As I said in my original post, #RETSO will become a fixture on my calendar for the remainder of my real estate career.

I am writing this post to give separate recognition to and to highlight the selfless contributions of three friends who provided invaluable content that I used in my presentation, which dealt with Social Media techniques and strategies for the socially savvy real estate broker to use to help build a real estate brokerage business. In my opinion, what these three shared with me was the most meaningful part of what I shared at the conference.

With a Little Help from my Friends

Those individuals are as follows:

• Matthew Shadbolt (@Corcoran_Group) of The Corcoran Group in New York City. He is the creative genius behind all of the amazing things Corcoran is doing on the web and in Social Media right now. Matthew speaks on the topic of levering Social Media to connect with community, which Corcoran does as well as any brokerage that I’ve found.

• 
  
  Jay Thompson (@phxREguy) of Thompson’s Realty in Phoenix. He is a fixture on the national real estate conference scene and the author of Inman News‘ 2009 “Innovative Blog of the Year.” Jay speaks on the topic of leveraging the internet and, more specifically, a blog, to build a real estate business both in terms of web lead generation and passive agent recruitment. Jay is proof positive that a real estate brokerage can be built successfully with the web and Social Media as the foundation of the company strategy.

• 
  
  Darin Persinger (@DarinPersinger) of ProductivityJunkies.com and Socialcruiting.com based on Seattle. He is a nationally recognized real estate coach/trainer and one of the featured speakers on Inman News’ Agent Reboot tour. Darin speaks on the topic of using Social Media to recruit Realtors (or, as he cleverly calls it, “Socialcruiting”). Darin’s strategies are supported by the growth of several brokerages that I know personally who are effectively using exactly the approach that he advocates.

Learning: Guaranteed!

If you are a real estate broker, I PROMISE that you will learn something by absorbing what my three smart friends so generously shared with me.

And, in the event that you don’t take the time to toggle through the Prezi that I created for my presentation at RETechSouth to find those videos, I thought I’d cobble them together to make it easier for you to watch them all at once. Here’s that video:

But today (of all days, TODAY, my two year Twitter anniversary) I must come clean and admit that I am cheating on Twitter.

With whom am I cheating on Twitter? Facebook. Yep, Facebook, Twitter’s older (and increasingly hotter) sister.

I have a full-blown blog in the works detailing my shift towards Facebook (working title: “About Face!”), but, for now, I just want to give you an example of WHY I am cheating on Twitter with Facebook.

The Instant Stream of Consciousness

And the “why” is this: because Facebook is the new search, the magic answer machine, the instant stream of consciousness of a lot of really smart people almost all at once, focused on whatever topic you choose to throw at those people.

Today’s example: I am giving a talk in a few days – blah blah blah – and, for legitimate research reasons, I wanted to know how people would answer this question: “What is the single biggest “Social Media Tip” YOU would give to a real estate broker?”

The Top Social Media Tip for Real Estate Brokers

I received a lot of really good answers. Here are my favorites that I want to share with you (bolding added by me to emphasize what I think are the key takeaways):

• Liz Landry Be transparent/authentic – people do business with you because they like you.
• Eric Stegemann One word: Listen. ( Jeff Turner talks about this a lot, it’s 100% accurate. I’m listening to social media 100% of my waking hours).
• Eric Brown Promote the neighborhood, everything is hyper-local.
• Gina Kay Landis Engage – instead of simply posting updates, info or listings, engage with those who are on social media networks – Listen, talk (yes, it’s “talking” even though it’s on the ‘net), share, collaborate – don’t be a “post,” be a human!  Humans who are fun attract other humans which eventually results in people doing business with people they like – because usually people like people who have fun (and are smart, witty, informative – who listen and talk!)!
• Nikki Beauchamp Listen. Be genuine and authentic. Engage. Be social-although its likely that the people who only broadcast are like that in person as well…but really…connect and engage-irrespective of medium.
• Mark Jeffers Companies should not Facebook, people should. All people. Brokers need to understand that it’s about them and their people, and other real people, not advertising or building an imitation company persona.
• Briddick Webb Give as much value to others as possible. The more you give, comment, respond and ultimately listen, the more fans and followers you’ll create.
• Jay Papasan It’s better to be interested than interesting. As the adage goes, you’re clients won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
• Darin Persinger To a broker??? I say its OK to promote. Promote your agents, make them look good, share their story, congratulate and acknowledge them out their in public.
• Jerry Reed I would say “Believe and don’t give up.” Your agents will not get it at first you need to fight the fight for them. Social media doesn’t come easy to your agents, remember that. “Believe and don’t give up.” And remember it will all be worth it in the end.
• Robert Watson To a broker/owner or one that manages a team of agents: Identify someone in your organization who is actively engaging in social marketing and hire him/her as your consultant either FT or PT. Let this person develop a team of social marketing evangelists built from active agents and manager(s) (who are effectively using SM in their own businesses) and give them a commission % bump to hold bi-weekly workshops to assist in the development of the rest of the company’s agents and staff who choose to implement. These would not be your top producers BTW, but training the “how” of implementation on a regular basis would add tremendous value to any brokerage.
• Wendy Herndon When at all possible, I would suggest that the broker be involved with agents ‘social media training’ and, as a part of that training, encourage his/her agents to follow up relationships built online with face to face meetings at local social events, community volunteer opps, real estate training events, etc.
• Briddick Webb The constant here is relationships. They never change, the mediums with which we communicate do and those who interact the most and give the most value to others, will always come out on top.
• Ken Brand I’d say, don’t think of it as social media, it’s just being social. The media part is throw in to sound all “With It.”
• Lisa Ludlow Archer Go where the people are. Social Media is so much less threatening and how most people want to be communicated with these days. You are far more likely to get someone to respond to a Facebook message than calling, leaving a voicemail or even texting them. Try it, I dare you.
• John Thomas Sinclair Stop auto posting your listings, they area huge turn off and it makes it apparent to everyone that they are leaches only hoping to get something and actually give nothing!
• Lori Bee Don’t let fear of the unknown stop you. And be the same you online as IRL (in real life).
• Tom Everitt If you are known as the technological and SM expert in your areas of expertise/neighborhoods/farm areas, you will be sought after by not only clients for buying and selling but MANY businesses simply for your expertise. What an incredible opportunity. And, as your reputation grow exponentially, creating business from more corners than you ever thought possible, you will reap the benefits of the technological ‘long’ tail. Welcome to social media and the power of engaging.
• Jay Thompson For the love of all things endearing to you, please don’t assume social media is the “secret sauce” to success. It takes time and effort, and a lot of both.
• Cecilia Warren Nault Engage and respond to your followers, offer unique relevant content.

