So I will admit – I’m an Excel freak.  If there is a  project, workflow, or experiment to be made – you can bet that I have created an Excel sheet for it.  That being said – it does have it’s limitations and when I was faced with a recent predicament that even the almighty Google couldn’t accomplish I had to think outside the box and revisit my old friend Zoho.

Recently, one of  my agents and I were talking about the importance of proper pricing and what a seller actually “pays” and “nets” by overpricing their home.  That led me to create the below spreadsheet that based on a simple mortgage formula and summing up the monthly costs of ownership for a home-owner (mortgage, taxes, assessments, etc.)  Once  we have this number we can simply pull simple data using MLS info OR (my personal favorite – Agent Metrics from Terradatum) and plug in the numbers for DOM (days on market) and SP/OLP (sales price to Original List Price ratio).

So this was cool, and I have had a number of agent use this in their listing presentations to either 1. Get the price they want from the start or 2. Show what it has cost the seller already (if they have previously been listed).  It’s great info and really drives the point home – however I was stumped when an agent approached me and said, “I’d really like to embed this on my website so that I can drive traffic there from my farm.”

Take 1 = I fooled around with Excel and found that I could export it as a webpage (great) which I could then open with Notepad to see the HTML code (awesome).  However, this being a Microsoft based program – I soon found the problem in my ways when viewing this in Firefox:

Internet Explorer 5.0.1???

Take 2 = So I scrapped that idea and went the “cloud based” route and opened up a quick Google Doc.  Upload – Activate – Format – Share.  Got the code and placed it on my site.  Result = #fail  Where the sheet showed up fine, the functionality of the sheet was removed and the consumer could not take advantage of putting in their home value, taxes, assessments, etc. (NOTE – I am not saying that I didn’t overlook something, so if I mistaken – please leave my error in the comments section)

Take 3 = I have played around with the suite of solutions put together by Zoho.com off and on over the years.  I can’t tell you why i don’t use them more often other than the fact that I (like many) am a slave to Google.  So after logging into my Zoho Account – make my way over to Zoho Sheets – upload the document – and presto!  See the finished piece below.

Take a look at the functionality in this sheet – the consumer can actually fill in their information on their own and see the true value in correct pricing. Feel free to download and use with your clients – and as always, I’m open and eager for any suggestions on how I could make this better!

~ Matt

Culture IS Innovation

I take a lot of pride in the company that I work for.  It’s a little company called @properties out of Chicago, IL that has some pretty sweet stats for only being in business for 8 years.

• $1.9 Billion closed for 2008
• 1st in market share for the city year to date
• Highest Sales price to List Price of any major Chicago Brokerage
• Lowest Days on Market of any major Chicago Brokerage
• 4th in market share for all of Northern Illinois
• 750 agents, 5 offices, and only 20K square feet of office space

Most importantly though, we have a 99% retention rate of agents.  This statistic is almost unheard of in the real estate industry today.  We do little or no active recruitment other than our current agent population referring agents that they think would like to work here.  It’s a great place to work where people feel supported, appreciated, wanted, and that we are invested in their success.  How is this all possible?  I’ve boiled it down to one word… CULTURE.

Culture (as defined by Wikipedia) refers to the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

Innovation (as defined by Wikipedia) means a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental, radical, and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations

In essence, we at @properties are Innovating through Culture.

Why am I making this parallel?  Because we are very proud to say that today it was announced that we are a Top 5 Finalist for Most Innovative Brokerage and Franchise. And what does this “Innovation” award mean to me? (disclaimer: I am speaking for myself and not for @properties)

It means that the industry might actually look past bells and whistles when discussing innovation. That the  Culture of a company might finally fit into the, “means of radically doing something different” and take it’s rightful place at the forefront of importance for success.  It means that our agent population logged into the Inman site and told them, (in their own words on their own time), that they LOVED the company they worked for and believed that our methods and “culture” of doing things inspired their success.

To me… this is well deserved.  Not for me.  Not for the PR.  But for everyone involved in our company organization.  From the people at the front desk that stay late to help an agent finish a CMA, to the incredible IT staff that bleeds patience setting up an iPhone with our Microsoft Exchange Server, and everyone in between.

It says that our Holiday party at a time when companies were cancelling theirs was the right decision.  It says that our softball/volleyball tournament every summer builds friendship and brand.  It says that having 2 full-time coaches to support agents builds more than just friendships.  It says that not only providing cutting edge tools, but taking the time to educate and show agents how to use them makes all the difference.

Long story short… It says to me that a company culture can be revolutionary, radical, and yes… innovative.

Below is a video I  shot of Thad Wong, (one of our owners/founders along with his partner Mike Golden), at the Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where he and I spoke to a group of MBA Leadership students.  Watch this video and you’ll understand how culture can not only change a company, but radically alter and industry.

If you would like to hear more or learn more about our company culture and what we’re doing differently… drop me a line.

Matt Dollinger

Today, we took great pride in announcing the public release of our @Report, A Market Analysis of 21 Chicago Neighborhoods. Below is a short video clip of Thad discussing the @Report in an exclusive taping with the Chicago NBC affiliate, and it’s importance to the Chicago public.

Included in the official Press Release, Thad had this to say about the report:

“Real estate is local in nature. Instead of analyzing data region by region or city by city, we’re analyzing it neighborhood by neighborhood and block by block, so it’s much more useful to the local homebuyer or seller,” said Wong. “Numbers and statistics are important, but they don’t tell the whole story. This report does a really good job of addressing the ‘why’ and ‘how’ in addition to the ‘what’. Those elements have been missing from a lot of local real estate news.”

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.517235&w=425&h=350&fv=] from www.wellcomemat.com posted with vodpod

There are some wonderful findings throughout the report. Feel free to browse it HERE or by directing your browser to http://www.atproperties.com/marketReport/

Matt Dollinger
@properties
Performance Coach
mattdollinger@atproperties.com
312-506-0236