Chicken Little in Black by dbgg1979

I really like Rob Hahn and think that he’s a really smart guy- then he goes off and shows me that even being smart doesn’t help if you push off on the wrong foot.  Rob wrote a post called “Extinction Event Horizon: Real Estate” in which he takes a flying leap into space, and with his feet planted firmly in a vacuum begins to leap frog from one preposterous premise to another. I really felt that I needed to chime back with some facts and some opinions of my own. Let’s start by looking at his premises;

• Premise 1. There is an organized group of brokers that are large enough to create a meaningful national MLS. Rob quotes an article at Agent Genius revolving around the members of the Realty Alliance and their discussions at their meeting last spring. The conversation as Agent Genius reported it was less about leaving the MLS than it was about withdrawing their listings from third party aggregators like Zillow, Trulia and REALTOR.com. Edina Realty actually took the step to remove their listings from XXX just this week. Whatever you think about the third party aggregator issue, it does not signal the end of the MLS.  When even the largest and  most dominant companies in a given market  area don’t control more than 24-26% of their market (a huge share), they will not leave a vehicle to access the remaining 74%.
• Premise 2. That the lack of contention between the Realty Alliance, other Large independent Brokers and  National Franchisors is significant. The fight is over, its a non-issue for now, and the parties will move on to other strategies to achieve their business goals.
• Premise 3. “a “rebel alliance” will not simply pull out of the MLS or the Association; they will pull out of both, because they must pull out of both in order to achieve their aims of independence from existing policies and governing bodies.” Its just not needed, nor does one follow the other. Most of the large brokerages in the country are run by people who are members of NAR’s volunteer leadership. They value the organization highly and would not detach themselves from the largest PAC in the country (or debilitate it) just because they want to start their own MLS (which they don’t). Additionally they value the Code of Ethics, and the pride that active REALTORS feel in their organization. Though many of the MLS systems in the country are owned or operated (or both) by REALTOR Associations, another important reason for MLS systems to follow the model bylaws created by NAR is for the E&O insurance, and for the protection of the Legal Affairs committee when they have huge industry wide litigation, as well as having access to the world class legal minds at NAR (did you see how Laurie Janick negotiated an incredible settlement on the Civix law suit at the Mid-Year meetings?)
• Premise 4. “The existing paradigm of the MLS today is that its core mission includes helping its members market properties” That is truly not the primary purpose of the MLS. The purpose of the MLS, is, was, and will continue to be to facilitate cooperation between real estate brokers and agents. In most companies, more than 70% of their business required the cooperation of another firm. The creation of the MLS is born of our need to foster cooperation, not from our need to market properties. The MLS is a B2B system, not the most important marketing system for the real estate industry. The MLS does not bring us clients, it helps us service our clients, both buyers and sellers. In fact, it works so well that we take that function for granted and ignore it. The fact that we use versions of the MLS data to feed our marketing channels doesn’t make marketing the primary function of the MLS
• Premise 5. “The most important change, then, has to be that within the Rebel MLS, there can be no such thing as Internet Data eXchange, or IDX. The whole purpose of IDX is to allow participants to use MLS data to earn a customer.” In fact, the conversation reported by AG that started this whole flight of fantasy was more about a rebellion against syndication than it was about sharing inventory with other brokers. When 90% of consumers buy their home from agents, getting your inventory out to other agents is imperative-

So while Rob’s post is timely, articulate and interesting as always (I love reading Rob’s posts) it just doesn’t have any roots in reality. That being said, he then lists some consequences that are, by themselves sort of interesting to me.

