In the Daily Grind with Real Estate Agents
For the last two months I’ve had the chance to really get my hands dirty with real estate agents doing the daily grind to get business and sell property. It’s been a real awakening. Before I used to just talk about technology with some hypothetical framework for how real estate agents worked. Not any more.
A few of my insights, that might not be new to anyone but me, pertaining to technology and real estate:
- Most technology solutions aren’t made for real estate agents, even though they claim to be.
- It should be simple and fairly inexpensive to get a decent web presence online for real estate agents. It’s not. It’s easy to get a website up, but not one that plays well with simple things like listings.
- Most real estate professionals don’t want to really master the technological tools they need to be successful online. The ones who do want to learn to communicate on the web will be successful primarily because most their counterparts are going to try and take shortcuts that simply don’t work.
- I have a much greater appreciation for real estate professionals who are incredibly good online as well as offline. Of course, this tends to be the top tier real estate bloggers, who I’m sure will continue to succeed in a tough market.
- A lot of people in this business need to take the time to sit down and really figure out what their goals are and create a strategy for their business. There are too many people spastically jumping at the newest trends without thinking of how it works with their brand or goals.
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24 Comment(s)
4 Trackback(s)
- From Monday Links 11-05-2007 | Real Central VA | Nov 5, 2007
- From | localrealestateagent.info | Nov 16, 2007
- From | localrealestateagent.info | Nov 23, 2007
- From | localrealestateagent.info | Nov 26, 2007
retrove.com | Nov 5, 2007 | Reply
In reviewing your post this stood out…
“It should be simple and fairly inexpensive to get a decent web presence online for real estate agents. It’s not. It’s easy to get a website up, but not one that plays well with simple things like listings.”
Funny thing is each local MLS is basically a technology company, who could build extra revenue by doing exactly this.
Greg Swann | Nov 5, 2007 | Reply
Bravo! Well said. Thanks!
Vinny LaBarbera | Nov 5, 2007 | Reply
What a great, short post!
What really jumped out at me was this thought of yours,
“A lot of people in this business need to take the time to sit down and really figure out what their goals are and create a strategy for their business. There are too many people spastically jumping at the newest trends without thinking of how it works with their brand or goals.”
I could not agree more as I work in Real Estate marketing and come across so many clients that have no idea or strategy thought out. They just blindly jump into new trends and find themselves hitting the bottom hard. I agree that in order to be successful one needs to be completed entrenched in their strategies and MUST have a plan that has been mapped out with benchmarks and goals.
Love your blog, please keep em coming…
Steve Volkers | Nov 5, 2007 | Reply
Great post. You need to be able to communicate online but if you can not communicate in person there is really is no point to being online. Web 2.0 is a tool but is not the end all be all of real estate marketing.
Hawaii Life | Nov 5, 2007 | Reply
The real estate communication with clients begins on the web. Agents who don’t understand this will lose more and more business as this shift becomes more apparent. Agents & brokerages that learn to harness the power of the web have a better chance of being successful. This takes nothing away of an agents offline skills which must also be present.
Sundream Estate | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
I couldn’t say it better. The most real estate agents have the latest technology, but they can’t just it or they don’t have time to lean it.
The problem what their goals is and create a strategy for their business is not unusual for our branch or any branch.
Johan | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
Hi
I agree with you. I am a real estate blogger in South Africa and have my own real estate blog http://simonstownrealty.info.
There are a few problems:
1) Real estate agents in general focus on selling and not on the listing area. And when they have a listing area the area is way beyond their ability to create and cultivate relationships. (If they can dominate a small listing area they will win).
2) Free blog tools like wordpress.com does not allow for an integrated newsletter. Yes. You can use feedburner and other. More on this a little later.
3) Real estate agents need to go off-line. They need to phone people in the listing area and invite them to subscribe. But this adds complications. And I suggest that THEY subscribe the people. This is where Feedburner stops you in your tracks….you cannot add subscribers. They have stopped it. An alternative is Feedblitz.com. Unfortunately Wordress.com does not allow these newsletter scripts. I use a link to a googlepage for that.
4) If an agent focus the blog on the listing area they cannot rely on Google to send them traffic and subscribers alone. Therefore a newsletter via email is critical.
My point: Focus on a listing area. Canvas once and invite them to subscribe then send them relation building community news. But it’s also clear that the technology fails them. At least the free stuff.
Regards
Johan
Malcolm Bradley | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
I was interested to read your blog - what I think is the biggest problem with real estate agents is that almost without exception they all want a picture of themselves plastered over the website. What people are actually looking for is their new home. They aren’t interested in what the realtor looks like!
Most websites are generic and all based around templated ideas that are duplicates of each other. Google hates duplication and so will only index fresh pages. This is why there is such a problem getting a website visible for Google searches. Sometimes you have to create a whole new site to act as a landing place for people seaching just to get them forwarded onto your main website!
Teresa Boardman | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
I watch my peers buy technology that they can’t use or that is useless. There are so many companies that are selling us junk. They tell us what we need and what works. They are mostly wrong but the average agent is not going to figure it out until they spend some money. Real estate companies make it worse. Vendors sell ideas to clueless managers who adopt them as “preferred vendors” and unknowingly promote some really bad ideas. Agents need more education. Using technology to sell real estate is no longer a nice to have but a must have.
NikNik | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
I have noticed that the average real estate agent that I work with is typically older and not always concernd with how technology can help their business. Those that are concerned don’t know how to weed through the numerous offerings to get to the useful tools. I agree, that spending some quality time planning is a must. Having a business plan that outines which technologies are appropriate for your specific business needs, along with a route to implementation is key.
