Industry Visionary

The adoption of technology has been rapidly gaining ground. The industry as a whole was slow in adopting technology 10 years ago, but now that has changed significantly. There are hardly any real estate professionals who are not using mobile telephones, and many are now using PDA/phone devices like the Blackberry and the Palm Treo. The use of web technology has now become fairly commonplace, whether it be a simple template-based website to a sophisticated lead capture/incubation web-based technology backbone. Information and data which used to take days to flow through the chain are now being done extremely quickly, providing relief for the top producing agents to spend more time on relationships. This is still a personal business.

I like to think that my company eNeighborhoods is driving change in the industry by providing the technology tools for the players in the industry to succeed more efficiently. For example, the web technology backbone we recently created for the entire RE/MAX system is truly the first national IDX network, allowing consumers for the first time to visit a top franchisor website and access the entire inventory of IDX active listings. This is enabling RE/MAX to keep these consumers within their own system, rather than through some of the new start-up intermediaries who are trying to become the consumer’s first point of contact and then sell the leads to agents. With this system, RE/MAX is taking a huge lead in driving industry change as well, by taking back these consumers from what RE/MAX founder/chairman Dave Liniger calls “the interlopers, who come to the pot-luck dinner with only a fork”.

Other corporate players who I see standing out in driving industry change includes:

1. Google – Let’s face it, they are the first point of entry for so many consumers who are looking for real estate.  There is no doubt that they will want to monetize that traffic more and more over time, as they get better at driving consumers to a more qualified target.
2. California MLS’s – In general, the MLS providers in the state of California are leading the charge toward consolidation and reciprocity. There are currently two MLS alliances (Southern and Northern) where members of each MLS have the ability to access the other aligned MLS’s through one access entry point with one search. There is even talk about linking these two alliances together into a nearly statewide MLS access system.

There are truly so many people, it’s difficult to pick a few. But here are a three who I truly think stand out:

1. Dave Liniger – as the founder of RE/MAX, Dave has been a trendsetter his entire professional life. He has taken more risks, both business and personal, than anyone I know. From the implementation of the 100% commission concept to the most recent creation of the new remax.com web technology backbone for the RE/MAX network, this guy never stops!
2. Bob Goldberg – as the Senior VP of Marketing for the National Association of Realtors, one of his tasks is running the Realtor Benefits program. Through this program, NAR is doing extensive due diligence for the Realtor membership to figure out which tools will make them successful and which are a waste of hard earned dollars.
3. InternetCrusade Principals – Saul Klein, John Reilly and Mike Barnett have consistently led the industry charge toward technology, but their biggest impact has been in creating online communities (e.g., RealTalk, eProTalk, etc.) to allow real estate professionals to easily share ideas.

The emerging real estate consumer is taking advantage of doing their research before contacting a real estate professional. Most of this research is being done over the internet, where instant gratification is expected. When they do finally select a real estate professional to work with, they expect that person to be as responsive as clicking a button on a web page.

The biggest challenge for the industry professionals is how to become as responsive as the internet. Obviously, this is not possible, as a human can only process one request at a time! Even if the person is very quick and capable of multi-tasking, they will not have any time left in their day for the other tasks that need to be accomplished. So the only way to compete and be efficient is to embrace the technology tools which can not only help process those requests, but actually stay a step ahead. This will enable the professional to exceed consumer expectations, while leaving the time to develop the necessary personal relationships that the most successful professionals prove time and again to make them stand out.

Brokerages need to take back some of the functions that they have allowed their agents to get control of. The industry right now is unfortunately extremely fragmented, even within a single brokerage office. Agents are more and more becoming one-person businesses, with less and less support from their broker. Most of this has been fueled by the commission splits tilting toward the agent. But the result is that as agents become more self sufficient, it becomes much easier for them to move to another brokerage. So the argument in favor of brokerage investment is to provide better and better centralized services for the agents to help them be even more successful. For example, lead generation, incubation and management is a critical asset for any sales oriented business. This can be done much more effectively when done in a scientific, predictable way, rather than through haphazard marketing attempts.

In my mind, the roles of these entities are similar to what I describe above. Certain functions of this business are just done more efficiently when there are economies of scale. For example, associations should make sure that the environment is right for Realtor success, whether that be legal, training, etc. Similarly, MLS’s should take on the expanded role of data aggregator, not only fulfilling the needs of the MLS reciprocity philosophy, but also in acting as the IT shop for each individual brokerage’s internal data needs.

Our company is consistently creating technology and data tools to help make the industry more efficient in getting their jobs done, as well as enabling professionals to provide consumers with the information they need to make a buy or sell decision.

On a more personal level, we strongly believe in giving back to the community, which is best exemplified by our founding with NAR of the Good Neighbor Awards back in 1999. I strongly believe that real estate is a personal business, where relationships between a professional and a consumer are critical. I feel that community service is one of the best ways that a professional can show their community dedication to their neighbors, enabling them to network and make those critical relationships. The Good Neighbor Award program recognizes five outstanding Realtors annually for the depth of their community service.

However more important to me is the example these award recipients set for the other 1.2 million Realtors, who are more and more becoming inspired to make an incredible impact on their communities. When this army is taken as a whole, the impact on every urban, suburban and rural community in America is enormous!

“Winners Never Cheat” by Jon Huntsman – this book is a very simple read that is a great reminder of the ethical and moral values which seems to be missing from corporate America these days.

“Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” by Verne Harnish – this book has totally changed my opinion of how to manage a successful business.

The advice I’d give is to stay one step ahead of their customers in exceeding their expectations. That does not mean that you try to do everything that consumers are asking for. The most successful organizations have the ability to funnel through all the requests and pick out the few that will truly make the most impact. Many times, consumers don’t know what they are looking for until it is presented in front of them.

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