Ten Take-Aways from the NAR Annual Convention
November 12, 2008
After spending five days in Orlando, Florida with the National Association of REALTORS Annual Conference, I thought it might be helpful to provide the 99.95% of the Association who didn’t go to the event with a few take-aways from what we saw. With trainers, consultants and trade show booth staff in every corner of the Conference, Matthew Ferrara & Company easily saw a little of everything going on. Here, then, are ten take-aways of what you missed.
Why IDX is a Really Bad Idea
November 5, 2008
Sometimes, you just have to learn the hard way. That seems to be the real estate industry’s preferred method of implementing technology tools - at least for the last twenty years or so. A herald comes over the hill, the masses become excited, everyone just starts doing it: And that’s when the highest risk to sound business principles usually occurs. Which is exactly where we are today with IDX - the “sharing” of listing inventory between competing brokers’ websites. It sounds like a good idea, except for one small snag:
Your million dollar website now looks awful because the data from your friendly cooperating brokers sucks.
A Difference of Six Words
October 17, 2008
What separates the great agents from the rest of the pack? Is it fancy training, an incredible manager or the latest tech tools? Why does the top 25% of the business earn an average of $200,000 in commissions, while the next 25% segment only earn $46,000 each year? Never mind the bottom half: They’d do better as Starbucks Baristas. Ask agents and they’ll tell you it’s luck, being in the right place at the right time, or even the power of statues buried upside down in the corner of the yard.
We think, however, that it only takes six words to make a huge difference in agent productivity.
Do you have the Success you Deserve?
October 8, 2008
Graduates of our Integrity Selling course learn a very important principle in the world of sales: You always get paid what you think you are worth. It’s how the great sales people in real estate always earn the top dollars - because they believe they are worth them and won’t settle for a second-rate pay for the first-rate service they provide to their clients. The principle of “getting what you believe you are worth” is usually applied to commissions, but lately, with our clients, we’ve been taking this to a whole new level:
Are you achieving the success you believe you deserve?
More Evidence the Bailout is a Handout - and a Lie
October 2, 2008
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain, a Biography
If at first you don’t succeed, try to destroy the economy again. That seems to be Congress’ motto these days, as they prepare to vote on the “revised” bailout bill.This, time, however, the proposed bill is so full of spending pork - from exempting children’s wooden arrows from excise taxes to increased cover of rum excise tax revenues - that proves Twain’s other saying that there was nothing a Congressman knows that couldn’t be taught to a flea.
What a scam!
The Bailout will Destroy the Housing Industry
September 26, 2008
Only in the United States Congress can a plan to destroy the housing industry and credit markets be called a “rescue” plan. It’s almost as farcical as calling “card check” bill that effectively kills secret voting for unions a “secret ballot bill.” Far more troubling, however, is the fact that the elements of the plan are laid out - in plain sight - for everyone to see and think about.
Why, then, does the real estate industry and average homeowner, not see the danger?
When Companies Should Fail
September 25, 2008
America has become so obsessed with its financial crisis that people are forgetting the basic lessons of economics. You remember economics, don’t you? It’s the science of how markets work. Yet everyone is acting like it’s a “strange reason” why companies are losing money, people are losing their jobs, customers are fleeing their products and services. We all know that “customers are sitting on the sideline,” but nobody is willing to really ask why. We all just assume it’s because “credit is frozen,” whatever that means. And everywhere we turn, people are saying somebody must do something - fast, soon, now - because the market downturn is assumed to be “a fluke” - it’s “happening” to good companies and good people through no fault of their own. As if the laws of supply and demand - and the customer - didn’t apply to the “modern” economy.
Nobody is asking the basic question: Should these companies fail?
[Podcast Version]  |
Why do Brokers Hire Sellers?
