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How Will Technology Change Real Estate Sales & Marketing in the Future?

My last job in the tech world of IBM (wired) and Motorola (wireless) was future vision marketing manager before I "got off the plane" and applied what I learned about digital marketing and PR in real estate.

We looked out 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years to try and imagine what is possible with wired and wireless technology. Then we would go tell customers about it.

My method involved interviewing patent holding engineers, scientists, marketing gurus, and futurists.

But one of the most valuable sources I had was from the sales force. They told me what was working and would not work, what customers asked for and expected in the future, and they actually gave me requirements for developing future products and programs.

One of the things I realized early on was that I came up with maybe 20% of the good ideas. The rest came from others. That's where you come in. I've created a starter list below. Brainstorm! Let's create the idea of real estate marketing in the future together!

I would like to do that here, and share it with the Active Rain Community.

BASELINE

Here's what we know as a baseline for the real estate market today:

- Digital imagery (photos, renderings, visual tours) made a big difference and are here to stay.
- Social Networking and blogging leaped forward and will continue to grow.
- Email marketing is now full of pictures and is working great.
- Websites are including:
= Listings
= IDX integration
= Property locators
= Mapping
= Galleries and Slide Shows
= Some Facebook and blog integration
= Some Video (in the early adopter phase and will expand in this next year)
= Links to sites like Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com, local community information like schools and shopping, etc., plus many others.
= Multiple languages in addition to English (Spanish, French)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems (Early Adopters using & winning!)
- Electronic "Video" Billboards (just started)
- Newspapers/Media Company Advertising Media Buys Happening on Google (Early Adopters only)
- Direct Mail
- Radio
- TV
- Signs
- Events
- Telemarketing
- Marketing Measurement Systems to track media buys and campaigns (Early Adopters only)

So here's the question: What will the future of real estate marketing look like?

CURRENT TO 1 YEAR OUT
- Broker and Builder websites will integrate Social Networking technologies for easy sharing and interaction (Facebook, Google Buzz, Twitter, ShareThis, Digg, Delicious, Live, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn, Blogs, etc.)
- Content Marketing will expand
- Direct Mail will include more Newsletter Postcards (smart marketers)
- Email Marketing will include more news - less hype

1-5 YEARS OUT
The biggest change during this period for real estate pros isn't in the technology. The biggest change will come from you learning how to learn and adapt quicker. You're selling brick and mortar; but, you're going to be using tools to do it that evolve quickly. That means software. Your customers and companies will demand that you know this new way to interact - forcing you to change.
- Mobile enabled websites for advertising, listings, and sales interaction
= Images
= Mapping
= Video
= Social Networking between selling organization and customers
= GPS Enabled Listings
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems - more pervasive use and will center the effort of database marketing
- Newspaper/Websites and Media Buys Dominated by Google
- Content Marketing will become more layered so a buyer can get just the right amount of information they individually want rather than the seller, broker, or builder dictating the amount.
- Email marketing will add video
- Events will become more creative and integrated with other organizations
- Online & Mobile Chat & Texting
- Online Interactive Contracts & Documentation
- Smart Irrigation. Technology is cheap and easy today. Will become pervasive.
- Marketing Measurement Systems will link directly with CRM
= Google May Be the Integrator

5-10 YEARS OUT
- Will websites become media rich enough to satisfy a customer enough to buy online?
- Interactive Video Television and/or Web [not sure what the devices will be called at this point - interactive displays?] about Properties. You'll be able to select and "see" the systems work in a house.
- Smart Houses (I don't think the house will sell itself but you'll have to know about these systems to show them)
- Smart Irrigation Standard
- Exterior and Interior Wired and Wireless integration (Security, Power, Appliances, Entertainment, Info Systems)
- More Audio (Voice) enabled

Ideas? What do you think? Add your comments!

Posted by R. Michael Brown on 02/18/2010 07:03 PM

Comments (76)

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76 Comments on How Will Technology Change Real Estate Sales & Marketing in the Future?

FEB

2010

I have a corporate technology consulting, sales marketing background so after 5 years as a Realtor I can fairly say I've lived in both worlds. Your list above is both visionary and comprehensive. I fear, however, that you will hit a wall that is erected between real estate corporate marketing functions and field sales forces that may not be the wall that you expect. In real estate, it isn't that corporate marketing isn't listening, it's who in the field they're talking to.

Unlike large corporations like IBM or Xerox or GM where marketing sometimes lagged the field in innovation and leadership, in real estate the most successful field practitioners may not embrace new technology and practices even when encouraged and enabled by marketing. Fundamental differences include:

- real estate brokerages, even the largest and most successful, are fueled by a sales force of independent contractors. You can't even require weekly reporting or attendance at sales meetings from independent contractor, much less adoption of new technology that they have to pay for.

- the most successful practitioners of real estate have been individuals with deep roots in the community and a large sphere of influence. NAR's 2009 survey said that 70% of the decisions to work with a particular agent were based on personal contacts or recommendations.

- many of the most successful practitioners have been successful with some use of technology, but feel this is supplemental to their personal spheres and contacts.

So you may encounter a situation where the most successful sales people in a brokerage are independent contractors who actively discourage innovative leadership from corporate marketing. Management of brokerages may have the most interaction with their people selling $20 million a year, not a one of whom is complaining because they're not getting automatic Facebook and website linking.

Perhaps the agents who produce at the 70-90% in company ranking are the next generation of Realtors, people who will embrace technology and innovation to move to the next level. To summarize, when listening to the field, listen at lots of levels!

FEB

2010

Mike, WOW....great checklist for me! Your post is comprehensive for "early adopters"....but I have to agree with Leslie. I am unique in my market. My Husband and I are technologists and so we do what we know how to do. Other agents see what we do....but they just watch. Leslie so nailed it for you from a "field" perspective. I would even go so far as to predict that the people that can see the reality of your predictions/exploration will most likely become the providers. I see that happens a lot within the RAIN. People evolve to such a point that they then start teaching and creating a new field dynamic and market solution.

1-5 list is mostly there for us....1-10 could be there....but I don't believe it to be the goal. Relationship in this Industry is King and it always will be. It is the connection between technology and the Social or Human dynamic that makes the magic. Doug Engelbart always combined that need for Social environment to be of a critical nature for technology to have purpose. It must be easy to use and implement. Realtors work long days and right now that is my biggest challenge. I've been working 12 and 15 hour days to build a Mega Internet Infrastructure to market to the entire US and it's working. However, now my business is blasting off and where do I find team member that can understand what I'm doing and join in the revolution. It ends up being quite challenging. We do have a team and we are solving the problem by my husband and myself remaining as the hub for managing the technology aspects. We then just farm out our leads when we cannot handle them.

I have to say that we've been pretty lonely in our dedication to technology and leading edge trends. We are always out there where others fear to tread. But hey, we both are learning junkies and technologists! What are you gonna do!

I love your list....bookmarking and looking into a couple of things on the list! Nice to have you on board! I'll visit often. Thanks for this great post!

The only thing I have a doubt about is that people will buy homes online with out weeing them first. There is so much more to a home that isn't or won't be available online. Odors, and sounds are two big ones. No agent will post a sound of the trains going by at night for one of their listings, or the smell of the brewery next door.

The reason there are agents is to get people into homes. Appreciate the article though. Nice information.