• Zillow Takes Over – I hate to say this, but we already lost this fight-property information has become so ubiquitous that it is no longer the key to contact with consumers. According to NAR’s 2008 Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers , when asked what actions they took as a result of internet home search only 27% of consumers found and chose an agent. That means that 3 out of 4 consumers chose their agents for reasons not connected to the home search. Frankly, if it were possible to remove the syndicators from the equation, it might benefit the real estate professional, but it would take a massive paradigm shift in our industry to make that happen (though I am watching the Edina situation cwith interest) and I just don’t see that happening.
• The end of Buyer Brokerage – Buyer brokerage originated because consumers were confused about who represented whom in a real estate transaction. Issues like vicarious liability, litigation resulting from dual agency (which was generally undisclosed in those days), and growing consumer demand (in many instances from consumer advocacy groups) created buyer brokerage which became codified with the advent of the ABR designation. Today most states have legislation regarding buyer and seller agency, so this part of the business is just not going away regardless of MLS issues. On a practical level, more young agents count potential buyers in their spheres of influence than any other type of real estate consumer, and buyers seek agents to help them in their complicated transaction, so working with buyers that aren’t the listing agent is again a part of the bedrock of the real estate business.
• Mass Extinction of Vendors – Real Estate is a business that generates a lot of money and has tons of practitioners. There have always been, and will continue to be people who sell stuff to that large market. We wouldn’t have fewer vendors, we would have different vendors. I would expound on that, but it seems to obvious to me to need explanation.
• The End of Associations as We Know Them – This is so wrong, and indicates so little understanding of the history and function of our trade associations on all levels, that its difficult to know where to begin. Do we start with the Code of Ethics, and the benefits it provides to members? The REALTOR movement, by its creation and adoption of the COE has established the standard of practice and professional care for real estate professionals for the past 98 years. Arbitration proceedings alone have saved members millions upon millions of dollars of legal fees, and resolved business issues more rapidly than any courts. Our local state and national political advocates have helped create a usable space for real estate professionals to practice their trade. The National Association has provided legal and financial support to local and state associations when landmark litigation has been fought. All levels of Associations provide good low or no cost education for their members, where no one is selling them anything. And NAR, through its designations and certifications programs, offer specialized training of the highest quality with no product to sell or ax to grind, aiming solely to improve member’s businesses through specialization and professional development (Disclosure- if you didn’t know- I was the lead author in the 2010 re-write of NAR’s e-PRO certification,teach that course internationally, have been approved to teach GRI in the past,  and am currently a Certified CRB instructor as well) . And perhaps, most importantly , the REALTOR Associations are a place where professionals can gather and learn from each other in a non-threatening less competitive environment.  People that don’t get any benefit from their Association membership typically haven’t put anything into it. I can only speak from experience. The courses that I have taken, the seminars that I attended, the people that I have met, the volunteer positions I have held, and the events that I have participated in have profoundly and positively impacted my real estate career and are in part responsible for the successes I have achieved as a real estate professional. It is not an accident that people from all over the world come to NAR meetings to learn and network and bring knowledge back to their countries. NAR, the state and local associations may have their flaws, but they are an amazing resource to the industry and a major force for positive change and improvement in our industry.

Rob ended his post saying “Is all this mere Chicken Little’ing? God, I hope so.” – I think, without question , that this time Rob was running a little too quickly without all the information needed to make his predictions – which, as I remember the story is almost exactly what Chicken Little did – Luckily Rob’s a lot brighter than Chicken Little, not to mention more creative – making him an interesting guy to listen to – just don’t run for cover just yet.

Allow me to start by acknowledging that the goals of Franchise organizations are not necessarily the goals of their individual franchisees.

The primary job of the Franchisor is to sell franchises, though supplying tools and systems to their franchisees is also an important goal. The primary goals of the franchisees  differ since they are all centered around their own  specific operations and the things that provide the greatest benefits to their businesses and their owners.

I saw a tweet by Chris Kieff that the Social Media Manager at Coldwell banker had responded to his Post “Oops!You Wanted a Full Answer to That Question?”, and being the Realogy franchisee that I am (in my role as CEO of CENTURY 21 Advantage Gold), my curiosity was piqued, so I headed over to check out the post and the response.

It seems that Chris Brogan had tweeted something about the new Coldwell Banker website, and Chris (Kieff)  had visited it , only to find that CB corporate’s national website only includes listings from Coldwell Banker franchisees. Kieff makes the point that this might disappoint consumers who visit the site, making them less than well disposed to the franchise. There is a whole argument here about the whether the Franchisor should be competing with their local franchisees for the limited number of eyes looking for real property, but that’s another post, so I will digress no further.

