Is this Kansas?

My mind can’t be bothered with trivial detail this though!  Hell no man… no time. I’m heading to Inman!  The mecca of Real Estate and all things technology.  Glorious waterfalls of bits and bytes flow at the Palace or so I’m told.  Sunrises filled with countless ideas and ways to save the albatross that is the Real Estate industry.  I grit my teeth with anticipation as the girl with the MAC next to me, (I thought they never used up their batteries???) yammers on about her boyfriend’s lack of job offers.  San Francisco here I come!

I tend to overdo things… set my expectations a little too high (just ask Mrs. Homepartner!) and so I decided to boil my “wish list” for the Utopia that is Inman down to a simple Top Five Takeaways list in hopes of actually seeing my unicorn.  But first some history on why I feel this list is necessary.

1.  Not just innovation, but implementation
Gimme big, bad, cutting edge innovation… I have naughty-hot dreams about this kind of thing at home.  But give me some case studies with metrics and analytics as to HOW you have implemented it and WHAT your clients think of it.  I honestly believe that there’s a growing void between 1. real estate consumers and 2. real estate innovators.  Where each one of our latest and greatest applications may blow the minds of the resident “tech geek” I keep asking myself, “Will it play in Peoria” (and not just because I grew up there.)  Sure, blow my mind, but tell me the bottom line ROI, ROE, or whatever metric you’re using to gauge it’s usefulness as well.

2.  Don’t just tell me… Show Me
I’m really sick and tired of this ongoing brain-orgy of thought revolving around, “the future of brokerage”.  Shut up and show me.  Someone throw $250K at Rob Hahn and let him REALLY give your brokerage a makeover… PLEASE!  I’m tired of talk, I’m tired of speculation.  I want to hear someone tell me that they did cutting-edge-X and the outcome was mind-blowing-Y.  someone please grow a set and try something new.

3.  Talk outside of the Real Estate Industry
I’ve written a couple of posts about this topic (See posts here) and truly feel that the answer as to what ails us as an industry lies out there, but it sure as hell doesn’t reside at your competitor’s office.  I was truly excited to hear that the keynote address was being delivered by Jeremy Stoppelman from Yelp! as I’m a huge fan of their company.  But give me some more.  Let’s talk about implementing an @comcastcares model for real estate, or how you could do what Dell did in the early 2000’s and give your company a 180.  THAT’s what I want to hear!

4.  Give me some kind of measurable return on Social Media
I get it, I’m on it and I like it alot.  But, the next “coach” that gives a webinar on how to scrape leads from Facebook is going to find out why I keep my FOID (Firearms Owner Identification) card active.  Maybe I’m sensative to the subject because I work with agents day in and day out who are on the front lines suffering, but regardless I’m sick of the scavenging from gullible agents.  All I want to hear is that; agent Jim did 5 million dollars in 2008 and now spends # hours blogging, # hours on Twitter, # hours on LinkedIn consistently each week and has seen his business increase by 20% this year.  That’s it. Give me some numbers.

5.  Give me in a “true” brainstorming group
Don’t micromanage it with a preset adgenda… Don’t give someone with 20K follower on Twitter the mic and a powerpoint… Give me a room with 50 of the “smartest” people in real estate today (brokers, agents, and outside people too) and present us with 1. a problem 2. a bigass whiteboard and 3. an infinite supply of good coffee.  Videotape it, stream it live, open up a chatroom and we could conquer any challenge.  Hell, make it a monthly event and charge $19.95 to watch it and we’ll even create a profit stream.

6. (Bonus!) Give me face time my social network
Ok… so this is out of Brian’s hands and rests in mine alone, but this could actually supercede the previous 5.  Online is great, but F2F is the end goal in any relationship.  If I could tell you all that I have gotten out of my brain dumps with Rob Hahn, Eric Bryn, Marc Davison, Brian Boero and more… I would have to request more space from Host Gator.  This is what events like Inman are all about so reach out to those you have never met before and start like this.  “Hey @<insert clever Twitter handle here>… It’s <your clever Twitter handle> good to actually meet you!” It’s not hard, and I personally guarantee the akwardness will wear off after the first time.

Am I asking too much?  I don’t think so.  Although a teleporter ride from the airport would be nice.  Maybe next year… and if you’re out there in San Francisco and you’re looking to hook up and wrap… 773.354.9681 is the cell.  Looking forward to talking to you IRL.

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

Nicole and Reggie Nicolay (@nik_nik and @cyberhomes) have completely outdone themselves and put together an amazing (and free) E-book entitled Everything You Want to Know about Twitter for Real Estate.

I have to admit… that when I first got the emai a shiver went up my spine.

Dear God.  First The New York Times puts a story out today about all of the anchors who Twitter, then INMAN puts out a post about how all agents should get on Twitter, AND NOW THIS?  Great, so now we’ll have a million Tweeple out there spamming their listings to the Twitosphere and we’ll further our stigma.

But, after a quick download and a quick flip into the PDF Annotator, I’m writing this post and have to say, “Reggie and Nik Nik have completely outdone themselves…  this is a fantastically written whitepaper that EVERYONE who even thinks about Tweeting in Real Estate should read.

So instead of going on and on and on… as I can do… Follow THIS LINK to the Cyberhomes page, put in your info, and download the book.

The last thing I’ll say is, “Listen to what she says… she’s a schoolteacher.”

Lots of love to the two of you.

Matt Dollinger

The You Factor

The top 5 brokerage sites remained the same with Realtor.com topping the charts with 6.7% of market share while Yahoo! Real Estate dipped slightly for the month.

The most interesting development in this latest delivery was the entry of 3 new sites to the top 20

Reply.com, Move.com and WhiteFence.com joined the top-20 list of real estate-related Web sites in December, climbing several spots from the previous month, online metrics company Hitwise reported today.

