Commentary: The Real Estate 2.0 Party

Which half of the glass do you see? The Real Estate 2.0 movement is well under way, but I guess I'm not seeing it like some do. What amazes me is how much history seems to be repeating itself. Reading the latest article from Red Herring regarding online brokers and the state of the industry reads like articles that were written years ago. Just look at the headline, "Real Estate's Web Wake-up". I've got news for you, if you've been asleep for any period of time at all during the last several years, you might as well go back to bed, you missed the best part of the party. The only thing that's taking place right now is putting the house back in order after the bash. Things are definitely going to change, but not as much as some might think, the industry is just re-arranging the furniture and re-decorating the place for a new way of doing things. The invitation list to the next party is going to be to be limited to the people who have been resting up, doing their homework and dreaming up new and innovative ways to make money doing what they have always done. Some of the people that get left behind will whine and cry that they were displaced by a bunch of goatee wearing geeks who used their technical voodoo magic and that evil INTERNET to put them out of business and do a disservice to THEIR customers. Some of them will do better than they ever could have dreamed of under the rules of Real Estate 1.0.

Want to go to the Real Estate 2.0 soiree? If you're spending all of your time thinking up ways to defend why and how much you charge for your services, you're not on the list. If you're spending your time coming up with ways to bash and belittle people who don't do business the way you think they should, you're not on the list. If you're spending your time creating stories to explain why old business models should be preserved for the greater good of an industry, you're not on the list. If you've spent the better part of your career letting other people do the heavy lifting for you while you "networked", you're not on the list. If you've ever defended yourself by saying "That's way it's always been done" you won't even be allowed in the neighborhood.

Here's list of things you should have been doing after the first party.
1. Learning how to brand your business. (Not just yourself)
2. Learning how and why people REALLY use the web and technology for the entire life cycle of a transaction and building a strategy around it.
3. Developing business models that speak to different levels of consumer demand and consumer needs. (If you're only prepared to sell one size, forget it, it won't fit everyone. You might even need to build different brands within your own operation)
4. Preparing for the day when some clients will be willing to pay you more than you've ever charged before for your service because you adopted early and innovated often.
5. Learning how to respond to market conditions and deliver your services based upon consumer demand.

The real estate industry has been ripe for a correction for quite a while. I'm not talking about bubbles, I'm talking about the entire process and underlying culture. Anyone that has spent much time working inside the system has to truthfully admit that, in many cases, the overall process of the real estate industry doesn't mirror business processes as a whole. It's going to take a pretty diverse skill set to succeed in the real estate industry of the future. For instance you can spend a bunch of time explaining what you think the MLS is and how it should be used or you can use it for what it can be.

Here are some of the attributes that I see of the Real Estate 2.0 Winners of The Future

*Professionals who truly understand business, specifically those with exceptional marketing skills and world class communication chops
*Professionals with intimate product and industry knowledge that is garnered from experience and not just repurposed facts and figures
*Professionals who understand that they need to be nimble and adapt to change and even rebuild their business models if necessary
*Professionals who can hold their head up high and take pride in being compensated for delivering service that equalled or exceeded what they received in cash value
*Professionals that understand that they are entrepreneurs and that their employer is their client. Everything they base their philosophy of doing business on should be dictated by that alone. All other participants in the process, (trade associations etc.) are just that, participants, not the final word or authority on how one should conduct their enterprise.

I am looking forward to the changes this industry is undertaking. It's exciting and I think there will be more winners than losers.

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