It’s time for REALTOR Associations to do something they don’t like to do: Change. Certainly, over the past two decades, I’ve watched a fair amount of “changes” at REALTOR Associations worldwide: Executive Officers have come and gone; Associations have moved to bigger, then smaller, then bigger locations; they have changed their newsletters from print to email. All of these are “changes” but none of them represent the Change I mean when I say it’s time for REALTOR Associations to change.

I mean: It’s time for them to Evolve.

Recently, the National Association of REALTORS released it’s 2008 Association Technology Study. By and large there was nothing in it to make me fall off my seat. But that’s because I’m usually already sitting on the floor when it comes to REALTOR Association technology usage. Now, in all fairness, many Associations have worked hard - at some things - but once again, the Technology Study shows us yet another “quantum delay” in the REALTOR community’s adoption of technology as a whole.

Here are a few excerpts to make the point. When asked “what was your biggest technology achievement in the last year?” these notable accomplishments were listed:

• Ability to send mass email without a large percentage being blocked
• Changed over to an electronic newsletter
• Going wireless
• Established a technology committee
• Setup online registration for classes and events

and my personal favorite…

• Developed a technology strategic plan

Yawn.

On the surface of it, these all seem like “good” accomplishments. Except that, objectively, they all should have been done five years ago. Or earlier.

How can we say that? Well, it’s simple: Most of the Association’s members have already been doing these kinds of things for at least three to five years. Really. I know, it’s hard to believe. Aren’t we all in the dark recesses of the cave together?

To clarify, I’m only talking about the Association’s members - not their “membership” - which means I’m only talking about the brokers, not the agents, and only those brokers who are actually producing serious results in the marketplace. Those are the Association’s members. Most everyone else just pays their dues during their short tenure from “new agent to no-longer-an-agent” over a year’s period.

What’s an Association to do - if the kinds of things they are just getting around to are already “old news” to their members? How will they remain relevant, critical, worthy of membership dues, if they only got around to putting their newsletter online last year?

It’s time to get serious. REALTOR Associations don’t have the luxury of making slow, small incremental changes any more. It’s really do-or-die time for most of them: Even years after Board of Choice - in which a REALTOR could choose to pay dues to any Association within their state, not just the most-local one, the majority of Associations are still servicing local agents, most of whom never attend the meetings, use the services or come to the classes. As it stands, most Associations are still mostly just lucky. And not by much, because the number of agents is dropping across the boards, so the number of dues-paying members is dropping with it.

How do REALTOR Associations get serious about change? Here are Five Focus Areas for them to start.

1. Get Radical. REALTOR Associations can’t just change a little, over time. They need to tear down the house - literally - and rebuild it. No more “renovations.” Most slow-change approaches are because the Association “doesn’t want to upset the staff” who might not have the skills to keep up. Well, either train them or part ways. Your members expect the highest levels of performance from their Associations - that’s what they are paying for - and they just won’t put up with “leaving a voice mail to register for a class” or worse - sitting in a classroom that still has a chalkboard!

2. Lead Your Members. My friend Roger Turcotte is one of the smartest persons I know. He’s not just a trusted advisor with thirty-plus years of experience in this industry. He’s a proven leader in both real estate and military careers. And for years, he has focused on a troubling issue that the industry seriously lacks: Leadership. Roger travels the world helping Associations develop their volunteer and paid leadership - to help them develop their association with a “purpose” in mind, not just a “reaction to the members”.From his lessons, I have come to the conclusion that too many Associations do not lead their members: They follow them. For proof, consider that the “changes” they made last year were already old-news to the productive brokers in their Association - who already use e-newsletters, online class registration and wireless internet to list and sell homes. Too many Associations simply “survey their members and then do what they are being told,” rather than say to their members: Watch this! We have the research (from NAR) and the brainpower (for which we are hired) and we’re going to lead you up and over the next hill! You’re not going to love it all the time, but you’re going to thank us when we get there. So stop coddling your members - especially the whiniest and the loudest and the ones who don’t sell homes so they have plenty of time to sit in committee meetings - and start telling them where you’re going and how they can come along.

3. Get Serious about Education, or Get Out of the Business. Recently, I read a news article which did make me fall off my chair. A REALTOR Association leader was quoted as saying that their members “wouldn’t like online classes” and “preferred” classroom style with a live instructor. Needless to say, they did slip in the “and we’d lose too much cash flow if we put it online” motivation for their “assessment” of their members. Now, our company teaches more than 300 live classroom sessions a year - so we know it works and we love doing it. But we also teach 2000 online seminars annually - with live instructors - and we also know that works, and is increasingly preferred by the attendees over travelling to classrooms and hotels. There is a time and place for both forms of education. And REALTOR Associations need to build deep competence in the online portion, and do it fast, otherwise they’ll be out of the education business altogether. For two reasons: The bigger brokers already offer all the live classroom training an agent needs - and for free (so how’s that for a revenue challenge?) - and the NEXT GENERATION of agents isn’t going to sit in a class NO MATTER WHAT. So it’s demographics and competition, folks. It’s time to get on or move on with your education.