Jeanean: well thanks for the nice comment. I feel that at least some of the top people are actively disdainful of things that cost money and that aren't directly tied to revenue generation activities in a way they can understand them. As a former IBMer, Mike should understand the need for investing for parity rather than investing on a presumption of leadership. The problem with not investing in technology is that you don't know you're behind until you're beat.

Leslie and Jeanean:

Thanks for your insight. You're right about the wall.

I was brought into Pulte in Florida (for all 3 brands: DiVosta Homes, Pulte, and Del Webb) to help drive marketing technology change in the state with 80 communities and a forecast for 3,000 - 4,000 home sales a year. For marketing and consumers, we were very successful:

- Increased qualified leads from 78,000 to over 300,000 a year.
- Cut advertising expenses, mostly newspaper, by over $9 million in the first year by moving to the Internet and email, putting a measurement system in place, and we beat the sales forecast.
- We actually sold some homes online without the buyer visiting the property but that was based on personal recommendations about the DiVosta brand in addition to what we had online.
- They are still using the same systems and sold over 3,200 new homes in Florida in 2009.

Most of the good changes came out of the measurement systems I put in place. It helped us eliminate channels that didn't work and change how we did database marketing with direct mail so it can have a benefit for traditional marketing too.

On the sales executive side, we had mixed results - the wall you speak of.

Many agents didn't spend the time necessary to fill out the CRM database and embrace new technologies so they couldn't manage as many relationships and we couldn't market to those leads as effectively. They usually handled between 40 and 50 relationships at a time.

The ones that did use CRM and the available tools could handle between 70 and 80 relationships at a time and got more lead support from us which helped sell more.

A few of the non-tech sales execs exceeded the sales of the ones that used the tools but that was rare and mostly happened with 55+ buyers. I'm talking about strictly numbers here. There are a lot more dynamics that add to the story.

Adopting new technology and tools is always a challenge. Change can be tough. I've found adoption happens when it's driven by customers. I think that's the way it should be. If the customers use it, so will the sales staff and agents. Many of the success stories from the tech using sales execs had customers already using smart phones and more sophisticated computer knowledge and interaction with work, friends, and family.

A lot of customers now use the Internet to find information before contacting an agent. Part of the relationship building process is knowledge sharing. There is an argument that if the agent doesn't use the same sources and tools, they are at a disadvantage in forming that relationship.

That being said, consumers on the whole are embracing these technologies at an increasing pace. So I'm pushing to be ready to help clients before it happens. It's better than trying to catch up.

I've also learned to not implement a technology until you get at least 10 million users. Fewer than that makes a technology too early and it could change or fall out of favor, thus making your early effort wasted or expensive.

It's an interesting discussion and I appreciate you weighing in!

Virtually all sellers and buyers use the internet regularly for property search, research and email. I have exactly one guy I print off stuff for and snail mail and that's so he can put it onto a vision assistance machine.

Lead generation/management and CRM are probably the biggest black holes. There is a tango of activities in relationship building that can be initiated and built on with information sharing. Creating compelling marketing that creates the right client opportunity is hard, hard, hard. I can make 1000s of people contact me, I can create and give away fabulous and useful information -- but do I want to? No, I don't want to work as a full time community service function.

Every single day I have to stop and ask myself "what do I want to say, who do I want to say it to, what results do I want from saying this?" Now I ask "what is the best platform for each communication and why". Now that I write it I see it's mar comm 101. So profound it sounds trivial but it's the heart of this conversation.

FEB

2010

My impression of the lists is that they would apply well for product marketing and eventually sales. In the real estate industry, that means new home sale.

However, for the much larger resale market, I see little that relates to the agent/customer level. This isn't meant as a criticism, merely that I don't see where the "on the street" agent fits in.

So much of technology would seem, at first glance, to be perfect for sales and marketing resale real estate until introduced to the average agent whose "eyes glaze over".

Mike. Excellent summary of how technology will inevitably change the fundamentals of the real estate business. Not just the sales and marketing to the end consumer, but systems and processes in the background that replace current time-wasters such as phone calls and emails between Buyer and Listing Agents that distill into the category of "I don't trust the MLS to be accurate, so I have to double-check the info I see there". We are going through a generational shift. Leslie said "the most successful practitioners of real estate have been individuals with deep roots in the community and a large sphere of influence." I would agree - however - these tend to be the people who have been in the business the longest, are aging, and will retire far sooner than the tech savvy youngsters.

WOW, this is a great post. I will trying to implement all of these strategies TODAY, to be ahead of the game. The early bird gets the worm. Thanks for sharing such knowledge.

JeanRicher.com
Ottawa, ON

Mike-

Interesting post, you've hit the salient points very well.

Let me start by saying I found this article very, very interesting and insightfull.

That being said, If memory serves me correctly, I saw this same article posted yesterday! by Jeanean Gendron, and I had already read the original by Mike Brown, or at least his version was the first one I read.

Now I"ve heard that ActiveRain wil now allow reblogging, and that can be good, there are some who find it beneficial, to repost an article from AR to an outside blog. But reblogging it here in AR is taking advantage of the system, no matter how good or relevant the content may be.

These are just my thoughts, but consider copyright infringement, consider gaming the system for points, consider the perception i Now have! Who is the originator? I'm not going to research the fine points to find out? But I will say someones reputation in my mind has now been tarnished. And this is not the first nor the last time I will find such a case!!! Someone should watch their reputation?

Thanks for your post and the view of the future for marketing. However, it is still about getting face to face with the buyer or seller.

There is no doubt that we need to adapt to the future and yes the ones who grabs it now is going to be ahead of the others.

As I just wrote to Mike; notice that the upcoming home buyers are very tech sawy and things go extremely fast for them, and thats just the clear fact.

I run a company that does photography and virtual staging... We are generating double up on traffic for listing that are using our services, it's the statistics and I BET it will continue in that direction. Ask the 30 year old buyer that are about to look at buying his/her first house/condo.... They are using technology, and how do you address them??? The one who has the right answer for that is rock'n'roll.

Kris

http://www.interstaging.com

There is no doubt that web sites will be a must, and email will be a must, but it still comes down to relationships, I believe. I am interested in all technology, but the learning curve will be too hard and fast to keep abreast of, if we are busy at what we do - selling houses!

Great post!!!

Mike, OUTSTANDING blog.

The business has changed so much in the past few years, your furtuer outlook is bang on.

Wishing you continued success.

Interesting post and its nice to see many of the ideas in the article are what we are already doing in Asia.

My name is George Varvitsiotis, the founder of www.PropGO.com & www.PropGOLuxury.com

Asia's leading online real estate company and only US based online real estate company in China/Asia.

Our Total Marketing Solution incorporates:

1. Listing Marketing

2. Agency Websites

3. Digital Billboards

4. CRM & E-Office / Database

All managed in ONE account on ONE screen - Like Zillow/Trulia + MarketLeader/Salesforce + E-Office in One application....

its funny, but we are already doing most of the above - but in Asia & not in the US...

Mike, Like you post & maybe even the reminder to do the same 1, 5 and 10 yr forecasting I've used in the past .... but maybe in Internet speed, it should now be 6 months, 1 and 3 yrs?

Do you think these future evolutions will affect real estate business models? I feel like a lot of the things on the list are already happening today, maybe at a lesser level, and so far the answer seems to be 'no'.

