“Yes, there's a lot of data online where people can do their own research. But at the end of the day, that's not how homes are transacted yet. It still is two people representing a buyer and a seller, negotiating a transaction, writing up the paperwork, and handing over the keys.”
“But,” Murphy added, “I do think that the next generation will see tech-enabled brokerages, like Compass or Reside, leverage technology to streamline their day-to-day operations. But, humans are still involved in that process.” Here’s a link to the full Murphy interview.
The tech companies can advertise directly to agents: “Buy my CRM! Use virtual staging! Sell houses with blockchain! Use artificial intelligence to sell houses!” But, that’s a painfully slow process. It’s nearly impossible to reach all agents with an advertising campaign. More importantly, how many real estate salespeople have the time to learn about and test the avalanche of new technology? Not many.
To stay up to date with the latest innovations, agents and brokers should check out my three favorite sites for the latest in real estate tech: Inman News, Realty Times, and The Real Estate Flash, my daily show on Alexa. We’ll discuss The Real Estate Flash and voice technology later in this chapter.
Ultimately, I believe that the real engines for discovering and distributing technology are you, the real estate companies and brokerages. You have the resources to locate and test new tech. You should have a chief technology officer (CTO) whose job is to investigate the new products. Your CTO needs the time to meet with sales reps, play with the new tools, and try them out with actual houses. In addition to a CTO, you might want to partner with a technology consulting company like Stefan Swanepoel’s firm, T3 Sixty. They specialize in helping brokerages master technology.
“I think most agents don't have the time to learn all this stuff because it is complex,” said Darren Johnson, co-founder of Agent Zip, as part of an interview here. “Learning it takes a lot of money and involves trial and error as you get up to speed.”
You need to evaluate the newest CRMs, lead generation tools, and virtual reality options for your agents. Companies like RoOomy use impressive augmented reality to wow your clients and help your agents win business. Investigate how predictive AI can identify future customers before even they know they’re going to sell. The technology is out there. Explore!
Once you find a great product, you need to spread the tech throughout your organization. This isn’t easy! Here are four ways of distributing technology to your associates:
● Purchase and integrate the best products right into your platform. Their use will be seamless, but you need regular updates and deep training.
● Subscribe to the best stuff and make it available free to your associates. You act as a curator of technology.
● Negotiate a deal with the providers to offer the tech at a discount to your salespeople. Use your size as leverage.
● Publish a regular bulletin with your recommendations about the best products. You’re only providing advice; the agents are still on their own.
You’ll have to figure out what method of distribution works best for your organization. Doing nothing and leaving the discovery of new tech entirely to your agents is not an option. You must do something! It’s a mistake to leave the associates on their own without any support and guidance. Empower your agents with technological tools that will keep them at the top of their game and help them impress their clients. If your salespeople don’t use modern technology, your competitors will!
Half of all agents feel their brokerage should offer more technological services.[21] Associates want your help! Appoint a CTO, review the latest technology, and share your expertise. You’ll recruit and retain the best salespeople. Harness the power of cutting-edge technology to crush the market!
Voice technology
Encourage your associates and brokers to stay up to date. One of the easiest ways to learn about the latest in real estate is via voice technology. I founded The Real Estate Flash on Amazon’s Alexa in early 2018. The idea is that real estate professionals can listen to these brief flash briefings each morning while they prepare breakfast, brush their teeth, or drive to work. Everyone has these free moments, why not use them to learn?
The Real Estate Flash delivers daily doses of real estate news, important industry trends, marketing tips, and useful tidbits. We regularly feature insightful interviews with top CEOs and leading real estate innovators.
There are a lot of great real estate flash briefings out there. Encourage your agents and colleagues to give them a listen. Let them know about The Real Estate Flash and a great show by Jason Frazier, The Agent Marketer Flash. Keeping up with daily flash briefings is a simple way to get an edge on the competition.
Your agents can now create their own flash briefings. David Bramante and Kayla Jane’s impressive startup, My Home Agent helps real estate pros start and maintain their flash briefings. A branded flash briefing with useful information about local events, restaurants, and houses for sale is a fantastic way for agents to establish themselves as a local authority and trusted expert.
Voice is big, and its value extends well beyond flash briefings. Folks are using their Alexa and Google Home for everything, including searching for houses. Your salespeople need their listings on these devices! The innovative company Voiceter Pro, led by founders Miguel and Amitai Berger, allows users to search for homes via their voice assistants without lifting a finger. Prospective buyers conversationally describe their dream home features, and Voiceter Pro will show them homes that match their criteria. It even shows images of the home, sends results by email, and allows users to instantly determine their own home’s value. What a perfect way to attract new Millennial and tech-savvy clients!
Don’t get left behind by the explosion of voice technology. Imagine if you were early into video and YouTube. How great would that be right now? You and your agents must experiment with this medium now, before all the top voice real estate is gone. Voiceter Pro and My Home Agent are easy ways your brokerage can get your salespeople up to speed on voice.
