Unseen Forces

What Is A Professional?

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:54:18 -0500

I often hear REALTORS talk about themselves as professionals.

Usually they do it with a Rodney Dangerfield, “I don’t get no respect” attitude. They sound defensive and angry. “Why doesn’t the world acknowledge me as a professional? And why don’t people understand that real estate is a profession, just like medicine or law?” Almost always, the focus of their anger is external. “Why doesn’t NAR do a better job of promoting us? Why don’t people realize my skills and training and dedication? Why doesn’t somebody (not me) fix this?”

But what is a profession? Webster defines a profession as: a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science. They also define it as: any vocation or business. By the second definition all of you are hereby and forevermore designated as members of a profession. If only it was that simple.

And what is a professional? Webster’s says a professional is: someone engaged in one of the learned professions.

Those dictionary definitions of profession and professional do not connect to the real issue. The real issue; what most people want when they refer to themselves as professionals working in a profession, is status and respect.

When we shift the focus of the term professional from what we do to how we are perceived and treated, the definition and the entire concept of the designation “professional” changes.

In that context of status and respect, what exactly is a professional? I believe that a “professional” is someone who takes what they do, whatever that happens to be, and transforms it into an art form. They make the mundane look magnificent. They make seemingly impossible things look drop-dead easy. They cover all the details, all the time. They master the subtleties. They silently acknowledge that they have a gift for what they do and they give that gift to the people in their world respectfully and compassionately. They know that they have never “arrived.”

They are never content with their present body of knowledge. They live with a constant, silent fear of becoming obsolete and irrelevant. They address that fear by continuously learning and growing and changing. They remain their own harshest critics, always looking for ways to be and to do and to deliver something better. They are consciously aware of their Values and they always strive to live them.

Becoming and remaining a “professional” is not bestowed on someone by virtue of a degree or a certificate. “Look at me, I took these courses, I spent this impressive number of hours learning all this stuff and I have this piece of paper to prove it. That makes me a professional. Bow to that.” No. That’s not how it works.

In the course of my life, I have known professional mail carriers, trash collectors, gardeners, housekeepers and baby sitters. And I have known amateur doctors, dentists, attorneys, judges and accountants. I bet, if you take a moment to think about it, so have you.

Because being a true “professional” is a purely personal pursuit, I believe that there are no “professions.” What we conventionally call professions, such as medicine, law, or accounting, are businesses with an extra layer of self-governance. Some of the people who practice them are professionals; some are not.

Designating a field of endeavor as a “profession” (in the context of conveying status and respect) is, to me, two things:

It reflects society’s need to attach significance and importance to groups as a way of making individuals in those groups less accountable;
and it’s a device for artificially elevating the stature of individual members without demanding the requisite performance.

But you might argue: Wait. Professions have tests and standards and rules and by-laws and continuing education requirements and licensing and self-policing and other neat stuff that sets them apart from, say, auto mechanics.

That’s true in theory. But do you know how often an attorney has to dangerously screw up before he or she can be disbarred, or how many trials a judge must sleep through to lose his office or how many people a doctor has to maim or kill before he or she can lose his/her license? The professional standards set forth in the rules and regulations sound fine, but the performance bars for enforcement are set so low that a warm cadaver could easily maintain a license. We are a society that sometimes elects dead people to Congress. We treat our “professions” with equally tough oversight.

So being a true “professional” is an individual choice. Taking some courses, passing a State licensing test and joining NAR cannot make you a “professional.” You don’t get that designation by posting your credentials and declaring yourself a “professional” on your web site or business card. Clever tag lines in your ads don’t get you there. But all those tactics can fool people for a time.

The measure and stature of one’s professionalism is defined by behavior and Values – the ones you live by; the real ones. Anyone can set their performance bar at the height he/she chooses. You don’t need a society or a licensing body to tell you how to behave or what it means to be a professional.

It’s a matter of personal choice.

3 Young Boys And A Lot Of Chocolate Milk: Men's Room Marketing

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:23:24 -0500

Last Wednesday, Jeff Turner, three of his sons and I were having lunch at Jerry's Deli in Marina Del Rey, CA. Jeff's boys were slurping down multiple chocolate milks and that meant multiple trips to the Men's Room. If not for that, this story could not have been written.

On his third trip to the Men's Room Jeff noticed a framed advertisement hung on the wall just outside the door. It didn't register on his radar screen during his first two trips. Inside the frame were 6 listing flyers for nearby homes from a local REALTOR® team.

Each flyer was an 8 by 11 sheet, so you had to be within 2 or 3 feet from the page to read it. It was hung on a wall that was not visible until you were standing just outside the Men's Room, an area visibly separated from the restaurant. If you didn't need to use the rest room there was no earthly reason to go there.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when I need to use the rest room, my mind is focused on my mission. Im not likely to be distracted by anything, much less a REALTOR®'s ad. And when I'm leaving the rest room, I'm not likely to want to jerk my head 90 degrees left to look at a flyer, throw my neck out of joint and require a trip to my chiropractor.

Jeff and I could not let it rest. We called the manager over.