The interesting thing about this is that all 3 of the new entries are “lead development” model companies. Does this mean that where the large franchised companies are cutting back on advertising and exposure (see article on C21 ditching it’s TV advertising – courtesy of FOREM) the lead generation business is picking up the slack? -OR- does it simply mean that where a number of these small startups don’t have much overhead cost that they can continue to spend?

- Matt Dollinger

In the post entitled, “Take it from an agent — sell by owner”, foreclosure and investment specialist Dr. Danielle Babb lays blame to Realtors and their commissions, for hindering the recovery of the real estate market.  Babb has also written a post on her own blog (http://findingforeclosures.entrepreneur.com/2008/04/30/real-estate-agents-hinder-real-estate-recovery/) going further into depth with her theories and findings.

As you would expect on both her blog and Inman, this posting has issued a peppering of posts from Realtors and discount brokerages alike condemning and praising Dr. Babb.  In her article, “Real Estate Agents Hinder Real Estate Recovery” Dr. Dani starts the article by leading in with the following:

But I have to say that agents–while protecting some home buyers and sellers–are adding an incredible amount of extra work and effort to the real estate recovery. Their added fees are creating inflated home prices, keeping sellers and buyers from reaching deals.

“(Realtors) are adding unnecessary work, rules and negotiation to an otherwise easy process.  In addition, sellers, knowing they have to pay 6 percent to an agent (5 percent if they’re lucky), simply add this to the price so they still get their ultimate bottom line out of the house. This means the buyer actually ends up paying, even though the documentation shows that the seller is paying the agent’s commission. Therefore, we could have a faster home recovery without agency fees!

On top of all this, the agent adds to the process wasted energy and time, which could be spent house hunting, financing or moving.”

Babb then goes on simplify the home buying process into a sugar-coated journey through cyberspace to find their dream home, (although she is good enough to stress the fact that this is how the process SHOULD WORK). 

1. A buyer goes online
2. They find their dream home and submit an offer
3. They come to terms on price (or not… where they simply walk away)
4. They sign contracts, assign escrow, and find a title company
5. If anything goes wrong, they call in their lawyers.
6. Happily ever after

She then goes on to talk about how an agent complicates the process (or hinders it by playing tag-along).  I’m serious… EVERYONE has to read her play by play with regards to how an agent simply focuses on the money throughout and only slows the process moving forward.  Babb, goes so far as stating the following:

1. Buyer has to find an agent to represent him or her, or buyer gets “dual representation” from seller’s agent (thereby increasing seller agent’s commission for doing little to no extra work, but adding 2 percent to 3 percent to the purchase price).
2. Buyer still looks at the same houses he/she would look at it with or without an agent.
3. Seller’s agent has to take offer to the seller, present it, “mull it over,” discuss it, decide how much can be squeezed from buyer and present a counter offer to the buyer’s agent.
4. Buyer’s agent presents counter offer to buyer. Buyer tells agent what he or she wants to counter with, and steps 4 to 6 repeat until everything in the situation without the agent is finished–the same process that could have been done in one hour with the seller and buyer together.
5. Seller’s agent and buyer’s agent “stay in touch” throughout escrow to make sure they get paid.
6.  No direct communication exists between seller and buyer, so anything the buyer or seller needs must go through an intermediary, thereby justifying ridiculous commissions and inflating home prices.

She then ends this wonderful post by stating that unless you have an overly complicated situation, you’re better off selling by-owner.  So… I don’t know about what market Dr. Babb was selling in, or if this is a representation of how she treated her clients, but working in the Chicago Market for the second largest company in market share, I know for a fact that there are glaring holes in this “Simple” equation.

Pricing – How does someone come up with a price?  Zillow?  (82% of their home appraisals fall within 20% of sales price here in Chicago)  http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageZestimateAccuracy.htm

More Money? – According to the 2006 NAR study on FSBO’s, not only did over 80% of all FSBO’s end up listing with an agent, but those that initially listed sold on the average of 32% higher than those that sold By Owner.  http://www.realtor.org/research/research/fsbofacts  (Yes, I know from her past posts that Dr. Babb blasts all NAR research, but I will honestly say that no one has spent more money on the subject)

Finding the Dream Home – So, say your dream home is a 2 bed 2 bath condo in Chicago for under $350K.  Log in to Realtor.com and prepare for some homework.  ONLY 13,000 matches!  Take into consideration schools, transportation, hi-rise, mid-rise, parking, pets, pets under a weight limit, proximity to lake, assessments, etc, etc… 

Attractive Offer – So you want to make a strong offer but only have a fixed amount of money to spend?  Well take into consideration things like home sale & mortgage contingencies, closing date, money down, and a number of other things that I’m sure are in Babb’s book, can help your case.

I could go on and on with this topic, but I think we get the point.  I refuse to blast Dr. Babb’s post any more than to point out some glaring loopholes.  I’m sure she has helped countless individuals build wealth and succeed through her many ventures.  But DON’T… I repeat DON’T reduce the real estate community to money hungry peddlers.  You’re casting stones to those that have helped millions of Americans achieve the goal of home ownership or home sales and simplified their lives. 

Anyway, I figured that I would finally take a stab at this topic and share one of the best things that I have see come out of this debacle.

Today’s post on Inman Blog was entitled, “Angry renters say ‘hell no!’ to government bailout”. Th gist of the aritcle comes down to, (and I quote) “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em”… that’s to say to the renters that are up in arms about this that they’re going to pay for it one way or another.

Dan Green, came up with one of the best tools that I have seen to help understand HOW we got to where we are right now, and WHY we got here. Where the end of this problem is anyone’s guess, I think that Dan sums up the “how we got here” element better than anyone else. Kudos Dan… and yes he did it with stick figures.

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