About RISMedia's Top 5 in Real Estate Network®

As the leader in real estate information systems, RISMedia has been an integral and important contributor to the real estate industry for almost 30 years. Through our flagship publication, Real Estate magazine, our leading business development website, RISMedia.com, and our renowned educational and networking events, RISMedia has long served the needs of real estate professionals.

Understanding and respecting the unique needs of leading real estate agents, their clients and consumers in general, RISMedia is honored and excited to introduce its industry-altering network: The Top 5 in Real Estate Network®.

RISMedia's Top 5 in Real Estate is a membership network of leading real estate professionals providing leading real estate information to consumers. To qualify for membership in the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, agents must meet specific criteria in five key categories:

• Experience
• Results
• Education
• Information Technology
• Commitment to Community

For the many consumers who view real estate agents as all the same, selecting a real estate agent has never been an effective or rewarding process. The Top 5 in Real Estate Network® is in response to the need to change the negative or indifferent perception that many consumers have regarding real estate agents. Top 5 in Real Estate will, for the first time, dramatically differentiate and distance the "top" real estate agents from others who are not as skilled, professional or dedicated to their clients.

RISMedia is confident that consumers, especially in today's more transparent marketplace, will embrace the opportunity to learn who the most proficient real estate professionals are. RISMedia now provides, through Top 5, an instantly recognizable brand and brand promise, enabling consumers to instantly identify those real estate agents who are among the most experienced, skilled and results-oriented in the marketplace.

At a time when too many real estate agents are marginalized by other media and consumers alike, RISMedia's Top 5 in Real Estate Network® elevates the professionalism of its members, demonstrably allowing them to stand out.

Changing Consumer Perception

It has been said that many consumers perceive a real estate transaction as a "fee-inflated event that they must subsidize in order to promulgate an inefficiently run industry." This perception is sustained when consumers believe that agents are essentially all the same, or that agents charge too much. This belief encourages the following syndrome: Consumers continuing to settle for less-proficient real estate agents. When consumers settle for less, both consumers and top agents "pay the price."

RISMedia's research has identified that the industry lacks an all-encompassing, real estate credential. A benchmark that goes well beyond any one educational course or singular productivity achievement. Indeed, it is long overdue for top real estate agents to realize their success being converted into one over-arching credential-one that is universally accepted and instantly recognizable and revered by all consumers. This is the mission of all members of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®.

Real Estate Has All-Stars, Too

Similar to how elite athletes achieve all-star status in professional sports, the Top 5 in Real Estate Network® will represent chosen all-stars from numerous real estate companies throughout the United States and Canada.

Benefit to Consumers

Consumers will benefit immensely from Top 5 as it will finally provide them with a convenient method to first identify and then access a Top 5 member in their area.

Regrettably, when consumers believe that all real estate agents are essentially the same, they are inclined to just settle for whoever charges the least. This profound lack of noted differentiation regarding how consumers view real estate agents also deprives real estate professionals of the same level of consumer respect and loyalty enjoyed by their contemporaries in other professions. Conversely, consumers appear much more willing to establish a definitive loyalty to these other professionals but remain undecided on who to select from the 10 or 15 friends or acquaintances they have in real estate.

RISMedia and the Top 5 in Real Estate will once and for all make it abundantly clear to consumers that the difference between real estate agents, as is the case in other professions, is actually...quite substantial.

To find out more about Top 5 in Real Estate call 301-657-9700 or email Melinda Estridge at melinda@estridgegroup.com.