"Do people have to pay to put up ads like that one?" I asked him, pointing to the REALTOR®'s ad.

"Oh yes," he said. "Its all handled by the agency that prints our menus."

"Do you know how much?" I asked.

"No, I dont," he replied. "But its probably not cheap."

Whether its cheap or not, the question for me is this: Why do REALTORS® (or anyone else, for that matter) spend money on frivolous, ill-conceived, ineffective advertising gimmicks that don't work?

Is it just ego? After all, Jerry Buss (the Lakers owner) sometimes shows up at that restaurant usually wearing jeans and a Laker Girl.

Readers, please help me understand why so many people continue to spend money senselessly while ignoring solid marketing programs that get good results over time.

Why? Why?

Put Your Heart In Internet Marketing - and a lot of other things

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:56:20 -0500

Alan Alda, in his new book, "Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself," quotes a famous rabbi in explaining what makes a good talk: "What comes from the heart goes to the heart."

That's powerful stuff.

It also relates to your Values. There too, if it's not in your heart, in other words, if you don't believe it, you cannot own it. And if you don't own it, you cannot convey it to others through your actions, the most authentic form of communication.

If you try to fake it, you become inauthentic, a phony, hollow. The best you can hope for is that you might be elected to Congress.

If some of your Values are around professionalism, integrity or service then those Values should impact what you bring to the party with your Internet marketing (along with everything else you do).

I heard a speaker at the last Inman Connect Conference in San Francisco. His name is Hugh McCleod. He's a talented, creative, out-of-the-box, guerrilla-marketing consultant. He's also a good cartoonist. In talking about effective communication, he said it most profoundly. "A story without love is not worth telling." That statement lit me up like fireworks on the Fourth.

His simple message, I believe, needs to have a presence in every visual presentation, every narrative, every description, in all aspects of everyone's marketing program but most particularly on the Internet. The Internet lends itself perfectly to that kind of expression.

Most sellers have lived in their home for some period of time. They've created and stored important memories there. If your strongest message about your value to your clients is "I can save you $4,000 on commissions," please go shoot yourself.

Tell compelling stories, in words and pictures. Communicate love. I think that, today, love is an endangered emotion. Put some back in the world. We need it.

What do you think?

Internet Marketing and Opportunity Cost – Connecting The Dots

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:43:09 -0500

If you lose something that you never knew existed in the first place, what have you lost? And how will you ever know that you lost it?

If a potential client or buyer doesn’t connect with you because they don’t know you’re there, what have you and they lost?

These situations illustrate Opportunity Costs - measured by the lost revenue and profit resulting from inaction. We incur those costs by NOT seizing on a situation, an event, an opportunity.

I call it the cost of What If?

What if I had done…? Would it have led me to seize an opportunity that I didn’t know about, or knew about but ignored? How would that have changed my results? Would my income have increased? Would my reputation be stronger, my referral network larger? Would I have made new friends?

Opportunity cost is rarely tracked or recorded, by companies or by individuals. It’s difficult to measure the result of a non-event?

So why try? Because awareness of opportunity costs often reveal great potential gains by implementing changes that can achieve dramatic improvements in our incomes and in the quality of our lives.

Most of us stay busy in the comfort of what we’ve always done. We fill our available time with the same things. We never step back and ask, “Wait – let’s look at what I’m not doing, that I could be doing to improve my results.” And, “What am I currently doing that I should stop doing because my results suck?”

Here, near and dear to my heart (otherwise known as bias), is a case in point – Internet marketing.

Here’s where, ostensibly, the dots don’t connect:

More than 80% of buyers begin their home searches on the Internet.
But only 20% to 25% of the homes shown on the Internet (depending on your information source) use home tours and/or multiple photos.
This disparity indicates an unfathomable gap between market behavior and Realtor behavior. It suggests that Realtors are not listening to the market. It indicates apathy, arrogance, negligence and many other bad words.
But the homes all sell anyway.

How can this be?

Why aren’t buyers refusing to buy homes and sellers refusing to list their homes unless and until Realtors provide professional, engaging, attractive Internet presentations? Why do they continue to work with Realtors who seem to blatantly refuse to give buyers and sellers what they need?

Because sellers must sell their homes and buyers must find a place to live. And buyers will endure all the crap, indifference and shoddiness they have to in order to find their castles of choice. And sellers believe that eventually, they will find a buyer.

So is the message, “Forget the Internet; it doesn’t matter what you do, the house will eventually sell anyway?”

No, no, no. For in this sea of seeming consumer indifference lurks Opportunity Cost. And for those who act, there’s money to be made and reputations to be enhanced.

The Opportunity Cost is your lost commissions and profits that will result if you do nothing beyond the minimum (an MLS posting and one photo of the home) with your Internet marketing presentations and presence.

But if all homes eventually sell, how can doing the minimum result in lost commissions?

The answer is also the opportunity. It’s this: Even though all homes sell, the best presented ones sell first. And the Realtors who represent them will earn more money.

Buyers who use the Internet first want to visit the homes whose presentations capture their emotions and give them sufficient, but not too much, information. Only after they rule out those homes do they go on to the next wave and the next. With a 10-month inventory of unsold homes on the market, there is a huge advantage in being seen first. To state the obvious, being seen first also means you get to meet many of these potential buyers before they have chosen their Realtor. Opportunity.

