I've got a secret

“Within the first six months, these [doctors] wrote six million prescriptions for more than fifty million of these happy blue pills, ” noted Alex Wipperfurth in Brand Hijack. Of  course, the happy blue pill that he was referring to was Viagra, which came out in 1998.

Shouldn’t this country be happier?

I had lunch with an agent from another office the other day. We had a nice time talking, and the sandwiches at the Longhorn were good. She said something that I thought was interesting, something I had thought about often myself. She asked if we all shouldn’t help each other out (she was referring to real estate agents) regardless of office affiliation.

Suppose your office has a recipe for success- a “secret sauce,” I guess. Should you share that with others? Will that make the entire industry stronger, or make your own (and your office’s) position weaker?

Suppose your office had a recipe for the Viagra that would counteract a flat market.

This is what I think. I think that we all need to help one another- those of us that are left. I think that my friend Maya, by teaching social media to the members of her Delaware board, will not be affecting her market share. I think when @RealtyMan presented about Facebook at REBarCamp Boston that he wasn’t giving anyone the skill sets to take him down.

So, like everyone else in RE.net, I will share my general knowledge. Specific application of that knowledge set has been promised to Towne & Country- that is the promise that I have made to the company in regards to the Central MA area. But do I think you need a blog? YES! Where can you get one? You can set up a free one on WordPress.com or blogger, or you can get one of your very own using the WordPress platform (godaddy has an easy set-up).

Should you buy into every social media or new media thing that comes along? Gerry and I are kind of spread out everywhere but that is because we have to for Towne & Country. In fact, Gerry does a lot of beta testing for real estate platforms, helping to evaluate them for the developers. As an agent, though, I think you want get involved in a few things that you can really dig deeply into and extend your personality. And I am cheap as all get out- if it is going to cost me something, I don’t do it. The cost to me is time: sweat-equity, if you prefer.

Bottom line: I want you all to succeed. I want the exceptional agents to stay in the business- you may end up sitting across the table from me as a cobroke, or in the same position with one of  the Towne & Country team, or actually being a member of our team someday. Who knows?

And the agent I spoke with the other day is dead on- we all have to have each others’ backs. That makes the industry better for the consumer, and customer service is what it is all about.

Want to have lunch and bat ideas around? I promise not to mention Viagra. diane@realtyman.com

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So sue me

As usual, I am coming in on the tail end of a controversy. This post has to do with thoughts that started off, anyway, in an Agent Genius post.

No, I take that back. It did not start there- it started maybe 2 months or more earlier in the planning stages of REBarCamp Indiana, had an apparent climax in the post by Greg Cooper, which was answered by another post by Bill Lublin, scads of comments and the controversy is still going strong. I don’t think we have seen the fallout yet, is the thing.

On the surface it would seem that the fallout is whether Greg unloaded his angst in the proper forum- was it blame or flame? Could there have been a better way to do this?  What would Cisco do?

But that’s the surface. What is under all of this is something more important.

This is Todd’s twitter profile: “Social Media Manager for the National Association of REALTORS®, and these are my personal opinions. Oh, and I’m a crummy speller. Deal with it.” He says in a comment/response to Greg Cooper’s video, “My bio is written the way it is for transparency sake. I believe in telling people where I sit before I tell them where I stand. I think it’s important for people to know who I work for. I also think it’s important to tell them that while I do work for them, this is where I intend to share my personal opinions.”

That is actually elegant- “telling people where I sit before telling them where I stand.” I love that.

As an aside- or maybe by way of meandering to the next point I had a broker once who suggested that I not be involved on Facebook because things could be taken the wrong way. At the time if he had more than suggested that, I would have told him to put a sock in it and taken my license elsewhere. How are you going to be able to reach the younger demographic without an online presence?

But even in the time that I have been involved on twitter, it has gone from being a dark smoke-and-conversation-filled room to being an outdoor cafe next to a busy street. Conversations that I wouldn’t have thought twice about putting into the stream a year ago are now reserved for Direct Message. I don’t think I have changed; the medium is more populated.

