Twitter is taking the Australian real estate industry by storm at the moment and I have to apologise about another post on the topic in such short time, but I think this is very important. Whilst its potential to do good is huge like most powerful web applications it has a dark side just waiting to come out and bite you for the wrong reasons. Social networking and the internet in general has allowed a voice for everyone including your biggest critics.
I searched all major real estate groups on twitter to see what they are doing on Twitter and two things really stood out.
LJ Hooker is getting really hammered on twitter right now. As at 8:48pm tonight , the 27th of May, searching “LJ Hooker” on Twitter (http://search.twitter.com) provides a total of 16 results. One of these had no relationship with LJ Hooker Real Estate and four where by LJ Hooker offices themselves. That leaves 11 posts by third parties nad 6 of those were negative damning comments. That’s more than 50%.. hell that’s still nearly 40% of all posts returned being negative. That’s got to ring alarm bells for somebody at LJ Hooker HQ. It may turn out to be an anomaly but they need to monitor it to find out.
Just in case anybody questions the results here are the screenshots.
Click to view the full size screenshot
Another thing that stood out was a campaign being run by a solicitor in Frankston under the twitter name of @frankstonowners (soon to be renamed @baysideowners apparently) who is a “Bayside Homeowners Group.Exposing Bad Practices in the local real estate communities of Frankston (E,N,S), Seaford, Mt Eliza, Patterson Lakes,Carrum & Chelsea”
Click to view the full size
What’s particularly interesting here is that this last post clearly infers that they had to censor their own posts and that those posts might not have been polite or HONEST. That’s a little dangerous and irresponsible don’t you think? I wonder just what the deleted posts contained. Anybody who has used Twitter for 5 min or longer knows that a Tweet’s lifespan is counted in minutes so the damage to somebodies reputation was done well before it was deleted.
The thing that confuses me with this is that Grade 10 maths will teach you that for every property sold OVER the median there will be one sold UNDER the median. Its just impossible to sell every property over the median unless its over last months or last quarters median price and prices are on the rise.
I don’t think any agent in Australia would try to convince you that that the whole industry is a totally full to the brim with saints, but neither do I think every agent in the district of Frankston are shonky. If you give everyone a voice something like this bound to happen.
The best way to monitor your profile, and that of your real estate group is to use a service like Twilert. Watch what people say about you and protect your reputation…. and don’t forget to thank the people that praise you on Twitter as well.
28th May 2009
Sal,
Whether you can jump on board Twitter yourself or not, this problem has the ability to reach out and touch everyone.
28th May 2009
Another thing to watch out for is that there is a service called http://tweleted.com/. This allows people to search through other people’s deleted tweets.
This is taking the transparency of the internet to a scary level.
Here’s a post where they have included deleted tweets of some celebrities. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-deleted-tweets-pg,0,5996156.photogallery
Facebook is the same Glenn. There’s one group in there that is slamming Ray White & people jump on the bandwagon telling others about their bad customer experiences. http://tr.im/mC7R
You’re going to find this becoming more & more prolific and companies have been getting slammed all over the world by Web 2.0 for years. Twitter has simply made it easier to share stories about both good & bad service.
Here’s an example of a site that’s set up just to bag out companies. http://companynamesucks.com.
The best way for agents to combat this is to be on the front foot & make sure that they have their own social media & online marketing working for them.
This will help them build an online network of raving fans that will gladly support them.
28th May 2009
Good article – good information.
I would think median pricing would only be relevant for trends in the market. If it is moving up or down over time….
Cheers.
28th May 2009
Great article. We have an office in Frankston and I am now following the group so that we have a voice / opportunity to reply to any concerns.
Online reputation management is critical when embarking on a social media marketing strategy. Twilert is a great tool.
Thank you
Warren Tate
Franchise Manager
Hodges Real Estate
28th May 2009
Hi Glenn,
Your article is a well balanced and informative view of the online world of social media and the power it has to influence the minds of real estate clients or potential clients.
A great and simple strategy for any business is to automatically monitor Twitter TweetBeep.com and Twilert.com
are free services you can use) and other social media (FaceBook, Bebo, etc) for comments and feedback about your business and staff.
In fact every business should be doing this Offline AND Online, because listening to your market is the best way to show you are a great business to work with. Offline you can get your clients to do surveys or provide you feedback on paper. Now Online its even easier for your clients to help you improve your business with services like Twitter.