So, here are the thoughts from some of the smartest people I know. I hope you learned as much as I did, and, by all means, if you have more to add to this conversation, please jump on the Facebook thread or provide a comment below.

WANTED

Здравствуйте, Сергей!

My girlfriend graduated from the same college as your dad – Moscow State University.

I graduated from the school where your dad teaches Computer Science – Michigan State University.

Alright, I admit it, that’s not much of a connection. I’m just trying to break the ice. You can’t blame a guy for that, right?

What?

I know you’re busy, so let me get right to it: you need to take over the real estate industry.

The whole damn thing. Lock, stock and barrel. Today. Right now.

Why?

For the following reasons:

• Because the industry is the most vulnerable it’s been during modern times. Public opinion of the industry is arguably at an all-time low. Agents are looking for more. The industry seems incapable of effecting the real change necessary to survive and thrive over the long haul. Brands – even the top ranked brands – don’t seem to carry any real cachet or significance. The rules that govern the game are minimal – you can come in and create your own rules. Leading industry experts are calling for “game change.” The timing? Absolutely, positively OPTIMAL.
• Because, technologically speaking, to step in and dominate as you have in other industries would be relatively easy for you. Real estate is a simple business, and there is nothing even remotely as complex as what you had to figure out to dominate the search engine game. In real estate, NO PROBLEM looks as complicated as the image at right (yes, I read “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine“). Given what you’ve already done with Maps, Earth and Streetview – and a thousand other things – this would be a natural “next step” for you.
• Because it’s a trillion-dollar industry. Yes, I know you don’t need the money. Do it for altruistic, public trust reasons. Heck, make it a non-profit. Further, real estate is a massive part of the overall US economy. If you can help fix this broken industry, you can take your legend to an entirely different level. It would add yet another facet to the brilliant diamond that is Google. I see the two of you riding down Broadway on the back of a convertible, barely visible in a sea of confetti.

How?

• Take five minutes to analyze Realtor.com and the other big real estate portals. Create something faster, easier and smarter. And make it free. To everyone. Realtor.com is archaic, and you have no idea how much badwill it has created among the Realtor population (Realtor.com has overcharged agents forever). Agents will flock to this new portal. So will the public.
• Set up Google Real Estate, LLC. Use some standards like these. Don’t waste your time and money “buying market share” via the purchase of an existing industry “leader” because you’ll inherit too much deadwood and the collective ambivalence of the public. Start “clean sheet,” from zero. You can set the barrier to entry as high as you like. I promise you agents will knock down your door to be associated with the magic of the word “Google.” And you can cover massive territories with a shockingly small number of people, if you leverage technology and hire a handful of extremely talented people at each location (and I *think* you’ve shown an ability to do those things *rather well*).
• Run the whole thing without brick-and-mortar, or set up central “Google Real Estate Kiosks” in major city-centers where people can come in, grab a (free) Starbucks, search for homes with the assistance of a Google Real Estate Professional and buy or sell a home at a price dramatically below what it costs now.

Have I oversimplified all of this? Maybe.

But just a little. Quoting myself, right now, as I write this:

C’mon…you guys are GOOGLE. You can do ANYTHING.

And if you take a close look at what I am proposing, it’s realistic.