And maybe even that isn’t the point. Say I am at work and sneak onto twitter and say something that could get me in legal trouble- is my employer liable now too? If Todd answers a question about a NAR-related thing while on twitter on his personal time, who is responsible for the content of his answer? If an agent goes home after having listed the home of the client from hell and says something like, “Great. Another overpriced listing” – on his own time in his own living room into his personal twitter stream-  could his broker be sued? If someone misunderstands an issue and posts publicly about it in an agent’s forum, possibly damaging someone’s reputation- who is responsible for the lawsuit that may ensue? The broker?

If you make a video on a camera that you wrote off as a business expense on last year’s tax returns is it a business video? Where is the line drawn between personal and professional opinion?

Sherry Chris asked on our radio show today whether Maya, Lesley or I had ever gone back and erased tweets. I have had some DM fails that I probably gave me third degree burns from the friction of erasing, so yes. I know that I have had moments I would have liked to erase, without a doubt.

Frankly, real estate agents are always at work. Does this mean that their brokers are always liable if their agents mess up online? How about franchise owners?

I think this is a bigger issue than just a he said- he said problem, and I do not think we will be seeing easy answers to any of these questions, given the fluid nature of new media. One thing I am fairly sure of: if you watch the stream carefully, a good portion of those tweeting after midnight in their time zones are at least somewhat tipsy, and the distance makes it harder to bring them home and tuck them safely into bed.

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empty seats

There is no such thing as “business as usual” in business today. Most businesses are planning on implementing a social media strategy this year, if they have not already done so. What I notice most in this article is that the Inc 500 respondents use social media in a fluid way.

I was reading an older (read: mid ’90s) book about marketing and while the ideas behind the book were really relevant, the vehicles were not. Friendster was noted as being one of the go-to places for being noticed in marketing.  Fifty years ago, fifteen years would not be enough to cause a really large shift in location.

Today, Friendster is a distant something-or-other to Facebook, twitter and MySpace, as far as the online Malt Shops go. And there are niche hangouts popping up every day. These niches are where the real action or interaction will be, I think. As of April 2009, Ning had 1,000,000 user-created networks. Our TwitterQueens is one of these, and while the growth was slow at the beginning (I remember being excited when we had 20 members), today we have 466 men and women. This is the face of the future. People will interact with the twitter followers in their favorites column, mostly, because the rest of it is just too darn big. That, mainly, is why I don’t understand people wanting a million twitter followers- because unless you are only broadcasting information, you can’t deal with a number like that.

But fluidity- change- is going to be the hallmark of a complete social media package. You have to keep looking around to see what is new, to see where people are going, and to build from there. You can’t say, “OK, I have built my twitter stream and have a great FB page. Phew! Glad that’s over with.” In five years it is very likely that someone will have come out with a better twitter and only the nostalgic will be playing there.

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Is it 4:44?

“Make a wish!! It’s 4:44!!”

A couple of times a day, Jenny notices the magic numbers lining up, and reminds me that if there is any time to petition the universe for something it is NOW. It doesn’t give you a lot of time to come up with something, maybe 20 or 30 seconds tops. Chances are what you wish for is already top of mind.

Which brings me to this post, in a sort of convoluted way. There has been conversation recently about a “Raise the Bar” grassroots initiative for the real estate industry, tagged #rtb. We opened up the discussion on our show TQ Radio yesterday- you can listen to the archives here.

The sparks that heated the discussion are two-fold. First, consumer opinion of real estate sales agents have consistently placed agents as members of the top 10 least respected professions, right there with car salesmen. Second, anecdotally there is a quantity of agent-to-agent information that would appear to back up at least some of what consumers feel. Even in the chat room of our show, sharing about the “agent that had to be carried through the transaction” was commonplace. And this show was not closed to the real estate profession- anyone could listen and join in.

So everyone has the same opinion of the real estate industry, including many of its members. I don’t believe if change is going to come it will be legislated at a national level, since the states have autonomy over this sector.