4. Create a Comprehensive Strategic Plan. Associations who have “technology” plans are making the same mistake that many agents and brokers do when it comes to business: They view the “technology” portion as something “separate” from their vital, efficient operations. There is NO SUCH THING as a technology strategic plan. There is a comprehensive strategic plan for your business or Association: and it will include technology as a component that will maximize your strengths and opportunities. It cannot be separate. Technology is as “ordinary” to your strategic plan as your “marketing” or “personnel” components. Associations need to start thinking of them simultaneously - so that the operation of the Association automatically takes into account the possibilities of technology.

5. Stop SWOTting and start saying SO-WhaT! At Matthew Ferrara & Company, we have created the “anti” planning tool. Traditional strategic plans and assessments have focused on the “Strengths, Weaknesses, Oppportunities & Threats” model. Well, we think that’s junk - a total waste of time - because the emphasis always ends up on your weaknesses and threats. Never to SWOT model plans focus enough of your attention on what you CAN do WELL - and TODAY. That’s why we prefer to use our SO-WhaT model, which says: Identify your STRENGTHS and OPPORTUNITIES - and plan EVERYTHING you do around maximizing them, perfecting them, implementing them every day. Sure, we make a list of your weaknesses and threats, but ONLY so that we can quickly find ways to marginalize them, outsource them or just simply stop doing them. The idea is part of a “Strengths” movement that we learned from Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton’s fantastic series. The key book to read is “Now Discover Your Strengths” or visit their website. Until Association stop focusing on all of the things they can’t do well, and start focusing only on the things they can - AND SHOULD - be doing every day, they aren’t going to change. It might even be worse…

I have a lot of confidence that REALTOR Associations can change. I have seen many of them take tremendous steps - leaps, really - over the past two decades. I have watched leaders “fight” their members’ idiosyncrasies and lead them, kicking and screaming most times, to places they didn’t want to go, but are now happy to be. The challenge is simply time. Most of the innovative, leading Associations have implemented their evolutions slowly over time. They started early, so they are in a good place today. Too many Associations, however, sat around, especially during the boom-years, and “serviced” their dues-paying members rather than pushed them forward. And now, possibly, they may be out of time, and money, to become the organization they need to be for the future.

REALTOR Associations face a choice: evolve into something distinct or join the fossil-pile of the extinct. By focusing on these Five Areas of Evolution, they can choose to avoid becoming an Associationasaurus.

I just received my copy of the 2008 Annual Member Profile from the National Association of REALTORS. Amazing - just amazing - how many of you aren’t going to be around next year. But this isn’t another requiem for the change-resistant REALTOR. Believe it or not, this posting will explore a simple suggestion that NAR could implement to speed up the housing market recovery. And let’s be clear: Except for places that are still returning to market norms (some people call them “declining or falling” markets) a lot of places in America are bouncing back (or continuing along just nicely) like Des Moines, Austin and Charlotte. So for everywhere else, where the market doldrums are more media hype than market reality, it’s time for REALTORS to stop waiting around for the market to fix the consumer. It’s time to do something about it.

The navel-gazers have been shuffling around whining that the Fed, the market, the interest rates, the consumer, everyone ELSE other than the REALTOR is holding the market back. Using our famous contrarian logic, what do you think we think? Right - maybe it’s time for the REALTOR to heal thyself.

Sales is a perception-driven business. People purchase just about every non-staple good based upon some degree of emotion that can be influenced by sales professionals, marketing and other consumers. Shoppers for new cars are keenly aware of the models their friends just bought last month; and they’ll be hard pressed to overcome their emotions not to try to “keep up with the Joneses” in their purchase, too. Smart marketers play off of this; even smarter sales people leverage this emotional response - if they can learn about it - when working with their prospects.