You can also set up Google Alerts which will send you a message when your business or staff are mentioned online.
When you get feedback, or see comments online, turn this into an opportunity to give better customer service, or solve a problem. Often you toughest critics or clients can become raving fans when you listen to them and satisfy them in some way.
Respond directly to the person who wrote the comment or post in a positive way and thank them for their feedback and for giving you an opportunity to do a better job for them. You’ll be amazed how much this can change your business reputation both online and offline.
Thanks for letting real estate agents know how they can use the web to improve their business and give great customer service. I’m a property investor too and I would be most impressed if some of the agents I have dealt with were more internet savvy!
May you get all the success you deserve and desire
Michael Shaw
Smart Practice Systems Blog
28th May 2009
This seems like a good thing to me. It is great that consumers have a voice. Companies can protect their reputation by not being evil. The public is smart enough to know that one angry person doesn’t mean anything, but if there is a constant stream of disatisfied LJ Hooker customers then it is likely that LJ Hooker are up to no good.
28th May 2009
Liam,
Could not agree with you more. However if you are unfairly targeted, or there is another side to the story it is helpful to know when someone is saying someone bad about you so you can offer.
In the case of LJ Hooker head office, they need to know the tone of the market against their offices. I am sure they will not like it, but learn from it they must.
I do not profess to understand just what is going on in Frankston at the moment, but on first glance the posts put out by FrankstonOwners on Twitter appear to be highly inflammatory, unfair and if you read between the lines at least some of the deleted posts were dishonest.
28th May 2009
Very interesting and so topical. Without getting too ‘new age’ about it, I’m convinced people with the right intentions, that are honourable and ethical, will have good things return to them. I’ve seen it so often.
If you go onto Twitter with the right intentions (just have a conversation, have something to say and contribute), good things result. You’ll have more people follow you, and you’ll get your positive message out.
If you go on with just the express purpose to sell, sell, sell, I don’t think it works, and it could backfire.
It’s a democratic medium. And if people bad mouth you, or are complaining about bad experiences with you, well, it’s good you hear about it, and you can send direct messages to those afflicted to clear things up. You can turn things to your advantage. If you stay out, as you demonstrated with LJH, it can be bad, and worse, you’re not even part of that bad conversation about you.
I remember learning in my Consumer Behaviour MBA class, you can make a higher impression on your clients if you can turn a bad customer experience they’ve endured around, than if you gave them a good customer experience in the first place. That doesn’t mean you give bad experiences on purpose of course (!) so you can turn them, but the point is made about the power and importance of recovery.
28th May 2009
Twitter complaints will be something that agents will need to keep monitoring very closely.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced frustration from poor customer service before ( within any industry ), but now with Twitter there is a worldwide audience that angry customers can share their frustrations with straight from their mobile phone.
While tempers flair people can say some horrible things & without having the opportunity to calmly discuss these issues, they can make their complaints public within seconds.
Unfortunately, in some cases it may take some convincing for an angry customer to remove their tweet from their account.
31st May 2009
Real Estate Agents seem to be more concerned about commissions than their reputations. What is happening to Frankston home owners is akin to what is happening to short-sold shareholders on the ASX.
When real estate agents cause harm to entire suburbs by underpricing, it is hardly unnatural to expect mom & pop homeowners, most of whom are mortgaged, to be silent. Twitter empowers victims to stand up for everything they have worked for and to say “no” to white-shoe salesmen whose only concern is their next commission.
It is scandalous when houses on development sized blocks in seaside suburbs sell for prices that one would not see in third world countries. I’m told that is what is happening in Frankston right now. No wonder local owners are mad as hell and unwilling to put up wiht it.
1st June 2009
If I understand you correctly, Carsten, you believe agents are convincing sellers to accept ridiculously low prices. is that correct?
Why don’t the sellers wait until a higher price comes along? Have you considered that perhaps there just isn’t the demand for the particular market segment you are concerned about? Or are you saying that *all* of Frankston is under some sort of magic real estate agency conspiracy that takes the control away from the person who actually owns (and therefore controls) the property?
How ridiculous! Get a grip! Otherwise, I’d be very careful if I were you that you aren’t fooling around in the defamation laws arena!
2nd June 2009
Frankston must have something in the water. Everywhere else knows that the current state of the economy is to blame for falling real estate prices. Blame the US and world bank system probably, the governments who let it happen maybe… but I dont think the agents are to blame.
