Vision
I believe the next generation of buyers and sellers will be more empowered to search, purchase and sell real estate themselves, without the services of a real estate professional.
I realize that’s a bold and scary proposition given we earn our living as real estate agents.
We need only look around (or just outside) our industry to see the “cutting edge”, where real estate is headed.
In fact, we need only look at a few websites to witness the “seeds of change” being sown:
**http://www.redfin.com – soon to be a major competitor of buyer lead generation, service model and search engine placement in the Atlanta Market – they launch in JANUARY**
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/biz-tech/google-wants-a-bigger-slice-of-the-realestate-search-business-20090706-da4l.html
http://www.trulia.com
http://www.zillow.com
http://www.houselogic.com/
http://www.bhgrealestate.com/
http://www.expedia.com (revolutionized travel agency and dis-intermediated the process of brokering travel arrangements)
What does this mean for us?
How do we stay ahead of the curve?
Or … for that matter … how do we stay in business?
The answer is simple.
Simple…but not easy 
The long term, future success of our business hinges on our ability to transition to and deliver “virtual”, locally rich, unique content driven service. A service that exists as a system of delivering content to educate a prospective client to become our client, educate 0ur client to become a home owner and educate a home owner to refer others who want to be like them.
Our future success depends on a die hard commitment and focus on moving our lead generation from an outbound, interruption based sales process to an inbound marketing strategy that keeps pace with how a new generation of buyers and sellers are communicating and educating themselves.
So … what does that look like?
At the highest level, the success of an entirely virtual solution rests in its ability to clearly and confidently shepherd a potential buyer, seller or investor through the process of buying and/ or selling a home.
Very few sites provide a path to success (at the present moment). The irony for me was what I found while reviewing do-it-yourself real estate sites/services.
In my opinion, http://www.redfin.com provides decent content regarding the “how’s and what’s” of buying and selling.
I am not holding Redfin.com as a beacon of light, but merely a site which provides far more content regarding the “how” of buying than the “what” to buy.
The problem they face, however, is a that they are too mired in “data” and not enough “how-to”.
Interestingly, the focus of technology solutions in real estate have been too highly skewed towards the data and not the content nor the process.
A buyer and/or seller, once procured as such, is not looking for “listings” – they are looking for homes. And we cannot not underestimate the connotation or meaning of home. “Data” (aka “listing”) is not the answer – it is part of the solution.
The solution is achieved by approach and strategy. Execution of our approach requires clearly defined, repeating steps – a process. Everything else is secondary to the process.
So what does a completely virtual solution look like?
First and foremost, it assumes that there is no real estate professional (human) involved with managing the process – or providing “services”.
If you’re recoiling from that last statement, I would challenge you to ask, have we mapped out the process step-by-step and defined what we do at each step?
Moreover, do we sit down and walk through the process with our clients – review it daily? Do our clients know what our services are?
We can could argue that consumers require full-service brokerage. What is full-service? Does every one of our clients require full-service? I’d argue some do – some do not.
Perhaps this issue alone is why we should believe a total virtual solution is not only possible, but probable.
Our current model of buying and selling real estate assumes that a hands-on service approach is a given – we can’t have “full-service” without one of us delivering it. Without a us there, in person, our client is left to fend for themselves.
Enter a new paradigm. Our clients can have full service through a “virtual” experience.
In essence, it’s my belief that we could effectively deliver 80% of our work without being physically present to do so – showing homes being the one true exception.
The basis of navigating through the process is to provide a well defined set of tutorials (presentations) which provide the backbone of the process knowledge, recommendations, tips, “gotchas” and high-level servicing.
This is where the rubber meets the road and where our real value is presented.
Read those last two sentences again.
It is the shared knowledge, managed through a repeatable process that adds confidence and builds trust in the solution.
In addition, the aspect of social media (blogging comments, client and past client forums, etc) can be more specifically leveraged at key points in the process.
I’ve read many “experts” who believe that IDX property search is critical. I don’t disagree. After all, it’s what produces much of our buyer leads right now. Site visitors are looking for homes for sale, right?
But I would argue that robust search is just the starting point to getting people “stuck”.
If we rely on search capability as our differentiator, I think it’s a road to a grinding death.
We are already out done by many of the highest level competitors at this stage.
Further to the point, I’m convinced spending a majority of our time and effort building content around the process – mapping out the steps – one by one – specifically what needs to be done to get from beginning to close will get them stuck – FIRMLY – on our site.
This includes:
1. Focused Calls to Actions in the key conversion metrics of our business (there are 7 of them)
2. Dynamic / Engaging content that educates and leaves people wanting more (in exchange for a commitment, of course)
3. Social Media (twitter, facebook, user forums, user review – see redfin.com’s agent reviews)
4. Blogging