I know that much of this sounds pedantic. I apologize for that. But what drives me nuts about all of this basic as breathing stuff is: Why are so few Realtors doing it? Can someone please explain that to me?

The bottom line is this. There is a significant opportunity to earn more and grow your business by having a strong Internet marketing program. If you don’t do it you are incurring an Opportunity Cost. While it’s true that buyers will go through pain to find their home, they will gravitate to presentations that capture their emotions first.

When you plan your Internet presentation, mentally and emotionally become the buyer. Ask yourself what a buyer wants to see and to feel? Create presentations that deliver that.

Success will not come every time, but over time.

Real Estate Is A Business - It's For Grown-Ups Who Understand How Business Works

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:01:01 -0500

Even though I’m not a Realtor I hear about situations daily involving Internet marketing that have me scratching my head and asking myself, “Does that Realtor understand that they are running a business? And does he/she understand what a good business person ought to focus on in making solid, thoughtful decisions?”

For the purposes of this post, I’ll ignore the zillions of situations where no Internet marketing is done at all and focus only on those where I wonder what the people were thinking when they decided how to market on the Internet.

For me, three fundamental areas of concern emerge:

1. Products and programs should be evaluated and used based on their effectiveness in producing bottom line results – not on coolness.

Many of the tech driven products being introduced today emphasize a certain “cool” factor. Their advertised unique selling proposition (USP) is their “coolness.”
Oftentimes Realtors buy them on that basis – coolness – without analyzing how that product/service will contribute to their bottom line and to achieving their clients’ goals.
Realtors should be asking some fundamental business questions to guide their decisions about what products and services to use in effectively marketing themselves and the homes they represent? Here are some:
What should be my marketing budget – a different question than “how little can I spend?”
What expenditures on what approaches are most likely to yield the best result (i.e. achieve the clients goals). The correct answer to that question is almost always the best investment choice.
Who is the target audience for this home?
What kind of message and presentation most appeals to that audience?
Based on pricing and other factors, how long will it likely take to sell this home?
If I think the house will be on the market for an extended amount of time, what kind of flexibility does that call for in my Internet marketing?
How does that impact my marketing budget and my marketing approach?
What tools and techniques are best for this property?

2. Realtors – at least the good ones – should focus on helping clients achieve their goals and on building their business – not on foisting new toys on people because they represent the latest techno wet dream. That begs the question, what is a home? To me, a home is a place to:

Raise your children; feel safe; entertain; dream; relax; putter; create memories; build equity; and express your life style.
For most people it’s the largest investment and the biggest asset they will own in their lifetime.
A home, unlike a California marriage, is not something that you’re going to trade in next year if you grow tired of it or if something better comes along.
When people search for a home they want their senses and emotions caressed and massaged, they don’t want them assaulted. They want to feel an intimate connection. They’re not looking for a rock concert rush.

3. Ultimately success is measured on sustained profitability – not on how often one can introduce the latest techie toy, or continue to use outmoded, ineffective advertising approaches. Selling real estate is about reaching people, building trust and creating sustainable relationships. It’s about being creative, timely, relevant and focused on profitable results – for clients and Realtors.

As a professional, Realtors must know more than their clients about what will work best to sell homes. Many of today’s consumers are more tech and information savvy than most Realtors. That doesn’t automatically make them better marketers.

I believe that many Realtors roll over and bow to clients’ unwise wishes simply because they don’t know enough or have the confidence to advise clients about alternatives. The attitude of, “hey, I know it’s wrong, but the client wants it and I never disagree with a client” might win a few battles but it’s a recipe for losing the war.

Most people want professional advice confidently and knowledgably offered by the people they hire. That’s why they hired you. Any given client can tell their Realtor that they want a particular Internet or print media presentation. At that point it’s the Realtor’s responsibility to diplomatically determine exactly why the client wants that approach, and, if their reasons don’t make for good marketing, to point out better approaches to reaching the market and selling the home.

I believe that if more Realtors focus on some business basics (like the 3 above) then:

Selling real estate will look and feel more like a responsible business to more consumers;
Realtors, in the aggregate, will be more highly respected; and
More Realtors will increase their bottom line income.

To V Or Not To V - Part 2

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:44:00 -0500

Video's Potential In Real Estate Internet Marketing – Part 2

In my previous post (To V Or Not To V – Video's Potential In Real Estate Internet Marketing - Part 1) I began by referencing a recent post by Jeff Turner ("Will Video Kill Virtual Tours?"). Jeff stated that video will NOT kill virtual tours but that video – well done and appropriate to the situation – has great potential and a promising future.

I referenced a video produced by TurnHere as a shining example of what video can, and I believe, must become to fulfill its promise. In case you missed it, here it is. I urge you to watch it.

As I said in my earlier post, it cost $2,500. It was worth it.

We're now looking at the question: Besides price, what else should be examined to determine what makes for effective Internet presentations?

An awareness of and focus on the goal(s) of the presentation.

