The Future of Real Estate

Opened up 2010 online, learning at the Virtual Real Estate Bar Camp.  I had given the dogs an extra long walk despite the sub freezing temperature.  They and I were to be chained to the desk for the next seven hours.  As I reviewed the listing of presenters one thought entered my mind; “…wish I had a TIVO for this!”  There were so many topics and people of interest and as a result scheduling conflicts.  I did however create a master list which looked like a offensive coordinator’s play chart.   

My list was as follows:

•  Brad Inman – What Is Inman News Predicting?
• Sherry Chris – Next Generation Brokerage
• Brad Andersohn– Blogging Tips For Beginners
• Stefan Swanepoel – Social Media Beyond Mainstream:Augmented Reality & More
• Glenn Sanford – The Real Estate Office Of The Future, Part II
• Jonathan Rivera – How To Leverage The Power Of Social Media In Real Estate
• Drew Meyers – Online Reputation

There were many insights shared during the presentations some where Ah-Ha’s and others were Oh-Ya’s.  An example of the former came from  Glenn Sanford of ExpRealty when he walked attendees through the 3D immersive work enviroment he and his team have created.  While an Oh-Ya was “be authentic” when you are online.  Since I still take notes with pen and legal pad I’ll list my thoughts as they happened:

Q1 2010 will be a good barometer for the year.  How we start the year Hot, Cold , or Moderate will give an indication to the next three-quarters.  The clock is ticking  on some Federal programs that will affect the mortgage markets from toxic debt to FHA rules.  It is important as a practitioner to know the mortgage rules and have resources for you customers.  While qualifying rules for mortgage money are getting tighter, and customers may need to revise their expectations, transactions can get done.  Knowing local trends is more important than National numbers.  Focus on inventory, absorption, market time, median price for you area and lead customers to the best decision they can make. Be Ethical, Be Honest, Be focused on Customer Service.

Real Estate companies need to make their physical plant, the square footage they lease, pay for itself.  Most companies have 150 square feet of office space per agent, that number should be cut by two-thirds.  Leased space is one of the highest fixed costs for a company and it is so underutilized with the business going mobile.  Not real news, we know this, but how many agents and brokers are willing to let the space go?  Agents skills are not best used managing leads.  It takes time for people to develop into customers and clients.  The cost of lead creation, and capture is too high which is why most agents focus on only the “hottest” leads.  Here is an area where brokers and agents can collaborate with the broker managing the opportunities while the agent manages transactions and closes sales.  Customers expect brokers and agents to work together to create a positive transaction experience.  Consumers don’t care about splits, referral fees, or desk costs, all they want is great customer service, we should give it to them.

If you are a blogger, or you tweet, or have a Facebook profile or fan page; Know your audience, Be Yourself, and Give Great Content.  Leave the hard sell for the late Billy Mays, your comments should not be a shout or a rant, but a useful dialogue.  Confused about what write about?  Need good blog ideas?  Go into your sent email folder and read your reply to others.  There should be fertile ground in that outbox.  Read other bloggers, comment on their posts, and engage others when they comment on writing.  There are hundreds of channels for you to persue, pick one and give it your all, once you have that going well add another.

Bandwidth and storage are allowing use to push huge amounts of data through our computers and mobile devices.  This in turn is driving the move to augmented reality.  Real Estate will be affected by this real-time data flow.  We have a marriage of real and virtual worlds and consumers are getting very comfortable with them being together.  Google has a product (Feature?) in development called Google Goggles that can be used to search based not on words but images.  Point your phone at the Golden Gate Bridge and the search engine tells you everything you need to know.  Perhaps more than you wanted to know.  In the not too distant future will customers be able to point a phone at a property and see the ownership history, floor plan, tax records. liens, or the dated kitchen?

What if someone were to take the reduce your square footage mantra seriously?  What if a broker used 3D immersion environments to collaborate with staff, agents , and vendors?  With currently available tools it can be done, but it requires an agent who is highly tech savvy.  Small office spaces with conferencing spacer leased business lounge space, online document storage, VoIP, digital signatures for contracts, all combine to lower overhead and deliver on customer satisfaction.  We have been talking about this for some time now but brokerages are making it happen.

Automation is not the answer, good systems are.  The question?  How do you leverage your online reputation.  Agents and brokers should create a web that is hype local when it comes to their online and social media presentation.  Link all your channels Facebook, Twitter, YouTube wherever you are let people flow from on to the other.  Search you local area for words of interest using cloud tag features.  Again share content of value, don’t sell, the business opportunities will find you.