New World Order

The National Association of Realtors’ recently issued a “Danger Report,” an assessment of challenges facing the real estate industry carried out by the Swanepoel | T3 Group. Among the warnings included was the possibility that the growing number of Millennials in the real estate market, a generation that typically has fewer financial resources at hand than earlier generations of homebuyers, may be more willing to cut agents out of the picture entirely. Additionally, “disruptor” services such as AirBnB and Uber have already changed the way consumers approach hotels and cab services. It’s not out of the question that a similar service could be on the way for homebuyers.

Florian believes that, even with the technology tools already available, there’s no substitute for an agent with local knowledge.

“There are different sections in Newton, for example, that are less than a mile away, but the values will swing $200,000 from one area to another,” Florian said. “Even the same builder will build the exact same house in one section and then build it in another section, and they will easily demand $200,000 more for the home built in the higher-priced section simply because the land is worth more in that other area. It’s hard to distinguish that without knowing the area and being in the market, as opposed to just electronically plugging in the address and having a computer make those distinctions.”