As obvious, even pedantic, as this seems, I have seen many Realtors lose sight of why they are doing a presentation in the first place. I believe there are two goals in creating any listing presentation.

Sell the house; and
Attract new clients

In order to sell the house, potential buyers must want to see the house. And in order to attract new clients, people must want to meet the Realtor.

So whatever presentation is created, it must engender those desires in viewers.

The strongest possibility for achieving those feelings lies in being able to stimulate an emotional response from viewers. The stronger the emotional impact the greater likelihood that the viewer will act, i.e., come see the house and meet the Realtor. And even though potential buyers visit homes whose presentations convey only information, they tend to visit the ones with which they emotionally connect first.

Overall quality.

Any medium that achieves high quality has a good chance of communicating emotion. And that begs the question, what constitutes high quality?

I believe there are two components:

Each element of the presentation must be good on its own. In the case of video: videography; lighting; the appropriateness of the background music; the physical flow of the show; the content of the narrative script; the performance of the narrator – each of these elements must be appealing in their own right.
And all the elements must be seamlessly meshed to create a polished experience that has a harmony. It transfers not just information about the house, but a feeling of seeing yourself in the space, living in it and loving it.

Flexibility.

In today's market, homes typically stay on the market longer. If, for example, you're showing the exterior of the home in a summer setting and it's December and there's snow on the ground, you are immediately telling the market that this home has been for sale for quite some time.

In cases where that potential exists, you should ask yourself: How easy will it be for me to make changes quickly and cost effectively to my initial presentation? If the cost is high, what does that do to my marketing budget for this property and how might it affect my other marketing efforts?

Cost, Goals, Quality and Flexibility.

Those, I think are four major elements to evaluate in deciding on what medium to use in any given situation.

All great presentations have one thing in common - they communicate emotion.

They take the thing or concept being presented and stir the desired emotions in the hearts and guts of the audience. The reason is simple; people act and make decisions based on emotions. Political leaders go to war, business executives buy and sell companies and ordinary folks buy their homes – based in large measure on emotions. That's a fact.

A great presentation using only still photos will do a better job than a bad or mediocre video. A well done virtual tour will be much more effective than a mediocre video. A bad presentation, in any medium, serves only to communicate information. Emotional connection is immediately broken with an inferior presentation. Behavioral scientists know this. People who preach that video is superior simply because it's video are spouting mindless techie-babble.

Although video might offer the greatest potential, it also has the greatest degree of difficulty. It contains more elements and the skill required to blend those elements and make them work seamlessly requires extensive experience and artistry. The mere existence of a video camera put in the hands of an inexperienced person or a so-so videographer doesn't have a chance of living up to the potential. I can't hand someone a tennis racket and say, "Now you have the tool. Go play like Roger Federer."

I believe that the responsibility of any professional is to know what tools and resources are available to do high-quality work that consistently delivers great results. You must be familiar with the relative strengths and weaknesses of every product and service out there so you can do a proper assessment and know what to use and when to use it.

Competent, professional judgment is critical. Being able to communicate your judgment to clients who oftentimes must be protected from themselves is part of being a professional.

Whoever thinks that: doing something badly and insulting the senses of viewers is a good idea; it's OK to do it wrong because doing it right costs too much; and using something that doesn't work just because it's new and cool is the way to go – well, that person got it shamefully wrong.

To V Or Not To V - Part 1

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:59:31 -0500

To V Or Not To V - Video's Potential In Real Estate Internet Marketing

Jeff Turner recently published a post on AR entitled, "Will Video Kill Virtual Tours?" His answer was, NO. But Jeff went on to say that Video, well done, is a compelling medium and will have its place whenever the combination of competence and cost so dictate. When those two elements combine to favor Video, it is an excellent choice.

But how often will that happen and what situations will dictate Video as a logical choice?

I think the emergence of video as a practical reality for Internet marketing presentations moves the discussion to where I think it needs to be. It raises the question:

What factors and criteria should Realtors consider to decide on the best medium for Internet marketing presentations in any given situation?

The promise of video is that it is the next best thing to being there. That promise also becomes the expectation for most viewers. And unmet expectations generate frustration; even anger. They don't engender passion. They certainly don't create, among viewers, the desire to contact the Realtor responsible for causing the pain.

But when a video fulfills the promise and exceeds the expectation, when the viewer is lifted to a magical place where positive emotions do a celebration dance around a visual and verbal story of love – that is the beauty of realized potential.

Let me illustrate. Watch this video. It defines the promise.

When I watch this video, I'm taken on a visual and verbal journey that flows like a smooth running stream. It invites me to come and join the legacy of love that this home is about. It is seamless; there are no jagged edges. I'm guided effortlessly through the house and each space has its story. The narration is about love, beautifully delivered. I want to be part of it. I want to go experience the magic of that home. It has me thinking, "OK, it might be a bit pricey for my budget, but we can cash in the kids' college funds, they can go to public universities and work night jobs. I want that home."

This is what video can be.

The video you watched was made by Turn Here, Inc. It cost $2,500. It was worth it.

