If the crystal ball of one real estate industry observer is accurate, agents in the future will be shifting their emphasis away from the latest technologies back to the consumer, while at the same time adapting to the emergence of retail giants offering homeownership services in the marketplace.

Charles M. Dahlheimer, president of the St. Louis-based North American Consulting Group and publisher of The Real Estate Executive Summary, also said that Realtors have made serious mistakes when trying to change in the past and need to broaden their views of the marketplace to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

While local real estate experts agree with Dahlheimer’s conclusion that the customer always needs to come first, they are less inclined to agree with predictions that homebuyers and sellers will be turning to places like Costco and Wal-Mart when it comes time for the property transaction.

Dahlheimer was featured as one of the keynote speakers at the Massachusetts Association of Realtors annual convention held recently in Falmouth, where he lectured about the future of real estate.

“We seem to have the worst tunnel vision of any profession I’ve seen,” Dahlheimer said of the real estate industry. “What that tunnel vision has done to us is it’s caused us to make some big mistakes in the past.” He cited moves by some in the industry a few years ago to invest in greater control of real estate listings when the Internet was on the verge of allowing open access to that information. When planning for the future now, he said Realtors need to take outside influences such as the Internet into greater consideration.

“We used to make our money by being the gatekeepers,” he said. “We’re not big enough to control the information world … If we could keep control, then I wouldn’t be suggesting we do something differently.

“Now we’re going to have to focus more on how to provide more services to the consumer,” he continued.

Changes in the industry will be forced by consumer demand, he said. As an example, Dahlheimer cited the banking industry. Banks, for example, used to be open limited hours in traditional locations until consumer demand prompted later weekday and Saturday hours along with branch locations in supermarkets and retail stores like Wal-Mart.

“Banks changed the way they do business,” he said. “We’ll have to change the way we structure our business.”

Dahlheimer said stores like the warehouse club Costco have put real estate listings in kiosks at selected locations, giving consumers the option of shopping for homes while they shop for other supplies. Instead of battling against stores like Costco getting into the real estate market, he suggested Realtors find ways to either work with the stores or find other ways to adapt the way they do business.

“We may have to change our pricing or our delivery of services,” he said. “And we have to find out how to become more efficient.”

The industry as it stands now, he continued, is inefficient. “This is the only industry where all of the responsibility for advertising and individual contact rests with a single sales person,” he said.

Additionally, because the consumers drive the industry, Dahlheimer said agents should make sure their focus stays on the consumer and their changing wants and needs. While mastering new technology is important, it is not as important as the consumer, he said.

“Focus on changes in the attitude of the consumer,” he said. “I don’t think technology is the key. We shouldn’t be focused on technology.

“Technology is a vehicle,” he continued. “We should be focused on the recipient, and we should focus on being the conduit that brings the recipient what he or she wants.”

Additionally, Dahlheimer said Realtors should continue their relationship with a buyer or seller far past just the closing date of the transaction. However, he said the relationship needs to be much more than a postcard with the Realtor’s picture on it sent on the one-year anniversary of the closing.

“We have to try to change the mindset of the industry, and how the business relates to homeownership, not just buying or selling,” he said.

For example, rather than assessing a home’s value seven or eight years after it was purchased when the homeowner wants to put it on the market, Dahlheimer suggested a comprehensive report on a home’s value delivered at least yearly to help the homeowner better understand his financial situation. Realtors might also be able to help homeowners find services such as landscaping or painting.

“Right now they take their investment and lock it away in a drawer for eight years and then take it out and look at it. Can you imagine if a stockbroker did that?” he asked.

Locally, industry leaders agreed that remaining focused on the consumer is a top priority.

“We’ve never, ever taken our focus off of the customer,” said Richard F. Cahill, president of Norwell-based Jack Conway & Co. “Anyone who has taken their eye off the customer recently has made a major mistake.” Cahill said recent statistics from the National Association of Realtors showed that while Internet use has increased among those looking for a home, so has contact with Realtors.

“There’s a reason for that,” he said. “Homebuyers still want to talk to human beings. Places like Amazon.com don’t have offices or people to help you personally.

“Technology is playing a tremendous part, but more from the convenience point of view,” he said. “Actual sales still come down to the real estate agent. He or she is still the most important part of the formula.”

Paul Harrington, president of Lexington-based The DeWolfe Co., agreed that the relationship with a customer needs to be maintained, but expressed concern that agents may try to do too much for the consumer.

“The reason this issue is coming to the forefront is not because it’s anything new, but there’s a movement in some parts of the community to try to be all things to the consumer,” Harrington said, “and there’s a lot of confusion as to what is important to the consumer.”

‘Best Evidence’
Harrington said a number of companies have begun offering so-called concierge services directing homeowners to utility providers, lawn care services and other vendors. “Most of them are trying to generate more revenue out of the referral relationship with the vendors. While this may be a valuable service to the customer if it’s done properly, it can be a burden if done improperly, because most agents cannot serve all of their customers’ needs,” he said. “The approach [DeWolfe] has taken is to stay focused on the services we provide ourselves.

“It’s not good to be all things to all people. Sometimes things might backfire.”

Both Harrington and Cahill said they felt that retail giants weren’t a major threat in the real estate industry.

Harrington said most of the retail store operations are set up where the store aligns itself with the customer, then refers them to an agent and collects referral fees. Sometimes a small percentage of the referral fee is rebated to the consumer. “These kinds of programs, I don’t see them growing. In fact, I see them going in the opposite direction,” he said.

“It’s not beneficial to the customer. It’s only going to add cost to the transaction as [stores] demand greater referral fees.”

Cahill said past examples of large players trying to enter the market have shown it to be less than successful. “Take a look at some of the best players in the works. Places like Merrill Lynch and Sears thought they could sit in their ivory towers in Detroit or wherever and it would work, and they forgot about the local consumer.

“The best evidence of what the future holds is history,” Cahill said, “and history has proven through the failures of the largest corporations in the world that it still comes down to the local agent who knows the community.”