This isn’t deceptive or sneaky. People buy things on emotion first, reason second. It may not be “right’ but that’s the human consumer for you. Most buyers will tell REALTORS that they want to get a good deal on their home, at the very same time that they are placing bids on homes that are far outside of their reasonable income levels. Sellers always protest at the REALTORS’ commission, arguing for a “deal” and discount, at the same time they are making offers on their next home that are insultingly low or pitiable. Even REALTORS make emotional decisions - such as taking overpriced listings because they “like people” or “want to be helpful” rather than reasonably backing away from the unreasonable seller as if they had seen a ghost. It’s all emotion; and only when sales people understand this can they understand that their job is to help their buyers and sellers “manage” their emotions to find or sell their most personal possession, while at the same time making sound decisions. One sound decision for sellers would be keeping a home off the market if there is no immediate need to sell it today; rather than months of anticipation and anxiety because nobody will make an offer. Another sound decision would be for buyers to start making offers now, before historically low interest rates start to climb. Remember, the Fed held rates steady yesterday. Guess where they are going after the election, to combat inflation? Up.

The media has certainly learned how to manipulate emotions. You would be hard pressed to find one story about any aspect of the housing industry that portrayed the “complete picture” or solid facts. It’s all innuendo, partial sentences, facts out of context and heart wrenching sob stories that cause consumers to become depressed and politicians to become enraged. Along the way, the media is selling like crazy - ads, sponsors, spots, fees - all based upon the fact that they can play the consumer’s emotions like a harp. (The media is just another sales industry these days; journalism is mostly reserved for rare moments on television, web or print - that none of us see because real facts don’t get sponsored by Coca Cola or Ford).

How can REALTORS - and their chief spokespersons, the National Association of REALTORS - win in such a contest? Is there a way that about a million members might be able to capture the attention - and the hearts, if not the minds - of the consumers to tell their side of the story?

Let’s return to the NAR Annual Survey of its Members. Unfortunately, the NAR couldn’t send an email to its members with this kind of information. Most of them only check their email once or twice a day - and while they are all out running around (doing what, exactly…?) only 34% of them have wireless access to email. How about getting the message out to everyone by IM? Naaah…61% of REALTORS report never using Instant Messaging - and another 21% only access it a few times a week or a few times a year.

There is one possibility, though. Apparently some of the REALTORS - somewhere, we aren’t quite sure - have started writing blogs. Now, don’t get too excited - it’s only 3% of all REALTORS who have blogs. But the math works out in a way: 3% of 1 Million REALTORS is a LOT of blogs. Imagine if 30,000 of them channeled a RSS feed from the National Association? I’d bet that very few other organziations have this kind of media reach - even if you get a press release noticed on REUTERS, it’s only going to be distributed once or twice across the news sites. With a NAR RSS feed on 30,000 sites, plus the state and local Association sites and you’ll have a tsunami of traffic.

If the feed changed a couple of times a day - with a short update or new headline - the feeds would cause natural SEO to push the topics to the top of the Googles and Yahoos. Even the major news sites would have to pick up the story - especially because they really don’t do their own research any more but just repeat other people’s pseudo-news and press-releases as if they were real facts. Go one step further, and get someone to translate the NAR messages into a few different languages, and the RSS will skip across the globe, bringing “the rest of the story” to the rest of the world. With so much of the U.S. housing market relying on currency markets and financial tools subject to international economic forces, getting the message to London and Tokyo is as important as Miami and Sacremento.

It’s absolutely incomprehensible that this isn’t already happening. The NAR sends out “weekly news” by email, but I’d put serious chips on the bet that says more “non-REALTORS” get that message than their own members. Here we have a professional trade organization with about a million members, and some 30,000 of them with the skills to push content into the blogosphere every day: Most companies would die for that kind of reach. It’s not even necessary to ask the members to write anything on their own - just get a professional writer in Chicago, who can make sure both sides of the story are being told (oh, heck, how about just the good side for a while?) and send it to the members. They can repost or push the feed without even doing a spell check.

And every day, the blogosphere and media would be hammered with the REALTOR perspective - not just the screaming political hack who never passed economics in high school, or the regulator who just wants more power over the banks, or the parroting tele-journalists who would know a real fact if it jumped off the page, like a rising mortgage rate, and bit them in the nose.

Isn’t that what NAR should be doing? Helping its members help themselves? Other than RPAC - which sadly is necessary to buy off the politicians and keep their pea-brained ideas from turning our sector of the economy into another “health care success story” - NAR should just drop everything else. MLS rules are like writing incantations to try raise the dead; MLS’s are gone - just bury them already. Code of Ethics rewrites aren’t going to help members be more professional if they can’t convince the public to buy homes. Stop looking inside the halls and fixing the plumbing; NAR, look around and figure out how you can use technology and 30,000 of your members (just to start) to tell the story that many people are still successfully selling and buying homes - and your members are the ones who should be saying so!