Is it right for every situation? No, it's not. Price alone would rule it out for all but those homes whose prices (and commissions) could justify the cost.

And besides price, what else should be examined to determine what makes for effective Internet presentations?

I believe there are three additional elements to consider:

The focus and goals of your presentation;
Quality (and what exactly defines quality); and
Flexibility

In my next post, I will break down those elements and look at how they might play into the decisions to be made about what works best in any given situation.

Until then…

Update: To V Or Not To V - Part 2

60 Minutes - Thanks For The Wake Up Call

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:48:25 -0500

Lesley Stahl just might have provided the spark to help rescue an industry from the self-delusional, suicidal clutches of itself.

Lesley was misinformed.
She was inaccurate.
She took a ratings-driven, adversarial, biased approach to the real estate industry.
The Realtor® she interviewed to refute Redfin’s claims was weak. If you saw the show you know that.

Here’s why all of that was invaluable to you.

Lesley Stahl came closer to describing what too many people believe and fear and hate about the real estate business than most REALTORS® are willing to admit.

It’s not important that those beliefs are not true.

What’s important is that many people believe they are true. Those beliefs are their current reality. They are true for so many people because too few REALTORS® have communicated effectively and changed those perceptions. They are true because enough people have had bad experiences with REALTORS® that have led them to those conclusions, those beliefs. And people love to generalize, to take one bad experience and attribute it to all REALTORS®, all the time.

But in those perceived truths lies your opportunity. You can step away from defensiveness and evasiveness and define, in a new and fresh and positive way, what is your service, your value and the kind of results and return on investment your clients can expect when they deal with you. You have the chance to change your presentation, your image – to define yourself in a more appealing and compelling way.

Many of you are already doing this. If you’re doing it effectively I would guess that your business is doing well. You are not feeling threatened by the Redfins of the world. You are well positioned to successfully co-exist with any business model that charges less for doing less.

If you’re not doing it and are feeling vulnerable, here’s the opportunity and the need that I see. First, stop whining about the unfairness of it all. Next, frame the issues so you can address them. Here’s my take:

Too many people believe that they are paying Neiman Marcus prices for Wal Mart service. That’s what gives Lesley’s Stahl’s story so much juice. Your job is to dispel that notion. You can do that by crafting your message about what you provide and the results – tangible and intangible – that you achieve for your clients. Your efforts and hard work don’t mean squat. It’s all about results. And if you’re not a good writer, hire someone who is.
Define, in writing, the differences between your service (and the results) and the services of the Redfins of the world. Don’t let the Redfins do it for you. Take charge of delivering the comparison.
Understand the new reality - you live in two worlds: The over age 45 world, populated by people who live in largely traditional ways; and the 45 and under world who live in today’s world of technology. Unless you only want to do business with people over 45 you’d better step into the technology world in a compelling way. Use the Internet in your marketing and communication effectively, dramatically, engagingly. Start now. Learn what to do – and do it. If you are going to be a full-service Realtor you must be full service to both worlds.

For the rest of you, I believe you’re running out of time.

New business models that drastically lower the price and provide less service won’t destroy the traditional real estate business or put professionals who offer full service at full prices out of business. They will, however, replace most REALTORS® who charge full prices and provide marginal value.

Relationships - New Definitions For Old Words

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:51:26 -0600

“Oh the times they are a changin.” Dylan, you poet/prophet, you.

I hear a lot of Realtors talking about the fact that, no matter how much information is made available, people still want and need the warmth and security of caring human relationships and that, technology notwithstanding, relationships will still form the foundation of business and the future of Realtors. I’m trying hard to agree.

But what if we’re all wrong? What if relationships as we currently define them become a relic of the past? What if what most people want from a relationship radically shifts? How could that happen?

In case you hadn’t noticed, two of America’s Values have become:

We value speed; and
We value the lowest price.

The Internet, blink of an eye technology advances and a robust entrepreneurial culture have combined to make those Values achievable. But speed and price are made possible at the cost of numbing down (and maybe eventually eliminating) the Values upon which traditional relationships and long-term loyalties have been built. And if speed and price become the foundation of relationships, delivering them –every time – becomes the ante to be in the game.

Consider this possibility. Most of what are seen as today’s transaction complexities could be built into a manageable matrix of tasks that will be routinely and competently handled by a trained staff of administrative people who are paid modest salaries. Only the most complex problems will require individual attention by a relatively small number of highly trained professionals. Marketing will be done by people who fully understand technology, the psychology and techniques of brand-building and who are capable strategists. The role and importance of Realtors would change radically. So will the definition of relationships and the Values/behaviors that drive those relationships.

Envision this. 20% of the kind and number of tasks needed to complete a normal real estate transaction probably account for 80% of the quantity of transactions done (Pareto’s Law, aka the 80/20 rule). In other words, 80% of all purchases and sales are routine and require no special handholding or expertise. So by focusing attention on those 20%, it would be possible to routinize and automate 80 per cent of all transactions – a large majority. Certainly large enough to create an industry shift.

