is done with their own two hands and hard work. Those times are long gone. They have disappeared when cool economists’ guys have appeared. Be proud for what you are doing with both of your hands, the rest of it is just an illusion that leaves you sleeping peacefully at night. But this will happen only for a while”.

Why someone can end up so upset (or frustrated?) with Real Estate professionals?
This is a gentleman who is definitely upset on the whole industry, not just me. According to him, everyone in our field of activity does nothing but stealing people, while the only reason for someone to be proud is just what he does with his hands (labour work).

I wonder… why someone can end up so upset (or frustrated) with Real Estate professionals?

• Did he invest money during 2007 – 2008 and now he realizes the mistake, blaming the others for his choice?
• Did he meet one of the (plenty unfortunately) unserious and unprofessional Real Estate agents who exist out there? (the ones I’ve been calling “taxidrivers”)
• Did he ever use the services of anyone who does not produce something with his hands?

5 challenges we face today in Romanian Real Estate segment

This gentleman is not the only one. A “cocktail” of reasons has turned many people into adopting this approach towards the Real Estate segment. More or less, I could categorize the challenges that Real Estate industry faces as follows:

• Lack of trust. After all the mistakes that happened during 2006 – 2008, many people are reluctant to listen to anyone talking about Real Estate nowadays.
• Bad professionals hurt the image of the whole segment. Despite the thousands of serious people involved, the bad professionals of Real Estate are “louder”, creating noise, destroying the segment’s image and misleading people.
• “Too many kings, without a real kingdom”. Nowadays Real Estate professionals are split in many different groups. They all need of each other, but collaboration is hard. So their voice remains “not so loud as it can be”.
• While inappropriate people hurt the market, the serious ones remain “peaceful”. Despite their good intentions and seriousness, their silence allows to all kinds of wrong persons to destroy their image as well. There are too many serious people out there, but so far they have just focused on their business, without investing little of their time in order to explain to their friends or the society what Real Estate really means.
• There is not any common point of reference for all Real Estate professionals. Without this basis, it is very difficult to build a new, better business environment. I have spoken with hundreds of good professionals. Despite the fact that we agree in 70 – 90% of everything we say, we have not managed to create a common point of reference for all Real Estate professionals and the industry in general.

Except the work you do with your hands, there are other forms of work which can make you proud. Real Estate is one of them

I have been working for many years in my family’s butcher’s shop. This was a work done mainly by hands and I was proud of it. Now I work wearing better and cleaner clothes, but this does not mean that I have to be ashamed of something. In the end of the day, the work does not make you good or bad. You make the work appear good or bad, according to who you are, which are your ethics and your principles.

Dear George,

I strongly disagree with your approach. The world you described died several decades ago. I want to assure you that working in Real Estate business can be harder than most of other professions, for the ones who do their job right. Bad professionals do not characterize everyone else as well. Of course you are right to believe in whatever you wish. But if I were you, instead of blaming everyone, I would search for the good professionals who have something to teach, advice or show me, in order for me to benefit as well.

“So what can we do about all these people who have wrong impression for Real Estate?”

The ones of you who also work in this industry and share the same values with me may end reading this article having one question: “Ok, this guy has bad opinion, like many others. What can we do about all these people who have wrong impression about us and Real Estate?”

Well, wait a few days. On Monday the 9^th I will present to you my proposal on this!