Portrait of a full service agent

In an effort to slice and dice up the discussion of what "full service" is in real estate and what that might look and sound like, I draw your attention to the video. It’s a short interview between Brad Inman and Noah Rosenblatt owner of UrbanDigs.com; a NYC blog and real estate company.

If more real estate agents sounded like Noah (NYC accent notwithstanding) and offered the type of deep insight to their real estate market via web based platforms, is it possible that the "full service", 6% commission issue wouldn’t be as much of an issue?

This begs the question: does the definition of "full service" today translate to a manual service embodied by the shleping of paper, people, and offering the full array of traditional implementations such as yard signs, MLS placements, newspaper ad, etc., or is "full service" also measured by an intellectual offering, embodied by a Ph.D. cultured consultant who generates comprehensive web based analysis of their local marketplace by virtue of comprehensive neighborhood data and insight?

In any business there are all levels of services. Neiman Marcus and Wal-Mart. There’s reasons why these "full service" destinations charge different prices for their goods. The question, as I have suggested in the past is, what exactly is "full service" and which of those services look, feel, taste and appeal to a more luxury price model?

– Davison