September 24, 2008
(Podcast Version) Ask any broker today what his “number one” problem with the market conditions, and he’ll tell you either there’s too much inventory or it’s all overpriced. Granted, if sellers want to put their homes on the market, nothing can stop them, with so many “for sale by owner” options out there. But that still leaves the issue of the overpriced homes that are represented by brokers. And that begs the question:
Why are brokers hiring sellers to sell their own homes?
International Lessons on Real Estate
September 22, 2008
If you think it’s hard to sell real estate in America today, take a lesson from the Continent. After spending four days with the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World in Rome, it’s become pretty clear that most American real estate agents have it “too easy.” Just try running your business when selling homes with “verbal commitments that are binding but broken without cause or recourse” and “you have six months to close” is the norm.
It’s about time American REALTORS figured out just how good they really have it.
Bang! Internet Marketing is Dead!
August 30, 2008
It’s official. Internet marketing as you know it died today. One of the internet’s largest social network sites finally killed one of the internet’s largest search engines as the “eyeball attractor” for display ad views. Although it got little news, this mighty accomplishment may be the herald of a major shakeup for online commerce.
Consider yourself forewarned: Everything you thought about internet marketing to-date is now old news.
Avoiding the Industry Disaster
August 27, 2008
Just how close is the real estate industry to duplicating the disaster achieved by the airline industry? Contrary to popular belief, neither industry has been challenged by serious technology developments that have created “alternatives” to their essential model. People still fly on planes. Most consumers work with agents. Yet anyone who has had to deal with either industry lately knows that REALTORS are coming dangerously close to recreating the airline industry’s sub-lawyer-sub-car-salesman reputation.
For REALTORS, it shouldn’t take much to avoid that fate. But we must act now.
Six Cool Ideas to Boost Agent Productivity
August 25, 2008
Why do some agents make more sales than others? What makes some agents capable of creating sales when others struggle for a single lead? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a cool web tool or a more expensive marketing plan. Almost always it comes down to a single, consistent factor, no matter what company or place in the country:
A great manager.
More Meaningless Marketing
August 21, 2008
When I read this headline this morning, I immediately thought of that Britney Spears song, “Oops! I did it again!” Once again, another real estate company is reporting some “numbers” designed to get people - consumers, agents, Martians - to gasp. Seems like their website has generated some few millions of “leads” to their agents. You know, buyers who go on their website and ask for more information. It’s another orchestrated PR campaign to get the public to say, “Wow! That’s a lot! It must mean they are really good!”
Too bad, then, that it’s just another example of totally meaningless marketing. What’s worse: Generation X and Y know it.
Five Reasons REALTORS Are Losing Market Share
August 20, 2008
Amongst the growing list of reasons some REALTOR firms are losing market share today, there’s no lack of ‘blaming the consumer’ causes. Brokers and agents who repeatedly target the “market” or the “economy” as the culprits are just substituting politically-correct keywords for “the consumer” as the problem. Buyers won’t come off the sidelines. Sellers are unreasonable and won’t price their homes to market conditions. Lenders won’t offer credit easily. The usual suspects of the downturn are either consumers or third parties working together in a full-blown conspiracy to destroy the real estate industry.
Perhaps we could find a few simpler reasons?
Recruiting and Retention: The Right Stuff
August 17, 2008
When an industry suffers from a problem for decades and still hasn’t figured it out, it’s likely focusing on the wrong issue. Real estate’s “recruiting and retention” problem has consumed millions, perhaps billions of dollars in wasted time, energy and effort. It’s apparent that all of the “symptom” solutions and snake oil in the universe won’t solve it. So let’s try something else: Challenge the premise.
What if there wasn’t a recruiting or retention problem in the future?
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- Ten Take-Aways from the NAR Annual Convention
- Why IDX is a Really Bad Idea
- A Difference of Six Words
- An Alternate Theory of the Market Crash
- Do you have the Success you Deserve?
- More Evidence the Bailout is a Handout - and a Lie
- Matthew Ferrara & Company News
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- The Bailout will Destroy the Housing Industry
- When Companies Should Fail
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