You Came To the Right Place

You already knew you came to the right place or you might not be here. In the real estate industry it is consumers that have led the way when it comes to marketing properties on the internet, and using the internet and other technologies that have arrived on the scene in the past few years. They have made is clear that we need to put information on the internet and make it easy for them to find. They reward us for doing this by hiring us to help them with home purchases and sales.

keeping up with consumers

There is a small group of real estate practitioners who are keeping up with consumers, or at least trying to. Everyone who writes on this blog is an example of the kind of real estate practitioner who is on the leading edge of the revolution that is marching through our industry. Several miles, or a few years behind the agents, who are behind the consumers are the real estate companies, trainers, coaches, vendors and pulling up from the rear our real estate boards.

For real estate practitioners who want to learn, blogs like agent genius are the go to places. I have attended conferences, looked at articles written by trainers, coaches and real estate companies and they are covering the same topics we talked about on the re-blogoshere two years ago.

not everyone is a genius

I recently visited a friend who works for a huge company in town and he handed me a flier advertising a “blogging class”. When I got home I did a Google search on the instructor. I couldn’t find him, or his blog. He has no credibility with me as a web 2.0, or even a web 1.0 kind of guy. It is possible that some will benefit from his class, and I may go check it out.

Real estate companies also hire consultants, trainers, coaches and various vendors to give classes for their agents. I have yet to find one who knows as much about what it takes to be successful on the internet as the agent geniuses do. The vendors who listen to real estate practitioners do better than those who preach to us on how to run our businesses.

there are exceptions

There are some exceptions to my opinion. Jim Cronin at the real estate tomato is an exception. He has contact with real estate practitioners, he listens and always has an eye out for best practices. He also generates most of his income through is blog. He walks the talk. There are other exceptions as well.

The training and coaching available in our industry or through it is becoming a bit polluted with people who don’t know their stuff. Coaches learn technology from vendors who sell technology. Agents look to their companies and to education through their board because they want to learn, and because both have been great sources in the past. We don’t need to be educated for the past, we need to operate today and prepare for the future.

the world has changed

Our industry has been behind for many years when it comes to using technology. Real estate companies have had to jump on the band wagon. The world has changed and we don’t need as much of what they have to offer as we did before, like offices and fax machines or carbon forms.

If you are reading this chances are you are in the 1 to 5% that will follow consumers and lead our industry into the future. If you want to learn more talk to your clients, or read some books about marketing, sales or technology not written for the real estate industry.