There has been a missing voice in real estate. Although there is no shortage of learning opportunities for the working REALTOR® between all of the great conferences, REBarCamps, MasterMinds, coaches, and bloggers, there is no opportunity to hear directly from the people who matter most: the buyer or seller.

Until Now. 

Hear It Direct is a series of full-day Real Estate Consumer Conferences held in different local markets throughout the country. Created by nationally-recognized real estate experts, the event presents a unique opportunity for industry professionals to hear the unfiltered voice of the consumer, telling them in person what they think, what they want, what they value, and what is a waste of time. Through intimate panel discussions and technology use demonstrations, event attendees will benefit from real perspectives that will help them reinvent their businesses in the midst of the new Consumer-Driven Real Estate Model.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first event will take place December 7th in Charleston, South Carolina. You can register here: http://hearitdirect-eorg.eventbrite.com/

I won’t be in attendance, but I certainly will be curious what learnings come out of this interaction with real buyers and sellers.

At the turn of the century, people would congregate down at the general store and swap stories around the pot belly stove. The corner drugstore followed where Biff and Peggy Sue made dove eyes at each other over malts, listening to Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. Later on, the water cooler down at the office became the meeting hot spot for catching all the latest gossip.

And now, conversations are happening at lightning speed across platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The Information Highway has become a runaway Japanese Bullet Train on Crack racing to satisfy a seemingly insatiable consumer hunger for interactivity, connection, and relevant data.

So how has this massive connection/communication paradigm shift affected traditional real estate practices, and, more importantly, the way in which we’ll do business in the future?

Perhaps one of the most recent telling effects in our industry has been the slow demise of brick and mortar real estate offices. Like many of their costly retail cousins (Borders, Linens N’ Things, Blockbuster, Mervyns, CompUSA, Ann Taylor, Foot Locker, Pier 1, and Zales, just to name a few), real estate offices across the country are downsizing or disappearing all together. With the severe downturn in our economy, and its adverse affect on the housing market, brokerage owners are hard-pressed to remain profitable, while, at the same time, keeping their stand-alone, agent-centric office spaces open.

Marc Davison of 1000Watt Blog fame observed this pending dilemma a few years back with his post “End Times for Brick and Mortar?“

In his article, Marc correlates the 2008 announcement by Starbucks to close 600 stores and makes the doom-saying premonition:

“Starbucks can’t exist unless people physically shop in their stores. But what about your real estate business model? Can you thrive without locations?”

Marc then poses the following questions:

• What is the fate of the retail real estate location?
• What is the benefit of a high rent storefront in today’s marketplace?
• Do those benefits outweigh the disadvantages?
• In 25 years will real estate be completely virtual?
• Will we see competitive virtual brokerages take market share and thrive or is that a pipe dream?

Just a year ago, at REBarCamp San Diego, Sherry Chris, President/CEO of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate, facilitated a session entitled “What does the Future of Real Estate look like?”  Listen in particular to some of the comments made by Stefan Swanepoel and Dale Kreiser of Exp Realty in Part 2 as they share their thoughts about the failure of traditional brick & mortar real estate offices, and some ideas on where they believe the future of real estate is heading.

So what is to be the fate of our precious time-honored real estate offices? The impressive Slate Entry and High-back Leather Chairs? The plush conference rooms with huge flat screen monitors? Our cherished cubicles? The semi-private offices, the coveted corner suites, the Top Agent of the Month parking space!?

Let’s consider some of the current trends in our industry:

• Walk-in traffic has decreased significantly.
• Agent floor time has become increasingly unproductive.
• More agents/brokers are working out of their homes.
• Office meetings are poorly attended.
• Mobile technology (like DocuSign) has empowered remote functionality

In order to remain solvent and succeed, businesses must venture out to where the consumers are, whether physically or digitally. We must be disciplined to listen intently, engage them creatively, and provide them with something of relevant meaning/value.

Allow me to pose some additional questions as food for thought/discussion:

• Have our traditional brick & mortar locations outlived their useful purpose?
• Is it realistic for real estate to become completely virtual?
• What kind of physical locations can create increased traffic and engagement?
• What basic services/benefits can agents/brokers receive from an office environment versus an at-home office?
• What basic services/benefits do office locations offer consumers?