Agent to agent is one thing. Here’s the thing- I have known some agents that needed coaxing and prodding, yet their clients LOVED them, and referred them constantly to their friends. These agents were just plain nice, and developed a following that way. They probably would not have gotten the best price in negotiating, and I don’t care what support staff you paired them with, they would have forgotten something during a transaction. But they did well, and in some cases very well.

Everyone has heard a million times that real estate is a relation business. It would be easier to assess and “fix” were this not true, but it is. I heard this over and over again at Inman. So think about this.

Maybe it is not the agent who makes grievous mistakes in the transaction who is the one that the consumer is calling out. These agents will likely be taken care of over time, or the transaction will be moved along by the agent co-broking. Maybe the consumer is sick of this kind of behavior: the other day on twitter, I saw a comment,”Yes, I said I am selling my house. But why did all of these agents contact me here? What makes you think I need your help?”

I think this kind of behavior- which is taught over and over at brokerages, and may very well BE the best way to make money- takes the sheen of professionalism from us. It cheapens our true value to the consumer. The question is this: CAN we exist without this type of prospecting and make any type of real money? If every agent shifts to social media/pull advertising, will this space get cluttered to the point where people can’t string together the words “buy” and “house” for fear of showing up in 20 agents’ Tweetdeck search columns?

I think we are dealing with two specific and very different image problems here. And, 11:11!, I wish there was an easy solution.

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Sightseeing in NYC at Inman Connect

This was started 3 days ago:

I love New York. Every time I have visited it has been for exchange of ideas, which is honestly what I live for.

The first time I came to the city, it was for REBarCamp NYC and Inman Connect last January. I came down really not knowing what to expect- “Bar Camp? What IS that?”- and went away with a different perception of what changes were going to be coming in the real estate industry, but not only that. There was a strong validation factor of what I was already doing.

The next time I visited was when I went to a Lucky Strike Social Media Club meeting, and frankly if I could go to more I would. The people are brilliant, and the discussion about video was just awesome.

And then I am back now. Every time I go to a session without paper and pen, I find myself scrambling for scraps of paper to write down the name of a new app or jot down a new twist on an old idea.

And today I am home…

trying to organize my thoughts and plan out exactly HOW I am going to implement the things I have learned. And, you know, it really isn’t that I heard anything truly earth-shattering. It is more that I have heard over and over again that what Gerry and I are doing in social media for Towne & Country – and the new ideas that we want to implement- WORK. I think we have brought home more than enough excitement to last the year.

The beauty of these things is you see people putting systems in place that appear to be overwhelming- HOW will I have time to do all of that work? But the beauty of it is that once the systems are in place and running, everything is- well, run by that system. It can be done.

The face of Real Estate is changing.

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The Next Big Thing for Real Estate- Retirement?

Heading to NYC- being around all of that intelligence- always triggers a shift to big-picture thinking. At the last Connect that I went to, the question bandied about was, “What will the next big thing in Real Estate be?’ The problem with that question is that the next big thing is going to leap in and sideswipe us, probably sneaking in as simply as the online MLS, and 20 years we wake up to an entirely different industry. No one realized all of the implications, or without a doubt there would have been a lot more dragging of feet.

My guess is that the Next Big Thing is already here, and is either waiting for someone to apply it differently (think twitter) or we just don’t realize the effect it will have (think business blogging).

What struck me today, thinking larger, is Real Estate retirement plans. The best in the industry speak about selling their “Books of Business,” and I wonder how often that happens and how effective it even is. We, as an industry, sell ourselves not on our professionalism, but on personal relationships. I NEVER have seen an agent pointing out their average listed days on market as opposed to local industry averages, or initial list price or sales price compared to the same industry standard. Why not?

I DO hear about sales agents being invited to past clients’ weddings, and sending baby gifts. And this is really nice, this blurring of the personal and professional. But this means that you can’t sell this Book of Business (even if there was someone to buy it) because it is, in reality, a book of friendships. It only works when you yourself are actively involved in maintaining the relationships, and transitioning an entire group is near impossible.