The post speaks for itself – Chris Kieff is an articulate guy who can (and does) make his own argument. And in response to the argument, something entirely new popped up for me.

The Social Media Manager for Coldwell banker, a guy named David Marine, responded to the post  in part, by saying;

We do allow consumers to see all the IDX listings in the area they search by promoting an IDX link on our results page, but this takes them to a local site of one of our Coldwell Banker affiliates and abides by the MLS display rules for that area. You’ll notice that these sites don’t have a number of the features that our site offers like video, social sharing, ability to save properties using our Home File product, etc.

Excuse me? Did he really just say :

You’ll notice that these sites don’t have a number of the features that our site offers like video, social sharing, ability to save properties using our Home File product, etc

Sort of like saying -

You’ll notice that our broker’s sites are really second rate propositions that don’t have the features  our corporate site has so we think consumers will be OK with our limited property data set etc.

I understand the need to respond to the post which placed the Coldwell Banker Corporate site in a critical light. And I think  the point they made about the various IDX feeds around the country was  important in helping people to understand their strategy, though other national franchises felt differently and have met the challenge of providing more information to  the consumer.

But where the David makes a huge faux pass is when he denigrates the sites of the brokers that make up the Coldwell Banker system. In its core, the value proposition of any franchise must include a commitment to the reputations of the participants in their system – and that is the big #Fail in this interaction. In fact, the question to me becomes “If Coldwell Banker thinks such features are valuable to their consumers (and therefore their franchisees), why have they not equipped their brokers with those systems?”

I don’t know David Marine, and I have no feelings about him pro or con, nor do I have any negative feelings towards the Coldwell Banker Brand. You probably know that I am the CEO of CENTURY 21 Advantage Gold, and therefore have my own franchisor/franchisee stories. In fact, Mr. Marine  and Coldwell Banker get points in my humble opinion for reputation monitoring, and attempting reputation management by engaging with a blogger who wrote about their brand. However I think there may be a cautionary tale here for all franchises in responding to mentions in the web 2.0 world. You can’t be sure who is reading your response and how it may affect the reader. Therefore  greater thought needs to be given to the content of the response,  and additional emphasis on protecting the reputation of the franchisee and the value of the franchise tools provided to them while defending the corporate decision.

In other words guys – Don’t throw your brokers under the bus to make the brand strategy look better – in fact, don’t even look like you might be throwing them under the bus – its not going to be good for franchise sales.

In a recent post in RealTown, Mike Bowler wrote a post about change in the real estate industry that ended up being more about his preference of educational choices then it was about real change in the industry.

Mike asks the question “Are we at the crossroads where, all companies should just expect agents to go to where the education is being provided versus trying to be all things to all people? ” – and then goes on to say “I think the day of independent contractors depending on the brokerage for any education is nearly gone. Most business models cannot provide all that is needed and should not pretend to say they do.”

He points at the 4000 registrants at the Virtual ReBarCamp saying “it’s obvious that we can learn more from our peers around the country than we can within the 4 walls of an office”. Unfortunately that statement is really a “non-sequitur” – a Latin phrase meaning “it does not follow”. 4000 registrants for a free online experience doesn’t indicate anything more than “if its free its for me” is a philosophy of the masses. And any educator can tell you that the number of people that register has never had anything to do with the quality of the presentations or what the participants actually learned from the process. In fact, since people all learn differently, it would be almost a sure bet that there were as many people that learned nothing from the experience as there were that gained anything from a single channel experience like that.

I think Mike’s perspective may be a little skewed by his passion for some of the new collegial educational opportunities, and I can’t blame him for that. Like him, I’m a big fan of ReBarCamps (not so much on the virtual ones) because they (the real ReBarCamps) are conversations when they are done best – and those conversations are great learning experiences because we never know where they can go , or what we can get from them. The virtual ReBarCamp presentations were, by nature, planned presentations with limited participation from the community, and were in some cases sales pitches for the presenters rather than real educational experiences or collegial education.

