Hi, I’m Michael Erdman, founder of AgentsCompared.com. For most of my thirteen year career I’ve been a business litigation lawyer here in Chicago, concentrating my practice in several areas, including competition law. I am not, and never have been, a real estate agent.
So what am I doing launching this website today?
Over the past eight years I’ve bought or sold real estate three times, and worked with different types of real estate agents – traditional and a la carte. In 2005 one of them introduced me to a group of a la carte agents scattered across the country and in need of some competition law advice.
Wanting to help, I began studying up on the intersection of competition law and real estate licensing. I started following dozens of real estate websites and blogs, looking over relevant government reports, and keeping track of online real estate start-ups. I attended a Federal Trade Commission/Department of Justice workshop on competition in real estate, and began meeting lots of interesting people in the private and non-profit sectors. Eventually I created a modest blog covering real estate competition law issues, and on occasion took calls from reporters interested in my perspectives.
In the summer of 2007 it occurred to me that consumers really had no place to go to discover and meaningfully evaluate local real estate agents. I’ll write more about this later, but existing “Find an Agent” websites seemed either entirely agent-centric or of limited usefulness to buyers and sellers.
An entrepreneur at heart, I began drawing up plans for what became AgentsCompared.com, a consumer-centric site devoted to helping prospective home buyers and sellers make more informed decisions when selecting a real estate agent.
Please take a moment to explore the site, look over this blog, and share your opinions, either here or via email at ideas@AgentsCompared.com.
Thank you for visiting.
Fantastic!
congrats!!
Awesome stuff!
Congrats!! I’m thrilled that consumers can actually see what REALTORS offer and what a full service agent should provide. I know your site will be a success and I’m happy to be a part of it.
Awesome Michael. I know that your site is going to make a big difference to a lot of people!
What an amazing idea. Love the concept and website!
Great concept – I look forward to seeing it evolve. Congrats on the launch!
Thanks for all the good wishes everybody.
See why all my past and current clients are happy with me….I work mostly from referral business and I believe that all my clients will be treated like they’re my only clients….this is what customer service is all about! I’m working together with you as a team to get your home SOLD or find you that new house you’ve been dreaming of moving into!
[…] track record, price, specialties, and local market knowledge. A post from founder Michael Erdman explains the motivation behind the […]
I love the idea of AgentsCompared.com conceptually, but when I actually tried to use the site I had a lot of difficulty. First, I never found an agent that actually disclosed their commission structure. Second, I didn’t find out anything truly valuable about an agent – comments like “I’m a great negotiator” don’t really help me to build confidence in an agent. Third, I had a lot of trouble with the usability of the site. I tried to search Chicago, single family, pre-existing property and out of town buyer and I was never able to return any results.
I know you just launched so I am sure usability will improve over time, but wanted to give you my feedback nonetheless.
Marilyn, thanks a ton for the feedback. I really appreciate it, and agree with your sentiments.
As more agents discover, explore, and hopefully register on the site, search results should become richer. Similarly, as more agents join the site, some (many?) will quickly realize that they’ll stand out from the crowd by actually disclosing financial terms and/or posting meaningful information about their services, thereby attracting more prospects. The way the search results page is arranged, it’s easy for consumers to compare/sort multiple agents on a particular attribute. I anticipate consumers will tune out agents who refuse to disclose terms and/or who limit their descriptions to puffery (“I’m great…hire me!”).
Regarding your third point about having “a lot of trouble with the usability of the site,” are you saying you were having trouble viewing/filling out the search page, or that no agents were showing up in search results? I suspect you are again expressing your frustration that few/no agents showed up in some of your search results, which occasionally is going to be the case I’m afraid in the early going.
Thanks again for commenting Marilyn.
-Michael
President & Founder
AgentsCompared.com