How to Ruin Credibility
January 29th, 2008 by Dominic Canterbury
I spend a lot of time telling people how to build credibility but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about how to destroy credibility. 
Fortunately, the National Association of Realtors created these ads (click on “Watch the TV Commercials”) to illustrate a quick and effective method for doing just that.
Whether deserved or not, Realtors often suffer from the perception that they are in the profession just to make a quick buck, that they have little actual expertise, and that even in the worst market they can be counted on to tell you, “Now is the perfect time to buy.”
So as the housing market shutters with uncertainty and teeters on the brink of collapse, what prudent advice does the nation’s largest body of real estate agents have for us?
“Now is the time to buy!” Says the NAR.
I love that one. Especially with the Commerce Department saying this could be the worst downturn we’ve seen in more than twenty years.
In short, rather than taking this opportunity to prove that Realtors can be a source for valuable information and insights, they chose to emphasize the self-serving nature of their trade.
Looks like they’re operating on the Dumb-Consumer Theory of Marketing. But being that almost nobody is THAT dumb, the NAR ad will simultaneously sway nobody while eroding what little credibility they had left.
The lesson in all of this? Credibility is not something you can fabricate out of nothing. It is something given by the consumer only after you’ve actually earned it.
As if us agents didn\’t have enough bad press to overcome now we have to recover from our own lobbying group. What is an agent to do;)
I agree. Now is the time to highlight the code of ethics by which Realtors promise to abide.
It may or may not be the right time to buy, and you may count on the ethics of your local Realtor to counsel you in your best interests always.
That is how I wish to be seen. I believe turning down business when appropriate can work to my benefit; it speaks lounder than my voice can ever say about my personal integrity.
I completely agree with you both. The organizations that claim to be supporting you (NAR, the real estate companies, local offices, marketing companies, etc) seem to do nothing but support themselves at your expense.
As a Realtor, if you can’t trust NAR, who can you trust? If you ask me, I would say you should distance yourself from them. Go your own way. If it gets bad enough you will have to openly stand in opposition to them in order to protect your own credibility.
Hell, I would say to do it now. It would make for damn good marketing.
Dominic
The ads definitely have something of a tin ear to them. But although I am not a real estate investor, wouldn’t it be true to say that, as with stocks, when the price is low, that is the time to buy? If anything, when the market is booming, that’s the time to wait (at least that’s what Warren Buffet did)! So if the NAR is saying, home prices are down, get in now before they go up, that’s not exactly bad advice. (Of course, that means if you’re selling a property to get into a new one, you aren’t getting ahead if your listed home is underpriced. )