As a forward thinking real estate person in a troubled market, change is desired, but is often not what we anticipate. I think some things will stay the same -

• I believe companies that are large enough will provide training to new agents, and opportunities for experienced agents to increase their skill sets.
  • As in the past, smaller companies will rely on third party tools and educational products to help them bridge the gap for their agents.
• REALTORAssociations  will continue to provide educational opportunities for their members through webinars, educational opportunities at conferences and business metings and through 3rd party providers like SMMI , the REALTORS Institute, REBAC, etc.
• National Franchises will provide training for the agents in the offices of their franchisees through a variety of distance learning programs as they are today,
• The best agents will still seek additional education wherever they can find it , and remember that they should always be seeking new educational opportunities.

Unlike Mike, I believe that independent contractors will continue to rely on their brokerages (among others) to provide them with educational opportunities, and that the brokerages will step up to meet those challenges. Though the additional opportunities for agents will continue to morph and change and take advantage of the newest ways to communicate, brokerages, franchise organizations, REALTOR Associations, and other educational providers will continue to provide educational opportunities for our industry. And that is more about commerce than it is about change.-

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In January I returned from the Inman Connect Conference and the ReBarCamp in New York City and had the opportunity to talk to people from all over the country about the real estate industry.

As is the case in a lot of conferences, there was substantial social interaction as well as business networking, but since its January and we’re all creatures of habit – the first question on everyone’s lips was “How did you do last year?”. My answer was always the same, “We’re doing better, but its still not where I want it to be”.

I had to leave the Inman Conference and return to Philadelphia because I had a meeting today with our company’s Sales Managers. In preparation I did a little research so we could talk about how to improve our company’s productivity for the coming year. And I received quite a shock. I found out that I had unwittingly told a little white lie – and because being truthful is really important to me  I want to take the opportunity to apologize right here and right now to my team at CENTURY 21 Adantage Gold.

When I checked the Century 21 corporate web site to see how our company had performed in the comparison to other Century 21 firms in the country, I found that what I thought was actually wrong – we were doing pretty well in a challenging market.;

1. We were in the Top 5 companies in Pennsylvania based upon the amount of Gross Commission earned,
2. We were in the Top 3 companies in Pennsylvania based upon the number of properties we sold.
3. We were in the Top 100 Century 21 companies in the entire country based upon the amount of Gross Commission earned, and
4. We were in the top 67 Century 21 companies in the entire country based upon the amount of properties sold (out of a system with thousands of companies across the United States)

I wasn’t really displeased with the reality, I am just upset that I spoke without having the facts at my disposal. I am really big about writing what you know, not what you think when it comes to blogging , and the same rule should apply to all of our communication. When we speak from impressions rather than facts, we create false impressions – not the least of which take root in our own thoughts impacting our actions and decisions.

As we approach the end of the Tax Credit (About 34 days are left for people to buy), I wonder what we will learn on May 1, 2010. Will we learn that the tax credit was supporting our current activity? Will we learn that the market has recovered enough for the spring to have a reasonable aactivity level of its own? Will we learn that there are enough investors buying homes again that the REO inventory will diminish? What is reality telling you in your market?

I’m a fan of silly things – they usually make me smile , but sometimes I end up just scratching my head and wondering why people do silly things when they don’t intend to. And more and more frequently I see people doing sill things in social spaces.

Your community ( or audience, or market) needs to be the prime consideration when you write or say things, so I am stunned  by many real estate people who  think their audience needs to be interested in the things they want them to be interested in. I reserve  ReReflections for the comments on the real estate industry that are so peculiarly mine that I ‘m not sharing them over at AgentGenius. My social media thoughts are either published there or at www.smminstitute.com or www.buzzbuilderz.com. My blog posts that might be of interest to consumers find their way to either MovePhilly or C21AgVoices. Not because I want my writings to be hard to find, but because I want to be saying things that are relevant to specific readers.