In Scandinavia a Prime-Minister in something like 1995 said that the internet is just an overnighter... Well he got that terrible wrong, it's grows with the user, not with relations etc, and the user will always lead the way, the day that sellers start to adapt the facts... Well then the "old-school" agents have a second to change lane.

Kris

www.interstaging.com

Mike,

Thanks for a complete picture..We all are adapting and adopting this new changes. They are meant to make life easier and less complicated, and give us to time to enjoy each other and the experience of interacting and learning.

The human behind all this has sto retain that humaness and that essence of communication that makes all of us so unique, and created the internet. The new technology and advances hopefully will advance us as better human beings!

We appreciate your generosity in sharing this information. All the best to you.

Sara -- In my opinion I feel like the real estate model will undergo a fundamental shift because of the investment required in technology. Today the best org model is probably a team with a rainmaker, some agents, back office and marketing, all supported by some corporate services. The 100% commission independent contractor cannot reliably invest in technology needed for long term development. In the future, I see that the conflict between independent contractors and corporate investment will shake out a new model that much more closely resembles a regional or national consulting organization. Agents and brokers will work for a company as employees, some of whom become stakeholders as partners. We need to evolve from the cottage industry mentality of independent contractor agents each with a personal sphere who need nothing more than a phone and a car to do a dozen transactions a year.

I have been training real estate agents in computer technology since the Mac Plus was state of the art back in the mid 1980's. Some adapt and learn and thrive. Some don't. The tecnologies may change, but people will still be learners/adopters or non-learners/adopters. It's always been this way throughout human history.

I think what we'll continue to see is top agents adopting new technologies that make sense to them and the much bigger pool of "regular" agents slow to grow, and faster to fail. We can't be certain what the killer-app for real estate will be, but I have a feeling many of us are already using it. Your own web site with idx feeds and blogging attached is a combination busness card and shopping experience that has raised the bar on what it means to be a real estate agent. If you're an agent in 2010 and you don't have your own web site with an idx feed, you are sending your clients away empty-handed. If you aren't blogging this year, you aren't talking to the vast majority of people who are starting their real estate search online.

New tools and technologies will be great, but I think we have already made major strides as an industry and the sorting into survivors and former-agents is happening all around us.

Hit the nail on the head on where technology has come and where it is going. We are incorporating many of the technologies you mentioned already to our website including:

- mobile apps that the client can download with a GPS feature so that they can pull up listings on the road

- Agent/client chat from website

- In the process of adding Facebook and Twitter to website, and Outside Blog

I think that it will come to deciding which tools are going to work the most effectively- cost versus benefit. It is good to diversify your strategies though, so that leads are coming from multiple sources. Thanks, great things to think about in the years to come!

Mike and Others, WOW what a mind-boggler is this subject!

In my Office of 10, I am into almost everything that involves Internet as it is fascinating and invigorating. I share the stuff I do by leaving outputs around the office and on the computer network monitors. My Broker is of the old school and too busy to try much of anything technologically new. I have always been in leadership roles in my life from Boy Scouts on through a Professorship, 1.5 years in Executive Branch of US Government, among others. I am NOT a leader in the use of anything new in my own office. I am viewed as over the wall just because I use a Comb Binder to neatly put my Listing Reports together in a document for Customers to use as we tour the town!

Yes, there is a wall between the new and the old and for now the "old" are doing the best. In the future, the gap will certainly narrow as the younger become older and their way will increasingly rule! Somebody wrote in AR that a 25 year old customer wouldn't answer his cell messages from his Agent because, she found out later, he only communicates in TEXT. Yes, face-to-face in R/E will die slowly but IMHO it will move at the same speed as the young mature. Who would have dreamed 5 years ago that women would buy dresses in ever increasing volumes OVER THE INTERNET as they do now?

I am 71 years wise and wish that I had another 50 to see the changes that will come about as the communication technology rides in all pockets, wallets and purses, or ear-implants! I could go on and on, as could all the commenters here, as this is a wonderful subject to contemplate. Those that "don't get it" can't be blamed though as the technology has moved so fast that the "great divide" should have been predictable.

Cheers from Jim in Paradise (and chilly!)

I'm most intrigued with the long range future 5-10 years out. The technology will only be good as the pipeline to supply it. I posted this just a few days ago.

Get ready for another giant paradigm shift. "The fourth generation Internet, also known as “The Grid,” is functioning and is positioned to change everything about the speed and volume of business being done via the Internet. The Grid was built to instantly disseminate immense amounts of data globally for the research involving the Large Hadron Collider, in Geneva. The Grid brings with it a true paradigm shift, a rare occurrence changing what was, to what is, and will forever be."

What a fun conversation. I agree with most of what you say, although I think it will take a lot less time to get to then you think. I think Google Wave with be the platform that we share on for our transactions & signatures will be all digital. Our clients will need us for guidance, and, I believe, they will still always want us to see the houses with them in the real world.

Mike,

Superb post on what the future might hold for RE and technology. My question: With all this change that continues to confront us, how does the average agent keep up ? I spend most of my day dealing with listings, closings, and all the issues that go along with real estate... there's not a lot of free time to stay up on the latest, and newest trends - although, I try to keep current.

Just trying to participate in the recent push to have a Social Media presence has been a challenge ! In the "old days" having a high ranking web site, with MLS search would carry you a long way. I think those days are numbered.

Leslie, I agree with your description of Real Estate business structure and organizations of the future...Consulting vs. cottage industry will add credibility and respect. No more "dime-a-dozen" image for real estate PROFESSIONALS. Thanks.

In the short run, early adoption of technology is an opportunity to set yourelf apart from the competition...and simply do more business more efficiently.

In the long run, technology is going to remake the face of our society. In our industry it is going to make for bigger and bigger real estate organizations....and fewer and fewer people selling real estate ....as a fraction of the population.

Same thing for teachers....and a lot of other folks who do not see it coming.

Our economy must become more efficient to survive. If that were not true,,,,most of us would still be farmers.

Mike, Thank you for this indepth research results. Photographs in emails are new to me and I'm excitied to learn how to do that. Looks like I have some work cut out for me and my associates. Thanks for a great post!

Mary (#27) raises an excellent point on how to keep up with doing what is needed today and getting ready for tomorrow.

Can the current "Independent Agent" Office Model persist down the road? It seems like there will need to be a "linking Technologist" of some sort to work with the varied levels of capability, at least in the interim 10 years or so as the system shifts. I think that Offices will be somewhat divided into Referral Agents (traditional) and Internet Agents (for lack of a better term) for 10-20 years. Gradually the Referrals will retire and who knows?

Subject is too deep to shortly comment, but that's the way I sees it today!

Cheers from Chilly Jim in Florida!

Hi Everyone,

Lots of great and posts, information and personal thoughts. I embraced the internet and technology very early on and it is 85% of my business. It's all about value, giving people what they want instantly and follow up.

Almost eveyone starts there search online today and realtors need to know how to deal with an "internet lead"...

Great post! Personally, I love technology and truly embrace it. I can't get excited about Realtor.com's development of the iPhone app to search listings, though, because I'm a BLACKBERRY addict!!! I do believe the mobile phone will basically become a computer though - I'm thinking I'm going to have to create a mobile version of my website soon.

