Sunday, February 11, 2007
Case Study #1: The True Power of the Blog
DirectLoanPro.com
This article is in response to yesterday's blog titled:
Nearing the End For Realtors and Mortgage Professionals
Yesterday, I sumbitted the article listed above to http://www.activerain.com/. In case you're not familiar with it, http://www.activerain.com/ is one of the top sites for online real estate and mortgage networking. To say the least, my article proved to be extremely controversal,
as it sparked a debate that has carried over to today. The real estate and mortgage professionals shared some thought provoking opinions both for and against my argument. The discussion.....correction.....debate lasted all day, proving to be my most pivotal topic yet.
I decided to write a follow-up blog to thank everyone again for participating in the debate. The overwhelming response I received was worth every minute I sat in front of my computer yesterday.
Since we all work in the same [housing] industry, whether it's in real estate or mortgages, we're affected by the same changes. The structure of our business forces us to adapt to these changes, both good and bad. With the exception of a couple of participants, everyone contributed strong evidence to support their arguments. I chose a side when I wrote the article and apparantly made it edgey enough to get responses.
Here's What I'm Taking With Me:
- With the exception of a few individuals, most of you are in agreement that the real estate and mortgage businesses will never become fully automated. There are certain steps in both real estate and mortgage transactions that require the presence of a person.
- DON'T USE REALTOR.COM OR ZILLOW.COM, RIGHT? For the record, most of my borrowers know of, and use both of these sites. I've never needed to use them so I just go off what they tell me. You're still welcome to give me other suggestions to offer my borrowers.
- Some people responded by providing facts to prove me wrong. I noticed a lot of responses that were laced with sarcasm, or were attacking me personally. There were too many holes in my argument to just let me win that. If I was a potential client reading that dialogue, I'm would hire the person who used their knowledge, as opposed to sarcasm.
My favorite response would have to be from Jay Merton. Jay proved you can win an argument and still be a gentleman about it.
I had fun with that. It's going to be hard to duplicate that passion next time around. ActiveRain.com definately has some thinkers here. I'll have to find a different topic for us to but heads over. Talk to you soon!
Here are some of my favorite comments:
"I simply had to come back for a visit, just to see the comments you received. In my first comment I wrote: "If your intent was to make a splash with a provocative topic-you may have succeeded!" I expected you would receive some very negative comments from some of our members (and unfortunately I was not wrong in that expectation), others would politely disagree and add to the debate, some applied humor to the debate and some thought it thought-provking.
I was pleased to read your replies to
the comments-with good grace and humor: "Touché."
That your post was featured is no surprise to me-it deserved to be featured! Some members disagreed with your original premise and could not imagine why a post they disagreed with should be featured. This makes no sense what-so-ever to me. How boring the ‘Rain would be if we all agreed with
one-another!
"I don't agree totally. A shake-out is on the way. Any REALTOR who thinks that s/he will be unaffected by the increased availability of real estate services on the Internet is delusional. Just like stock brokers in the late 90s who said that etrade.com and other web stock brokerages would soon be extinct. However, just as the best stock brokers survived the rough years in the market since 2001, so will the BEST REALTORS survive the evolution of our business. "
-Darren C. Douglas
"As TLW has commented many times before. Your computer can never take the place of a good advisor.
Sure, computers and fancy websites will forever be an intrical part of the process and I'm sure there is some percentage of buyers that may prefer to work in the virtual world, but for most people buying a home is a touch n feel transaction. They want hand holding and reassurance that their doing the right thing.
However, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the travel agency business was once a thriving business in the pre WWW days. Then came Orbitz, Priceline, and the Travelocity's of the world; and this industry has all but ceased to exist.
The real estate community needs to embrace computers and the web for the value they add and recognize that the true value resides in the knowledge and understanding of the truly qualified realtor or loan officer. "
-Martin Rodruigez
"If I go down I'm taking the car sales people with me. "
-Greg Cremia
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