Industry Visionary

For organized real estate, I see certainly more consolidation and cooperation at the local level. I think we will get past the competitive distraction Board of Choice created. We will see more local resource pooling and continued refocusing on doing what is best for our REALTORS in our local markets. Additionally, I think we will see more collaboration between MLS’s and REALTOR Associations in nationwide projects; such as the Standards Initiative Orlando, Chicago, and Houston initiated. Consolidation is not a bad thing, especially when you consider the potential product enhancements available when physical, financial and personnel resources are pooled with the primary focus on improving service to the industry and doing so more effectively.  I envision a business model revolution as organized real estate regroups to learn to utilize fresh ideas and fresh product and service mixes in carrying out their core missions.

For our industry, the ownership of firms will continue to become regionalized as they acquire resources through their alliances to compete as national entities with local portals of service in our market areas.  Our challenge, as employees of organized real estate, is to learn as much as we can about the competitive face of our industry and work together from a big picture perspective, nationally, statewide, regionally; to insure that we remold our product and service mixes to continue to have an effective value proposition.

For those of us who are MLS and Association Executives, we should understand the opportunities today’s technology products and new vendor selections can have for all of us. We will continue to see more revolutions in web based services, and it will continue to be easier to integrate web based services into each other. So, the corporate vendor players are changing, and thereby creating new opportunities.

The million dollar question, will Homestore continue to own everything it presently does? Probably not, as they continue to be more focused on improvements to REALTOR.COM and its evolving business model. But, I do think Homestore will continue to be our cutting edge driving force for evolving the way REALTORS market themselves and their products on the Internet; and I do think they will drive changes accordingly.

Cendant, NRT, HomeServices, Yahoo!, Lending Tree, Google, Microsoft, HouseValues.Com, Bank of America, and FirstAmerican are all operations that are presently changing the face of our industry, directly or indirectly. We need to stay focused on what our role is in the new business models, products, and services, and how we can compliment the changing needs of our industry due to new corporate players; as well as what our role is not.

Bob Hale and HAR have always been a trendsetter. They need to be watched, and we need to copy all their best ideas.

Lennox Scott is a revolutionary. His contemporary ideas and practices for a continued successful conventional business model represent that we will see a continued dominance in our market areas by conventional business models taking advantage of new technologies, fresh ideas and strategic alliances.

Christine Todd, from Northern Virginia, is an industry visionary. You should never miss an opportunity to learn from her. Her commitment to being the best in our business at serving REALTORS creates the most innovative and progressive REALTOR organization, deep in the heart of the nations brain trust, which I ever have and ever will observe.

Jim Sherry has always been brave and bold with his observations and reflections on our industry and I will never miss an opportunity to read and listen to his comments; and try my best to follow his advice.

Ed Krafchow and HomeServices will continue to revolutionize the brokerage management and services sector.

However, our local brokers are the real trendsetters to watch. They may be networking nationwide, but their impact will be local and they are the innovators for us to watch. Their creativity and innovation is becoming quite and challenge to keep up with. The large firms are becoming larger. And, these brokers have mindsets which we should stay in touch with. We need to understand their point of view, and they need to know we want what’s best for them, and that we will be responsive to their current and future needs.

1. Communication. The key to keeping a seller or buyer satisfied is regular communication and prompt responsiveness.

2. Professionalism. The emerging real estate consumer will still want an experienced and knowledgeable professional who will insure that they are well represented.

3. The consumer wants access to more data. They don’t want to do the Realtor’s job, but they want to utilize diligence in researching the market, understanding the transaction process up front, and actively following and / or participating in the work flow of the transaction.

4. The Consumer wants to feel like the money he is spending on the transaction is worth the service received. They should never have to justify the Realtor’s involvement, it should be self apparent. They want to value the Realtor’s service, and they need it to insure they are well represented and the process is handled thoroughly and professionally; so the REALTOR should keep in mind that they need to keep their value significantly evident throughout the transaction so there is never a reason to question the compensation compared with the effort and expense involved in making the deal happen, and the experience enjoyable and fruitful.

