Dare I even say this in the presence of other REALTORS? What can I say about the NAR convention? I've never been to one, so I guess it was an accurate glimpse of the state-of-the-industry. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. For 100 years, NAR has been doing a good job creating and maintaining industry standards, and they've created the REALTOR brand, of which I am proud to be associated with as it does endeavor to provide superior client experience.
That said, this organization is old. And seriously behind the times, it seems. 95% of the people I met in Las Vegas were good people running their businesses in very traditional ways, working hard to make their clients happy. This is admirable, but with all the inefficiencies I see behind the scenes, there's this constant, gnawing feeling that this industry can be done better.
How? I'm not sure. But it eats at me constantly, and I want to figure it out. I want the magic answer. 83% of buyers and sellers are online? No problem, says the average agent, it's covered, I have a template website. Blog? What's that, and why should I care?
Here's a nice wrap-up assembled by Active Rain colleague John Novak, so check it out. The presentations by Seth Godin and Scott Bedbury, not to mention the Active Rain party, made the whole event worthwhile. Too bad I missed the Google/Zillow session... apparently the hordes became hostile with its consumer-centric presenters.
And FYI, in case you weren't aware, Nicaragua is the new hot-spot for US real estate investment.
As for the rest of the sessions I attended, they were a nice refresher on classic sales practices designed to grow my business in the old-school, usual ways. But in the end, I much prefer the smaller conferences like Inman... that's where the future of real estate truly makes its first appearances.
The Active Rainers in this community are way ahead of the game in terms of tapping into those 83% of consumers looking online before they call anyone... but what does this mean for the future of real estate?
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