I am not saying that an individual agent has not failed to disclose something at sometime to somebody… but you can’t blame him or any other agent for depressing the Frankston or any other market in the country.
Next thing we will hear of is a class action against Frankston real estate agents… Win, lose or draw I wonder who gets paid out of that??
2nd June 2009
Wow! Check out this great tool. It’s called Twoogle.
You can search Google & Twitter side by side within the same window.
Created by Browsy the search function is located on one of their subdomains at http://twoogle.browsys.com/
Here’s what you get when you search for Real Estate Sydney ~ http://twoogle.browsys.com/?q=real+estate+sydney
It’s a cool search tool because people can now search real time content from Twitter, SEO based content & Pay Per click content from Google all at the same time.
I also thought it was timely with Microsofts new search engine, ‘Bing’ being launched in Australia tomorrow.
I wonder if Bing will integrate with Twitter & create Twing? :)
2nd June 2009
Gee, Greg, so little time, so much rubbish!
I can feel a new relevance-based search coming on!
Ps Twing.com.au is available – but not .com !
Sal :)
3rd June 2009
Many Frankston owners, particularly the elderly, feel betrayed by commission-hungry local agents who find all sorts of convincing reasons to persuade them that the world is about to end and that they should sell in a hurry – at prices that are massively below the median. A public meeting last month was attended by several hundred enraged local homeowners who have had enough. These are ordinary people, not investors or lawyers.
Sal’s intimidating comments “How ridiculous! Get a grip! Otherwise, I’d be very careful if I were you that you aren’t fooling around in the defamation laws arena!” speak for themselves. That’s right Sal, label local owners as ignorant and threaten them – that’s really smart. Do you think potential customers are likely to reward you for being so insensitive to their needs? Customers have long memories. Treat them with respect. Put them first. That’s how good operators stay in business. The customer is always right.
3rd June 2009
Whilst the township has banded together to rally against this, it is really hard to comprehend that it is really an isolated case like this.
In my experience within the industry, the biggest problem has normally been that some of my competitors would go out & inflate prices to win listings & then the properties don’t sell, not the reverse.
By the sound of it, it would be really easy for any one of your local agents to start inflating the prices to secure more business, especially if the homes are being undersold as you say they are. Surely you’d have to question why no one is doing this.
Carsten, you say that “The customer is always right”, unfortunately agents we have 2 customers within any sales department. A seller & a buyer.
The seller wants to get the highest price they can for their home & the buyer wants to buy it for the lowest price, so if the customer is always right, would you like to know which customer is right?
In this market, the 2 customers that are right are the buyer with the money & the seller who agrees to accept the money.
Everything else is about managing buyers & sellers expectations.
PS. I agree with you about treating customers with respect & I’d be interested to know where you got your median price from.
3rd June 2009
Carsten,
That is just illogical and irrational and sounds like to me that someone is playing on peoples fears and emotion in a stressful time. I bet that even ACA and TT have too much integrity to run with a story like that and thats saying a lot. The whole country, in fact much of the whole world is experiencing significant falling of real estate prices…
Either ACA or TT (I can’t remember which) even had to go to Las Vegas the other day to run a scare campaign on falling property prices because of unemployment and economic conditions.. If only they knew that it was Frankston real estate agents that were the cause they could have saved those expensive plane fares to the US!!!
“local agents who find all sorts of convincing reasons to persuade them that the world is about to end and that they should sell in a hurry”
I would love to see you prove that!!! That is predatory behavior and one person doing this might be possible… believability might even stretch to a couple.. but not virtually the whole industry in a district.
In fact if agents across the board were acting in collusion to lower property prices and get quick sales isnt that a cartel?? Try and get the ACCC involved.. I bet they will laugh you out of the office.
Sal might be direct but he was not intimidating. How could he threaten you unless he was one of the Frankston agents. I reckon you would have heard more about that if he was I could not see him being too quiet about this.
Geez.. I bet even Jenman would not get involved in that. (Actually does anybody know if there is a Jenman office in Frankston and have they been targeted by this smear campaign?)
I have found that behind many of these scare campaigns there is always a driving force which has a significant financial stake. The “everybody else is snakes but if you give me the business I will protect you”.
Carsten, think about the core figures behind this campaign, the driving forces, and ask yourself if any of them have had generated increased business. If this is the case, and I believe it will be so, shouldn’t you be asking questions about their involvement. Ask yourself why would they prey on peoples fears to generate business for themselves?
