Only 22% of California consumers were happy with their real estate agent in 2009? WOW!

Check out these excerpts of a surprising article I read this morning about California homeowner’s dissatisfaction with their real estate agents:

RIS Media – It doesn’t take a genius to know that events of the past few years have greatly affected the public’s view of real estate agents. Now that image is below that of used car salesmen (except, perhaps, Toyota used car salesmen!) and many are publicly stating that the agent’s time is over, that maybe it’s time to take corrective action. What do you think?

The study reported on consumer responses to one simple proposition: “Yes, I would use the same agent” over the six-year period from 2004 to 2009. It reports that 79% of respondents said “Yes” in 2004 but only 22% said “Yes” in 2009.

The article suggests that these statistics could be due to negative experiences with the difficult real estate market, and that home owners are turning their frustrations towards their agents.

Nevertheless, this article makes me feel very fortunate that during this same time frame, 94% of my surveyed clients said they would “absolutely” return to me for their mortgage and real estate needs.  My loyal clients have valued my services and enabled me to run a referral-based business in spite of a difficult real estate market.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!