I looked at the retirement plan that is being promoted by one national real estate franchise. It might be somewhat workable if you devoted a large amount of time bringing in agents that are much younger than you are, instead of selling. But really. How many agents has the average sales agent brought on board to his or her company? For the average agent- or the above average one, for that matter- is it honest to suggest that this is any kind of retirement plan?

So, what is the average retirement plan for a real estate sales agent? Not retiring? Alternate income stream, and if so, what? The average age of a real estate agent is 51, according to the Wall Street Journal- and this was written in 2008. What is that- 15 years until retirement?

And there’s this from the same article:

The Globe points out that Gen X and Gen Y buyers don’t want the hand-holding of the typical agent/home-buyer relationship. Many of these consumers prefer to do their own house hunting and research online, and some are skipping buyer agents all together to complete the entire home search and home purchase on their own.

I think that because of informational transitions, there has to be a change in the way that real estate agents conduct business. In other words: it will have to be treated more as a business. I had asked a question online the other day, and Debbie Kirkland mentioned (and I am paraphrasing) that she sees brokerages becoming training grounds for new agents only, and that experienced sales agents will get their broker’s license and work independently. I think this is a trend that we will continue to see, with the small broker being less of a General practitioner and more of a Specialist, and being made up of not only the broker, but also a team of support and specialized sales people. It would actually be easier to sell a practice like this than to try to sell a nebulous Book of Relationships.

Agents- what about you? What is your retirement plan?

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Posted via web from heyamaretto’s posterous

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Have a seat. Your server will be right with you

To preface this, I have a kind of compulsive personality. If I start a book, I read it until the end, sometimes going without sleep. I get an idea and I follow it through until it is as developed as it can be. So I was really nervous about getting involved in this.

I was right. What looks like a silly little game is actually kind of complex. The design makes it look deceptively simple- it looks like the Webkinz online game that my daughter used to play.

But on the level of business, you have to think a little. The default arrangement of tables is counterproductive- my waiter (the friend who introduced me to this)  could only handle 5 tables with that arrangement- and I couldn’t get my rating over 10 because people were either waiting for tables of waiting to be served. And while you need “fast food” initially to build working capital, the food that takes the longest to cook returns the best on your investment.

You can draw all kinds of parallels between the actual setup of Cafe World and social media, real estate, and/or the use of social media in real estate. If you want, you can plunk down a chunk of real change to set up your cafe, add tables, flooring, disco balls- whatever. Until you put in the time, however, you can’t add to your waitstaff or upgrade the kitchen. You have to put in the time to upgrade food choices. Tell me that isn’t different from twitter- those first 1000 followers are the hardest. Same thing with real estate leads- you can sink all kinds of money into the trappings of the business but you need to make connections- and this happens through time- to be successful.

Top  lessons in Cafe World:

1. You can start out as a generalist, but finding your specialty makes you more efficient.

2. Look at the market and the numbers and use that to guide you to this specialty. No one is a one-trick pony; everyone has more than one specialty in them.

3. Switching specialties is costly- in terms of time and money. Make sure there is sufficient ROI before making a change by analyzing the numbers.

4. Plan on spending time building! Plan on revisiting your plan frequently to see if it needs tweaking!

5. Look at other people’s “cafes- you will learn something whether it is how to do business, or how NOT to do it. I have seen Cafes that look fabulous but are clearly inefficient.

6. It doesn’t always make sense to hire your friends.

7. Keep your eyes on the numbers and the trends! They will tell you where you need to improve.

8. You might be able to do it without relationships but it is a hell of a lot harder.

9. Businesses don’t run on autopilot.

10. Serve the people waiting first, and clean up the tables second. Without prompt service, you will lose a customer.

An unhappy customer is a business karma thing. In Cafe World, your rating goes down when customers walk out the door because they weren’t served. In the real world, chances are the same thing is happening. An unhappy person is not usually a quiet one, and the noise is bigger on the ‘net:

This video got over 7 MILLION views.

So, stop by my Cafe. It doesn’t look that great, but the service is excellent. Come be my friend, and I will stop by yours. The name is Cafe Amaretto, and I am on Facebook here.

Now if you will excuse me- I have some ham to check.

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