Here’s a cool tool I’ve been playing with for a few weeks. It’s called Viigo and it’s a RSS reader for your Smartphone. I’ve been testing it on my Blackberry Pearl (which still continues to leave my students in awe at the fact that they don’t need to carry around lunch-box sized smartphones unless their cranky old MLS mandates it) and it has worked flawlessly. So it’s time to share the product with all of you.

Oh, yes. And it’s free!

Viigo is an RSS reader. For some of us - even avid blog readers - RSS is still something we do on our “PCs” (oh, and I think even Macs can do PCs? Lou, what do you think? Can they handle them?) Modern websites and blogs can provide a “mostly text and a few graphics” in a “feed” that allows readers to subscribe to their content in a streamlined fashion. This “Really Simple Syndication” of content not only lets computer users pull in many feeds into their browser, and just scan the headlines (sort of like Google News brings in headlines and then lets you jump out to a variety of web news sources), but the RSS format permits something really special to happen: Streamlined access to website content on non-computer devices.

Like your Smartphone.

Even if your Smartphone isn’t really that smart - some basic phones without keyboards can even accept RSS feeds - the key is that the RSS content has been “stripped” down to the bare essentials, so that the simpler screens on wireless devices can display their content effectively. For those of us who remember “Associated Press” reports that used to come in on a pin-printer to the radio station, it’s the same idea: Plain text, just-the-facts data pushed onto plain-screen formats.

The beauty is that, with RSS, you can not only surf site content faster, but you can surf multiple sites faster on your Smartphone if you use a “reader.” RSS Readers are a kind of “bookmark browser” that lets you enter the URL of lots of RSS streams, then just check an “Index” of their headlines. The RSS technology (or the reader, or both) will frequently ask for “updates” of the content from the sites you have subscribed to, without asking you to “refresh” or actually visit the sites. Content is pushed from the sites regularly (or pulled by the reader every time you start it up).

So, that’s the RSS process. Now, let’s talk about Viigo. You can go to their site and download the software - or just install it  “Over the Air” (OTA) by surfing your smartphone to their site. It’s a tiny application and it installs in seconds. Viigo starts you out with some “popular” RSS feed categories or “Channels” as it calls them - such as News headlines, their own blog, a localized automobile and weather traffic feed, etc. Adding your own channels is a piece of cake - just click your menu and Add Channel. Enter the URL and presto!

Viigo has more than 5000 channels to choose from and you can create your own custom feeds from just about any site, too. Some specific channels are just too cool - such as UPS/Fedex/DHL channel which lets you track packages from your Smartphone. (All Graphics from http://www.viigo.com) All channels can have “alerts” setup to monitor new content for any “key words” you might be keeping an eye on. So if you have added a “Wall Street Journal” feed and you want to monitor the words “housing market” or “inflation” that may appear in new stories, Viigo will send you an alert when they next appear in the feed.

But wait! There’s more!

One of the features I use the most is “Send Article to Me” which instantly takes whatever page I’m reading and zaps it to me in an email. There is a “send to a friend” function, too, but I prefer to send it to myself first, then forward it to friends (so I get the relationship- building benefit of adding my signature file - grin!).

Viigo is very customizable. You can set the maximum number of articles it pulls from each feed (or all feeds) which is important if you didn’t get a large memory stick for your smartphone. Plus you can create a schedule for it to update the feeds (or it does it automatically), which can conserve battery power (or minutes, if you didn’t get an unlimited data plan on your smartphone (not so “smart”)).

When reading each posting, you can scan the basic summary, then pull in the full article in “plain text, minimal graphics” format directly into Viigo, or click to see the full website (graphics and all) in your smartphone browser. If you read articles in Viigo, there are integrated buttons to add them to Del.icio.us, Stumble It! and Digg, too, so you can save articles and share them with friends (or the world) in the blog-posting-promoting networks.

In true Boston fashion, Viigo would be considered “wicked cool!” It’s a must have for smartphone users to be connected to web content in a fast, friendly way - especially for managers who can scan headlines and zap them to agents and clients (who can send them on, too). Adding your own site to Viigo makes it easy to send your own stuff to clients by email, who may be checking up using their Smartphones, as well.

Well, I don’t know what took so long, but Microsoft finally seems to have read its emails, listened to its voice mail and talked to its customers. According to a headline over at Engadget, Microsoft is going to support Windows XP until 2013. It’s about time!

Customers worldwide are breathing a sigh of relief as the Redmond Behemoth seems to have remembered a fundamental premise of running a good business: Listen to your customers!