We see our brokerages responding well right now to these expectations. Today’s innovative brokerage web site resources provide the consumer more information about either the properties they are interested in, the communities they are considering, or the home buying and selling process. For Consumers who find these additional resources important, they are matching themselves to firms and their agents who meet their needs from the pre-transaction point. An informed consumer is more satisfied with the services of a professional, although their expectations for service and delivery will additionally be increased based on their initial impression of the firm’s resources and capabilities.  Instead of catering to the set of Consumers who are looking for a discount experience, I think the full service professional will be more satisfied by receiving greater appreciation for their expertise and service by properly preparing their clients for the transaction, becoming more effective communicators, and raising the bar for service through business standards and a clear and realistic set of stated expectations.

Regarding the role REALTOR Associations and MLS’s can play in meeting the expectations of the real estate consumer, organized real estate is responsible for supporting our industry and providing resources for our members and subscribers which enhance their ability to do business successfully. We should do a better job at helping the rank and file real estate professional understand the big picture and big player changes which are presently occurring, and how they need to be preparing themselves for business in the very near future. The next few years will again be revolutionary. The consumer will be informed of the new real estate business models and alliances, and they will expect consistent services from any practitioner, whether or not they are affiliated with some of these new business structures. Our members and subscribers will need to be prepared to compete at this new level of customer expectation, based on the initiatives of national players, regardless of their own local affiliations; or find their own way to enhance their services to further satisfy the consumer’s expectations.

I will start off by admitting that I haven’t any brokerage management experience, and therefore I am not qualified to advise a broker on how to make his firm more profitable.

That being said, their expertise at their core service is always their most important product. However, after review of the data NAR publishes regarding the cost to operate a real estate office, it is apparent that their positioning as an expert in managing their Internet generated leads is very important. Additionally, they must diversify their source of revenues to other products and services which can benefit their clients and compliment the transaction requirements overall.

The client for life initiative still seems to fit any broker’s business model, as well.

Since we are in the product and service business, we should look for tools we can add to our mix which fit the new realities of transactional real estate. We should challenge the convention of our existing service structures and business models and change up the mix of products and modules of products so we are certain we are including the intelligence we are gathering to build new tools and enhance or eliminate older ones. We should stop maintaining a status quo business structure in our organizations, simply to be consistent with the way we have always done things. Their business is changing. We should expect to re-evaluate our business as well to insure absolutely that we continue to have a valid value proposition, and that we continue to be effective in delivering that value proposition.

At North Texas Real Estate Information Systems, Inc. we have improved our product mix to include integrated Transaction Management as a module within our conventional Browser Based Business platform. We have built database control outside the conventional vendor based solutions to minimize our dependence on vendors; while at the same time taking the “Best in Class” approach with our selection of vendors for our Users. And, we have bundled several new tools, after a decade of unbundling, to create one of the most robust and fully featured MLS Information Systems in the country.

Certainly we planned our innovations, and now that we have implemented utilities which took years to accomplish, we are initiating a new planning process to evaluate updated intelligence and plan both short and long term for future innovations in our product mix and delivery systems.

I don’t find reading a book would make me a visionary. I am not certain I agree that I am one compared to those visionaries I know and respect so well.

However, I have a few reference books I go to frequently:
17 Questions that Board Members and CEOs Frequently Ask by Doug Eadie;
REALTORS and TECHNOLOGY: The 2004 NAR Technology Impact Survey Report; Multiple Listing Service Technology Survey, by the Center for REALTOR Technology; and for my own counseling, The Art of War for Executives, by Donald Krause..Sun Tsu’s classic text interpreted for business application (since business can sometimes be dealt with like WAR as well).

For association and MLS executives; read, ask questions, learn your customer’s business, and appreciate the day to day transactional realities they deal with either as real estate sales people or as brokers and managers. You can’t be effective as an Association or MLS Executive without getting out of your office and into theirs.

For our Brokerages, stay tuned in to intelligence about your competitors and the changes in the expectations of the consumer; and impact your clients expectations in a positive way through participation in your industry activities and in the way you deliver your products and services.