Hurricane Georges threatened to blow our favorite real estate curmudgeon, Joe Klock, away, but the storm missed Key Largo by 60 miles, and Klock only lost three rows of roofing shingles and part of the front porch.

Still a hurricane isn't much fun especially when you work at home. Klock is retired, but you'd never know it. The only difference is that he no longer puts on a coat and tie to go to the office. And he no longer gets letters from attorneys.

Busy working on a self-help book, " 30 Seconds to a Better Life, Klock plans to serialize the content for a variety of publications. He is also working on a program called Curtain Up, which demonstrates how show business techniques can be used to enhance business. And then there is Operation Springboard, a program which is utilized by branch managers to help new hires get started in the real estate business. His newsletter has over 3,000 readers.

After logging over forty-nine years in sales, management, training, and counseling, Klock has seen tremendous changes in the real estate industry and suggests that the industry brace for more.

And he speaks with real authority. Klock is a former Vice Chairman of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, a Past President of the Philadelphia Board of Realtors®, and Pennsylvania's Realtor® of the Year in 1966. He began his brokerage firm, The Klock, Co., Realtors® in 1974 and led it to the top position in home sales in the Miami Metropolitan market before merging the company with Coldwell Banker in 1983. Klock is the retired Dean of Coldwell Banker University, the first institution of its kind in the real estate industry. He holds charter designations of Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager and Certified Residential Specialist, and is a Senior Instructor Emeritus on the RNMI faculty. He was a recipient of Master Teacher Award given by the National Institute of Real Estate Brokers and has twice been nominated for NAR Educator of the Year. He is a prolific author and produces associate and management training materials, including his new offering, "Management Awareness," a self-directed Audio cassette/workbook program for new and aspiring sales managers.

Agent News caught up with Klock, in the middle of nailing down the roof, and he tells us how to prepare for the next hurricane - the winds of change facing the real estate industry.

A.N.:   As a trainer/REALTOR/manager emeritus, what do you think is the biggest controversy facing REALTORS today?

J.K.: Realtors are faced with a number of questions. Is bigger always better? How will sales professionals be treated in the future? Some are concerned that they might be bypassed. The big guys are gathering data at an interesting or alarming rate. Will the fact gatherers cut out the real estate professional by going directly to the consumers?

A.N.: Who do you mean specifically?

J.K.: I would rather say the big guys who are gathering facts. All of them, depending on your degree of paranoia. Cendant, for example.

A.N.: What do you see as a major future concern?

J.K.: One of the biggest problems is that people need to keep up with changing technology and the changing habits of the customers. Now we are seeing only a small percentages of people doing their househunting on the Internet. The rate at which that grows depends on how professionals deal with it. Figures are funny, someone wrote that some people aren't concerned about the number of FSBO's selling over the Internet. Percentage increases of small numbers of people are not significant. But if one person becomes two, you have a 100% increase, so it is hard to tell.

A.N.: What would you do to solve it?

J.K.: Read the trades and sniff the trade winds. As things change everybody has to decide - do you lick 'em or join 'em?

A.N.: What about for managers?

J.K.: The answer would be the same. As leaders they need to do the same things. As leaders, they have the same problems as the associates. It is their job to make their people aware of and defensive of the problems.

A.N.: How do you stay current on the issues? Or do they never really change?

J.K.: Of course they change. I start every day with reading a stack of trade publications and correspondence. I've got 8 or 9 Internet things I monitor including NAR, New York Times, and of course Agent News. I also monitor print publications. Keep your nose to the ground. I learn a lot about what is happening from correspondence and what people are thinking about.

A.N.: Where is the industry headed?

J.K.: Fewer practitioners. Once, you could do pretty well in the real estate business without being smart. There will be fewer Realtors because there won't be the need for as many, and the ones that remain will have more skill and make more money.

A.N.: What about the Internet?

J.K.: The Internet is not much different from scanning the ads and looking at signs. It is just a new place for buyers to do what they have always done.

A.N.: What about commissions?

J.K.: We have given a lot of our services away for years and now we are upset because people don't want to pay us for our knowledge. We leave our business open to people who are unfair to us. We charge high rates of commission partially to service unreasonable sellers. If they were all reasonable, we wouldn't have to charge as much, but the MLS books are glutted with properties that won't sell, even after being listed with several brokers and in some cases, for several years because the sellers are difficult.

We can't continue to do things that way. We are headed to the point that when someone consults a Realtor, the meter starts running. What will happen is that real estate services will be offered cafeteria style. For example, if you want a competitive market analysis for your house, there will be a fee for that.

We've always had this great desire to be viewed as professionals - well professionals are people who play for pay. The difference between a professsional and non-professional is that the pro gets paid. We have to change the situation ourselves from not getting paid to getting paid for our services, as do doctors and lawyers.

Published: October 7, 1998

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.