Perhaps the greatest downfall of the technological revolution lies in the depersonalization of its subjugate generation. Its effects are sweeping on a sociological scale, and no exemption is granted for business dealings.
Rather than delving into the potentially devastating byproducts of nurturing the anonymity of Web 2.0, I will instead briefly chronicle my welcome respite from its clutches, when I attended Inman's NYC Connect Conference last week.
When we arrived at Connect, I was eager to meet the representatives of the predominant Real Estate 2.0 companies and regular participants in the real estate blogosphere. When I did, it was like a fresh breath of accountability, in the form of unseasonably warm (and odoriferous) New York City air. By appearing at a conference like this one to shake hands with your competitors, partners, and friends, it tacitly submits that you are willing to attach your own physical persona (i.e. make yourself accountable) to the web counterpart you have come to represent, and there is comfort in that.
Fireworks came in the most predictable of fashions and temperaments: an all-out duel between Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman and Move.com's Allan Dalton. A tame introduction quickly devolved into a "meet me under the big tree after school" war of words in which Dalton was the overgrown 5th grader that could already sprout a mustache, and Kelman was the runty transfer student with no one at his defense. As with his neatly executed dismemberment of Zillow at SF Connect this past summer, Dalton smartly played into the boisterous ears of the Realtor contingent that looked on and did so without a single misstep. In recounting the tale, sympathists to non-traditional real estate models will invariably support Kelman, just as NAR'ers will unwaveringly voice their support to their one man crack team. Decide which side of that fence you're on and you can just as easily determine who you would've rooted for.
That aside, we were pleasantly surprised by the underlying sensation of a collective consciousness amongst us as the next iteration of real estate. We were universally aware of the consistent skepticism we all had dealt with as trailblazers in this rigid field. But, we can take pleasure in the fact that it will be us, the misfits, that will shape this industry that is so ripe for change.
Till then, we will look forward to SF Connect this summer.
Cheers.
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