If the drop in median prices is being caused by Frankston agents like you state then the price drops must be well over what is happening in similar areas. That should be easy enough to prove shouldn’t it? Why is there no facts and figures being offered.. just mud being thrown at somebody else’s expense.
3rd June 2009
Hey Carsten, I have a great idea. Tell all those people who are being forced to sell their properties at low prices, to stop using an agent. Tell them to put private for sale boards out the front, tell them to put whatever price they think the property is worth as the sale price, tell them to do the negotiating themselves. See how many properties sell.
One thing is for sure, they won’t be forced to sell at low prices, because more than likely- they won’t be able to sell the properties.
Sounds like a good solution to me. Everyone should be happy – except probably the people who really do want to sell.
3rd June 2009
Carsten,
As Glenn noted, I certainly wasn’t meaning to threaten – How/why could/would I? I am not even involved in the slightest. I am sure most readers ‘in here’ would wish you well. It just seems a long bow to draw to blame agents for a suburb-wide malaise. And you always have PaulID’s ‘Sell yourself” option if you really think agents are that evil and/or incompetent.
Sal
3rd June 2009
Greg,
RE: Your statement that, “unfortunately agents we have 2 customers within any sales department. A seller & a buyer. ….which customer is right?”
This is a common misconception and should be addressed for your own and the wider industry’s benefit.
Despite wanting to keep the buyer happy to keep the on the line as a prospective listing client, you must only have one client!
Your client is the seller if it is they by whom you are being paid. (Generally based on commish %).
Your client is the buyer if it is they by whom you are being paid. (Generally based on commish %).
Apart from lacking morality, not acting in the best interests of your vendor client would have 2 adverse affects on your business:
1. Vendors would be wary of you crunching their agreed price with you.
2. Buyers you helped to ‘crunch’ the vendor would be wary of using you to list in future.
Sal
4th June 2009
With respect Greg. Most agents are just like you. (i refer to your comment “unfortunately we have 2 customers within any sales department. A seller & a buyer). The bulk of Agents DON’T generally seem to understand that they work for the seller and NOBODY ELSE.
Agents have a moral duty to make clients aware of ALL material facts.
When agents selectively show sellers only data for the lowest prices in the suburb rather than the median price or the highest prices, it is possible for all but the most informed owners to be misled. Most elderly people won’t know where to get the real figures, and they can suffer major losses in order to satisfy an agent’s hunger for his or her commission. Happens all the time in Frankston. That agents there are now being exposed is a good thing indeed, Twitter empowers victims.
Is it defamatory to say this? Threatening people who disagree with agents brings the entire industry into disrepute. The customer is always right and the intelligent agents who can see this will be the ones who will do well in the long run
4th June 2009
Carsten,
That was certainly worded poorly by Greg. I think what he meant to say is that an agent has two relationships. The seller is a client relationship but the buyer is a customer relationship.
An agents fiduciary duty always remains with the seller however he still has a customer relationship and along with that goes legal, moral and ethical responsibilities to that buyer.
If agents are genuinely breaking their duty to their client I dont have a problem with them getting punished and personally I would actually encourage it. Just like the fact that there are dodgy solicitors, accountants and car mechanics.. so is there dodgy real estate operators and they should be weeded out but let the facts lead the way not attacks on peoples reputation because those claims had better be true.
The sheer breadth of the claims covering so many people and the cloak and dagger stuff smack of a smear campaign run for somebody’s clear economic benefit. Why are the facts involved not put out on the table for everyone to see?
If there really is hundreds of owners involved like you claim why is there no recordings of agents persuading “them that the world is about to end and that they should sell in a hurry – at prices that are massively below the median”. Why is there no copies of agent created CMA’s or other documents provided to support your claims. IMHO because it’s all rant and rhetoric thats why and there are no facts involved.
As I pointed out earlier there have been posts sent out on that twitter account that have been less than honest and somebody has censored them. Now you have agents allegedly dobbing in anonymously other agents. If they knew this was happening why didn’t they report it to their industry investigators or state real estate industry body? Why because the claims have more economic benefit to them this way….
You keep on saying somebody threatened you.. Where, how and when? Agents are allowed to have an opinion on this and when they are expressed you claim you are being attacked.