While I’m bullish on voice, there are some other cutting-edge tech tools you should consider rolling out for your associates. Porchd lets real estate agents anonymously post home pictures online for review. Folks across the country can check out the pictures and provide feedback. Your salespeople will quickly learn which pictures look good and which to ditch. Plus, we all need a reminder to put the toilet seat down before taking a home photograph! Get feedback from the crowd and end the scourge of bad listing pictures forever.
Ultimately, you want your agents to help clients figure out the right home for their lifestyle and budget. You want your clients satisfied that their new home will work for them. To that end, I’m a big fan of TLCengine. They help your clients objectively consider critical factors like the commute, neighborhood amenities, and long-term costs when choosing a house. Happy clients create better reviews and more referrals.
The future and the endless struggle to add value
There is nothing permanent except change.[22] Our system of real estate firms, brokerages, agents, and 6 percent commissions is long in the tooth. Each level of the chain is ripe for disruption from technology, easy availability of the MLS, online ratings, and educated consumers. The general public (led by tech-savvy Millennials)[23] is rising up and challenging the assumption that transacting houses needs to be so much more expensive, time-consuming, and difficult than any other kind of purchase.
At the same time, elite real estate agents realize that they hold the keys. Their success is plastered all over the web, and anyone with a computer or smartphone can locate their town’s top agent in minutes. They don’t need your brokerage nearly as much as you need them, and they know it.
You also need to figure out how to address the rise of the internet and tech-based brokerages as well as the looming specter of the future real estate agent pipeline drying up. Storms are brewing on all fronts.
As a real estate broke
rage, you must fight harder than ever to add value, both for your agents and the transacting public. You cannot rely on tradition or brand. Find success by recruiting and retaining top agents, winning the technological arms race, innovating new ways to leverage your existing offices, and capturing the long tail.
Hurry. The time to move is now.
Interview with Anthony Vitale, consultant, real estate tech expert, and president of Talk2Tony
Gregory Charlop: You have a lot of experience in real estate. Tell us about your background
Anthony Vitale: I started my real estate career serendipitously. I originally owned a company called Real Soft which developed MLS (Multiple Listing Software) for the then new Macintosh computer in 1987. We had a vision of providing a graphical interface for real estate brokerages instead of the current Windows DOS Systems. We experienced a little success selling to MLS Boards throughout New England. Unfortunately, as Windows 95 grew in popularity the larger boards felt safer with Microsoft than Apple, and we were unable to gain traction.
However, in doing research for the development of that software, I acquired a real estate license and began working in a residential real estate office. One thing led to another, and soon I owned that office and expanded from there. When I finally ended my real estate brokerage career, I and another partner had accumulated over 22 offices servicing Long Island’s North Shore.
I stress my background in technology to illustrate my unique perspective of the industry. Early on, I found myself alone among my fellow local brokers. Most of my competition condescendingly considered me an outlier, a geek obsessed with technology which they considered lacking a “human“ touch. This provided me with an advantage in the marketplace. I was soon positioned at the forefront of a rapidly changing industry and not afraid of implementing new technology.
Gregory Charlop: As you know, it's my theory that large legacy real estate companies are essentially stuck with nonproductive overhead, like fancy offices, expensive conference rooms, photocopiers, etc. I believe that most buyers really don't care about these offices and that the companies are wasting precious resources maintaining them. In other words, I think most buyers or sellers are happy to meet an agent online, and then perhaps encounter them at Starbucks. But you feel differently. Why do you think that internet brokerages are the wrong way to go?
Anthony Vitale: You're correct. I do feel differently. It is not so much about buyers not caring about offices, rather It is about the brokers and the agents who care about brick and mortar real estate offices—and for a number of very good reasons. I’ll provide just two.
Issue number 1: One goal of most brokers is to own their own brick and mortar. After all, they are real estate agents. Who better to understand that by accumulating real estate they can cut down on taxes, hedge against rent increases, control a growing equity- based nest egg to sell or lease back when they transition out of real estate? They have the ability to sell the buildings as part of the sale of their business or keep the brick and mortar and rent it back to the potential buyers. After all, what do brokers really have to sell after their many years of hard work building a company? It's a financial safety net for them in an industry that doesn't provide much security.
Issue number two is maybe more relevant.
In my role as a real estate broker, I was frequently involved in discussions about what the real estate offices of the future were going to look like and how we should be preparing for it. We sat through seminars at national conferences taking notes while listening to predictions and theories about the “future.” Real estate gurus were all predicting that we were going to access our buyers through the internet. Therefore, in theory, all we would need to provide was a nicely decorated greeting and conference space between three to five hundred square feet in which our agents would meet their customers and clients, fill out the necessary paperwork and solicit offers. We even discussed sharing those spaces among the competitors using high tech software capable of scheduling and reserving room times. At this point, it might pay to remind you that about that same time, we also expected to have totally paperless offices by the year 2000. Neither of those scenarios materialized Here’s why.
