Somewhere along the way, real estate agents became project managers.
A seller decides to list their home, but first it needs some work. Maybe the house needs to be cleaned, the lawn is overgrown, a few rooms need paint, or there are repairs that should be handled before photos.
Before long, the agent is texting a cleaner, calling a handyman, waiting for an estimate and figuring out how everyone is getting into the property. Then the photographer is scheduled for tomorrow and the painter still isn't finished.
I've heard versions of this story from agents for years. None of this is really what a real estate agent was hired to do, but if the house isn't ready, the listing isn't ready, so it becomes the agent's problem.
Getting a Home Ready Is a Lot of Work
There can be a surprising amount that happens between signing a listing agreement and putting a home on the market. Cleaning, landscaping, junk removal, painting, repairs, flooring, staging, rekeying and photography can all be part of the process.
The problem isn't necessarily finding people who can do the work. It's coordinating all of them around a listing date.
Who gets the estimates? Who schedules the work, provides access and makes sure everything was completed? What happens when someone doesn't show up or a two-day project turns into four?
Very often, the agent ends up handling it.
Good Agents Do It Anyway
I don't think agents take on this work because they want to manage contractors. They do it because they care about the listing and want the property to show as well as possible.
Good agents have been solving these problems for their clients forever. They have lists of people they trust, make introductions and step in when something needs to get done.
That's part of providing great service. But there's a difference between advising a seller on what should be done and personally coordinating every person who does it.
Almost Everything Else Has Become Easier
A lot of the real estate transaction has become much more organized over the years. There are platforms for transaction management, digital signatures, showings, inspections, title, mortgage and marketing.
But the physical work required to get a property ready for sale is still surprisingly fragmented. Need a cleaner? Call this person. Need a painter? Here's somebody I used last year. Need the lawn cut? Let me text a guy.
A big part of preparing one of the most valuable assets someone owns is still being coordinated through text messages and someone's contact list.
Sellers Don't Need More Vendors
I've been thinking about this a lot as we've expanded HomeJab beyond real estate photography.
At first, I thought about listing prep mainly as adding more services. If our customers need photography, maybe they also need cleaning, landscaping, rekeying or repairs.
But the more we've gotten into it, the more I think the bigger opportunity is coordination. Sellers and agents don't need another list of contractors; they need one place to say, here is the property, here is what needs to be done, please get it ready.
That's a very different service.
We're Already Seeing It
Some of our largest HomeJab customers are already using us this way. We're handling house cleaning, rekeying and different types of repair and remodeling work in addition to the photography and media we've traditionally provided.
These are large real estate companies. They can find a cleaner or a locksmith themselves, but then they have another vendor and another process to manage.
The value is bringing more of that work together. We can coordinate the work, document what was completed and ultimately handle the media when the property is ready for market.
We're still early in building this out, but one thing has become pretty clear to me: the customer isn't really buying photography, cleaning, landscaping and repairs as separate things.
They're trying to accomplish one thing: get this property ready to sell.
The real estate industry just happens to have divided that job among a lot of different companies.
Let Agents Sell Homes
Agents should absolutely be involved in listing prep. They know the market, the seller and which improvements are worth considering before a home goes on the market.
But being involved in those decisions doesn't mean an agent should spend Tuesday afternoon figuring out why the cleaner never showed up. There should be better infrastructure behind them to handle that part.
Agents already have a big job: advise the seller, price the property, market it, negotiate the deal and get the home sold.
They shouldn't have to manage the contractors too.