Again, forget the money. Think “public trust,” “big-picture impact on economy,” and “altruism.”

The real estate industry NEEDS a white knight.

Saddle up, cowboys…

Grossly condensing this, Darin asked me to provide a list of the 12 things I would recommend agents focus on in 2011 to improve their business. That being said, here are those 12 things:

1. 
   
   Measure Everything: “Father of modern management” Peter Drucker said this: “What gets measured gets done.” With that as the backdrop, start measuring everything you can measure. To kick this off, you should start the New Year with clearly defined income goals and then break those goals all the way back down to what you need to do on a DAILY basis to create what you want to earn.
2. Be Accountable: Continuing the prior point, measurement is nothing without accountability. So, make yourself accountable to someone (ideally that would be your broker). This is huge. Goals + Accountability = RESULTS!
3. Change Your Focus: Real estate has historically been a short-term, “transactional” game. As tech and Social Media become more prevalent, that’s changing. Stop thinking “short term/transactions,” and start thinking “long-term/relationships.”
4. Get into Facebook: After ignoring this reality for as long as possible, I have to come clean and say that Facebook is the “must do” Social Media action plan for every Realtor. It’s too big, it’s too important, and there’s already too much evidence in place to show that it’s not only the future, but the “right now” go-to place to connect and meet with people. Start by going here and just devouring everything you can.
5. Get into Video: 73% of all sellers want their Realtor to market with video, and yet less than 1% do. There is huge opportunity here for those who early adopt and differentiate themselves on this critical level. Read this and just make up your mind to “do video.” The learning curve is not nearly as steep as you might think.
6. Create a Massive Digital Footprint: I firmly believe that the future belongs to the agents and teams who create the “biggest digital footprint.” That is, who do people find when they search for “name of your town real estate” on Google? And what real estate professional gets recommended when people ask their trusted networks on Twitter or Facebook? That simply MUST be YOU. And you accomplish this by creating a constant stream of valuable, free content via blogging, Facebook and Twitter.
7. 
   
   Limit Your Hats: Too many agents are failing because they’re trying to do too many things at once, and, as result, they tend to do many of those “too many things” poorly. Focus on a few things and do them well. Be honest: you’re confused right now, aren’t you? In points 4., 5. and 6., I’m clearly telling you to do MORE. And now, I’m telling you to do LESS, right? How do I reconcile these two conflicting messages? Read the next point.
8. Find a Tech Savvy Broker: Instead of trying to be a great blogger (almost no one is), a great Tweeter (very few are) and a great webmaster (that’s a full-time job in and of itself), go find a broker who can help you with these things. As an agent, I would GLADLY give up a little bit of my income to have a broker help me to wear all the hats I need to wear to succeed in today’s dynamic real estate environment.
9. Optimize Your Past Client Database: Most agents don’t do a great job of maintaining their past client database, and even fewer do a great job of leveraging that database to win new business. Use a CRM that allows you to do this, and make a commitment to staying in touch with the people you served well in the past. The most valuable asset you have is a happy past client. Don’t let that asset go underutilized.
10. Give Everyone a Reason to Say “Thank You:” Noted author Gary Vaynerchuk (@GaryVee) of “Crush It” fame is about to release a new book called “The Thank You Economy.” The gist: people won’t hire you until you’ve given them a reason to say thank you. Think of anything and everything you can do to make people say “thank you” to YOU.
11. Crush It: Continuing the Vaynerchuk lovefest, there is just no getting around the fact that, in most cases, the person that works the hardest wins in the long run. People often think that technology allows us to work LESS. I don’t see it that way, and in fact it’s probably the opposite, because it takes so much effort to stay current and simply to do all the things we need to do to leverage technology (all the more reason to heed my advice at 8. above!). But there’s good news: for those that DO work the hardest AND leverage tech and Social Media the best, the relative payoff is HIGHER because of the exponential reach and effect of tech and Social Media.
12. Nail Down Your Bread and Butter Presentations: Make sure you have your listing presentation, your buyer’s presentations and any other important presentations absolutely perfected, and ideally in a cutting-edge manner (Prezi or, worst case, Keynote). I’d take that a step further and suggest you get an iPad and store those perfect presentations on the iPad. Given that the iPad has SO MUCH applicability to a transient, mobile business like real estate, I highly suggest you make the investment and buy one.

These are my 12 tips. I hope 2011 is a great year for you, in every respect!

That is, it sucked.

Like a Dyson

How badly? Debbie Gibson bad. Richard Marx bad. New Kids on the Block comically bad. Post-Laker-girl/pre-American-Idol Paul Abdul bad. And Milli-freaking-Vanilli “we’re-winning-a-Grammy-while-lip-syncing” bad.

Yeah, THAT bad.

And then, from nowhere, a new sound exploded on the scene.

And that sound was something called “grunge.” And it came from Seattle. And it was like NOTHING we’d ever heard before.

And the first wallop of grunge that hit us hard was a blockbuster smash hit from what became my favorite band of all time, Nirvana. It was called “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” And it ROCKED.

