original image courtesy of Jim Frazier
I love the real estate blogosphere. It largely a community of wonderful professionals who are dedicated to the practice of real estate and willing to share and learn from each other on a scale that is unprecedented in the industry (at least from what I have seen).
But– Houston, we have a problem.
All of this “outside the box” thinking is great, but what is it good for? Sure, we’re all benefiting from it (aren’t we?), but “we” are a small group of people, relative to the whole. Let’s assume, just for a second, that the number of people reading real estate blogs, learning, participating, is somewhere in the range of 100,000 REALTORS. Personally, I think that is an enormous over-estimate, but go with me on this one.
If it were true, those 100,000 agents who are all sharing, learning, and growing would be less than 10% of the total REALTOR population. LESS THAN 10%!
Clearly, there is work to be done.
Look, I get it. I know why blogging and social media is popular. We all love to be able to easily meet and converse with each other, share information, learn, have some fun, and do it all for free from the comfort of our keyboards.
My point is- maybe this ain’t gonna cut it anymore.
Maybe, just maybe, if we all truly want to revolutionize the real estate industry (as we commonly profess), we are going to have to do something more.
There are far too many agents and REALTORS out there who could benefit in the same way that we have benefited for us to simply ignore them, and say, “well, they just don’t care.” I know this simply isn’t true. I know this isn’t true because EVERY time I talk to a REALTOR or group of REALTORS about blogging, or social media, or technology, at least 3 out of 5 want to know more. They want to know where to go to find this information, they want to participate.
“We,” those of us who are already participating, should be encouraging this. Why? Because it benefits all of us. It makes all of our professional lives just a bit easier to work with like-minded agents. Agents who share the same convictions about transparency, candor, dedication to client service, etc. This won’t happen unless we spread the message to those who aren’t currently involved.
For those of you who are thinking, “but wait, that is my competition. Why should I try and include them?” If you can’t see how including others in this movement benefits you, then maybe you have been missing the point all along. Russell Shaw is a mega-producer. He gets it. Who are you to say he’s wrong?
Sure, we can all sit around and pat ourselves on the back, talk about how great it is to be on the bleeding edge of the practice, and wish things would get better.
OR
We could take the message to the streets, stop talking about changing the profession, engage the people who need the message most, and actually make something happen.
I’m game. How ’bout you?