Dave #22 You are brilliant Your own web site with idx feeds and blogging attached is a combination ebusiness card and shopping experience that has raised the bar on what it means to be a real estate agent. Add FB + FP Fan Page (which I call FB presence the on-line equivalent to wearing your name badge in the grocery store) and it perfectly describes what I'v been trying to explain to skeptical agent buddies. You are a word master.

I think our SOI will become more and more important as like minded people will stick with who they trust and know and newbies or people just hitting the numbers will get the crumbs until they build an SOI business.

If Realtors do not regain control of their intellectual property ( the listing info ) Buyers agents will soon be working for 15 dollars an hour.

If you carry a lot of short sales - marked contingent... this is not just speculation it is fact.

Buyers agents are already being jerked around by buyers with interent information. Some are already being jerked around for 15 an hour. It is only a matter of time.

I have been working on a project designed to help listing agents regain control of their intellectual property.

I call it the Agents IP Security Initiative.

In a sense it only allows Pictures and zips out onto the net via IDX. If people what pricing data they have to agree to have a minimum level of inforrmation integrity technology in place.

So that if they make application and provide proof they update price and status daily - they may exhibit price.

However, for more info than that - they will have to click ot the Local MLS Board cite which will then route them to Agents website which will have the data - accurately displayed.

There are obvously many variations... but control of the IP will be returned to the author.

Mike,

Thanks for this interesting look into the future! I'm amazed DAILY of the Technology and methods of communication that I DON'T know about! But I am continually LEARNING, and that's the secret!

I was just telling my wife this morning that I can finally see how Social networking media will become a predominant force to reckon with more than ever before. I'm an old codger and am just beginning to see the value in it. This was a great post and I will pass it along to my daughter who is responsible for the marketing, advertising and promotion of our company.

Hi Mike,

A very interesting timeline that addresses a lot of the changes that we'll be facing as a profession. Thanks for putting together this provocative muse... it's definitely a good way to start an internal debate on the future of real estate.

I was a television editor when the old ways of cutting were replaced by computers starting about 20 years ago. Less than 10% of us made the transition. I'm expecting serious attrition in this field as well.

A final note. Though you didn't say it outright... I notice that there is no mention of 'brick and mortar' offices in your future.

I don't disagree. Best of Luck in 2020.

Lots of great comments, suggestions, and issues. Thank you! I appreciate your intellectual energy!

Briefly, on the re-blogging and copyright issue: I created this original post to get as many contributors as possible. I don't view this "discussion starter" list and the evolving list as my list. It's our list - all the contributors. It would be great if all the comments got back to me on the original post so we can have them in one place for everyone to see. I have this post on multiple channels, including my personal blog, so I can aggregate the input and create a follow-up with an executive summary for everyone. That being said, since I started life out as a professional writer, I REALLY appreciate your concern for copyright and reuse. Thanks!

SALES & MARKETING WORKING HAND-IN-HAND [I know it's a crazy thought]
Face-to-face, especially in the peak of the sales cycle, will always be the most important part of sales, especially when you're trying to sell a 6 figure (or more) item.

There are some things a computer can't and will never be able to do (one of my favorite books when I was at IBM). Imagine the interpersonal dynamics a great agent handles with excellent care and communication skill working through the issues that a husband and wife may have with each other during this huge purchase.

Getting to the point of face-to-face is where marketing comes in. The time leading up to face-to-face, the research phase: figuring out locations, brands, products; which sales exec, agent, or broker to work with; and the post peak phase, getting the paperwork done and implementing customer care after approval can, and will, involve a lot of technology [and face-to-face] to enhance the experience for more and more customers as they get accustomed to having technology part of their daily lives.

So my focus of this discussion is "what's the future of real estate marketing?" with all this wired and wireless tech becoming part of so many lives. It will be driven by customers.

WHY DO I WANT TO KNOW?
Today I work very closely with a whole town of C-Level execs and former execs in the Town of Palm Beach and one thing they impress on me every day is to make big preparation and moves NOW, when things are down and out. Dream, learn, and plan now - and if you have the cash, use some of it. Because you will be ready before things get better and be in a position to take advantage of them for the long term. You'll be leading when everyone else is playing catch-up. Many of these mentors added the most to their careers during these cycles.

That's why my blog on the future of real estate marketing focuses on a 0-1 year window, 1-5 year window, and 5-10 year window. You may be right about the time frames. Things could happen faster. But the current economy will probably slow that down.

PREDICTIONS
I started the first multimedia lab at IBM in 1986 that became the first studio in the Personal Computer Division, and won a NY Film Festival award in 1989 showing the world what multimedia and the Internet would be in the future (The Web went "live" in 1995). Sounds impressive, right? I was dead wrong about the video part. It's just now happening. I thought it would happen by the 1990's. I've been waiting over 20 years.

I've been very careful about predictions and timing ever since.

WHAT DRIVES TECHNOLOGY CHOICE?
Technology will be used when it makes financial sense, over and above cultural sense. Cost, productivity, and profit will make the market move in a particular direction.

There are fads that come and go. I left IBM to go to Motorola and launch [mostly over the Internet] what became Nextel. Anyone heard that "chirp" of a two-way radio lately?

But the fundamentals of wireless are here to stay and expanding. They are the personal computer of this century.

Some realtors will adopt more technologies than others. Some already have. Others will wait. I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all. Each will select technologies at their own pace, making their own business decisions along the way.

I'm hoping this expanding list helps create a menu, and we discuss the pros and cons of each.

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
So here are more specific questions brought up by the discussion:

- Will you implement videos on your website to show a property?

- Which social media channels will you explore to attract more leads & relationships? How many do you think you can personally manage? Can you quantify the hours per week you spend today?

- Are you using a Customer Relationship Management System now? Which one? Do you use it for database marketing? Has it enhanced your relationships with customers?

- What is your marketing mix today? What will you try 3 years from now?

- How are you competing with Zillow.com and other sites?

- Do think the independent broker/agent business model will change because of technology? If so, how? If not, why not?

- How will texting & short messaging come into play in your business? With customers? Advertising programs?

- What's the time frame? Is 5-10 years too long to forecast? Should we adjust to 6 months, with 5 years being the outer edge?

- Will you have a brick and mortar office in the future?

- Are these changes good for the real estate business? (Don't want to go off on a tangent here with society as a whole). Too big a topic for this channel.

- What other questions should we ask?

Thank you again for your time, effort, and intellectual energy on this topic. It's a tough mental exercise but is greatly appreciated.

Mike

This was a great read, the age of digital marketing in real estate. This is a good thing and bad at the same time. The bigger brokers are not fully integrated with online marketing leaving smaller brokers a chance to catch some buyers through all the social media sites. Once the larger brokers start to spend and take up all the ad space then that will separate the winners and losers. What does that mean for individual agents? or As a larger broker will the split be different?

Hi Mike,

Good stuff - as a former developer in a little town names Seattle... I was building portals back in the late '90s...

One of the things that I recall from those days were the ideas of what the internet could be used for - UW HIT lab had a prototype of a wearable computer... It used a glove for input and a heads up disply on eye glasses... They had not quite figure out how to connect it to the internet yet... Wireless was in infancy then.

My point is, what you have put out is a GREAT resource - what many people don't realize is that something as simple as getting listings based on your gps location on a mobile - is something we had not even thought of 10 years ago. That will keep going as you know, the non-adaptors will keep falling behind, when they get the idea of facebook, or buzz or whatever, the early adaptors are communicating with people on completely different platforms and technologies. The gap increases.