And, overnight, music became hot and vibrant and relevant again. Nirvana was followed by Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Alice in Chains and a number of other bands. It was an exciting time.

1990 in Music = 2010 in Real Estate?

I can draw parallels between music in 1990 and the real estate industry of 2010.

There is a whole lot of mediocrity going on…and everyone knows it.

Change is afoot…and everyone feels it.

The game is changing…and lots of smart people are seeking to leverage that change.

Most brands are irrelevant. And some companies are doing their best to turn these “brand irrelevancy lemons” into “brand irrelevancy lemonade.”

The Quote of the Year

To sum up the current scene, I’ll offer you what I think is the quote of the year in real estate. It’s courtesy of Brian Boero (@1000WattBrian) of 1000Watt Consulting:

In real estate, stupid scales. Excellence lives in small pockets. That’s how it’s always been. And it will be this way until, someday soon, a rising tide of technology and consumer frustration reaches flood stage, breaches the levee, and sweeps forty years of toxic sediment out to sea.

Continuing Boero’s point, just as we knew that music would not – COULD NOT – stay stuck in the rut of Debbie, Paula and the dreadlocked frauds from Germany, so too do we know that the situation in the real estate industry is super dynamic and in a major state of flux.

It was from within a vacuum in the music industry in 1990 that Nirvana exploded in 1991.

What, pray tell, is going to emerge in 2011 from the malaise currently gripping the real estate industry of 2010?

Are the Natives Becoming Restless?

IS the industry truly on the cusp of real change?

We’ve reason to fear that the public is getting fed up with the industry.

But what about Realtors themselves?

We know that 84% of them think the bar should be raised – we’ve already covered that one.

But what about the more specific topic of technology?

Are agents becoming restless at the lack of progress being made within the confines of their very own brokerages?

The PERFECT Survey to Get to the Heart of the Matter

From nowhere, I was handed the most perfect little lab experiment from which to gain valuable street-level insight into this question, the answer to which is important and which has potentially significant implications for brokerages, companies and brands everywhere. Specifically, Chris Smith (@TechSavvyAgent) of TechSavvyAgent.com posed this question on TSA’s wildly popular Facebook page a few days ago (on December 1):

Here are some of the responses I found most interesting:

Let’s Review the Results…

Let’s examine the results of this Facebook query:

• The “purity of the results” are about as high as you can get. TechSavvyAgent.com is “brand agnostic” and therefore there is no “company bias” built into these responses that results from the context of the survey
• As of this moment (December 5, 2010 at 1:45 pm), there are 107 total comments
• Of these total comments, 23 are extraneous/off-topic/not actual responses to the questions originally posed at the top of that Facebook thread
• Of the remaining 84 comments, seven are brokers commenting about themselves. It is my opinion that it is nearly impossible for people to view themselves objectively, so I think these comments should be removed from the analysis
• That leaves a total of 77 responses. Here’s how those 77 responded to the real question: “Is your broker tech savvy?”

The Verdict: 56% “Not Tech Savvy”

Forty-three, or 56%, of the 77 people who commented said their broker was NOT tech savvy.

It’s also worth noting that a number of the responses we classified as “yeses” were lukewarm and half-hearted at best, but we’ll ignore that for the moment.

I also found it interesting that one broker patted herself on the back for REFERRING HER AGENTS to TechSavvyAgent.com, as if this was evidence of being tech savvy herself!

Even more compelling was that one agent had to leave and start her own company to “get tech savvy,” and that another agent alluded to possibly striking off on her own for the same reason.

Houston, We Have a Problem…

I then analyzed the responses of the people who said their brokers were “not tech savvy” to see if those agents feel that this is or is not a problem. Here are those results:

Of those 43 people who said their broker was not tech savvy, 61% seem to suggest this is a problem.

Only 23% explicitly stated that their broker not being tech savvy is NOT a problem.

The remaining 16% did not make it clear how they felt.

The Takeaways

IF the results of this little survey are representative of the larger industry, then we can draw these conclusions:

• *MOST* agents think their brokers are NOT tech savvy
• *MOST* of the agents who have un-tech-savvy brokers think that’s a problem

Here’s what I want to know: how long will agents who are not happy with their brokers hang around before they go in search of brokers, companies and brands that ARE tech-savvy?

Or, as one of the Facebook responders said it (and this comment was NOT made by a broker/manager running a company trying to recruit people; this was a practicing AGENT):

Or as Smith himself said it when he appeared on our #RTB on the Radio show recently:

The Bottom Line

Many agents are thirsting for knowledge on technology – and many brands/brokers/companies are failing to provide what agents need.

The comments in this post show that clearly, I believe.

What are the implications for the non-tech-savvy broker, company and brand?

Only time will tell, but I definitely think I can smell the tech spirit…can you?

