Stephen W. Baird is the president and chief executive officer of Baird & Warner. Established in 1855, the firm is the oldest residential real estate brokerage in the
Baird is a recognized industry visionary and national leader. He served on the board of directors of the Realty Alliance — a consortium of the nation’s top real estate firms — and has testified before the US Congress on matters of vital interest to the real estate community. In addition, Baird has also served as past-president of CorLands, the land acquisition arm of the Openlands Project, which seeks to preserve green-space for future generations. He is an advisory board member for the Trust for
A 1975 graduate of
Steve and his wife, Susan, and daughters Abigail and Lucy are longtime residents of
I believe that access to information is going to become a major change in this industry. Eventually consumers will have access to the MLS and other types of information that we today hold close to the vest. Just as you have 24/7 access to stock quotes, I believe the same will happen in the real estate industry.
In and around this change, Realtors® will have to stop thinking about the information they hold as an absolute. They bring so much more to the transaction – it’s their ability to interpret and use the data to find the right kind of housing for their customers, that their value to the consumer.
Information is imperfect – it cannot adequately represent the house – you have to account for the presence of a house. You can take all the pictures you want and couple it with great copy, but you still must consider the spiritual or emotional connection that people have to homes. Successful sales agents have an ability to read and interpret what client’s want – despite what the clients may be saying. There is a classic quote that the “buyers are liars” – the reality for us is that they don’t always tell you what they want. That’s certainly a huge change in our business.
Other changes on the horizon include media companies that are coming into the business. I believe this is a natural evolution in any business. With all of this, Realtors® need to rethink how they’re conducting business – look to get ahead of the curve and what they’re doing differently to attract customers.
Other changes I see continuing including the internet is moving towards becoming the primary media with print as secondary. And, we are continuing to move towards the one-stop-shopping, packaged servicing. Every major real estate company has a mortgage arm. We’re all offering a package of services.
There has always been a lot of interest in our business for a number of reasons: real estate touches almost every consumer and it does so at time when they are making large purchases. Because of this there will always be companies interested in reaching the consumer at this point. I could certainly list corporate players - but I don’t think that’s as important as to say that they are out there. Our advantage is that the consumers we work with are buying all sorts of things. There is a strong correlation between people buying a home and buying a car. Financial- and consumer-related corporations desperately want to get to this group.
We have to protect the fact that we have the best contact at the point of sale... it is us standing next to the consumer when he is pulling the trigger. With that said, however, it isn’t just enough to be standing there – we have to continue to evolve our responsiveness to the consumer, by bringing better service, better products, and be open to the consumer’s growing and changing needs.
People who are having the most impact are the ones who are bringing new ideas to the business.
The real estate consumer isn’t any different from any other kind of consumer, generally speaking. They want more information and want more transparency.
We are in a consumer-driven business and consumers are demanding more information, more choices.
Over time the consumer will begin demanding that the real estate transaction become less complex. Today, consumers have accepted that real estate transactions are the way that they are and they don’t have a choice. But, once a choice is made available to them, it will be a whole different game.
This trend is happening on the edges a bit, with mortgage companies offering one fixed price.
The real estate transaction will have to become easier and simpler for the consumer. They want to buy or sell their house for a fair price. They don’t have to necessarily do so at a low price, but they need to feel that it was a simple process and that they were treated fairly. Most consumers really don’t care what happens between saying what price they want to sell their house at and the day of closing, they just want the transaction to be easy and less intimidating. They also want a fixed price – they want to know when they sell their house that it’s going to cost them “x” dollars. I believe this is reasonable. But, today they don’t know that this is possible.
I think we should realize what consumers want and move to give them that – all the information.
Many still think of the industry in terms of what is best for us instead of what is best for consumers. I don’t want readers to misinterpret this -- all of our agents are doing a great job for the consumers – but our efforts aren’t necessarily focused on the consumer.
A friend of mine the other day called me up and asked me to do a search of homes for him. I explained to him that Baird & Warner has a search function - our HomeFinder system. My friend responded that he was reluctant to use this because he feared he would be inundated by Realtors® seeking to represent him. He was afraid of putting his name and information into the system because he just wanted information on homes in the area, before thinking about selecting an agent. This isn’t an uncommon worry of consumers. Our opportunity is to keep that in mind, make our efforts as consumer-centric as possible, including our own business practices.
As a general rule, I don’t think the associations or MLS have a lot to do with broker profitability – except that they increase the costs by offering additional services and charges. In our case, we belong to some 10 different organizations and two MLS systems.
I think that one way the associations and MLS can help is to help us do things more efficiently. For example, they need to understand that one size doesn’t fit all. A small brokerage firm has more needs than a large one. They would be wise to package services in such a way as to offer the greatest level of benefits to those who really need that. In our situation, because we are so large, we are already providing training, and marketing and data enhancement, a website, etc. So for us, our needs and reliance on the associations is minimal. However, for a smaller firm, they will have much greater needs – they need help generating leads, business marketing, help with a website, etc.
As you can tell from this interview, I’m about putting new ideas out in the workplace and challenging people. I also recognize that change doesn’t come smoothly. Sometimes the most important thing one can do is to just get the ball rolling down the hill, the rest will follow.
One of the things that has disturbed me recently is how some organizations and associations have reacted negatively to criticism or negative commentary about the industry and business. In doing so they have created an environ where contrarian views are ostracized. I think your opportunity really lies in being a part of an organization where other opinions are freely expressed and all the opinions – good, bad and otherwise, are a part of a the decision-making process.
I’m not big on business books; instead, I am influenced through taking a hands-on approach with things. I am very interested in ideas about other industries. I like looking for other ways that people do business. I belong to a wide range of industry-related groups and I am fascinated by businesses outside our own industry.
I was in India recently and met someone who headed up a drug research company – they are focused on finding ways to develop new drugs. In touring this plant and meeting its people, I was struck by how they thought strategically about the art that was on the office and plant walls. It was explained to me that they believe the art was a way to foster greater creativity in the work environment which was aligned with their business mission.
I think that there are very few purely original ideas in the world, most ideas are taken from one business to another and applied. So, the long of the short is, I’m more experiential in how I get influenced or inspired.
I think associations and MLS are in a hugely changing environment. My advice is to stop worrying about how to protect your turf, but instead look at how you can evolve to remain relevant. Before long, the very information they seek to protect will be available for everyone. Today you can go online and get almost any kind of information; the trend is that this will continue. I think that you have to assume that all the information is in the public domain.
I recently heard a speech by the head of the Tribune Company. He was talking about a time, back in the early 1920s, when radio stations came into being. At the time, newspapers went crazy trying to protect their turf. They event went to Congress to try and stop radio stations from reading their news on the radio. They were so paranoid about this new media coming into the mix. And so instead of getting bogged down in turf-wars, the Tribune eventually bought a radio station and later a TV station. The Internet was another media that forced newspapers to change. Years ago newspapers were reactionary - blaming decreased readership on the Internet. At that time, few, if any, had staff dedicated to the Internet. Today when you go into a newspaper’s office you see large teams of people who only work on the Internet.
Look at Apple Computer; they’ve really had to reinvent themselves several times over. When they first started, they invented the computer, and then someone beat them at that game. Next they invented the Mac and later again someone beat them at that game. And today, they recently announced that the iPod had its one-billionth download. Thinking out of the box allowed them to hedge their bets and use the Internet to realize their potential.