What I would love to see from a developer now, is integration of CRM and SM - there is a little of it in Wave - but it could be expanded even further...

I feed ideas to our VOW company on a weekly base - I think they are tired of me asking for features... but I can tell they are also listening pretty hard.

Revisit in 90 days and see what new stuff is hitting the world.

Maybe I am not visionary enough. I think the technology will improve, but I think people will begin too look for a more personal approach. I do not think it would ever be wise to make an investment in real estate based on a web site view. We may do more video conferencing rather than phone calls with clients. Tech wise I think long run the telephone will be your computer, and TV, and every other electronic devise all rolled into one. You will be able to plug it into larger monitors and keyboards, if the key board is still around. I suspect large touch screens will take over.

I hope there are advances in the back office. Right now I have a separate web site, blog site, client data base, IDX (some of these are integrated but they are separate platforms), my on line forms are in one place, my e-mail is in another, more social networking sites are in other places, then there is another company for my electronic signing. IGoogle is providing some integrations, but not enough. There is a lot of trouble and duplication moving from application to application. The key for me will be integrations.

Wow! I was at the Dallas Raincamp this week, just for this reason. If you are not already on the train, with your mind fully engaged in the transition that is occurring, you are under it, and may not be in the game 5 years from now. I at least have a seat, so many still do not, or do not believe how quickly the change is already taking place. I still have a lot to learn, but I am grateful for folks like you and all the other Rainers. Thanks for the peek into your crystal ball - good job!

For all of you who are so caught up on the technology bandwagon, Jeanean made the most salient point when she said the "magic" only happens when technology meets with the human aspect of prospects and clients. I have been a National Sales/Marketing manager in Fortune 500 corp sales for 20 years, and I can tell you from field sales experience ..... technology or not, people still buy from people they have a personal relationship with. The technology explosion, from a pure point of sales standpoint, is overwhelming the prospect and the transaction .... certainly making the "power of personal" even more powerful. Electronic technology and communication certainly has it's place, but NAR facts, not opinion, clearly shows Personal Relationship Marketing ( not e-communication ) drives 90% of the business of Top Producers. Putting all your eggs in the technology marketing basket is NOT a proven winning strategy.

Mike, Lenn Harley (#7) made a good point that I hope you did not miss. Your approach makes much more sense from the perspective of where you've stated you've come from (the corporate world) and where you are now - the corporate world of Pulte homes and new home sales. You need to get the much different perspective of the resale market more into this discussion.

I, too, had a long (30+) years career in the corporate world of IT technology (with such now dead companies as Burroughs, Digital Equipment Corp, Compaq and SGI and a couple that are still around - EMC and HP). I was more field marketing oriented, so I didn't get into the sexy futurist stuff as much; but I did get to sit-in on and contribute to some of that type of thinking and planning- mainly to bring the "field perspective" into the process.

I've adaopted much more technology than anyone else in my area, with 4 Webs sites that I created and maintain myself targeted at four different audiences, my own Virtual tour software, with the ability to create videos and with active accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Linked, InActive Rain, Trulia, Zillow and my own local blog on Blogspot. I'm constantlyadopting new technologies and trying to figure out how to best integrate them into my business. There is just so much out there right now that it is overwhelming to keep up with. I try to drag others on my local office along into the new world of technology, but there is rampant resistance to change and fear of technology.

It has been my opinion, expressed here a few times that the customers will drag real estate practitioners kicking and screaming into this modern world of technology. They are already there, using this stuff every day. I think one of the things that must and will change dramatically in the next 5-10 years is the whole business model under which real estate sales are transacted. There has already been one post here suggesting a rear-guard action to restrict customer access to information to "regain control of the IDX data" as I believe it was put. That's akin to China or Iran trying to control access to information and information sharing on the Internet - it ain't gonna happen. Those horses have left the barn already.

The next big thing is already on the horizon - the national MLS. Whether it be NAR itself (in hahoots with Realtor.com) or Trulia or Zillow or whomever that will happen and sooner than people think. Once that bridge is crossed the serious questions about what value the local boards and brokerages and other vestiges of the old system of selling real estate really contribute will be asked (not by the local boards or brokerages, but by the customers). Eventually the consumers themselves will drive the changes to antiquated state real estate licensing and business practices laws. They will do that because they will have access through ubiquitous technology to most of what they need to buy a house and they will not put up with paying for stuff that they already can get free or do for themselves. That will eventually lead to commodity pricing of the services that real estate companies render and you and I have both lived through what happens to an industry (in our case, the computer industry) when commodity pricing takes hold.

The real challenge for those who wish to stay in real estate and continue to make a living at it will be to redefine themselves and the services that they will deliver in such a way that the future customers will percieve enough value in those services to pay for them. That may well endup being some form of a salaried buyer agent job witha national MLS/National Broker company or maybe acting as a listing consultant for one of those companies. It likely won't be with some small, local brokerage and almost certainly won't be commission-based sometime in the near future.

Great post Mike! Very informative!

Mike:

It appears that we must adapt or die. I appreciate your forecasts and edeavour to adapt to them.

No offense but I thought with the credentials you were going to have something not known by people who keep up with the times... Anything else you could speculate on?

Mike....Thanks for a look in to the now and the future of real estate.

Jerry Gray CRB,CRS,GRI,SFR / Allen Tate Realtors / Winston Salen, NC /336-918-2433

Mike....Thanks for a look in to the now and the future of real estate.

Jerry Gray CRB,CRS,GRI,SFR / Allen Tate Realtors / Winston Salen, NC /336-918-2433

I remember not too long ago in 2001 agents were still developing photos and copying them onto hand made flyers. Now you can make flyers online like Imprev.com or upload digital photos onto flyer templates like TurnKeyFlyers.com... all within 10 years.

Mike -

Great thoughts! I wanted to add some thoughts of my own. I came into real estate from a 10-year career in Direct Marketing, specifically working in the automobile industry for some of the biggest manufacturers out there. From my experience, I knew that followup was going to be one of my key challenges, so even before I got my license, I purchased a database and created marketing followup programs so that I would be prepared. Despite this, I STILL find consistent followup to be a key challenge. I think technology still has a ways to go to simplify this critical part of a RE Agent's life.

Also, I often find that I don't even recognize that I problem I am having could be solved by a new technology. For example, despite having a good laptop, a 3G usb modem, portable printer, etc. I was still finding it difficult to look at the MLS on the road. It just took too long to pull over, set up my laptop, launch it, get on the internet, find my fob for the MLS, log in, and start searching. Our MLS provides a mobile version, but even using my iPhone was cumbersome.

Now that the iPad has been announced (although not yet shipped) I find myself wanting it DAILY. Just think - much of what we do these days is on the Internet - from searching listings to using zipforms to emailing, etc. How great will it be to be able to pull over, whip out the iPad, and do all of that - no plugging in, no waiting time, etc.

So - when looking to the future, we can look at today's pain points. For the consumer - searching for homes continues to get better, but have you tried to find a GOOD way to find a GOOD realtor on the Internet? How do you choose? How can you know? I think social networking might be a key player in this arena, with friends you trust being able to rate and recommend real estate agents. Also for the consumer, visibility into the loan and escrow transactions needs to improve. There are tools out there, but they are rudimentary at best and require a steep learning curve for the agent and customer.