It not a new phenomenon but before the advent of social media, we needed to be present to hear real estate agents say silly things. For example, an agent might tell a client whose listing was expiring “You can’t list your property with someone else – I’ve really spent a lot of time working on it”.  Why does the seller care? Their property isn’t sold and their needs are not being met. and they still needed to sell the property.  A more relevant tactic would have been to give them a reason to stay listed that made sense. Perhaps a discussion of their pricing and marketing position combined with a comparison of the marketing efforts  of the current and prospective real estate companies.  It might not have convinced the client to extend the listing, but at least the conversation would have been relevant instead of simply self-centered.

Today, poorly informed  agents who use social networks to broadcast commercial messages make their lack of thought a public spectacle. The “Facebook listing” is an iconic example of abuse.  With listings reiterated in thousands of places through IDX feeds and listing syndication, putting listing information or open house information in a social environment demonstrates not only a lack of concern for the other members of your community, but a lack of respect for your “friends”.

By demonstrating lack of relevance in your content, and a disregard for the social context, you demonstrate disrespect for your ‘friends’  that results in a dismissal of your message and a reduction in your online relevance .

Recently, I saw an interchange on Facebook that went like this:

When I read this he sounds like a multi-level-marketer talking about “income potential” . No one cares what you make (unless you’re paying their bills) – they care about things that impact them or your relationship with them. Not to mention the fact that the whole response might have been better placed as a message rather than a wall post.

And while we’re talking about advertising disguised as social interaction – how about this;

Where is the engagement in this blind solicitation? Who could be silly enough to think that this person cares about their career ? This could easily have been lifted from a bus bench billboard – is that what we perceive our social network values?

I think that talking about work in social settings can be appropriate , just as it would be in face to face settings. For example, you might say in a social setting that you had a tough time working with sellers to obtain a listing, but you probably wouldn’t whip out a flyer for the property and give it to the guests.  If we could just take a moment to think about whether we would do something in person that we’re about to do on-line, it might really improve the quality of our communications, and the bonds we have wth our communties,

I wrote a post recently at AgentGenius about the need to write, even when you are afraid that you are not writing “War & Peace”. Today, in checking my recent posting history I recognized how much I’ve ignored this poor little blog.

Its actually pretty ironic since this is the place I wanted to write about the real estate industry and trends that affect it. Social media is obviously one of those trends. I thought perhaps, it might be time to write a little about what I’ve learned about social media and what social media has done to and for me.

And today I’m teaching a group of people at a CSM class in Cincinnati that they can fit blogging into their lives as easily as I finish this little post. Hope they actually try to do that when they’re ready.

In a recent search, I noticed a post by another brokerage firm about a relationship with RealtyTrac that was promulgated by their national franchise. .

It reminded me why I hate salespeople sometimes.

This post would indicate to a real estate consumer that the agent and firm had some benefit through the publication of their third party information, and that this would make them some kind of foreclosure experts. And while the writer is a pleasant enough person, and just trying to create a business advantage for themselves, its just nonsense, and its frankly misleading – though I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is unintentionally misleading.

I have been selling foreclosures for 21 years in Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester Counties, and for the past year or two also in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties in New Jersey. I have also been an active real estate investor for even longer than that, so I think that I would be considered an expert in the marketing, purchase and sale of foreclosure properties. From my experience I know that , for the most part third party relationships like the one touted by this broker don’t work. And I know that for the past 21 years, most of the calls from services like these that I received were from people that were calling on outdated properties that were published long after they were sold and settled.

Third party listings of foreclosures have a number of problems. As I mentioned, their information is often outdated.They often provide too much information seeming to provide value but muddying the waters for most consumers – for example “pre-foreclosure” data which is useless to most of their subscribers. The source of the information is not disclosed in many instances, and is therefore questionable. For real estate professionals, the third party information is less accurate than the Multiple Listing Service .