Steven Groves | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
Great post Erik -
Imagine, an actual strategy and a road map that can be followed for a consistent return is unsual in real estate; and as social media is invading the industry, many are wondering how / if social media itself is relevant.
Greg Swann and I talked about social media in real estate at the PodcampAZ - it is relevant but again, the strategy of how to incorporate it into your business is critical.
Boston Condos | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
Thank you Joel! Well said and it definitely starts to help any agents who may be drowning with tech advice…
Cleve Shirley | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
Good post.
Why are agents lost and working without a clear tech/ marketing strategy? It starts with a fundamental problem with the brokerage model. An agent, to be truly successful in this business, must master selling, contracts law, finance, marketing and technology…It’s no wonder the most successful people in the industry are those selling the ‘turn-key solutions’.
Matt Gentile | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
As the PR Manager for Florida’s leading and largest real estate brokerage, I could not agree more with this post and I applaud the author for its honesty and candor. We have deployed multiple initiatives over the past three years to make things as simple as possible for our agents to take advantage of technology, from Leadrouter, our exclusive lead management system to individual Web pages and profiles to Showcase Enhanced Listings that feed directly from our company Web site, FloridaMoves.com, but the most successful agents are those who have an interest in learning the technology and exploiting its utility for their own businesses. We can make the technology available from a systems standpoint, but it is really up to the individual sales associate to take advantage of all that is available to them at no cost.
From the Beach Chair,
Matt Gentile (FloridaMoves.com - 300 Days of Sunshine)
Hojin Chang | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
The one thing that consumers don’t realize is that much of an agent’s time is spent trying to generate leads. I strongly feel the web 2.0 stuff will help generate the leads for agents using this technology and agents can spend more time doing what comes best which is selling. Sales are always a numbers game and the more leads you generate, the better the chances of a sale so it is feasible that a crummy agent can succeed if enough leads are generated. You can be the best agent in the world but without leads you’re nothing. I know that I’m good at converting the leads that I do get and just need to generate more leads somehow.
Most agents are older and really don’t care about the new technology and that’s fine with me because the space for grabbing the attention of the consumer is not as crowded as it could be.
There really are not enough outlets for agents to learn about creating a web presence and how to make websites. I’d love to figure speak with someone about internet marketing without spending a fortune.
JeffX | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
There are very few people out there who truly understand what it’s like to be a real estate (or mortgage) foot soldier…and also have a high enough technology acumen to thoughtfully suggest-to-implement online strategies.
I admire your willingness to ‘walk a day in the shoes of…’ It must feel like you spent some time in the peace corps
Sol | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
We can start by seeking to understand the real purpose of technology. Mine includes saving time and money for myself and my clients.
Too many agents are using web2.0 technology to create bells and whistles but do nothing for the clients. This is the equivalence of putting a smiling face on bus benches and expecting to get a house sold. Many agents then claim that they are spending so much money on marketing to sell houses when in fact they’re just promoting themselves for future business.
I suspect many people are jumping on the web 2.0 bandwagon without truly understanding which web2.0 provides the greatest and highest utility for the clients.
Metrowest MA Real Estate | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
In the last few years technology has become more and more important in the real estate field. From SEO to Social media to Blogging. Implementing a good business plan around these things is very important. You can be a technically advanced at all of these things but if you have not mastered the art of communication and salesmanship you will be just spinning your wheels. The best agents going forward will be the ones that have been in the trenches actually selling homes but have also taken the time the keep up with technology trends.
Sol | Nov 6, 2007 | Reply
Metrowest, excellent point!
Real estate marketing is also getting faster and faster. Consumers will demand faster service. It used to take several weeks or months to reach all the buyers, today takes less than two weeks.
This transformation will 360 the industry.
Chris Dowell | Nov 7, 2007 | Reply
Building a website is easy. Promoting the website is the hard part. It has taken me 8 years of hard work to figure out how to promote my website. I stopped paying technology gurus and started researching myself.
Malcolm Bradley | Nov 7, 2007 | Reply
Unfortunately by doing stuff yourself you can end up by spamming the search engines and getting either ranked really badly or by being blocked from Google & Yahoo completely. There is so much poor information on the internet that unless you hire someone that knows what they are doing and works on a no result, no fee basis you are never going to achieve much.
John Schroeder | Nov 8, 2007 | Reply
Building an online marketing force in the real estate business takes time and effort. Skimping on either one will not get the results that most desire. Your point about agents jumping from one technology to the next is right on.
If you are able to help potential buyers and sellers by giving them the tools and information that will assist them in their pursuit- then over time you will have success online. All of the new online gadgets are cool…but just make sure that they have a purpose to you and your clients.
Bruce Clark | Nov 22, 2007 | Reply
Excellent article. The real estate industry is undergoing a radical shift: the volume of technical and marketing options we are presented with is staggering. At my website (http://www.bruceclarkhomes.com/), I am not yet up to 2.0 standards due to wanting to wait to see how AJAX, RSS, etc. all ‘play’ with the web user and admit to being underwhelmed with some 2.0 real estate sites.
At the end of the day the root question is: does it help produce more business in less time with less effort while at the same time providing the high level of service and support my clients demand.
Byron | Nov 25, 2007 | Reply
Hi there,
I have tried just about every type of technology that exists to attract customers and promote listings. To be honest and no disrespect the technology that I make the most amount of money from is the phone. I call people I know, I call people I don’t know and the rest seems to sort itself out.