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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
Poor REALTOR.COM!
August 4, 2008
I feel bad for REALTOR.COM. Let me start by saying that I like REALTOR.COM - I really do. They’re a hard working bunch that puts lots of time, energy and effort into promoting other people’s products. They aren’t always perfect - yet they keep trying, and trying, and trying. And they do have the number one real estate destination on the web - so they are doing something right. But for long?
This week they announced their their latest round of new features for the website. Too bad it’s still fairly clear that REALTOR.COM is destined to fail.
Why? Because one group of people hates the site most of all:
The REALTORS themselves.
Just Shoot Me
July 17, 2008
I know, I probably deserve it. I’m the one who’s constantly poking and pushing and prodding the REALTOR population to put more property video online. I should have learned my lesson, though, after I cajoled the industry into putting more photos online, only to have ended up with the creepy, scary stuff we’re seeing today.
I thought I’d seen it all. I could even get used to the bad photos. Now it has moved into video - and if this is what we’re going to get from REALTORS, I’m thinking I might do better herding cats.
One Degree of Effort
July 10, 2008
One of my most favorite motivational messages comes from a short piece by Simple Truth’s 212-degrees movie. The message is simple and powerful: At 212 degrees, water simply boils. At 212-degrees it becomes steam. And steam can power a locomotive. In other words: One small degree of effort more, and you’re moving from ‘hot water” into powerful productivity.
So, what would one degree more of effort look like for REALTORS when trying to sell a home in a competitive marketplace?
How Many Lightbulbs?
July 8, 2008
How many lightbulbs does it take to change a REALTOR? Apparently, a lot, considering we’ve been offering ideas to the industry for more than two decades. But that didn’t stop this silly conversation from occurring the other day in my class:
“Yeah, it’s been on the market for about seven months. The seller won’t lower the price and there are about a dozen properties like it - some much newer - that are being offered for less. I don’t know what to do.”
“Have you provided the seller with the comps?”
“I just did again, for the fourth time, yesterday. She just won’t see the issue - it’s the price. Buyers have a lot of choices nowadays. She keeps saying we’re not doing enough advertising.”
“Have any of the buyers provided you with that feedback, so you could show her what the buyers are saying?”
Five Focus Areas of Evolution for REALTOR Associations
June 30, 2008
It’s time for REALTOR Associations to do something they don’t like to do: Change. Certainly, over the past two decades, I’ve watched a fair amount of “changes” at REALTOR Associations worldwide: Executive Officers have come and gone; Associations have moved to bigger, then smaller, then bigger locations; they have changed their newsletters from print to email. All of these are “changes” but none of them represent the Change I mean when I say it’s time for REALTOR Associations to change.
I mean: It’s time for them to Evolve.
Read more
Note to NAR: Help your REALTOR Members Change the Housing Market
June 27, 2008
I just received my copy of the 2008 Annual Member Profile from the National Association of REALTORS. Amazing - just amazing - how many of you aren’t going to be around next year. But this isn’t another requiem for the change-resistant REALTOR. Believe it or not, this posting will explore a simple suggestion that NAR could implement to speed up the housing market recovery. And let’s be clear: Except for places that are still returning to market norms (some people call them “declining or falling” markets) a lot of places in America are bouncing back (or continuing along just nicely) like Des Moines, Austin and Charlotte. So for everywhere else, where the market doldrums are more media hype than market reality, it’s time for REALTORS to stop waiting around for the market to fix the consumer. It’s time to do something about it.
The navel-gazers have been shuffling around whining that the Fed, the market, the interest rates, the consumer, everyone ELSE other than the REALTOR is holding the market back. Using our famous contrarian logic, what do you think we think? Right - maybe it’s time for the REALTOR to heal thyself.
Sales is a perception-driven business. People purchase just about every non-staple good based upon some degree of emotion that can be influenced by sales professionals, marketing and other consumers. Shoppers for new cars are keenly aware of the models their friends just bought last month; and they’ll be hard pressed to overcome their emotions not to try to “keep up with the Joneses” in their purchase, too. Smart marketers play off of this; even smarter sales people leverage this emotional response - if they can learn about it - when working with their prospects.
Read more
Boost your Blackberry with a Powerful RSS Reader
June 26, 2008
Here’s a cool tool I’ve been playing with for a few weeks. It’s called Viigo and it’s a RSS reader for your Smartphone. I’ve been testing it on my Blackberry Pearl (which still continues to leave my students in awe at the fact that they don’t need to carry around lunch-box sized smartphones unless their cranky old MLS mandates it) and it has worked flawlessly. So it’s time to share the product with all of you.
Oh, yes. And it’s free!
When Companies Listen to the Customers, it’s Magic
June 25, 2008
Well, I don’t know what took so long, but Microsoft finally seems to have read its emails, listened to its voice mail and talked to its customers. According to a headline over at Engadget, Microsoft is going to support Windows XP until 2013. It’s about time!
Customers worldwide are breathing a sigh of relief as the Redmond Behemoth seems to have remembered a fundamental premise of running a good business: Listen to your customers!
There’s no magic in that premise. Your customers will tell you everything you need to know to be successful. After Microsoft launched Vista, both customers and industry reviewers provided it feedback. As expected, some people hated it (usually those whose computers were manufactured by Henry Ford Senior) and some loved it (those of us who understood that an OS change means, well, some things are actually going to be different). But more and more, especially amongst corporate clients with large installations, lots of proprietary software and sometimes older hardware in the field, the message was simple: Please don’t take Windows XP away. We might get to Vista in the future, but right now, we’re happy (and in a recession, without extra finances) still using XP.
Unfortunately, Microsoft, whose engineers and sales people are rightly enamored with their own products, just wasn’t listening. They were so certain they were right, so sure they could push the change through, that they turned a deaf ear to their clients. Even after giving a little - pushing back the mandatory cut-over date for computer vendors to sell machines with Vista only - Microsoft continued on the path of most resistance. They said: Vista or Nothing!
The Consumer-Unfriendly Myth of the REALTOR Independent Contractor
June 24, 2008
In our ongoing attempt to transform the real estate industry from a cottage guild angry at the internet to a technology-integrated modern production system focused on the needs of the consumer, we’re going to engage in a little myth-busting today. At one point, mankind believed the sun revolved around the earth. We soon learned that it didn’t - and that discovery made it possible for us to eventually go to the moon and beyond. What might happen if we dispel the myth that real estate agents are independent contractors?
Let’s clarify the essentials: An independent contractor has two definitions. The legal meaning is that of a worker or organization who provides services to another organization without being an employee. For example, when a home builder constructs a new home, he calls in an “independent” electrician to run the wires. The builder does not “hire” the electrician, and provide him certain obligations under the law, such as insurance, health care, unemployment insurance or training. And mostly, he doesn’t withhold his taxes and contribute half of his Social Security benefits. For most companies, this arrangement is normal, and usually occurs between two “companies” such as a software company and a marketing firm; a dry cleaner and a delivery service; a car dealer and a towing company. In the case of our builder, he says: Show up at this location; Look at the plans. We’ll agree on a price. Do the work. I’ll pay you.
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