I have been amazed by how much the industry has evolved in such a short time..... as in the last 4 years. Everything I have been studying in the last year points to a future where technology drives more than most agents will ever dream. Technology that will give unfair advantages creating new mega agent teams as other agents fall by the wayside.
Real estate is evolving as a new business model run by high-tech savvy entrepreneurs leaving the dirty work of showing houses and meeting clients to role specific positions for "licensed employees". The day of the mass "individual real estate agent" running their own individual businesses are numbered, such are the days of traditional lead generation also.
Today anyone (provided they get license) can enter the real estate industry as a "sales person" and virtually immediately spending a solid amount of capital can generate hundreds and hundreds or leads monthly. Then with a ISA (Internal Sales Agent) convert these leads to appointments and send a hired employee (listing agent, buyers agent) to meet the prospective client for business. By utilizing these team models and aggressive online lead generation we are now seeing a new class of mega agent develop that hardly has to leave the office to be able to sell hundreds of homes a year.
The cost of these powerful lead generation system are becoming staggering with costs that can exceed $30,000/year for single systems. Most mega teams that utilize these systems are utilizing not ony one, but two, three, or even more systems. Meaning that the market share is shifting away from individual agents and towards mega teams.
The next level of this evolution is the shrinking of market areas. Let me explain; as technology continues to develop and barrier of entry to new markets decrease we will see branded mega teams begin to expand their team reach into new markets. Not only will you have National Franchises competing nationally, you will have singular owned teams competing nationally also, meaning these super tech-savvy teams will begin to compete in other areas where they see opportunity created by low competitive use in technology.
As the trend continues it will make it more expensive and much more difficult for individual agents to make a living selling real estate. To give a quick example: As my team has been utilizing some of this phenomenal technology we are seeing that many buyers and sellers are using our technology even though they are being represented by a different agents. For these buyers and sellers we have become the source for information and results and they are using our technology repeatedly, one again even though they are being "represented" by another agent. As a result, it's only a matter of time before that prospect engages us to request our service. Their previous agent may have been a solid dependable real estate agent, however we were providing the high tech services the client was seeking.
It certainly will be interesting to see how the next 5 years develop in real estate as giant technology companies such as Realtor dot com, Zillow, Trulia, Homes dot com etc. continue to charge for leads and build their mega brands as tech savvy teams take advantage of these leads and take market share from individual agents.
This is just my take on the situation as I study the movement of the industry. Any comments welcomed.
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