In anticipation of you statistical purists out there, please note that I am KEENLY AWARE that a population size of 84 responders has less validity than a larger sample size (I have a degree in accounting, I am a CPA, I took a bunch of stats classes, blah blah blah). However, that does not invalidate the value of the opinions of the people who participated in this survey, or the logical conclusions that can be drawn from these responses…

In fact, two of our most widely read posts – The Brand Illusion and The Brand Illusion Part 2 – are about this very issue.

On July 29, 2010, we published a video about real estate branding. This is the video that appears in the latter blog blog post:

On November 4, 2010, Keller Williams published this video on the same topic:

As KW’s video states, “4 out of 5 consumers said the brand did NOT matter.” Our findings suggest that it is at least that bad…and quite possibly worse (especially when you consider that NAR’s own stats show that “agent’s association with a particular firm” is considered the most important factor when selecting a Realtor only 3% of the time).

And that, my friends, is where our similarity of opinion ends.

Is the Glass of Brand Irrelevancy Half Empty, or Half Full?

KW seems to have accepted that people don’t see relevance or value in real estate brands.

On the contrary, we think that real estate brand irrelevancy is an embarrassment, an indictment and a black eye on the industry in general.

KW seems to be throwing up its hands and saying, “It is what it is. What can you do but accept it and make the best of the situation?”

Gee, I dunno. Maybe DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?

Brand SHOULD Matter

At Professional One, our entire focus is on creating a brand that DOES matter to the consumer.

Brands matter in other personal service industries. Like public accounting. And law. And medicine.

And in response to the those of you who read that last sentence and laughed – “Look at this fool, comparing REAL ESTATE to serious businesses like accounting, law and medicine” – consider these realities:

• For most people, the purchase or sale of a home IS very serious business. For most people, this transaction is the most monetarily significant decision they will ever make, and
• Often times, the dollars involved in a real estate transaction are FAR GREATER than the dollars involved in an accounting or a legal matter, and
• In most cases, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients (which in my opinion pushes us away from being “salespeople” and toward being “professionals,” like it or not).

Brands should be relevant in real estate.

Just because they aren’t is NOT “proof” that they should not be.

Filling the Empty Glass of Brand Irrelevancy

• By having a purpose bigger than making the most money or having the most agents or being “number 1“
• By engaging a higher caliber of professional via the implementation of the highest barrier to entry in real estate
• By focusing on the client as the primary party to be served
• By having clearly articulated Mission Statements and Core Values that line up with the prior points

These are the things WE are doing to make a difference in the mind of the consumer.

And we know of other companies doing things to create real brand relevancy, as we wrote about recently.

In fact, Rob Hahn (@RobHahn) wrote an earlier blog post in response to this same KW video. In the comments that follow that post, Jack Miller (@JackMiller) of The GoodLife Team (one of the companies we’ve written about) said this:

We believe that the brokerage must focus on producing the systems to enable agents to be highly productive and experts in their space – and be willing to fire agents that can’t provide highly competent help to the consumer.

The GoodLife Team is, among other things, creating sophisticated agent support systems to help agents do the things that must now be done to satisfy an increasingly sophisticated, informed and demanding clientele.

THAT is a step toward creating a “brand that matters.”

The Bottom Line

And Hahn wrote this in the comments to that same post:

In real estate, a brokerage/brand can say, our business model means we don’t care about our brand. That’s fine; it’s their company, they can do what they want. I just happen to think it’s a stupid strategy is all.

Whether Hahn was referring to the KW video specifically, or just making a generic comment about the behavior of the larger industry, it’s hard to argue with his perspective.

As a final comment, we totally get that the KW video is a nice attempt to turn “brand irrelevancy lemons” into “brand irrelevancy lemonade,” but highlighting the fact that real estate brands don’t matter and then not doing something about it seems dubious to us…

This one – cleverly called “NARdiGras” – was held in New Orleans.

And I was there because I was invited to speak…but that’s a topic for another post.

The purpose of this post is simply to share my experiences and the observations I made in the two days I was there. In no particular order, here goes:

RIS Media Power Broker Dinner

Friday evening, I attended something called the “RIS Media Power Broker Dinner” as the guest of Better Homes and Gardens CEO and Inman News (@InmanNews) “Innovator of the Year” Award winner Sherry Chris (@SherryChris). I’ve written about Sherry before. She is one of the warmest, kindest, classiest, most approachable executives I’ve ever met. I had a great time at the event (thanks again, Sherry!). Here are some of the things that happened there:

• I had a random encounter with Stefan Swanepoel (@Swanepoel), who in my opinion is one of, if not the, sharpest guys in the real estate industry. I’ve been communicating with Stefan heavily in Social Media for over a year, but this was the first time we’d ever met in real life. I’d always thought Stefan was incredibly connected, but watching the endless parade of VIPs approach him to shake his hand or – in most cases, give him a hug – was something to behold. More on Stefan below.

