Kentucky Brokerage Utilizes Broker Tools From Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®) in a Unique Way
For many, a yearly or biannual doctor’s visit is just a part of life—a way to provide patients with the information they need to prevent illnesses and lead healthy lives. Can’t the same ideology be transferred to real estate?
Tim Moore, senior vice president of Semonin Technology & Marketing Media, saw a need for the same type of “wellness check” in real estate to ensure that consumers were armed with the necessary tools to reach their homeownership dreams, even if they weren’t immediately ready to buy or sell. Semonin REALTORS® of Kentucky—a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate that includes Semonin REALTORS®, Rector Hayden REALTORS®, Huff Realty and Wakefield Reutlinger REALTORS®— has been using Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®) to routinely offer these wellness checks to consumers.
“It’s like going to the doctor and having him or her listen to your heart and talk to you about how your health is doing. At that point, there’s no need to really go further,” says Moore, whose wellness checks are the preliminary step that provides consumers with easy access to important information they may find useful in the future.
“When someone really gets interested in the market, that’s like going back to the doctor and asking for more assistance,” says Moore. “When they get more serious, that’s when you dive deeper and get more hands-on.”
The biggest challenge Moore saw in the market was a lack of easy-to-understand information. There was data available, but it wasn’t helping consumers because they couldn’t easily digest it.
“Maybe it’s because of how it’s packaged, as it’s not always the most readable. You can put something together that looks a lot like a tax return, but it’s hard for someone to explain that data,” says Moore.
That’s why his brokerage has been providing a bound publication, taking the raw data from RPR, the MLS and FHFA.gov, and repackaging it so that it’s much more explainable.
“What we’ve evolved into doing is combining the RPR reports with other reports that include historical trends and a combination of local market statistics,” says Moore. “They all get packaged together and used in different ways for agents to present the information to buyers and sellers.”
On the agent side, Moore appreciates how easy RPR data is to handle, especially for greener recruits who typically require time to change habits and embrace using something new.
“It can be overwhelming when you’re brand-new and there are all these different things you have to learn to use,” he says. “Looking up data through RPR is as easy as doing a few clicks and out comes a report. It’s pretty helpful.”
But because the agents know this data gives them a competitive edge in the industry, especially when developing those important client relationships, they’ve really taken to these wellness checks.
“Agents that can maintain their client relationships do good business in all types of economies no matter what super tool is coming out,” concludes Moore. “RPR is doing a good job of helping us leverage those relationships.”
For more information, please visit www.narrpr.com.
Liz Dominguez is RISMedia’s associate content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at ldominguez@rismedia.com.