Our data proved that the interaction between agents in a secure family-like atmosphere was an important factor in boosting real estate transactions, especially the more highly profitable “in house” sales.
We came to better understand that the agents were our real customers—not the buyers or sellers—and we began competing for the top agents. So, instead of cutting back on brick and mortar offices, we began to enhance it, creating a more dynamic atmosphere where agents would want to come and have a productive dialogue with their colleagues. We became invested in building a culture in our offices. Many of us would go on to reverse the dynamics and floor plans of a typical office. Formerly, the front end (that customers inhabited) was elegant, and the back office or bull ring (the agent space) was stark and utilitarian, typically over-populated with lopsided metal frame desks and motivation posters covering the bland-colored walls.
Instead, I and many of my competitors invested in reworking our agents’ space to provide a welcoming, cozy environment. For instance, I—with the enthusiastic input of my agents—retrofitted those environments with new high- quality household furniture, artwork, luxury bathrooms, fireplaces, etc. Always investing in the best office equipment and phone systems and, in my most recent office, even a Barista bar and, on Fridays, a pop-up free nail salon. Combining a careful balance of a nurturing and motivating environment for our agents, we could achieve a very successful dynamic business “buzz.” That was, and still is, what I have termed Real Estate 2.0.
So, now as we move into our next operating cycle, Real Estate 3.0, the question becomes: how can we maintain the benefits of having an office and still compete with the advent of lower commission brokerages?
Gregory Charlop: Right. You view using offices in a whole new way. You call it Real Estate 3.0. How should real estate companies and brokerages reconfigure their offices to make them useful in today's internet era?
Anthony Vitale: I see a perfect storm building where a confluence of technologies matures to a state where even a local one-office real estate broker can utilize new technology—for the first time in a long time—to provide a new source of revenue. Think of the new office as a HGTV, Houzz, and Angie’s List combined.
For example. As you know, every home we sell affects roughly 40 local businesses—cleaners, landscapers, painters, carpet stores, kitchen renovation centers, handymen, swimming pool installers, deck people even doctors, dentists and attorneys. You get the picture.
We real estate agents have the first contact with new residents coming into a community, and our connection is valuable. As the industry enlarged, it left behind that valuable relationship. Real estate agents once provided the community a conduit between the new homeowners and local business owners—the “Welcome Wagon” of the Real Estate 1.0 era.
We once again have an opportunity to monetize all those valuable warm and fuzzy connections in a new and potentially highly profitable way. In my vision, Real Estate 3.0, the brick and mortar office will serve as a hub, bringing together our buyers and sellers with our community. Our offices will become a facility for merchants to display and merchandise their products.
Consider this: on Saturday morning a local kitchen renovation or interior design merchant might hold a demonstration on how to retile a backsplash or choose curtains for your home. Our real estate office can provide the demo space, and both parties can send out invitations to their clients as well as the public. Ideas like this will be the basis for utilizing the real estate office as a hub to celebrate homeownership. The merchant gains access to new potential clients, and real estate agents establish their offices as a place for the public to view them as a holistic environment that cares for their home needs before, during and after the sale of a home. The residual effects of that will result in more interest in our real estate company, r
eal estate agents wanting to be associated with us, and local businesses promoting us will join. In the future we can see a time when we will curate those businesses and monetize their participation.
Gregory Charlop: In other words, the real estate office wouldn't be just for someone to buy a house, but it would also be a place they could learn about remodeling their house, meet local contractors or vendors, and come up with design ideas.
Anthony Vitale: Correct. Buying a home is much more than purchasing a physical space. It is a sanctuary to build and nurture a family. Offices can, and, in my opinion, should be a meeting place for the community and its residents focused through the home as a basis. The potential is larger than we are discussing here.
I used the offices as showcases for decorators, furniture stores—even artists—to set up displays at our site. With a little imagination you can see the potential for revenue from purchases of home accessories, appliances, etc., etc.
Gregory Charlop: Essentially, what you're describing is converting a real estate office into a positive asset. You're turning it into a destination, a place people want to go and spend time. Is your goal to attract better real estate associates, or to attract more prospects, or both?
Anthony Vitale: It's both. It's a symbiotic relationship. If we are bringing prospects to the office, agents will want to be there. In Real Estate 3.0 agents will be able to jettison a highly negative aspect of residential real estate (the association with the dysfunctional mortgage and title business) and benefit from their association with the positive aspect—caring for a family home.
Their skill set will revert to their talent of presenting the possibilities of a property in a favorable light rather than shoving a mortgage down their customer’s throat to please their broker.
Real Estate at a Crossroads Page 12
