In this video, Jonar Nader speaks with Gregg Toyama of Harcourts International about the statistics that show that people seek ‘honesty’ from real estate agents. Jonar does not believe that people are looking for ‘honest’ real estate agents. He thinks that people need ‘expertise’. He says, ‘Honesty must never be sold as a “feature” of a real estate agency.”
There are two videos below. The second one is of a higher quality for those with high-speed internet connection. The first video is 8 Mb. The second is 15 Mb. Video length is 4 minutes and 51 seconds. Further below is a transcript of the video.
Here is the transcript:
Gregg Toyama: What would you think that people would expect from a real estate agent after you see some of the statistics that we produced, that 75 percent of people said they would use the same real estate agent and yet, 15 percent actually do?
Jonar Nader: Yes. I’m not sure how honest people are. It’s like at a restaurant when you go and they say, ‘How was your meal, sir?’ And you say, ‘It was very nice.’ You actually want to say more than that but you just leave it be. You walk away. People don’t like confrontation and they don’t like to embarrass anybody. But the other interesting statistic that follows from that was, what are you looking for in an agent? And do you recall what most people said they wanted?
Gregg Toyama: They wanted honesty.
Jonar Nader: Yes. And I was looking back at the old archives of some of the early founders of real estate agencies and I just love the fact that way back in 1800s, they said, ‘Come to our real estate agency where you get integrity and honesty.’ You know, I traced that because in Auckland, I heard this statement which I thought, ‘How could it be that honesty is what people are looking for?’ And here’s the way I describe it. You and I are walking down the street and you see a bakery. And you say, ‘Jonar, just a minute.’ And I say, ‘What are you going there for, Gregg?’ And you say, ‘I need some bread.’ Fair enough. We would go past a barber or a hair salon. I say, ‘Gregg, where are you going now?’ You say, ‘I need a haircut.’ And then you go past a real estate agent. I say, ‘Gregg, what are you going there for?’ You say, ‘I need some honesty.’
It doesn’t work, does it? You don’t go in there for honesty. So therefore, the question is, ‘What is it that people are looking for when it comes to real estate?’ And so, what I did earlier today and we’re doing now in Auckland was to show that if we can really understand what people need first, you know, I don’t think the customer is always right. I don’t think the customer knows what to look for. Because let’s suppose we invented a new product called an alarm system for your house or a virus checker for your computer, do you think the average person knows how a virus checker works or how a firewall works?
So, can you imagine a software company sitting down with a customer saying, ‘What are you looking for in a virus checker?’ They go, ‘What’s a virus?’ They don’t even know. And you’re asking a humble mum and dad, ‘What are you looking for in a real estate agent?’ How do they know? What they need is an expert to tell them when they’re likely to be conned, what are the spins, what are the tricks of the trade. And so, what we need to do as professional people at Harcourts is to really understand. Hang on a minute. If I were advising my mother or my sister, what would I tell her to watch out for? And if we can articulate all of those and share them with our clients and say to our clients, ‘Look, we’re not in this game for the short term. We’re here for the long term.’
So, of course you expect honesty and integrity but that shouldn’t even be uttered. I mean, the moment you utter these things, they become dubious and doubtful. It’s like going to a job interview and you say, ‘Here’s my resume. I’m a doctor and I’m honest.’ Yes. Why did he make that point? ‘I know I was in jail but I’m not really a thief.’ I mean, you start raising questions. So here’s what we need to be looking for in a real estate agent. We need a real estate agent who can demonstrate that they have a good database of clients on the books so that when I come to you and list my property, you can say, ‘Look, I’ve already got people primed up because every weekend, I have open houses.’ Every weekend, I meet 20, 30 people and I go and visit other homes. So when I say to you your house is worth say, 600,000, I’m not saying that because there’s some database in Australia that sort of tells me that because three of units left of you and seven houses right of you sold and so, I’ll give you the average and say your house is worth – so when an agent says, ‘Your house is worth 600,000,’ I say, ‘On what basis do you arrive that?’ He would say, ‘Well, left of you or right of you.’ I say, ‘Have you been to those houses?’ No. Well, you haven’t seen the view from there. You haven’t seen my parquetry floor. You haven’t seen the quality of my fittings. So, you’re just lumping me into a statistic, are you?
So what we need from a real estate agent is someone who knows that time is precious and time is money and that they’re going to get on with it. And also, who has a network. I mean, it’s well and good that I’m dealing with you as my agent but I want to know you have a team of people around you so that if you’re busy or not there, that they are just as keen to look after me. The last thing I want to hear is, you know, come to Harcourts, come to Harcourts. And then they say, ‘Oh, sorry. Gregg will call you back.’ No, I’m calling Harcourts. Are you Harcourts? Well, take the call.
And that’s the way that I think business succeeds when if we are selling a brand that the brand means something and so whether Gregg is there or not or if Mike is there or not, the brand survives because, you know, Cartier has survived beautifully after Mr. Cartier and same with Gucci after Mr. Gucci. And a good brand should be true whether you’re in Christchurch or South Australia. It should stand true.
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