Government investigators for the Victorian real estate industry should start knocking on the doors of everyone involved here and get you to put up with the evidence or shut up. I reckon if that happens your claims of widespread corruption (lets face it, thats what you are saying) will be upheld to be baseless and empty.
So why don’t these disgruntled Frankston owners take the matter to the authorities. Because if investigators conclude that there is no case to answer then the defense of “substantially true” would seem to evaporate into thin air and somebody might be held accountable for their actions?
Real Estate agents are easy to blame when an owner accepts to sell a property less than what they would like to. But because the owner was the one who accepted it at the end of the day the only way to lay blame on the agent is to suggest foul play and that they lied or tricked the owner into proceeding.
As PaulD suggests… go and sell the properties yourself and see how you go!
4th June 2009
Sorry.. as Sal points out.. sometimes your buyer is the client and the seller the customer if you are a buyers agent. That is still pretty rare in Australia but it is growing.
6th June 2009
If its not on A Current Affair, then everything must be above board so there is no harm done.
If the government hasn’t nabbed any rogue agents yet, then everyone must be doing the right thing out there.
The above themes perpetuated by some of you do not even once answer the plight of the elderly who are often given the lowest sales figures for the suburb when being persuaded to sell. How ethical is that? No it may not be criminal. But its a grubby practice being used extensively in Frankston. Affected agents shouldn’t cry “defamation” about twitter when they themselves wreck their own brand names.
Hasn’t anyone a moment ot consider the elderly, the weak, the uninformed?
Or are our commissions more important than people?
I’ve been told to put up or shut up by Glenn. And kindly but petulant Sal told me I might be sued for defamation (although not by him) if I kept this up. He may not have meant it to be a threat but its the usual sort of bullying that agents tend to use when facing criticism. The Customer is NEVER right -and agents can do no wrong.
Again – people, please answer me: How ethical is it when elderly people are scammed with improper sales evidence and are too weak to put up a fight or complain. What sort of Darwinian society do you agents live in that you ignore this sort of misbehavior? When replying, please attend to the issue of the elderly first.
Twitter empowers the weak to stand up! Honest agents have nothing to fear. Slimy ones should think about doing the right thing or leaving the industry.
8th June 2009
Carsten,
Would you mind just focussing your complaint please in order that we might better address it?
At the moment you have made a very broad-sweeping claim against all agents dealing with all vendors in the broad Frankston region. Apart from personally finding this pretty difficult to believe, I would be interested in how many cases the untoward agents in whichever region you are really talking about have ‘rorted’ and how many of such agents you have thus far isolated. If there is a case to answer, you will need to provide such information. And then, I’m sure, you will begin to be ‘heard’ as a more rational complainant.
Hope this assists.
Sal
12th June 2009
Thats right – ignore people who complain and try to obfuscate. Agents who scam the elderly for personal profit don’t exist.? What burden of proof do you want? Do you expect someone in a wheelchair to testify on Today Tonight before you believe it? Just how much evidence do you need before you stand up and condemn it
http://www.jenmanfightsback.com.au/item.php?id=29
I
12th June 2009
Carsten,
Agents who scam the elderly for personal profit don’t exist.?
Nobody has said that.. In the example you provided he got caught and convicted, so have others before him and so will others after him. Nobody is disputing that there are rogues in any industry including real estate but our industry is not alone… how many doctors and lawyers are convicted every year or struck off their professional bodies?
What burden of proof do you want? Do you expect someone in a wheelchair to testify on Today Tonight before you believe it? Just how much evidence do you need before you stand up and condemn it
How about SOME evidence. You have provided NOTHING relating to this occurring en masse in Frankston other than your say so. What about the details of some of these sales you refer to??
I personally, and I believe so does virtually all agents here, condemn the actions of any agent acting illegally ripping people off but I for one have not seen or heard one shred of evidence to confirm this happening in Frankston today. You rant.. but you dont prove one thing.
Carsten.. Whats your real name?… what is your connection with this? What do you do for a living? Do you even live in Frankston?
If you expect us to believe even one single word you say why dont you proudly identify yourself and nominate the wrongdoers highlighting examples of what they have done? Why are you continuing the rhetoric but hiding the details?
You use a pretty anonymous email address that has clearly only just been setup on a free email service, probably for the purpose of this blog
12th June 2009
Quite agree, Glenn. We don’t support scammers in any industry and would like to assist you and your efforts if you wouldn’t mind providing some details please, Carsten. After-all, even A Current Affair would want some real info to proceed.