If this were to happen, the automation of tasks would mean that a Realtor could handle many more transactions than they currently do. And since the Internet would be the primary source for clients and Realtors to meet and establish new relationships, two major changes would occur: fewer Realtors would be needed – a lot fewer; and only those Realtors with a strong Internet presence would have a chance to survive this Darwinian change.

Many people consider this premise ridiculous; impossible. For you folks in that camp, I offer this: Newspaper publishers believed that the Internet could never cut into their advertising revenues or their readership. Most auto dealers believed that no one would ever buy something as personal as a car on the Internet. And travel agents believed that the personal services they provided, the expertise they possessed and the relationships they built over years could never be replaced by anything as impersonal as the Internet.

What keeps people stuck in the current paradigm of relationships is the belief that the definition of relationships will remain the same. That belief stops creative thought. So whether or not my premise will come to pass is not the central theme. What is central is that we suspend our beliefs and go to a place where today’s realities shatter and we can envision a future that is not an extension of the present.

In that new place, here are two big questions: What will be the new definition of a relationship? How will you establish trust?

These are a couple of questions that Jeff Turner and I are wrestling with as we speak. So here’s my request/invitation. Join the conversation. Put your thoughts together and tell me what you think might be the new definition and shape of relationships between Realtors and their clients in this future reality. Together, we might just come up with some great ideas for transitioning to the future.

SEX Is A Value

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:02:22 -0600

Jeff Turner demonstrated to the AR community (and perhaps the world, if word gets around) that SEX IS A CORE VALUE.

Look at all the millions of dollars spent by lobbyists, politicians, religious leaders and "righteous" citizens to get rid of SEX on TV, movies and print media. Those efforts will never be successful. We could better use the money on sex education and promoting the acceptance of SEX as an appropriate topic of conversation anywhere, anytime, even in the presence of small children and certain members of Congress who act like they never heard of it.

Jeff demonstrated that the movie and television industries would shrivel and die a horrible death without SEX. Actually he didn't prove it - all of you did.

I am shocked, mortified - and UNBELIEVABLY JEALOUS at your responses to Jeff's post.

I was sitting at the table with Jeff during his brief encounter with the UCLA professor who gave him the meat for his post. I even participated in part of the conversation. But did he give me any credit for asking good questions? - NO.

He also failed to mention, in his post, that during that same meeting at the restaurant, he got up to get more coffee and passed by a table of about 6 or 7 women - all octogenarians. He stopped, introduced himself and began a conversation (which tells us that Jeff is not only about SEX, or that he favors older women). He discovered that all the women were writers and that they were having their Writers Club meeting and had been meeting regularly for over 20 years. Jeff sat at their table and talked to them for ABOUT 4 TIMES LONGER THAN HE TALKED TO THE SEX PROFESSOR. But did he mention that? NO.

Jeff, like the rest of you, became OBSESSED. Your behavior screams that no matter what you’re doing, no matter how busy you are, you always have time for SEX – even if it’s just to talk about it. Which makes my point. SEX IS A CORE VALUE IN AMERICAN SOCIETY.

And I, for one, am delighted and grateful. I'll just have to learn to deal with my jealousy.

Values – Clarity Matters

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:31:02 -0600

I read a response from TLW (The Loving Wife) to my blog entitled: Unseen Forces: It All Begins With Your Vision (Part 2). TLW talked about some of her views on clarity and how the blog perhaps has her rethinking some of her ideas.

I’ve experienced, for example, that my definition of quality, or integrity, or trust might be different than yours. So even when we agree on the words and think we have a common understanding, we still might not agree on how we’re going to act in accordance with those words. That can have huge implications when we’re dealing with our Values and how we’re going to live them.

TLW, I thought some more about your comments and I remembered an important experience in my life.

My friend, John and I were having breakfast after an early morning workout at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California. The restaurant was a haunt 2 blocks from the gym called The Firehouse. The Firehouse was filled with testosterone oozing hulks of steel and steroids, along with the denizens of Venice – artists, writers, actors – some working, some not - and a few ordinary citizens like John and me.

We sat in the midst of the din of conversations that ranged from bicep and thigh size to the mega-hit certainty of unsold scripts and the stupidity of studio execs that rejected them because they didn’t know genius even when it landed on their desks and blistered their eyeballs.

We were talking about beliefs – and one belief in particular – integrity. I don’t remember how we started down that path but our conversations always seemed to go to some facet of human behavior that pushed one of John’s buttons.

I labeled my friend John an ordinary citizen. He was anything but.

John had served 2 back-to-back combat tours in Viet Nam – 26 months in the bush with no expectation of coming out alive. But he did. When he arrived home he was not a pretty picture. He was shunned, attacked and called “baby-killer” by the very society that sent him to Nam. He had no coping skills, no formal education (he dropped out of high school to join the military), a robust case of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and enough anger to fill the Goodyear Blimp. John was told by his military counselor to “get a grip and get a job.”

John quickly death-spiraled down to a life as a raging, violent alcoholic.

He lived homeless on the streets of Los Angeles – for 5 years. Through a series of minor and major miracles John rose from those ashes. John found God in his own way. He rarely talked about it. He went to AA meetings. He founded a non-profit organization called New Directions – a private, transitional housing program for veterans being released from prison. New Directions became the largest and most successful transitional housing program in the United States. To the best of my knowledge it still is He went back to school and got his high school diploma – at age 50. He married. He and his wife had 2 beautiful children. And part of him never left the jungles of Viet Nam.

