60 minutes, real estate and golf, quick takes
Quick takes on 60 Minutes, real estate and golf at The Players. First things first, let's start with golf.
I'm a big fan of Phil Mickelson and congratulations to Phil on a great win. When I watch Phil, it usually is excruciating, yet today he was so solid. As to Sean O'Hair, what a great 16 holes but he plays a little too slow (I can't even imagine what would happen if he was paired with the notoriously slow Padraig Harrington, they would still be playing tomorrow) and yet not slow enough to run the tournament through the 60 Minutes episode on real estate. What a shame he sent 2 balls into the lake and another bogey on 18 costing him some serious money. He really presented himself beautifully and we'll hear a lot about him in the future and he will win some big tournaments.
More golf, we'll get to real estate in a minute. Sergio did great, placing second and even making some putts. And what about Jose Maria, coming back from a 78 on the first day and coming in tied for 3rd. Stewart Cink was solid as usual and finished tied with Jose Maria. Tiger had a tough week but with a nice final round, he still beat the mouth that roared; Rory Sabatini was 1 stroke behind Tiger at the end of the tournament after wedging his clubs in his mouth after his opening round and trying to take on Tiger.
And still more golf. I feel like Sean O'Hair lining up a putt, we'll get to real estate in a minute. 
Professional golf is coming to Charleston South Carolina in a big way in the next several weeks. Over Memorial Day weekend, the Senior PGA Championship will be held at The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort with the senior players challenging one of the toughest courses in the world. Designed by Pete Dye, who also designed The Stadium Course at The Players in Sawgrass, it will be an exciting event. We're actually going to miss the tournament, we've scheduled a long weekend in New York City instead of attending the tournament. If you're going, make sure to have Sunday Brunch at the Sanctuary (if you can get reservations). What a beautiful resort hotel and their Sunday Brunch is spectacular!
The following weekend, the best women in golf will be in Charleston for the inaugural Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika held at Rivertowne Country Club in Mount Pleasant, a beautiful course designed by Arnold Palmer. With a $2.6 million purse, everyone will be here. I can tell you a little bit about this course since I've played it several times and it is really tough but then again, I'm not as good as the women professionals. We definitely hope to get out there for a couple of days, it should be fun.
Since I am a Charleston South Carolina real estate agent and this is supposed to be a real estate blog, perhaps I can finally get around to a little bit of real estate in this post.
Let's start with a little humor. Anyone interested in buying a beautiful home in Rivertowne? Just call or email me, there are some beautiful homes available.
Now to the serious part of this post. Let's talk a little about 60 Minutes and their much anticipated article on real estate. Lesley Stahl, who is still beautiful, threw softballs at Glen Kelman of Redfin. She was so coy, winking about how expensive it is to sell a house and how unnecessary those high fees are. He hit these easy pitches out of the park, making real estate agents seem like overpaid do nothings.
Truth be told, it is the Redfin agents who do nothing for a discounted commission. They do not take buyers out to visit homes expecting the listing agent to do their work for them. Finding a house is easy, finding a good agent isn't.
I have personally been involved with many real estate transactions and the first thing that comes to my mind is that no two have ever been alike. I learn something new from every transaction. They are complex. It takes a lot of work to successfully go from contract to closing.
I don't think that real estate consumers really benefit from having a transaction handled over the telephone by an agent with little to no experience handle the complexities. I doubt that Lesley Stahl would allow an individual who was "flipping hamburgers at McDonald's" last week to handle the transaction of her million dollar New York apartment or summer house in the Hamptons so that she can save a dollar or two (with no offense intended to the fine people flipping burgers, after all, in my youth, I sold Coca Cola as a vendor at Wrigley Field in Chicago during the summers while going to college).
I believe I read that Glen Kelman of Redfin hired a traditional real estate agent to sell his personal house in Seattle last year rather than use Redfin. In order to sell real estate, you actually have to do a little more than stick a sign in the front lawn and post the listing in the MLS.
60 Minutes included their usual inaccuracies in their reporting. All real estate listings are not 6 percent. Some are a little less, a few are a little more. 6% is only what many agents would like to start at in the negotiation of how much it will cost to sell a home because in the old days, that was a fairly common fee and that fee is then split between the listing agent and the buyer's agent.
I love the Internet; there is so much information available online today and I love to work with the newly empowered buyers and sellers of today who have done research and have some understanding of the real estate process. It is a great place to start searching for a house but if I was buying a new home, I think it might be important to actually walk through the house before making the biggest financial decision of my life. There is more the buyer representative does for his/her client during the transaction than just take them around to a few houses and open the lockbox to let them view the house.
What CBS failed to notice are the complexities involved in a real estate transaction, it is not a 4 hour event for a fee of $10,000 or more.
In today's real estate world, the real estate agent must bring value to the transaction to earn their commission. I worry about the Zillow "zestimates" being the basis for real estate consumers to make decisions on how much to offer. They are inaccurate at best, many buyers who have tried to use the "zestimates" to prepare their offer have been amazed that they aren't even getting a counter offer despite a slower real estate market. A professional real estate agent has access to an incredible amount of accurate information. It is the interpretation of this information that is just one of the value added propositions that real estate agents bring to the transaction.
Having said all that, I don't think anyone should overpay for real estate services. If a FSBO can successfully sell their house without an agent and save $12,000 or $30,000, that's great. If they need the services of an agent to successfully sell their house, obtain the services of the best real estate agent you can find, not the "cheapest". You always get what you pay for.
Back to CBS for the finale of this post. It would have been nice to see Mike Wallace grill Glen Kelman rather than take on Mitt Romney in the opening article. Mike Wallace is tough and asks the hard questions that deserve to be answered. It would have been fun to see Andy Rooney talk about Glen Kelman and Redfin with his witty style. Dan Rather could have been brought back to add more inaccuracies to his resume with an expose of the National Association of Realtors and how they are "conspiring" to do something bad to the real estate public. They could have trotted Katie Couric out in a last ditch effort to save her career after destroying it by bringing her over from the Today show. CBS just hasn't been the same since Walter Cronkite retired. The credibility of this network leaves a lot to be desired.
I thought it was funny that the National Association of Realtors was thrilled that if CBS had to do this report, it was going to be on Mother's Day and there would be a slightly smaller audience. Had the golf taken a little longer to complete, the East Coast wouldn't have ever seen it.
I'll be adding some links to other blogs that comment on the 60 Minutes article in the next few days.