During my evening reading, I came across Seth Godin's latest blog entry, Meatballs and permeability.  In it, one of the things he mentions is outsourcing.  And there is so much whining in the world over outsourcing, but this is the good kind... mostly. 

Seth says" 

"A few decades ago, Tom Peters argued that outsourcing everything in your company (and letting the various departments compete with outside vendors) made a lot of sense. If you need to run your copy department or factory efficiently enough to compete, you will, the thinking goes."

And, that leads me to my point.  Here in real estate land, we are in front of the curve.  I think it is reasonably safe to say that we outsource more labor than most other industries.  We hire Virtual Assistants, and that is the most basic definition of outsourcing.  

Almost every real estate business expert advocates farming out "non-income producing activities", like setting up and collating mailings, and all of the other details that we get caught up with that steal hours and hours, but could be done by someone else much more efficiently.  

It isn't an important thing, but it is significant in one way.  Many real estate agents understand that it can be more efficient to pay someone to do something than to do it ourselves, or have someone standing around the office waiting for us to give them that job.  

Anyway... at least this was more real estate related than my racing, rock-crawling and crazy people videos of the last few days... 

 

8 Comments on Wow, we are in front of the curve on something...

Lane, good for you.  Our company is based on outsourcing and we are a great benefit to Realtors every day.

12/17/2007 05:56 PM by Beth Young (PropertyInfo Corp. - SureClose)


Beth - That wasn't a "me" as much as a "real estate agents in general" kind of comment...

12/17/2007 06:02 PM by Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy (Diamond Dwellings Realty)


Lane, I just meant that it was a good post and it is great that you see this correlation in real estate.  So, many agents that I talk to are still very distrustful of any outside help and are still running around trying to do everything themselves.

12/17/2007 08:08 PM by Beth Young (PropertyInfo Corp. - SureClose)


Beth - I think that many real estate agents are still focused on the check they write, rather than the most efficient use of resources.  While the out-go has to be controlled, the agents that are resistant to hiring out are assuming that they can do everything better and cheaper themselves.  That simply isn't the case. 

My wife does something similar to VA for lawyers.  Many are serious control freaks, and it takes a while for them to get over max control, and stop trying to micro-manage.  The ones that come from big firms are comfortable to sending things out, but the one man shows want to have a hand in everything.  I see a similar pattern in real estate. 

12/18/2007 08:52 AM by Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy (Diamond Dwellings Realty)


I think you are right on with your thoughts.

12/18/2007 12:59 PM by Beth Young (PropertyInfo Corp. - SureClose)


 Lane,

I just stopped by to drop off the car you ordered. Thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog.  I appreciate your posts.

Mike in Tucson

12/19/2007 09:39 PM by Mike Jones (Tucson Mortgage Company, LLC)


Mike - Back in one of my previous lives, I worked in a restoration shop. We did a Cobra for a client, and then built a replica... which was faster, and by that I mean wicked, nasty fast.  I love those things. 

12/19/2007 10:11 PM by Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy (Diamond Dwellings Realty)


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Real Estate Agent: Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy (Diamond Dwellings Realty)
Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy
Lilburn, GA
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