On this particular morning, someone or something set him off and John wanted to talk about integrity.

He asked me to give him my definition of integrity. I don’t remember what I said. I just remember spitting out a couple of run-on, jargon filled, platitudinous sentences about keeping one’s word that I thought were truly eloquent. John sneered. “That’s the trouble with you corporate guys,” he said. “You use a whole bunch of words and you don’t say shit. I’ll bet you money you don’t even understand what you just said.”

Before I could respond, John was in my face, beet red agitated. “Let me tell you the street definition of integrity, my definition of what it means when you give your word,” he said. “Let’s say I borrow $10 from someone on the streets and I tell him I’ll pay him back by midnight next Wednesday. Next Wednesday comes and I don’t pay him. I will not live to see the sunrise on Thursday. My throat will be slit. And every person on the streets will see my murder as a just and righteous act. That’s integrity.”

I gave him my best ‘You are totally full of crap look.’ “John, you’re exaggerating just a bit. Being a tad melodramatic maybe?” “Hell no,” he said. “See, on the street, we didn’t have lawyers, and courts and guys like you to negotiate and people to spin and twist and turn the truth to fit our needs. We didn’t have stuff to clutter our lives and our thoughts. We had the smelly rags on our backs. And we had our word. When you strip away all that other stuff, your word has life or death meaning. It totally defines you. It’s all you got, man.”

It’s all you got, man. I can see and feel and taste the restaurant and John’s words as I sit here and write. That breakfast happened 15 years ago.

John’s story was powerful. But the significance of that morning for me was how far off track we can get when we don’t share common definitions, when we’re not crystal clear about what our words mean and what actions we expect – from ourselves and others.

My constant reminder to myself is to go past the words, share and get common understandings and agreements as to what those words mean and how they will be played out. When it comes to stating your Values I strongly suggest to all of you that, if you’re not already doing that, please begin. It will make an important difference in your success.

Values, The War on Terror, And The Future of Real Estate

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:15:36 -0600

It was 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

I had just returned from driving a friend to the airport and flipped on one of the cable news channels (C-SPAN). They were doing an interview with the head of Information Technology for NSA (the National Security Agency). NSA, in case you don’t know, is the newly formed “uber” agency that is supposed to become the central repository for all information from all the databases from all the security agencies. It will be the one source for cross checking, verifying and analyzing the zillions of bits of seemingly disparate information on terrorism so that we can do a better job of connecting the dots, communicating relevant, actionable information to the proper agencies so they can act to PREVENT acts of terrorism rather than respond after the fact. When it’s up and running, it should become an important part of making us a safer country. In an ideal world, it would have prevented 9/11.

I listened as the head of IT from NSA talked about the challenges he is facing in integrating 32 separate databases from the various security and counter-terrorism agencies. He never once mentioned data or technology. He talked about CULTURES, VALUES AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE. In summary his message was, “we’re not dealing with a technology challenge, we’re dealing with a willingness challenge. The various agencies have learned to protect information based on a SET OF VALUES around the agencies’ purpose, needs and the benefits to society by safeguarding and never sharing that information. We’re asking them to adopt a new set of Values based on some new realities. That’s really tough.”

And I thought, hey, he could be talking about the real estate industry and its resistance to giving consumers all the “proprietary” information via the Internet that was the private domain of Realtors. Not only was it the private domain, it was a major element of perceived value provided by Realtors in the purchase and sale of properties. Give that away for free and you’ve just given away a big chunk of a Realtors justification for her/his commissions. Or so the resisters believe.

The challenge for the real estate industry is the same as it is for the homeland security and counter-terrorism agencies. I believe that there must be a new definition of Values relating to service and relationships based on some new realities created by the access to information afforded by technology. And technology will only march forward; it will not recede.

The fundamental questions are: How will Realtors in this new reality provide value; and how will consumers come to value that value?

Here’s how I see it. Give consumers all the information that technology allows. Give it freely and generously. Because, as a Realtor, your value no longer lies in that arena. Your value lies in helping your clients understand and interpret the information and make wise life style and financial choices. That’s true for sellers and buyers alike. That kind of measurable, wise counsel is worth a lot of money. The information, in and of itself, doesn’t do that.

I would love to hear from you about what you think ought to be the elements embodied in a new definition of the Values of service and relationships. Perhaps we might put our collective ActiveRain heads together and come up with a bar-raising set of standards and definitions that define those Values and send a message to our customers and prospects that helps to truly differentiate those that embrace the age of technology from those who resist it.

Unseen Forces: It All Begins With Your Vision (Part 2)

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:26:18 -0600

I said in my previous post that I would share Jeff’s Vision for his former company. This was it:

We will revolutionize newspaper advertising.

We will achieve this by creating an organization where:

People enthusiastically, freely and openly share ideas.
Ideas are turned into actions and innovative solutions.
People are excited about quality, excellence and being the best.
Everyone is a missionary of excellence.
People willingly accept responsibility.
Newspapers seek us out to help them think about and implement new ways of doing business.

