The Intangible Resources in the Relationship between Real Estate Agents and Customers: what is the role of trust?

The house is a complex product. It implies both a higher financial risk than other products and a lot of time to spend for choosing it The purchase decisions are mainly made within the family. Each of the family members influences the final decision of the purchasing process in a stronger way than other external incentives do (i.g. advertising, promotion, construction firms, owners and real estate agents). This study starts from a previous research concerning the in/outsourcing strategies of selling functions in the field of construction firms that has revealed a predominant orientation towards the insourcing of the sale and marketing functions; according to the entrepreneurs, the real estate agencies don’t have the skills and expertise that are required for selling such a complex product like the house and don’t deal with the customers in the right way. There is a lack of trust, especially as concerns the opportunistic behavior of agents. The aim of this research is to establish the strategic role of the trust, seen as an intangible resource, in the relationship between real estate agents and clients in order to verify what is the prevalent approach in the decisional process toward both the construction firm and the real estate agents . In order to understand how trust works in the relationship with the customer and which are its main dimensions, an on-desk investigation is carried out on national and international literature. After having qualified the concept of trust, the theoretical hypotheses have been formulated, and subjected to empirical test through a qualitative research (three focus group).