I published a teaser post over on ActiveRain that’s generating a nice engaging comment stream!

For Your Further Reading Enjoyment:

• A Chicago area real estate broker gave up his lavish downtown Michigan Avenue office for the benefits of locating in a local supermarket.
• The Real Estate Lounge – a real estate office in disguise
• Is Walk-in Traffic critical to the Success of a 21st Century Brokerage?
• Office Space and the Floor Time Continuum by Teresa Boardman
• Spokane WA’s 1st Fully Mobile Real Estate Office!
• The Rise and Fall of Sales Meetings by Wendy Forsythe
• Stop Holding Office Meetings! by Matthew Ferrara
• The Magic of Mobile in Real Estate

For a little inspiration, here’s his commencement speech at Stanford for those who haven’t seen it already. I’ve seen this video shared no fewer than 100 times in the last few hours, so I’m guessing you have too — but it’s worth watching again (I bet this video has already added over a million views since the public announcement early of Jobs’ passing this afternoon).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Steve — thank you for everything you did.

RIP.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo credit: Kheng Guan Toh

I 100% agree with Joel that the real estate vertical should be supporting innovative new businesses a heck of a lot more than the industry is today. I think it’s beyond safe to say the industry would benefit from an incubator program (like PIE in Portland, yCombinator, Tech All Stars, etc) to unite the industry with the entrepreneurial community.

Real estate brokers should be leading the charge because, from my perspective, they have the most to lose if others out-innovate them.

But they aren’t.

As I mentioned in my comment on 1000Watt, I’ve been thinking a bit about this topic recently as well. I speak with a number of entrepreneurs looking to enter the real estate industry. They have great ideas, passion, sometimes even capital — but they often don’t understand the industry (MLS, IDX, agent-broker-franchise dynamics, duel commission, etc) and certainly have no idea who they need to speak with to get their product/service in front of the right people (and definitely don’t know HOW to reach those people once identified). On the flip side of that equation, I also speak with agents and brokers desperately starved for quality information regarding technology products to help them better serve their clients (and reach new ones).

Hungry entrepreneurs are out there trying to find key people to speak with in the industry, but getting into the “brokerage” world (which is the most efficient way to reach agents) takes a lot of time, money, and connections — none of which most entrepreneurs have. It’s not an easy process – I saw Zillow from inside as the company navigated those waters (they are still navigating those waters) and the amount of resources and money it took to gain a significant foothold in the brokerage community was far beyond what most entrepreneurs could possibly throw at the challenge.

This industry has been sold crap for so long that everyone is weary of new companies “pitching” them. From my experience, personal relationships, which requires actually meeting and spending time together in real life (not just over the phone), are the only way to break through. There has to be a better way — and an incubator program of some sort seems like the perfect solution.

Why doesn’t it exist yet?

The “Friend” Syndrome

Too many take the easy way and only work with those they already have relationships with. I understand the desire to do business with people you know (I operate the same way) — but seriously, to WIN, you can’t work with your friends JUST to work friends. Part of the lack of innovation in the real estate vertical is due to this exact issue. Brokers need to make themselves available and known if they are actively looking for technology solutions — otherwise they just end up with the same “crap” that their “friends” have been selling them for 20 years. Technology has changed drastically over the past 15 years, even just the past 5 years. You can’t just rely on your friends and “hope” they are on the bleeding edge; chances are good they aren’t. I can assure you there are brokerages out there who are investing in the cutting edge technology and testing that technology every step of the way to ensure success. Sure, they too prefer to work with people they already know — but, if those they know aren’t creating the best solutions out there, they are finding someone who does or doing the work internally.

Real Relationships

We all know that very few people enter serious business relationships with people they don’t know at all. The challenge with a truly successful incubator program is getting enough of the RIGHT (and that’s crucial) people together in person for long enough to build real trust and relationships between participants, partners, and investors. And “in person” requires one of two approaches:

1. Everyone traveling to one central location
2. Taking this concept to each local market

Neither approach is without its’ own set of challenges. Business travel is hard to coordinate schedules and really expensive for participants (most of whom are scrappy entrepreneurs trying to save every last dime). The challenge with taking the model to each local market is that there likely isn’t enough investment money in a given market to make it worth it to the entrepreneurs. Best case, there are only a few brokers in a given MSA doing well enough to think about investing in such an initiative. Worst case, there are none. Further, there aren’t enough local technology partners that TRULY know real estate to make it work. You’ve got to really understand the real estate industry to build a product that can gain a significant foothold.

