Jeremy Conaway's company, RECON Intelligence Services is currently a leading source of strategic and tactical ideas and applications for the leading edge of the real estate industry. He is a nationally known lecturer, author and facilitator. He has created business plans, strategic campaigns and tactical objectives for some of the top companies in the real estate services industry. His articles are regularly published in a number of national journals.
Jeremy has been involved in the real estate industry for over fifteen years. As legal counsel he has served in a variety of roles including closing counsel, real estate association counsel, and brokerage counsel. As a brokerage design consultant he is working with a wide range of industry participants who are creating tactical paths to tomorrow’s real estate transaction.
As an “industry visionary”, what do you see as the major changes occurring in the real estate industry?
The increasing level of dysfunction within the traditional brokerage business model as demonstrated by the relative lack of control and rapidly deteriorating profits is reaching an epidemic stage. Few within the industry have a clear sense of what will happen if the brokerage, the "structural steel" of the industry, fails. The presumption that armies of unencumbered agents will then control the real estate industry makes great press but fails any test of business, economic, or historic reason or rationale. This industry is part of the free enterprise system and thus is subject to the rules of capital and labor.
Who are the “individual trendsetters” that are shaping the future real estate industry?
The real trendsetters who are shaping the future are not in the news and do not wish to be identified. They are instead using their energies behind the scenes to effect real change, impact and return on investment. They are not playing to the public media or to the industry audience but rather to their investors and shareholders.
What major “corporate players” are driving change and what may be their impact?
Title companies, banks and brokerage aggregators are responding to a market vacuum and are currently driving much of the industry's "business" agenda. Whether the banks enter the real estate business or merely exclude brokers from the mortgage business won't matter half as much as the damage this issue has already done to the critical REALTOR® ecosystem. Amidst this family crisis the title industry and the primary brokerage aggregators are executing a clear vision relative to the transaction. It is perhaps unfortunate that an “insider” did not take this leadership position. I say perhaps because a quick review of the past twenty years of American economic history would disclose that the ultimate change factors frequently come from the outside, often to the detriment of those whose focus is on fighting over their traditional turf.
What are the expectations of the emerging real estate consumer?
This is not longer a subject of speculation. Over the past year research from several sources has created a very detailed profile of the contemporary American real estate consumer. They are entering the active phase of the transaction with an increasing level of confidence and sophistication. They are very focused relative to both their value set proposition and the experience they want to have within the transaction. They are not interested in the "provider centric" experience of their parents. They want to work with a real estate professional who is a partner, someone who can help them interpret information, someone who understands the big picture of the transaction as a life's event and someone who, when trust and respect has been established, will take care of them.
How should the Brokerage and Realtor Association / MLS respond to these real estate consumer expectations?
What changes should a Brokerage implement to ensure profitability in the future?
The future will be defined as the period that will be required for brokerages to reach non-profit status at the transaction level. Based on currently available data this will, for many brokerages, occur in 20 to 30 month.
What role do you see the Realtor Association / MLS playing to ensure Broker profitability?
The key role of any contemporary trade association is to be relevant and supportive of its member’s current challenges. The REALTOR® association at all levels will have to decide whether its role is to celebrate the accomplishments of its member’s past or to provide a forum and venue to facilitate the achievements of their future.
Based upon your vision of the future of the real estate industry, what are you doing to help influence positive change?
Our focus is to limit the time it takes for the lessons being learned by our brokerage clients and their customers to impact the relevancy and effectiveness of our association clients. The ultimate crime of the information age is to either fail to pass the plate or fail to reach when it is offered.
What books would you recommend as a "must read" that have influenced your vision?
As much as I would like to offer a very sophisticated and academic response the fact is that the books that most effectively impact my vision of the industry’s future are the financial books and accounts of our brokerage clients. They tell a story that is both compelling and motivational. They offer insights, solutions, and guidance. They should be mandatory reading for all who consider themselves students of our industry.