For the agent - followup, followup, followup. Followed by, transaction management, listing management, lead management, time management. These tools all need to evolve and improve - as they require too much upfront customization and too much effort by individual agents like me who, frankly, despite my technological prowess, would rather be out there talking to people. These tools need to work better together, on more common standards.

One last comment - to the person who was talking about Intellectual property. I think the time for that has passed. Data has NEVER been what we are all about. I am a big believer in having my clients be as educated as possible, with as little effort by me as possible. In the technology world there is the understanding that DATA is different than INFORMATION or KNOWLEDGE. I add value by helping my clients understand the information they get, and what it means for THEM. What impact will a particular home have on their life, their dreams? Data (homes on market, square footage, price, etc.) is not what I provide. I help them get knowledge, particularly of themselves.

Keep it up Mike!

Terrific Information, Mike! I plan to use it at my office meeting this coming week!

Elaine Sternquist, Northern California Brokers, Pleasanton, CA

I have already sold homes and land to several buyers who were thousands of miles away from online descriptions and photos and virtual tours. Some of my customers have also obtained financing online from lenders thousands of miles away. Its a matter of completely trusting the realtor and the lender.

I believe this will become commonplace 10 years from now. There will be 3-D virtual tours and technology that transposes the buyer "into" the home, building, or condo or onto the vacant land. They will be able to "walk"around as if they are there.

FEB

2010

Thanks for the contributions to the group discussion.

I see my role here as a facilitator, without revealing too much about technology, because that would squash ideas and discussion. But a quick update is in order and how it may apply to homes.

The way technology roles out for the most part is it starts at the government level - military, space, infrastructure, etc... then to large enterprises for huge business applications. Finally, it hits the street for consumers.

A lot of my presentations were to the governments of the world and large enterprises. They are the only ones that can afford the early adopter costs - including training - because the interfaces at that level are awful!

My son is in the Marines and he handles smart ordinance. Each bomb costs around $200,000. He has to go through months and years of training because the interfaces are engineering marvels and nightmares at the same time. Arming these things is like using a DOS interface - remember that nightmare [C: ]?

Did you know that barcodes will be replaced one day with ink that has transmitters in it? Transistors have gotten so small they can mix them into ink and spray it on tags, clothing, paper, metal, anything. They transmit to local antennas to send their "data" (part number, location, destination, manufacturer, etc.). It's called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).

I laugh anytime I see a nice Mercedes with a big-ass barcode taped on the window to go into their gated community. A hidden RFID strip will replace that. All those clunky plastic security tags on clothes will be replaced with RFID in the label too.

Wireless video capability has been around for military applications for 20 years. 3 full-size broadcast quality video feeds, sent over the Internet from one modem, has been available since 1999. The cost then was $50,000 a pop and the modem was the size of a pizza box.

Not exactly something a homeowner would want. But they will eventually go into every police car because security cameras at your home or business address will be replaced with IP based wireless instead of cable or phone wire. When an alarm goes off, the officer will put in your URL address (your home address will be your Internet address) and the cameras from inside the building will display on their laptop in the police car. They will be able to search for the bad guy without actually going into the house. A lot safer than what they do today.

Now before you get all "Big Brother" resistant on me, all this is a long way off and I'm sure the cost, interfaces, legal and privacy issues, will be argued and vetted before it gets installed in your house.

My point is, there is a lot going on that will eventually filter into the home market and the selling of those homes. Cost and simpler interfaces will be the driving force. As Sharona and others point out, the "Pain Points" are the areas that need work.

Back to selling real estate. I see technology needing a lot of work (an opportunity here!) in the following areas that affect your work life:

- Mobile Interfaces

- Back Office System Integration

- Content Production and Publishing

- Ways to use technology as a helpful tool so you can spend more time face-to-face

MOBILE INTERFACES
When I had 80 communities across Florida, I put over 50,000 miles a year on my car. It was my office much like it is for you. Getting a smartphone and laptop working in sync is a pain in the butt. How do you do that and still be on-time and pleasant when talking to customers?! Wires everywhere! Multiple chargers and batteries for everything! I think Apple will have the near term solution for that for an independent broker. But you will need access to listings, customers, your databases, office, vendors you work with, etc. AND IT WILL HAVE TO BE ROBUST ENOUGH, SEAMLESS, AND EASY.

By robust I mean something like this: I was annoyed that the new Google smartphone only allows you to have 1,000 contacts in your phone. I wouldn't buy it because I have over 1,400 contacts. Is the technology going to limit the number of people I have contact with? Ridiculous.

Seamless: Make the interfaces easy to setup and maintain.

Easy: Voice is the answer to get your handheld devices working for you instead of against you but it has to get better. My phone still calls my sister Patti when I'm trying to reach my son Patrick. A good friend of mine runs voice development technology at IBM so I give him grief about this all the time. Funny thing is, his house is totally Apple.

From your posts, you have these issues too. I'll address the others in the list above, but what do you think? Thanks again for your contributions!

I am very intrigued by how technology will evolve and change the business. I feel that being successful as an early adopter will be critical to success.

The main points of this discussion are what technologies are evolving, how fast they will get here, and how do we use them to build our business. I am not a developer but an implementer so I will not add my novice opinions to the technology question. I am just honored, humbled and appreciative to the many intelligent individuals who are willing to share there vision with us simple folk who desire to be better.

What I see evolving as the BIG side-bar question is not what will be the new technology but how we embrace and implement the change. Each market is unique and we are all innovators in our own rights. No matter what maturity level you are at on the technology ladder, you have to be well versed and educated in the future waves of technology so that we can provide the level of service our clients expect and DESERVE.

We are service providers, educators, and consultants. If you are able to make your clients feel safe and secure in your abilities you will be able to make the magic happen and ensure future relationships.

Mike.

Great post... in fact I cited many of your points in a presentation on "collaborative technology" yesterday at the annual Keller Williams Family Reunion in New Orleans. I believe that you have hit the nail on the head, and I also agree with some of the other comments with respect to timing. It would not surprise me if we experienced many of these movements within the next two to three years. My company recently introduced a technology that automates the transaction process for Realtors, allowing them to create/exchange/sign documentation in a virtual web-based format all from one domain. After introducing this technology on a national scale at the NAR conference last year, we have seen tremendous growth and our sales team is working in nearly 25 states. We would attribute this demand to the ease of use and customer demand. I agree that the buyers and sellers are the primary driver for any new technological shift, as they should be... the customer is king.

The inspiring thing for me has been the rate at which our industry is already adopting new technologies that allow them to be more efficient and speak on a new level to the clients of today. We are finding early adopters coming out of the woodwork all across the nation to better serve their clients with today's technology, and the statistics in support of this movement are staggering. I was recently filtering through some of the NAR stats from last year that supported a 25% increase in smart phone usage amongst realtors last year alone. This is a serious departure from the norm for an industry that has traditionally been slower to embrace technology due to the "relationship-centric" nature of our business; but it feels like we are picking up on the fact that the right technologies will position us to strengthen relationships with our customers.

Lastly, I would like to finish on your early comment with respect to the learning curve being the greatest barrier (not the technology). I agree whole heartedly and believe that the most intuitive solutions will prevail in our industry... this message was at the core of my presentation that I referenced earlier. Again, great piece... and I would look forward to hearing more from you in the future!