Feedback

Entrepreneurs: Who are you trying to reach as an end user for your product or service? What is the hardest part of innovating in and entering the real estate industry? Where are you currently finding consultants, brokers, and influencers to speak with? What is your overall marketing strategy? And, most importantly, how are you ensuring you are creating products and services WORTH selling..ie great solutions that actually WORK?

Brokerages (Coldwell Banker, Prudential, Keller Williams, etc): What type of technology solutions are you actively looking for? Where do you search for them? Do you post those needs publicly anywhere? What is the process you undertake to evaluate vendors? What is the best way for entrepreneurs to reach out to you? And how could the entire process be improved from your perspective?

Established Real Estate Tech (Zillow, Trulia, Top Producer, MRIS, WAV Group, etc): What are you proactively doing to find new technologies and companies to work with? Where do you look? What sort of technologies would it make more sense to buy than develop internally?

Capital is certainly needed to fund innovation. But Joel is right — cash alone can’t cut it and we need better ways to facilitate connections in this industry. I’m certainly keen to help facilitate something if there is some way I can help.

I remember seeing this story on Sports Center a couple years ago; it’s one of those feel good stories that gives you goosebumps when you watch it.

I think the message it conveys is spot on — no matter what the circumstances, take advantage of the opportunities you’re given.

Okay, back to geek talk now…

[via Darin at Productivity Junkies]

Let’s take a look at this from the listing side of things. Typically you will be in a listing presentation with a client and you will go over the benefits to working with your brokerage, followed by your individual unique value proposition. This could come in many forms depending on the person and their strengths as a real estate agent that set them apart from the rest. What could this be?

1. Your online dominance in your local area to market your listings.
2. Premiere ad placement on top sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, and many other listing syndicated sites.
3. Direct mail sent to the surrounding neighbors informing them of the newest listing to hit the market close to them. Etc…

Inman recently wrote an article about the generational differences between real estate agents and things that set them apart. While the younger generations may be more tech saavy and go about lead generation in a completely different way, the older generation typically sticks to the tried and true methods that have worked for years. At some point these two ways of doing business intersect, and one must learn to be open to the other. In today’s market, it is vital for agents to expand their online presence in the marketplace to keep up with the new age of agents who look to dominate online. But how do you turn this value into your value proposition for clients to work with you?

Whatever your true value may be, you have to OWN it to truly differentiate yourself from the other agents in direct competition.

What is your unique value that you bring to clients that others may not and how do you effectively communicate this to potential home sellers?

Here’s a list of some of the notable speakers in our industry (alphabetical by last name so I’m not playing any favorites):

• Joel Burslem
• Brian Boero
• Todd Carpenter
• Amy Chorew
• Sherry Chris
• Marc Davison
• Mike Ferry
• Tom Ferry
• Brad Inman
• Jim Marks
• Nicole Nicolay
• Darin Persinger
• Spencer Rascoff
• Daniel Rothamel
• Chris Smith
• Stefan Swanepoel
• Jeff Turner

If you’ve attended Inman Connect, Agent Reboot, or a RE BarCamp, you may have attended a presentation by one or more of these speakers. Who is your favorite and what did you like about them? Who am I missing that should be added to this list? I admit I don’t know everyone on the speaking circuit, and there are likely some amazing local speakers who may not travel nationally that I’m not aware of. Would love whatever feedback and tips you can provide!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The worksheets he mentions can be downloaded over at Productivity Junkies.

Yea, of course you don’t want to lose $8,000 a month, so watch the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And if your time is worth anywhere between $100 and $400 as Darin mentions in the video, then I can guarantee the ROI of building your WordPress website yourself makes zero sense.

How much is your time worth?

You can read the entire story from Jackson’s mother Lisa over on FightonJackson.com; it’s heartbreaking.

What am I asking you for? Your support for Jackson in the form of a shoutout. He needs all the support we can muster to get through this.

If you want to learn more about how we (the Virtual Results team) became aware of the situation, you can read the blog post on the Virtual Results Blog.

Thanks for reading.