I understand the need for the third party company to sell subscriptions, and their right to advertise and boast about their services to do so. And I understand the need for the national franchise to create affiliate relationships to obtain income opportunities and to position themselves as providing value to their franchisees, I even understand the writer pimping this out as a benefit to the public – but it is indicative of their lack of understanding about the product and the foreclosure product that they even do so. It just burns me up that they are so busy posting something to appear at the front of the pack, that they don’t take the time to actually determine if it accomplishes that before they publish.

As salespeople I think we have an obligation to balance our need to market with the need to be genuine and transparent. Its too easy to lay claim to expertise when you’re writing alone in your home or office. Don’t just claim a position, have the position. Be the expert you claim to be – or claim to be the expert you are.

Tomorrow morning I fly out to Atlanta for ReTechSouth.

The conference has grown into a pretty substantial it event describing itself as;

A place where agents, brokers, lenders, builders and many other real estate industry practitioners could join together to collaborate on how technology can improve business

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? And I’m very impressed by the people that will be speaking at the conference, Jeff Turner, Ginger Wilcox, Teresa Boardman, Kelley Koehler, Ines Hegedus-Garcia, Todd Carpenter, Joe Ferraro, Rob Hahn, a ton of other great speakers, and (less impressively) me.And, for people that really know their stuff, there is an opportunity to meet the real BoomerJack Boardman. Obviously, the level of information to be passed here is only surpassed by the multitude of awesome social networking rock stars (your author not included).

I’m very excited because I’m moderating the Cage Match of the Century – a ginormous stupendous spectacle of a debate between those two Web 2.0 giants, Joe Ferraro of Sellsius.com fame, and Rob Hahn A.K.A. The Notorious R.O.B. And you dear reader are going to hear about it first right here!

On Friday at ReTechsouth, Joe will be the Pasha of Positivity, arguing the Pro stand on every question while Rob (a usually bright pleasant and positive gentleman) will become the raging Ninja of Negativity! Based upon their thorough and exhaustive academic and practical backgrounds, they will enlarge the mind through their exploration of four important questions:

1. Should Agents Blog?
2. Is there a Place in Social Networking for Shameless Self-Promotion and Advertising?
3. Does Size Matter? AKA Your Importance in Social Media is determined by the size of your…. followers
4. Nobody needs a broker!

From the conference calls to set this up and choose our topics, to the emails we have exchanged, colored by my own opinion of these two smart guys, I anticipate a ton of fun and even more information. So if the idea of two attorneys fighting while moderated by a seasoned real estate broker (someone spilled pepper on me this morning) is at all intriguing to you , I hope you’ll be there when we kick it off Friday at 11 AM on the main stage.

Image via Wikipedia

I found this fascinating quote today:

There are basically two types of bloggers in the world – reporters and experts – and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report).John Chow, Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting, Jan 2009

Most bloggers report facts or quote others because its easier to do that than it is to provide important expert information. That requires  expertise that is gained from education and experience, hopefully combined with the wisdom to apply both properly.

In the real estate business, we have tremendous expertise to share, and our business shows us that building relationships is the most important piece of building a succesful career.

The article goes on to say;

Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it’s easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come easier, etc… experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more attention.John Chow, Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting, Jan 2009

  So when you choose to blog, or twitter, or interact on Facebook, weigh the different paths you might choose. Do you want to be a commercial effort in the middle of a social enviroment? Or will you build more business opportunities by demonstrating to the world what an expert you are, so that they will be pre-disposed to do business with you?

I’ve made my choice – Good Luck with yours!

Twitter PR Strategy, originally uploaded by ogilvyprworldwide.

With the limited budgets of many real estate brokers and agents, Social Media is bcoming a place where you need to be if you want to increase your sphere of influence and obtain new business opportunities.

This chart, has a social media life of its own. Created to explain a strategy for use on Twitter, then posted to Flickr, it was given additional exposure on Facebook by Teresa Boardman of St. Paul. It then came to my attention (I am interested in almost everything that Teresa does or posts) and I am sharing it here with you on my blog.

So aside from clearly defining the great opportunity that Twitter presents to businesses and individuals, its own life and the path of its travel to your attention is pretty neat as well. Imagine if this were a piece of information with your name on it…