Steven H. Berkowitz has served as Chief Executive Officer of Move, Inc. since January 2009 and as one of its directors since June 2008. He previously served as SVP of the Online Services Group at Microsoft Corp., where he was responsible for running the Online Business group including MSN.com, MSNTV and MSN Internet Access programming, advertising sales, business development, and marketing for Live Platform, MSN and Windows Live.
Prior to joining Microsoft in May 2006, Steven served as CEO of Ask Jeeves, an online search engine, from January 2004 until August 2005, when the business was sold to IAC/InterActiveCorp. At that time, Ask Jeeves was renamed IAC Search and Media, and Steven served as its CEO. He had previously served as President of the Ask Jeeves’ Web Properties Division.
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As the challenges in the housing market continue the REALTOR®/consumer relationship needs to evolve. Today, consumers can find more real estate information on the Web than ever before. But consumers are going to need more than just the information they find on the Web. They need the help of REALTOR® to help them interpret that data. Especially since consumers will continue to be exposed to more and more data from resources less trustworthy than REALTOR.com – estimated home values is a good example. REALTORS® can help consumers cut through that to enhance the relationship. At the same time REALTORS® will need to educate themselves with the knowledge consumers want.
Our goal is to supply them with more and more information but that in turn will means REALTORS® need to remain educated and consultative. REALTORS® have a chance to help consumers interpret the data they find. REALTORS® need to continue to educate themselves with the knowledge consumers want. We’ll help both the consumer and REALTOR® to be informed and have a more informed discussion.
Places like Google™, Yahoo!® and MSN® will always continue to expose more information in a less connected way because they are general search engines. This makes the need for more targeted, complete information more important.
As the leading information source for real estate on the Web it is going to be our responsibility to make sure the information that consumers want and need will be delivered to them in an in-depth and relevant manner. We do a lot of that today and that’s evidenced by how much time consumers spend on our site and how many pages they view on REALTOR.com.
Because of what’s happened over the last 24 months, the trendsetters are really President Obama and Congress. We need to get the real estate industry on track.
To be more informed. They want and demand access to information on real estate which is not currently organized that is useful and helpful to them. One of our goals is to help organize real estate information to make the real estate professional and consumers’ experience more successful.
With regards to real estate sites, they want the site to look good and be easy to use and they also love photos. We redesigned both Move.com and REALTOR.com in 2008 to address look and feel and we also increased the number of photos on a listing up to 25 and increased the size of those photos.
What buyers want to know about real estate agents are the agent’s specialties (e.g., first time home buyers, foreclosure, etc..), agent’s neighborhood focus, agent’s years of experience and number of homes the agent has helped to buy and sell during the prior six months.
It’s going to mean that not only will consumers have more information but REALTORS® need to be better ready to explain and interpret that information for consumers.
The way homes sold in the past will need to evolve. In the recent past, selling a home was much less challenging. Consumers’ expectations about REALTORS® will change as they’ll want to know much more about how the agent is going to market their home to attract buyers in a down market.
Also “value” will be more important until home prices stabilize and again this is going to demand more data. What’s the value of the neighborhood in factors that are not apparent to consumers? How many of their neighbors homes might be in foreclosure? Which neighbors are upside down on their mortgage? How do these factors influence the future value of the home? This is a very different set of data needs than in the past.
Expectations about home appreciation – value accretion – have changed. Convincing consumers to buy a home is going to be more difficult task. In the past, appreciation, whether slow or fast, was a given. That’s no longer a given. Now more of the equation will be about buying for the sake of home as a place to live. That too requires very different information.
First, they must use the most effective means to reach their audience and that’s via the internet. According to the NAR, nine out of ten consumers start their real estate search online and more consumers spend more time and view more pages on REALTOR.com than any other real estate site. Second, they need to look at streamlining their office systems. Last, brokerages have to help educate their agents who have never worked in a buyers’ market. Brokers need to help these agents be more successful by educating them how to be efficient in this new market dynamic.
This is a question that’s best posed to the N.A.R. and individual MLS.
What we’re doing is educating consumers and real estate professionals in the ever changing real estate climate. We hope to continue to use our understanding of consumer behavior to help influence the changing environment and continue the education of real estate professionals.
We’ll continue to focus on serving the needs of both our agent/broker customers while addressing consumer needs. We’ll also look to leverage our scale advantage in technology and data to provide better experiences for both of our audiences.
“Innovators Dilemma” calls on companies to adapt or adopt new technology that will meet customers' needs and that failure to do so will result in companies falling behind. You have to constantly challenge your assumptions and your strategy to be successful.
The hedge we have is to focus on addressing the anxiety and uncertainty that our customers and consumers have and that we’re managing our business for the future and not just for the present.
Practically, Move proactively addressed the macro economic challenges in 2008. We did that by cutting expenses by $20M and divesting non-core businesses so we could bring more focus to bear on our business of serving real estate customers, consumers, advertisers and partners.
· Focus on your customer and make sure you anticipate their needs.
· Don’t be afraid of technology; embrace it. For instance, REALTOR.com offers every REALTOR® a free blog. Blogging is an efficient way to get your message out and for agent’s to build their personal brand.
· Realize your job is going to evolve as consumers become more educated and exposed to information on the Web
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