What a week in New York City. It started with a chance conversation with a fellow passenger on the three-hour tour from Boston to NYC. That conversation lead to an invitation (of sorts) to Lincoln Center later in the evening. I was on my way to the Inman Connect Conference at the Marriott Marquis where I expected to learn the latest, and I got to kick it off with an evening with the Greatest. The National Endowment for the Arts was honoring eight Jazz Masters. Six of the eight played one of their own works accompanied by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. My seatmate was on her way to attend her father’s induction into the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters class of 2010. You never know where a conversation is going to lead. In this case it was to Lincoln center to hear jazz greats like Cedar Walton play.
That in effect is what the real estate business is all about. Having conversation, finding connections. and creating more. Being aware and open to new opportunities, then adding those to your way of doing business is the only way to survive and grow in business and life. Attending Inman Connect I saw many opportunities. Here are my thoughts.
Riding back from three days in New York City my head was awhirl. I have pages and pages of notes. Yes, I still use pen and paper. 
Unlike many of my fellow attendees who were tapping away on Apples and Acers I am still more proficient with pen in hand. Perhaps when Tablet computing hits the market the two will skills will merge (but that is getting ahead of myself). If I were to create a cloud of trending topics it would look like this: Emotional, Authentic, Community, Twitter, Video, Audience, Local, Hyper Local, Generational, Publisher, Information, Mobile, Geotagging, Recovery (?).
Let’s agree; the real estate industry is changing to discuss the needs of our consumer. Like all changes there are some that are incremental and those that are monumental. An example of the incremental change is the information migration that has taken place since the internet became commercially viable. This was highlighted during my conversation with Maribeth Peters (Dallas Realtor) and the Candy Evans (a writer for D magazine) about the changing role of agents in a real estate transaction. Today comparable sales information is available nationally in many public and free sources such as Trulia, and Zillow. That is the same information that, twenty-five years ago, I had to seek out in the public records section of the Seattle Public Library. The information for each property was on a three by five-card, stored in a file cabinet designed for just this. I needed to find a member of the staff to open the file for me, and they waited while I made notes on the property in question. What now takes a few mouse clicks took all afternoon.
Monumental Change is the move to mobile. There is more computing power in your hand now than NASA had in the rockets that went to the Moon. There are some very smart echo-boomers who are finding ways for consumers to leverage that into a more rich and fulfilling life. Companies like Foursquare, which has grown from zero to half a million users in about a year. The basic idea is users check in at locations they frequent. Bookstores, restaurants, grocery stores, public parks, train stations. All qualify as sites for registration. Check in and earn points, check in often and earn a badge, check in to the same place the most and become the “Mayor”. Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley during his presentation “we want to make life a game.” Which explains why they named the game for the schoolyard game. This is all empowered by the Geotagging ability built into your mobile device and direct connection to the internet. Smart-phone users have the ability to open their phone on the corner of 44th and 6th in New York and find a friend who might be eating lunch three blocks away. They can search any number of databases for reviews, sort by price and menu, and get directions door to door. How can this affect a Realtor? Here is my idea.
We have identified that consumers no longer look to real estate agents as THE source of information. They do look to us for our ability in our local area. Tools like Foursquare allow local real estate agents to show the world their knowledge about the area. Think about it, as a buyer with grade school aged children, wouldn’t you want to work with the real estate agent who was the “Mayor” of the local school, or Soccer League? Or if you are a business owner living on the West Coast and traveling on business to New York City, would it be helpful if a local real estate agent you followed went to places you later found to be great? Buyers don’t buy square footage and room configurations, they buy Lifestyle. Who better to discuss what it is like to live in a neighborhood but the people so passionate about it that they post their stops along the walk of life?
I found out during the conference that the National Association of Realtors had launched an iPhone App for consumers. It seems like just a few weeks ago I downloaded the Better Homes and Gardens App, then The Redfin, Zip, Zillow, and Trulia Apps in an effort to understand what they were offering to consumers. Each one has features where they excel, but that is for another post. How long will it be before vendors arise to create Apps down to the Broker and Agent level. It could be just another bright shiny object real estate agents love to buy. The aforementioned Appsare ones to watch, see how they grow and change, whether they gain traction. Perhaps they will be supplanted by other, yet announced Apps. Regardless, consumers will be carrying the inventory in their hand. Mobile will be the critical “Best Place” for agents to intersect with buyers and sellers.
Why wait until your Franchise or Brokerage builds an App? Get on the public sites like Yelp, Foursquare, Twitter, or Pegshot and carve out a niche. Learn where consumers are now, and go get into a conversation, you might not end up at Lincoln Center but you’ll be happy you did.
I’ve lived in Boston’s South End since 2003. One of the things that makes this neighborhood special is the feeling of community. My neighbors are a diverse group from all sorts of socioeconomic, demographic, and political backgrounds. One thing we all have in common is an affinity and sense of ownership of our neighborhood. The City of Boston has just launched an iPhone app to allow citizens to report anything from Graffiti to a pothole. The app takes advantage of two key features the phone’s camera and geotagging.
robertmbyrne 