Effective January 1, the US Real Estate Coalition of America will officially change the top three home buying priorities from “Location, Location, Location” to, “Ventilation, Ventilation, Ventilation.”
“This is partly due to the impact of the pandemic,” says council spokesperson Warren P. Hargreave.“But it also reflects the fact that people just like ventilation.”
Location, Location, Location have topped the list since 1904, when they replaced Indoor Plumbing, Indoor Plumbing, Indoor Plumbing – and many long-time realtors aren’t taking well to the change.
“I’ve never had a client ask about ventilation,” says Chicago agent Marian Porter. “If you ask me, the ventilation proponents must be fudging the numbers.”
The majority of agencies, however, are scrambling to get ready. Most are offering training to help their agents cope with this uncharted landscape. Initiatives range from two-hour group role-playing sessions to more intense initiatives that include electroshock therapy.
“I really want to make it work,” says 30-year agent Sydney Poston of Kensington, Idaho. She’s paying $50,000 to participate in a program where she’ll be flown to a remote forest in Manitoba, then left there alone for 30 days so she can concentrate on nothing but memorizing the three new priorities. “If it doesn’t work out for me,” she says, “at least I’ll know I gave it all I got.”
For others, like Al Parks of RealtyFive in Detroit, the change isn’t worth it. He is closing his agency and will open a Dairy Topps franchise once Covid restrictions have eased. He’s current deep into the process of memorizing the top three reasons people buy sundaes (“Ice Cream, Ice Cream, Ice Cream”).
