While the vast majority of REALTORS still don’t know that social networking exists, there’s definitely a trend growing amongst “early adopters” to drive a stake in the heart of Web 2.0 world. Being first often creates a competitive advantage – such as being first to respond to a buyer’s inquiry on a property. On the other hand, being effective with social networking technology requires something that too many REALTORS still need to learn:
We don’t care that you have just listed another overpriced property! Read more…
Here’s an idea (or five) whose time has come: Real estate professionals can’t wait around any longer to have “someone else” fix the market. Whether it’s government money or buyers coming off the sidelines, if we’re waiting for other people to turn around our business, we’re going to find that time is against us. No longer can we remain on the sidelines ourselves. It’s time to take action and make the changes that we’ve all know are long overdue in our business.
To get you started, here are five technology-driven production boosters that are easily within everyone’s reach. Read more…
As part of a new ongoing series of posts on our blog, we’re going to apply our brainpower here at Matthew Ferrara & Company to looking at the latest numbers from real estate industry research and helping our readers make sense out of their meaning. Many organizations from NAR to Case-Schiller to research firms and universities worldwide study consumers, agents, brokers and the business of real estate. They release “findings” – lots of numbers – but rarely interpret their meaning. Of course, that’s where we have always been helpful to our clients: leveraging the research facts about the marketplace to make sensible decisions – not gut reactions – to be one step ahead of the consumer.
And forget about the competition – since they’re mostly not really competition, when you look at the numbers. In that spirit, let’s start with some startling numbers that may indicate that NOBODY in this business is really in competition for the online consumer: The sorry state of social networking usage by real estate professionals. Read more…
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Listen to Matthew Ferrara’s recent interview with the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS exploring ideas on how to use technology to cut costs, grow market share and innovate in today’s challenging real estate market. Jump start your productivity in the new year with some straightforward and easy-to-implement ideas for leveraging technology to make 2009 a great year to be in real estate.
One of the most exciting roles our company plays for real estate brokers and agents worldwide happens when we are called upon to do Strategic Planning with them. It’s fascinating to see how planning energizes people – even though so many of them may have been operating for years without a written plan (or a recently written one :>)
Usually, strategic planning starts out as “pie in the sky” and then comes down to “I need to make this much revenue!” Somewhere in between, however, the process starts to become unnecessarily confused. Bogged down, is more like it, because too many brokers think strategic planning is about “beating themselves up” on what they aren’t doing well today. So the initial energy from planning starts to fizzle into anxiety and worry over mistakes and challenges. And usually, that’s why most people “stop” planning – or never start it in the first place.
So here are three tips we have used successfully to help brokers and agents use Strategic Planning to energize their companies and create themselves anew in the upcoming year.
Here’s a little story about the power of the new consumer. He’s the guy who used to have no power – no information, everything kept a secret from him, all confused about what happened behind the scenes – but today is ripping the roof off traditional real estate models, confusing REALTORS, service providers and vendors worldwide.
Pay close attention, because this is the guy who’s going to make your life a lot more complicated when you ask him to buy your services!
Our story begins one cloudy Saturday in Peabody, where yours truly was shopping for a new car. My current lease was set to expire, and after three months of internet research and comparisons, it was time to “do the open house” and actually drive a few models. Arriving at the Acura dealer, I shook hands with a nice, young salesman – well dressed and well mannered. Little did I know that – appearances aside – I was going to sell the car to myself. Read more…
Today I was reminded of the title of a good book I read called “Customer Satisfaction is Worthless; Customer Loyalty is Priceless” by Jeffrey Gitomer as I waited ELEVEN MINUTES in line to get a cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts. Talk about a company that considers the customer to be disposable! After the first SIX minutes of waiting just to pull up to the order-speaker, I was then promptly told “I’ll be right with you” – whereupon I waited another two minutes before someone asked “What can I get you?”
Trust me. It was eight minutes just to get to a “ya, whaddaya want” greeting. I know because I time these things!
Warren Buffet likes to say, “When others are greedy, I’m fearful; when others are fearful, then I’m greedy.” As a rule for when to invest in the stock markets, the Sage of Omaha is cautioning the average investor against the psychology of the markets. Mass markets – like stocks, bonds and even housing – are subject to mood swings by the consumer. And frenzies – to purchase or sell – are the scariest moods of all. Buffets advice: Do the opposite of the frenzy, and you’ll be just fine.
Now let’s apply that thinking to the “lower mortgage rates” frenzy gripping our policymakers.
Every year at this time, most of us are making “resolutions” of how to improve ourselves for the upcoming year. We resolve to go on a diet, save more money, take time off with the kids, and so on. Business people usually take it one step further, resolving to do all the things they “put off” in the last year because they ran out of money, or opportunity knocked, or they just forgot. We all do this – while conveniently forgetting the most common thing about New Year’s Resolutions is that we usually forget about them by the end of January!
So this year, why don’t we resolve NOT to make any resolutions, and try something much better, instead…
