Real Estate Tech Vendor Code of Ethics
At Tribus one of the things we care most about is that we don’t offer our technologies and products and tell our affiliates “good luck!”
Unfortunately, this is a theme we are hearing all too often lately. Realtors stuck with either bad products or good products but no knowledge on how to use them. Consider that some template based web companies charge more than $100 / month to provide a site with no SEO benefits and little to no way to capture potential clients. Even worse are some sites that provide visitors absolutely no benefit whatsoever.
At Tribus, we make sure every one of our agents receives in depth training. If one needs a little more help than another that time is spent one on one until the agent has a firm grasp. We follow up to make sure agents are using our technologies. If for example one agent in an affiliate’s office isn’t using the virtual tour system, we’ll figure out why. Many times Realtors stop using technologies because they get frustrated doing something and all it takes is that effort on behalf of the vendor to get them to the next step, but again few are doing this.
What we are calling for is a real estate tech vendor Code of Ethics.
Every Realtor must agree to abide by certain rules that have been deemed good for the public and good for the profession. Why shouldn’t certain vendors do the same thing? I propose Certification that will tell a Realtor this vendor is providing you a top quality product and is going to train you how to use it. Furthermore, they will provide on going support and ensure that it’s helping you to gain business.
Every day we push for transperancy by Realtors – let’s all push for the same from vendors.
When ordering a product from a vendor consider the following:
- What is the return on investment of this product?
- Will my clients enjoy interacting with this product?
- Will it build my brand as an agent?
- Do I know how to use it? or Does the company provide significant training to help me use it?
- Do I know anyone using the product and what has their success been?
4 Responses to “Real Estate Tech Vendors Need A Code of Ethics”
Ryan Hartman May 13, 2009
Agree. A certification program for this stuff is a great idea. Tired of watching colleagues get ripped.
By the way…what you’ve set up here is great. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do
|tonylazz July 13, 2009
Great post Eric, and a long overdue call. It's an interesting choice between finding vendors you can rely on and trust vs getting deeper into it yourself and learning by doing and finding those who can help.
|jwmcfhd August 16, 2009
As a vendor yourself, are you aware that the page that is supposed to have your pricing, is blank.
Also I am sure there is a strategic reason for not having “email” on any of your pages.
As a Broker the word Vendor is a dirty word, because they follow no code.
I have owned businesses outside of RE for the last 20 years, and I loved, admired, respected those Vendors, only after opening a RE brokerage did I learn that the class of Vendors who make their living from our companies, cannot be trusted, and should not be trusted. Learning this lesson has been a very costly one over the last year and a half.
|tribuseric August 16, 2009
We're in the process of reworking the site. Having only launched in March, we've been busier than our small team had been able to handle. We're bringing more people on currently and will be launching our new site soon.
We did have a pricing page originally and removed it because we realized. More than likely no two of our brokers will have the same pricing model! We are very flexible in how we price on three scales: 1)Monthly fee 2) % of GCI and 3) % of business that goes through the channels we create for your company.
We have the contact form and avoid an email simply to reduce spam. However we have the ability to call us on every page and the form to reach us.
The problem is vendors in real estate either give you what you want, or what you need for the most part. The problem being that the ones that give you what you want tend to require little to no work and are just a flick of a switch. That's why Realtors want it so they can go about their business of selling. However it's the products that brokers need that require a little bit of work that are the ones providing the most income potential. Our goal is to bridge that gap and provide something people care about!
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