Podcast: The End of Buyer’s Agents and Most Brokerages

What will the real estate industry look like in five years? If today’s guest, retired financial advisor Kerry Grinkmeyer, is right, it’s not going to be pretty. With companies like Zillow working to streamline real estate transactions, buyer’s agents will become obsolete. Most brokerages will be absorbed by the big players, leaving only a handful of companies in the game. Oh, and commissions – they’re going to drop significantly, forcing agents to rely on alternative revenue streams. Get details on these industry predictions and more on this Real Estate Rockstars.

Listen to today’s show and learn:

Kerry’s brief bio [4:46]
Zillow’s plan to turn real estate into a three-click process [6:54]
How to survive in the new real estate industry [12:38]
Why Zillow will become the biggest company in the world [15:23]
What will happen to most brokerages in the next five years [18:33]
Predictions on what will happen to real estate commissions [22:44]
What it takes to sell your book of business [24:42]
The best way for brokerages to retain agents [26:55]
Why buyer’s agents won’t be around much longer [34:07]
How to be of value as a real estate agent [39:37]
What’s happening to title companies [45:16]
Kerry’s opinion on closing day [45:34]
Kerry’s donation to the Agent Success Toolbox [47:35]
How to break through your goals.
Plus so much more.

Kerry Grinkmeyer

Kerry Grinkmeyer is a real estate agent with Keller Williams. He built one of the largest franchises within the Ameriprise Financial Advisor System; in 2005, Kerry sold his business to his son, his daughter and his nephew. In retirement, Kerry wrote four books most noteworthy The Christmas Web – A Family Tradition. On December 26, 2014 their daughter lost her 12 year fight with cancer. Kerry spent 2015 angry.

On January 1, 2016, Kerry decided he needed to change his focus; Kerry became a real estate agent. He specializes in selling luxury homes in the Birmingham area. Kerry believes that to effectively sell luxury homes they need to be marketed separately from the rest on the homes on the market and we (you and I) need to take advantage of advanced marketing methods offered through the Internet, print and broadcast media.

Kerry becomes aware that although the Birmingham real estate market as a whole is hot and thus a sellers’ market, this is not true in the luxury home market outside of Mountain Brook, parts of Vestavia and Homewood. It’s not uncommon for there to be 30 active luxury home listings in a neighborhood and the six year past sales history telling us that fewer that 15 will sell over the next 365 days. Thus this is a Buyers’ Market, with more inventory than buyers. This is caused, in part by The Baby Boomer Sell-Off. So the challenge becomes one of positioning your home so that it is one of the 15 that sell and that takes some work beyond putting a sign in the front yard and a MLS listing. If you currently have a home on the market you may be puzzled why your home isn’t selling.

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