Austin Allison, www.dotloop.com

Great post Mike! All items + some will be necessary for future Realtors. Thanks for sharing.

It takes guts to predict the future...kudos Mike. I especially liked what you had to say about consumers demanding information tailored to their needs and not necessarily the needs of agents and their sellers. Zillow and Trulia embraced this from the beginning and gained significant market share from Realtor.com, whose monopoly on listing information gave them the first mover advantage, but who failed to react as quickly or as thoroughly as they could have. Of course, Realtor.com's monopoly on the listing information may have been the reason for their slow reaction and a tactic required to deflect FTC attention. Anti-trust issues aside, the dominance of these 3 websites in the residential real estate space supports your point. Any real estate marketing company who fails to heed this lesson will find themselves struggling for relevancy.

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Hey Mike,

I am back here reading more - still good stuff.

After thinking about this for a while, it occurred to me that the biggest single shift I can see going from traditional large SOI farming for a successful realtor, to "generated lead" based success (this is my term for those of us with smaller SOI, generating business primarily through lead capture of some sort)...

Will come in the form of the agents capturing leads, figuring out conversion and fully understanding how to approach that. Then you will see far fewer leads slipping and a much higher conversion rate on internet leads of all kinds.
Currently, there are lots of negative opinion about lead suppliers - such as housevalues, justlisted etc, just to name someone close to AR. The primary problem that I see, is that the people buying leads, simply don't know what to do with them, once they start figuring that out - hold on.

Very intriguing! I believe in high-tech, but we cannot forget high-touch either! I am excited about new applications for customers. I have the new iPhone mapping feature downloadable for iPhone users directly from my website. Tools like this will continue to expand. Google is on the cutting edge...Watch to see what they are doing!

Mike,

Great information for us whose "noses are on the grindstone" not watching what is changing all around us. I have been around agents for about 23 years as a morgtgage lender (13) and and a previous Broker/owner of a nationally franchised brand. Currently I recruit and train both new and seasoned agents as well as produce myself (too many hats)! In this position of a sales leader (another nationally franchised office however no ownership thank you) in Houston, I have been elected to spearhead technology for this office. (hmm...) We have the standard boilerplate websites offered by the franchisor and they do a pretty good job with the basics. However if you qualify it with measured results it would fail. We have a long way to go to get the desired results. The reason I was selected to spearhead technology is my understanding of the "need," not the nuts and bolts. We are the last office in Houston (out of 13) to use 70% of the marketing budget on Newspaper advertising!!! Lord knows I fought it, but this group who decides the budget thought it is money well spent. When it was decided i did not have a vote, now I do. Point is, we are a fairly progressive office but stuck in the dark ages when it comes to technology. Our firm has a group of "decent" producing agents who make up the decision making committee on the budget and fees to charge agents. Personally, it's a little like the "inmates running the asylum," each is elected to serve a one year term.

Agents want ease of use and convenience. Cheaply. As a group they are much more generous with their time than their money. If it makes their lives simpler and more easily managed then it will be accepted. If it is complex and the least bit difficult it will not be used.

The consumer needs the ability to sort through all the information. And then what do they believe. Recently I looked at some Zillow values...man are they way off! I simply tell the client to take that information as "a shotgun approach" to real estate: it is very innaccurate and does more harm than good.

I have ideas on that and other programs to provide consumers with the information they want and need.

What will technology do to our industry? Well look at how it has helped us these last 10 years. Increased efficiency by at least 200%. Clients know have the ability to preview homes online or with the agent at the office before they go trapsing around all over town. You can eliminate many homes based on information gathered in the office, check the "value" factors, the sexual predators, the tax rates, etc etc.

Will tech replace the agent? (The bad ones we hope, our real estate commission sure wont, sorry off point) No. but the role of the agent will evolve. A home is not an airline seat, hotel room or a car. Uh wait, car? Thats right. I remeber back in the 90's. y wife was VP Sales of a Major Airline. She made the comment as soon as the net spooled up: this is going to change our business (and adversely affect the travel agents) which it has all but killed. And then there were these car salesmen at a bar, all upset about the internet: "we are out of business, it will replace us." Didn't happen, it only created more opportunities for the industry and information to the consumer. It revoltionized used cars.

The common thread that keeps us in business: human emotion, efficiency and inside knowledge. They want to trust another human to help them make this decision.

Have a great day.

Best,

Greg Bennett

FEB

2010

I think our role in marketing will be forever changing thanks to the internet. Those of us that can change and adapt to the next new way to reach out to the consumer will survive in the end.

The naysayers are complaining that we need to tighten up our data or we will lose. I find the MORE that is given out (even with educational material) the MORE the consumer NEEDS us. Confusion from info overload does set in!

Great discussion, everyone!

Here's my take:

Everything will get simplified. The whole Mac vs. PC will become archaic because consumers just won't tolerate it anymore. Software that doesn't work with other software won't be marketable. Just look at the iPad: no Flash, no cash. And you won't even have to think about codec anymore when you try to shoot video for the web. It'll take time, but eventually, it will all work together seamlessly.

Your computer will be more of an idea and less of a physical object. That is to say, cloud computing will take off. No more floppy discs or even USB hard drives. Even your OS will be downloadable. Information will flow like water, not go clunkily from one gadget to another like it does today.

Consumer demand will drive technology. We used to think that the future would have flying cars and instant food, but we forgot one thing: who would buy that? Who would buy a car that can kill them in a mid-air fender bender? Who would buy a robot to help get them dressed when it's easier (and cheaper) to do it themselves. Now, technology that entertains is the technology that will sell. So, look to the consumer side and not the sci-fi side.

Instant access. As mentioned before, people will go to one place to access everything they need; they won't stand for software that can only do one small task. They will demand more convenience and more simplicity.

As for home buyers and sellers: it will all go digital. The younger Gen X and especially Gen Y buyers barely tolerate the mounds of paper needed to buy a home. Within the next decade, when the Millenial Generation are in the market for their first home, they'll demand that their agent do it all paperless. They won't stand twenty page contracts having to be signed and re-typed eight times. Not only will they view it as immoral (the green movement is very much tied to an ethical understanding of reducing waste), they will view anything less than paperless as archaic. Remember: they don't even remember dial up Internet.

Luckily, DotLoop is helping to simplify the home-buying process by creating one domain where agents can access their paperless forms, electronic signatures, and CRM functionality and that speaks to the next generation of home buyers.

Just my thoughts. As for predicting the future, remember that recessions and bad economic times are rarely taken into consideration. And not every futurist or predictor (including me) can easily or even successfully predict anything. This article from 1995 predicted that the Internet was a fad.

What will the home buyer or seller of the future want? The same things we want: convenience, transparency, and simplicity.

Thanks,

Nick Sweeney
(The DotLoop Team)

Mike -

I'm back, this is the kind of thing where the comments take off and have so much information to sift, that I just need time to compute... I am going to run through your specific questions, because they are really good and a pointer to where we are heading.

- Will you implement videos on your website to show a property? YES, running a video channel on Youtube, I don't think it is a coming thing, it is a must have now.

- Which social media channels will you explore to attract more leads & relationships? How many do you think you can personally manage? Can you quantify the hours per week you spend today?
AR, FB, Twitter, LinkedIn. Roughly 1 hour a day, scheduled on daily todo list.