At the time it was created, a lot of people read this and thought it was something that someone wrote in an afternoon. Not so. It took us weeks to craft this. The words were chosen with great care. It was never about word-smithing, it was about being authentic. First of all, the word revolutIonIze was central to the Vision and to Jeff’s personality, style and his unique gifts. It’s not for everyone. It’s not about the money. For Jeff it was about following his personal path to fulfillment. If money came along for the ride, so be it.

The bullet points that describe this future place were culled from a list of possibilities 10 times longer than the list above. A reader sees what’s on the page. They don’t see all the possibilities that never made it to the page. Some choices were easy. Some involved difficult trade-offs.

When Jeff defined his Vision, his company was a good company – young, energetic, talented, ambitious. They produced high-quality work and were respected by their customers. But they were not the things described in his Vision. They were capable of turning out good work. They were not yet capable of revolutionizing anything. When he introduced his Vision, most people emotionally embraced it; some thought it was a bunch of rah-rah crap. No one truly understood the journey they were about to take and the personal commitments required of them.

The first thing that we did after Jeff’s Vision was captured in words was to ask a bunch of questions.

What Values must we live in order to support this Vision?
Do we live them now? If we don’t currently live them, can we learn to? How?
How will we measure ourselves along the way?
How will we teach our people the skills and awareness needed to consciously live our Values?
What must we change in our culture to breath life and authenticity into our Values?
What are we smoking that makes us think we can do this?

By answering those questions, we could get to a place where we could start the process of defining the organization’s Values. It took time – weeks. It was difficult and soul searching. It was worth it.

I urge all who read this and agree with its validity to involve yourself in a similar process with your own Visions. Even if you already have your Vision, subject it to re-examination and see if you can gain clarity through more appropriate and precise word choices. See if your Values are aligned with your Vision and vice versa. If there is a disconnect, you are wasting energy in those areas.

Try it. What have you got to lose?

Unseen Forces: It All Begins With Your Vision (Part 1)

Bill Leider (Real Estate Shows) — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 01:43:49 -0600

Jeff Turner has written meaningfully and powerfully about his Values – a subject near and dear to my heart. In a business, Values play out in the context of what the business is all about. That dynamic can create harmony or conflict. If your Values (defined by your behavior) support your reason for being, you are fortunate. Your energy and your actions are moving you in the direction you want to go. You are more energized, more focused, more productive.

Jeff didn’t write about the step he took before he defined his Values. It was this.

In planning a business, or a life, there is something that can (and I think should) precede the conscious stating of your Values. Something to give your Values a strong foundation. Something against which to measure the results of living or not living your Values. That something is Vision.

Jeff decided that in order to propel his business beyond his expectations, to sustain it and to provide an optimum sense of fulfillment, he needed to take that first step. He needed to define his Vision.

Many businesses and people function without a Vision. If you don’t have a Vision, or think that you don’t need one, then your unstated goals are about survival or about reacting to opportunities as they present themselves. You may be successful or not – depending on luck and circumstance. I’ve met many people who resist having a Vision. That is no sin. Some say it constrains their resourcefulness. I doubt that. It’s just a rationalization to resist being accountable, because when you have a Vision, you make yourself accountable. A lot of people don’t like that. A Japanese proverb sums it up nicely: “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without Vision is a nightmare.”

Many years ago, someone defined Vision as “a future reality not yet manifest.” When you first create it, you might be the only one who can see it. That means, of course, that some people will think you’re nuts. Let ‘em. Having that mental picture channels your energy. There is a quiet power in that. It will help you attract supportive energy. Your Vision will help establish the foundation of your culture.

Defining your Vision has many more benefits. Here are a few.

It defines a path along which your Values display themselves.
It gives you a basis for evaluating opportunities. Is a given opportunity moving you toward or away from your Vision? If it’s moving you away, you better have a darn good reason to go there because it is taking you off track and most often should be rejected – no matter how good it seems.
Having a Vision helps get everyone in your organization on the same page.
You can help people align and commit by showing them how they can achieve their own goals in the process of helping achieve yours.
You can use your Vision to help people see that they matter and that what they do makes a difference. I have seen it work so often and so well that it gives me goose bumps writing about it.

It’s a long journey. Make it bold. It’s a place where you ultimately want to live – your dream home. Make it ideal. It doesn’t yet exist. When you picture it, it’s important that you NOT know how to get there. Because if you already know, you’re not being ambitious enough. And you are subconsciously closing your mind to unseen resources that can propel you to unimagined heights. Have faith. The universe will show you.

I have Jeff’s permission to tell you his Vision for his former company. It’s the Vision that created the foundation for the Values that Jeff wrote about in his blogs. I’ll share it next time.

In the meantime, I urge you to think and write about the kind of future reality you want to create – for yourself and your organization – 5 years from now, 10 years from now. Be audacious. No one but you has to see it – for now. Play around, on paper, with what you want your legacy to be, how you might be living when you achieve your purpose in this reality. Have some fun with it.

Part 2 is now located here.