• 
  
  I shared a table with Chris Smith (@TechSavvyAgent) and Steve Pacinelli (@StevePacinelli), the super freaks behind TechSavvyAgent.com, which many of you will know as the hottest entity in the Social Media/real estate space right now (and the winner of Inman News’ “Most Innovative Blog” Award winner; that’s Chris with me and Sherry at right). Their Facebook page just sprinted past the 10,000 fan mark, and these guys continue to shock and awe with the incredible volume of quality content they keep cranking out day after day after day. Chris is a mega-talent, and I was truly impressed with Steve as well. Follow these guys and start absorbing all the quality stuff they share.

• I finally had the pleasure of meeting Krisstina Wise (@Krisstina Wise) of The GoodLife Team, the winner of Inman News’ “Innovative Brokerage of the Year” Award. Sadly for me, we didn’t have much time to talk, but it was obvious that she is one sharp, serious business woman, which she more than confirmed when she visited our “Raise the Bar” blogtalkradio show four days later (you can listen to our archived show here). I wrote a blog post to summarize some of the amazing comments and points she made. I’ll condense it to this: we agree 100% with everything Krisstina said about the future of the real estate industry. Perhaps more than any other broker I’ve ever met, she “gets it” and sees where the future of real estate is going, and has built a business around that vision.

• World-famous real estate trainer Brian Buffini received an award at the show. Buffini also said that he had trained “over 200,000 agents” in 2010. That is incredible (650+ per day for every calendar day)! Congrats, Brian, that is HUGE!

MacSavvyAgent.com is Born

Last week, Inman News wrote a feature story about this blog, and as of this moment 813 people have “Liked” the MacSavvyAgent page on Facebook. Not a bad start, and we have high hopes for helping agents see the amazing value that is “all things Apple.”

All Hale Bob’s Wisdom

Saturday, I participated in a debate. I was asked to argue the “virtual” side of a “Traditional vs Virtual” brokerage model conversation. There was a panel that preceded this debate, which included industry heavyweights Sherry Chris (she’s everywhere!), Bob Hale and Eric Stegemann (@EricStegemann). It was my first exposure to Hale and Stegemann, and I was deeply impressed with both.

One of my lasting memories of the event will be the series of points Hale made, which I can grossly summarize by paraphrasing as “technology is REALLY changing the game of real estate, and I don’t think most people in our industry are listening.”

The Zebra’s New Stripes

Dan was the moderator of my debate (he’s great in that role), and he also informed the world at large that we can expect a “Version 2.0″ of his amazing techni-logo dreamcoat (original version at right). I can only imagine that the new coat will feature a built-in iPad and or a plasma display of some variety.

Jay actually spoke during my debate (I asked him to share his “RETT” vision with the audience), and it is always a pleasure to listen to him, because he lives on the cutting edge.

An Evening with a Legend

He’s reinvented himself several times and achieved high levels of success in every career move he’s made.

You probably know him currently – as I do – as real estate’s most sought-after speaker, not to mention one of the industry’s most respected authors, educators and observers. He’s spoken over 700 times in nine countries.

His intelligence is positively electric, and his enthusiasm is off the chart. His recall of facts and dates and statistics is unreal.

On top of all that, he is one of the most humble, genuine, down-to-earth, kind and generous people you’ll ever meet.

Finally, I don’t know anyone who straddles the two factions – “old school/traditional/old money/big brand” vs “next/technology/Social Media/innovation” – within real estate like does. He has his finger on the pulse of EVERYTHING.

Truly, it was an honor and a privilege to share an evening with one of real estate’s true giants.

The main thing I took away from the event: I arrived too late and left too early! I cannot wait for next year’s conference. I plan to be there for the duration, rest assured!

Krisstina turned out to be an amazing guest with an incredible combination of passion, knowledge and vision. Here, in no particular order, are some of the highlights of our conversation (paraphrased unless otherwise indicated):

There is No “Silver Bullet”

• These days, brokers and agents are looking for a “silver bullet” to help them succeed…and none exists. Krisstina cannot point to any single thing they are doing to account for their success. It’s the aggregate/cumulative effect of all they are doing that is allowing them to win.
• The bigger the digital footprint, the more the opportunity. Krisstina agreed that, in the long run, the agent/brokerage/company with the “biggest digital footprint” will likely prevail, given where all the trends toward technology and the web are pointing.
• In most cases these days,  real estate brokerages are sending their agents “outside” to get training, or bringing in vendors to do the training. Krisstina doesn’t understand why company leaders are not leading on this “agent education” front.  Brokers need to get in the game rather than sending agents to conferences. As she said it:

At the GoodLife Team, our leadership learns new technologies first and then we train our agents. Our agents learn from INSIDE the organization, so they don’t have to go outside.

ROI of Social Media

• The theories outlined in Erik Qualman’s (@equalman) book “Socialnomics” are absolutely on point. Social Media absolutely represents a huge cultural shift. To quote:

The future of real estate looks very different than the past. Past practices, while perhaps not completely irrelevant, will provide diminishing returns. What will the future look like in five years? Real estate is NOT immune to the fundamental shift of the digital consumer.

• Quoting Qualman on the ROI of Social Media:

“True ROI is to be in business five years from now.”