- Are you using a Customer Relationship Management System now? Which one? Do you use it for database marketing? Has it enhanced your relationships with customers?
YES, a whole slew of them, Marketleader, Vision, HBM, and testing on GoPro. Also using Vobre for VOW/doc management.

- What is your marketing mix today? What will you try 3 years from now? Mostly online, Open houses and door knocking - print is gone, a little direct mail.

- How are you competing with Zillow.com and other sites? I am not trying to compete with Zillow, I am not trying to be the hub where everyone lands, there is no way I can out advertise them or Realtor.com. I buy leads, and I direct anyone I come in contact with to websites with lead capture, or I just take down their information.

- Do think the independent broker/agent business model will change because of technology? If so, how? If not, why not?
I am not seeing the current model change, fairly simple, unless the brokerage takes a much bigger stake in their agents success, it won't - IF they do, it might. For now, our team is in full on mode and we are responsible for our success - not the managing broker.

- How will texting & short messaging come into play in your business? With customers? Advertising programs? Texting is as common now as dialing the phone, and many clients find it more convenient.

- What's the time frame? Is 5-10 years too long to forecast? Should we adjust to 6 months, with 5 years being the outer edge?
I don't think the 10 year frame is too far out, but it is a bit more blurry, I just don't know what we will be looking at for both technology and implementation, we at least have an idea about what might happen in 5 years. The 10 year outlook is very good though, it serves to keep us on our toes and keep in mind that even if we are using the latest now, something else is about to poke it's head out at us, and it will be a completely new and different approach to something we do. How will we receive that and how will we implement it?

- Will you have a brick and mortar office in the future?
Can't say for sure, I think so - group collaborations will still work better face to face - I think... I doubt that the agent farms will be productive in the future though, I see more focused coherent teams working under a sign than just piles agents on low splits - again, this will apply to the big winners - there will be agent mills everywhere, but they will struggle.

- Are these changes good for the real estate business? (Don't want to go off on a tangent here with society as a whole). Too big a topic for this channel. - What other questions should we ask?
If the service that comes out of this improves the way clients are taken through a transaction, then yes, it will be good, if all it does is to create a number on a head, then it will backfire - I believe the individual company's implementation will dictate how it affects them.

The other big question is - How do we take these tools and make our business work better with them?

That technology is availavle NOW, TODAY, and I offer it FREE for my R.E. agent referral partners to use. Our system has been extensively beta tested and has resulted in boosting sales thru the roof for the agents that use it. It IS the future and it's here now!

FEB

2010

To, that is an interesting thing - I have to admit that I have not come across a singly system that offers all the above, if you have it, I would be interested in hearing about it.

You might want to update your profile, to the point where one can check you out and contact you. Just a thought.

FEB

2010

Thanks Mike, yes the future of real estate is here now and the train is leaving with or without you. ALL ABOARD!!!

FEB

2010

Thanks to everyone for contributing so much to this discussion.

Because of this topic, that I've post here and in other channels, I've received over 500 emails so far from real estate pros, software and service providers, and marketing gurus. It will take a while to organize it and report back.

In the meantime, keep it coming! The more ideas the better. Make sure you read the posts from everyone above.

This web and email "overload" brings up an important point that has been mentioned by several in the posts above.

Knowledge is power. Informing yourself is really important so you can "check" an expert's work; but, at the end of the day - if you are paying an expert a fee or commission to help you sort through all the gigabytes of information available and distill it for you - and they provide sound expert recommendations, they are worth every dime.

Yes, homebuyers can find a lot of information because of the websites available and what will be available in the future. But buying a home is a complex process with a lot of personal business, financial, and legal pitfalls. More information usually makes decisions more complex, not simpler. Knowledge, on the other hand, makes decisions easier.

You have the knowledge. There is nobody better suited to help in the real estate sales and buying process than licensed real estate professionals. I would argue that it's even more important today BECAUSE of all the information available. You don't control the information like you used to, but you still have a lot more knowledge than the average homebuyer with an Internet connection. That's far more helpful to your client than just information.

All that info that your client brings will just make you be on your 'A' game - knowing how to use the information sources, tools, and providing recommendations that make common sense and help your client be happy with the decisions they make based on your input.

Thanks again for your thought and time that you have put in toward helping everyone with this post!

FEB

2010

Mike - it is exciting to see someone predicting what real estate will be like 10 years form now. I can't wait to look back from that point ans think WOW look at how things have changed.

FEB

2010

Hopefully the future will include us smiling in our blog pictures. LOL! Anyway, great post! I have a hard enough time keeping up the the stuff that came out in the last year, so trying to figure out the next 3-5 is way too exhausting. I'll leave that up to you.

What? That is my smile! ;)

MAR

2010

Dear Mike

Great thoughts, yes indeed the high tech train is moving fast, if we don't catch it we are going to be left behind.

In general I advise all my friends young and old, especially those who reject and/refuse to learn technologies and modern media. I say to them " IF YOU DON'T TRY TO LEARN HOW ELECTRONICS ARE WORKING AND OPERATING THE E DEVICES, THE DAY WILL COME WHERE YOU WILL BE SEATING IN YOUR WHEELCHAIR AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE IT. SO YOU'LL BE STACKED" Hm!

Timo

www.asktimo.com

MAR

2010

This is a good conversation but I believe it misses a larger point. The term early adopter is mentioned quite a bit above but at this point who hasn't heard of search engine optimization, social media, blogging etc.

The better question is how long before professionals make the required investment in their Brand (business) to bring themselves into the current digital marketplace.

Their are countless tools and resources (alot which are free) that can assist real estate professionals in their marketing needs. These tools are robust and flexible and can also address other components such as blogging, search engine optimization, social media optimization etc.

Professionals like everyone else are skeptical when it comes to the advantages that are clearly defined and outlined in numerous case studies. What we have is an understanding gap. Those that know do and those that don't know stay in the dark.

For the price of a couple months of leads professionals can re-launch their Brand and impact their current market in a big way. The conversation stays around how to generate the leads and keep them flowing when it should be how is your Brand positioned (Web Presence).

There are numerous ways to develop premium interactive web 2.0 real estate web sites that are cost effective and offer high returns on investment.

We would like to see professionals utilize what is currently available let alone discuss what the future may or may not hold for real estate marketing.

As we have all seen it is a bit of luck and best guess. Who knew Facebook was going to have over 400,000,000 million users and counting?

James Chai

Realtorpress "Real Estate Marketing Tools, Tips, Resources & News"

MAR

2010

Hey James,

I see your point here - however - I think the outlook that was offered originally was more about the future, and less about who can build a web 2.0 site (which btw is ancient tech in the rest of the world).
To me, the point is, that if I can catch the next facebook or twitter when it is early on, I may get an edge on you... And I am using a lot of tools to managed the 1000s of leads we have, and I don't even have a web 2.0 site... I just work hard - and I used to be a software engineer, so maybe I saw through a couple of sales spiels as I used to deal with vendors for everything under the moon...

The point is, how do we use it and what is next. Templated web sites are not the answer to anything that I know off... And all those who have them, don't seem to be getting much out of their web presence...

Just saying.

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R. Michael Brown

West Palm Beach, FL

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Brown Ltd. Digital Marketing & Public Relations

Address: West Palm Beach, FL, 33467

Office Phone: (561) 756-1674

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