Matthew explains that consumers are rapidly transitioning to technology at the 2009 Coldwell Banker Rally.Watch this video
A review of the demographics and statistics of National Association of Realtors Members, compiled from Official NAR ReportWatch this video
Facts about REALTORSWatch this video
Matthew's blog entry titled "NAR's RPR should RIP ASAP"Watch this video
Every time a newspaper story fails to accommodate this new requirements of the reader, we throw it away and decreasingly wish to purchase it in the future. Matthew explains why!Watch this video
Real estate is essentially a research industry: trouble is, most agents and brokers think the most important research is about houses, prices, square footage and such.Watch this video
Check out the all-new Real Estate Brainchain website and video learning library for real estate professionals from Matthew Ferrara and Company.
In Part 1, we started the countdown towards May 1, the Day After. In Part 2, we offer ten suggestions for REALTORS to stay in business when the dust settles.
Where do most people enjoy the holidays? At home, in their back yards, around their fireplaces. All of which real estate professionals play a part in making special for millions of people. Whether the sun is shining or the snow is falling, REALTORS help make the holidays a little better for families around the world.
Hindsight is always 20/20, they say. Unless, of course, you spend most of your time navel gazing. So it’s almost myopic to point out that some ideas’ time has come. And other ideas’ time has passed. On one hand, it’s time for every sale to include in-house ancillary sales. On the other hand, it’s time for NAR to give up the dream of one HAL-like central database. Didn’t they find the bellybutton lint the last time they tried it?
Bizarre, Cool, Finally and Funny: Observations from the NAR Annual Conference, 2009 Each year, as thousands of REALTORS descend upon some unsuspecting city in American, we bring you observations from the event, complete with raised eyebrows of all kinds. This year’s Annual Convention of the National Association of REALTORS in San Diego is no exception: the 14,000 vendors, agents and industry leaders left us with no lack of bizarre, cool, finally and funny observations to share with you. So, without further ado, here goes. Bizarre: Why do all of the REALTOR conventions happen in cities with soaring homeless rates? It seems the height of irony that so many “home ownership professionals” gather in San Francisco, San Diego, New Orleans and Washington DC – ostensibly to learn new ways to sell more homes – only to find themselves taking the bus from hotel to convention center because the streets are overcrowded with people – without homes. Now, this isn’t to suggest that real estate conventions should only be held in places with low homeless rates – say, a nice tropical island – but it is to say that maybe the “local tour of luxury homes” and “annual pean to hammer-swinging a [...]
November 12 – San Diego, CA – As the National Association of REALTORS Annual Convention opens this week in San Diego, Matthew Ferrara & Company announced the launch of its latest learning service, real estate brainchain (http://www.rebrainchain.com). The new online video learning community features high-quality training lessons for real estate professionals on a broad variety of topics like sales, marketing, technology and management. As easy to use as YouTube, but with real estate specific content, brainchain launches with almost 100 ready-to-learn lessons featuring some of the industry’s top trainers. “Brainchain changes the paradigm in online learning for REALTORS,” says Matthew Ferrara, CEO of Matthew Ferrara & Company, the parent of brainchain. “In the last two decades, we have repeatedly delivered innovations in real estate training, first by incorporating technology into the classroom, then by creating the industry’s largest delivery system of webinars. We’ll deliver more than 3500 webinars this year alone, but we still don’t think that’s enough availability and affordability for the industry. That’s why we’re introducing real estate brainchain.” The new platform uses the latest video innovations to change how real estate professionals use the internet to grow their business. While many real estate agents have been using [...]
Live from NAR Starts Friday – with Matthew FerraraThose who do not learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them. So said someone we’ve all long forgotten, but I’m sure you can Google it. But rather than worry about who said it, shouldn’t we be worrying about whether we’ve heeded the advice? As 20,000 REALTORS make the annual migration to the National Association of REALTORS Convention, maybe we can know what to expect by looking back at what happened last time.
Two seemingly different mediums collided in my brain last night. First, I was reading a front-page story about a home that was struck by lightning and burned down the night before. I didn’t recognize the street name: Was it nearby or across town. My first inclination was to look for a map. Of course, there was none in the newspaper. My second inclination was to right-click something and Google-up a map. My fingers actually flexed for the mouse. Frustrated, I threw down the newspaper. Switching on the television, I fired up my new favorite show “Real Estate Intervention” on HGTV from the digital recorder. The show features real estate agents showing sellers comparable homes in their marketplace, to provide market perspective on how their home is competitively situated – especially on price. I like this show particularly, because I had a similar idea suggestion for REALTORS recently, and also because it shows how anyone who fails to ask, “What does my customer want?” is doomed to failure. After the end of the show, I looked back down at the newspaper on the table and then back to the freeze-framed screen and declared out loud: “Newspapers and sellers just don’t get [...]
In one of the cruel ironies of the housing market today, the total number of units sold this year isn’t that far from historically normal volume. According to the National Association of REALTORS, the seasonally adjusted annual rate for sales in May is around 4.77 million – generally trending the pre-bubble long-term volume for a typical year. Some segments continue to decline – such as housing starts – but it makes sense to stop adding more units to the million-plus excess inventory units available already. Clearing the excess inventory remains an important goal for the market. Only when supply and demand level off will prices stabilize. Yet real estate companies find themselves doing the same (or more) work for less results. Even selling historically normal units prevent a revenue decline; and nobody’s picking up “extra” units these days. With median home prices down 30% to around $173,000, volume strategies alone cannot sustain most brokerages. Thankfully, the consumer has provided real estate professionals with a ready-made solution. It’s up to brokers and agents to start selling it. Just like they used to.