• We had a brief exchange regarding a world-famous real estate educator who happened to speak at a dinner Krisstina and I attended at NARdiGras in New Orleans last week. Paraphrasing what that person – who shall remain nameless – said: “Stay the course, get back to basics, the market is coming back, no technology is going to change real estate.” In response to my asking her about that quote, she said the following:

So many people are waiting for the market to come back, but even when the market it comes back, the future is going to be different from the past. In the past, real estate worked a certain way. In the past, the consumer HAD to contact a Realtor to get information about real estate. Now, consumers can get that same basic information without contacting a Realtor. Where do consumers go to get info now? The web, but NOT to a Realtor. The game has moved from “local/small/call a Realtor” to the larger web. The game board is different now. We’ve moved from checkers to chess. The way we do EVERYTHING – find, connect, communicate, build trust – with the consumer is totally different now. We do EVERYTHING online now.

• Technology and Social Media allow the little guy to compete head-to-head against the big players, because the online presence is more important than the brick & mortar presence.
• The real estate industry gives the consumer an unsatisfactory experience on the web, which drives the consumer to Zillow, Trulia, etc. We have to give the consumer what they want, or they WILL go elsewhere.

The Days of the Lone Ranger? Over!

• The days of the “lone ranger” real estate agent are over. The game on the web requires SO MUCH expertise, knowledge and skill: content, web strategy, web design, SEM, SEO, hyper-local strategy and more.
• The GoodLife Team does all of the things that agents need to thrive in the future paradigm: web strategy, web design, SEO, SEM, Social Media strategy, content development, what and when to share in terms of content, national and local content, lead gen (65%+ of GoodLife Teams’ closed deals are web-based), incubation and management of web leads, building trust online, matching the client with the correct agent, etc.
• In general, Realtors are completely overwhelmed trying understand the new game. They are spending 80% of their time on understanding tech, and the rest of their time selling houses. Her agents don’t have to live with this struggle. The GoodLife Team uses something they call “GCore,” which stands for “GoodLife Core Operations of Real Estate.” This is sort of a “CPU” (central processing unit) concept in which the company provides all the functions outlined in the prior point so that agents can focus on what they do best: serving clients. While working at an 800-agent office, she saw “800 people using 800 different CRMs,” etc. and never understood why these things weren’t being centralized by the company. This was the genesis of the idea that led to GCore.
• The GoodLife Team only brings on full time people. They keep maybe one out of 20 agents that call. They don’t care at all about agent count. It’s quality, NOT a numbers game. The consumer doesn’t care at all how many agents an office or a company has.
• The GoodLife Teams cares about THE CONSUMER. The guarantee: a successful, knowledgeable professional will take care of their concerns. They are passionate about raising the bar, which means the focus is on quality, not quantity.
• On the definition of “client,” Krisstina agrees that the client is the buyer and the seller, NOT the agent! She believes that companies that focus primarily on the agent are doing it wrong.

Real Estate’s “Dirty Little Secret”

• Krisstina talked about real estate’s “dirty little secret, which she described as follows:

Real estate franchisors are FRANCHISE SALES ORGANIZATIONS. They’re not really in real estate per se. All they care about is franchise sales. The consumer is confused. And local brokerages are not really in real estate either. They are AGENT RECRUITING FIRMS. There is no incentive for the industry to raise the bar. The franchisor doesn’t care, because they just want the royalties. They’re trying to sell as many franchises as possible and put one every quarter mile, and brokers are standing outside test-taking sites and recruiting as many agents as possible and telling them to go sell houses to their sisters and brothers and nephews. If they did care, they’d do something about all those agents only selling a few houses a year who are starving. Because of the sheer number of agents, franchisors are winning and winning big even in a depressed market with 80,000 agents selling even one home per year. In all this, the consumer is lost.

• In the future, agent branding won’t matter because of the global market place. Example: when we need help with a computer, we go to the Apple store because we trust Apple. And we deal with someone at the Genius Bar. It doesn’t matter who we talk to. Whoever we talk to is brilliant, pleasant and trained well. The future brands will matter when they attract and train agents like Apple does, which is what we’re doing at The GoodLife Team. Accordingly, our brand will matter, and that will displace the “agent-centric” branding philosophies of today.

Real Estate’s Value Crisis

• Krisstina talked about something she called real estate’s “value crisis:”

The real estate industry is in a “value crisis,” from the very top to the very bottom. The consumers are smarter, they’re on the web, they do more research, and they expect more for their 6% commission. Agents don’t know what new things to offer their clients in response to this, and they are paralyzed. They don’t have value to offer. And agents want more for their royalties and splits from their brokers, and brokers don’t know what to provide in response. They can only offer the brick and mortar “value” they’ve offered in the past.

When I asked Krisstina for her parting thought, she quoted herself from a prior interview:

If you need to go outside your company – say, to a TechSavvyAgent.com – to learn about tech and Social Media, maybe you need to find a new broker.

Krisstina, you were dynamite! We cannot wait to have you back on the show. And, for the record, we agree with everything you said!

Who is your client?

Is it the person buying or selling a home through one of your agents?

Or is it the agent who works in your office?

You Must Choose

Here’s the reality: whether you realize it or not, you have to pick one or the other.

And, whether you realize it or not, if you are running a brokerage, you’ve already made that decision.

Policies Answer the Question

It’s inherent in your office practices and policies…

…on things like websites…

…and search engine optimization…

…and Social Media behavior…

…and advertising…

…and dual agency…

…and the extent to which you are involved in the day-to-day operations of your brokerage…

Serving Two Masters?

And while you might not THINK there is any conflict inherent in this question, there absolutely is.

The best example I can give you is this: What is your branding message, and to whom is it directed?

If your branding message is aimed at your agents, then you shouldn’t be surprised when the public ends up baffled by the conflicting messages it’s getting from those agents, all of whom will end up doing their own thing and creating their own, unique marketing and imaging strategies.

And if your branding message is aimed at the public, then you certainly need some fairly specific guidelines regarding what your agents are saying and how they are saying it.

Apple vs Big Real Estate

To illustrate, consider Apple Computer. You know within less than a second that you watching an Apple commercial, even if you’ve never seen it before. They have crafted a brand messaging strategy that is super consistent and incredibly tight.

As a result, Apple enjoys one of the strongest brands in the world.

Now, look at what any two agents at any traditional real estate company do to advertise themselves or their homes. On that level, any consistency – beyond the logo – is purely coincidental nine times out of 10.

As a result, the Big 5 real estate companies have brand images that are perceived quite differently.

And if there IS inconsistency in terms of how agents within the same company represent their clients, that means that there is inconsistency in terms of the QUALITY of that representation.

Consistency is Crucial

To think that one method is not superior to another is not realistic. Consider what would happen if Apple let each of its local stores advertise individually. Or if it hired literally anyone to work at their Genius Bar. Their brand image would be diminished very quickly.

See the difference?

What do YOU think?

Who is real estate’s ultimate client?

The agent?

Or the client?

We think that the answer to this question impacts the ultimate quality of a brand perhaps more than any other…

PS – I know many people will answer this question by saying “agents are independent contractors, so I as the broker/owner have little control over what my agents do.” My response to that: just because your agents are independent contractors does not mean that you cannot establish and enforce firm company policies to protect the veracity of your brand…

What I find interesting and encouraging is that I keep running into other brands who *seem* to see things the same way – or very close to the same way – that we do at Professional One.

Common DNA…

A future in which the best companies:

…understand that consumers can now obtain vast amounts of information on their own using the internet, and modify their tactics accordingly based upon this reality…

…focus on attracting people organically by providing valuable information to potential clients at no cost…

…leverage technology to significant competitive advantage…

…don’t care where they work physically, because they understand the freedom of an untethered digital world…

…understand that clients make decisions about Realtors based far more on that agent’s web presence than on that agent’s office presence…

…love change and seek out the next tool or trend to help them get better at what they do…

…understand the difference between inbound and outbound leads…

…recognize that it may be entirely true that Social Media represents the greatest cultural shift since the Industrial Revolution…

…use Social Media to build powerful communities and a loyal tribe of followers…

…don’t view Social Media as something one does, but rather what one lives…

…provide their agents with training and tools to successfully leverage the future…

…understand the importance of consistent, significant and valuable content creation…

…don’t care about how many agents they have…but care very much about the quality of those agents…and…

…place as their ultimate focus providing the ultimate level of service possible in the real estate space.

Three Examples of “Next”

We have Garron Selliken (@garrons) and M Realty in Portland (like Professional One, an Inman News “Beta Brokerage” award winner)…

And we have Jay Thompson (@phxREguy) and Thompson’s Realty in Phoenix (another Inman News “Beta Brokerage” award winner)…

I’ve meet all of these people personally, and all have appeared on our #RTB on the Radio BlogTalkRadio talk show.

As I learn more and more about each of these great companies, I grow increasingly optimistic about the future of the industry.

And if not the industry at large, then certainly for these specific companies and others like them…

Come On Up for the Rising…

And I can feel them building momentum…

And I believe that, at some point, there will be a breakthrough and one or more of these brands will rise up and play David to the Goliath that is the Big 5 brands…

Or at least put a decent dent in the market share dominated by these behemoths.

All that being said, the more specific purpose of this post is to share with you an excerpt from an interview that was conducted on September 15, 2010 between interviewee Jay Thompson and interviewer Chris Smith (@TechSavvyAgent) of TechSavvyAgent.com. You can watch the full video here.

Jay was also Inman News’ “Most Innovative Blogger” of the year in 2009.

Chris won the same award this year.

So we’re dealing with two fairly intelligent guys here (both, actually, are exceptionally savvy and sharp).

Interview with a Dragon Slayer?

Listen to what these industry leaders have to say.

And then let me know what YOU think.

Do you agree or disagree with what they’re saying?

I thank you in advance for your comments…