There’s no magic in that premise. Your customers will tell you everything you need to know to be successful. After Microsoft launched Vista, both customers and industry reviewers provided it feedback. As expected, some people hated it (usually those whose computers were manufactured by Henry Ford Senior) and some loved it (those of us who understood that an OS change means, well, some things are actually going to be different). But more and more, especially amongst corporate clients with large installations, lots of proprietary software and sometimes older hardware in the field, the message was simple: Please don’t take Windows XP away. We might get to Vista in the future, but right now, we’re happy (and in a recession, without extra finances) still using XP.

Unfortunately, Microsoft, whose engineers and sales people are rightly enamored with their own products, just wasn’t listening. They were so certain they were right, so sure they could push the change through, that they turned a deaf ear to their clients. Even after giving a little - pushing back the mandatory cut-over date for computer vendors to sell machines with Vista only - Microsoft continued on the path of most resistance. They said: Vista or Nothing!

So customers started opting for nothing.

Now, don’t get all excited. People weren’t actually switching to Mac or anything (as if) or suddenly learning Linux code (huh? I just want to type a letter…) but they were opting simply not to upgrade their systems. Microsoft didn’t lose market share to the competition with their silly blustering sales approach, but they did lose sales. Their “our way or the highway” approach forced their customers to decide they could live a little longer with their older OS.

For most customers, it wasn’t a crisis, either. Most of us do email, write blogs, do a letter or a puny spreadsheet. Hardly do most users push their computers to the limit. So Windows XP was perfectly fine. For now, we could continue getting along in our lives and business with XP. Maybe add a little more memory and drop in some extra hard drive space. Really - most of us are perfectly fine running Solitaire and watching YouTube on a four year old XP unit. So we simply decided not to upgrade. It wasn’t a crisis, for us.

Unfortunately, not upgrading WAS a crisis for the computer manufacturers, whose sales slowed rather than soared when new technology like a snazzy-new OS emerges. Under Microsoft’s sales approach, they even faced the possibility of being unable to sell units with XP on them - for emergency replacements of broken equipment out there. Certainly no home user could have purchased an unbundled computer and loaded their own copy of their old OS on it. So Microsoft caused their “other” customers - the hardware vendors - some problems too. And they just wouldn’t listen. So those customers, also, started buying less copies of Vista, because they had less machines to sell.

Finally, Microsoft got the message. Both in the market research department and the finances department. Don’t listen to your customers and you won’t have any. No listen = no sales.

This is, of course, an excellent lesson for REALTORS. How many of us are truly listening to buyers and sellers? Not too many - since less than a third of us own Smartphones (NAR’s latest numbers) and most lsitings online look ridiculous. Fuzzy images and no videos aren’t going to attract customers who say the number ONE and THREE things they want to see online are - um - PHOTOS AND VIDEOS! Hello? Is anyone listening?

Make me register to look for listings and I’ll go somewhere that doesn’t make me do it. Make me wait three days for you to get back to me by email and I’ll find someone who will answer faster - maybe just two days. Show up at my house with a printed listing presentation but try to convince me that you’re a high-tech marketer, while you can’t even turn off the ringer on your four year old cell phone and I’m going to really, really consider putting my own listing on the FSBO website.

Like Microsoft, too many REALTORS believe their own marketing materials. We are so in love with ourselves, that we even post our high school pictures on our personal websites. It’s all about US! Me! I’m cool! I’m the best! Even brokers recruit agents with ads that say: Agent - it’s all about YOU!

Um, no. It’s not. it’s about the Consumer. Sorry - but if you forget that lesson, you’re going to have to mend some broken Windows.

Just ask around your office. Agents can tell you all about mortgage rates, and the housing stats and the local number of listings on the market. But can they tell you the average age of the first time home buyer? Can they tell you how many single females bought homes last year? Or how many purchases were made by people with no children at home (as they list their 34th four-bedroom home this month…). Nope. We study homes. And rates. And other REALTORS. And we believe our own marketing hype. But we forget that the customer has their own ideas - their own needs, their own minds. And we just keep plowing on.

Don’t believe me? Then somebody tell me why - YET AGAIN - there’s still listings that look like these on REALTOR.COM today?

In our ongoing attempt to transform the real estate industry from a cottage guild angry at the internet to a technology-integrated modern production system focused on the needs of the consumer, we’re going to engage in a little myth-busting today. At one point, mankind believed the sun revolved around the earth. We soon learned that it didn’t - and that discovery made it possible for us to eventually go to the moon and beyond. What might happen if we dispel the myth that real estate agents are independent contractors?

Let’s clarify the essentials: An independent contractor has two definitions. The legal meaning is that of a worker or organization who provides services to another organization without being an employee. For example, when a home builder constructs a new home, he calls in an “independent” electrician to run the wires. The builder does not “hire” the electrician, and provide him certain obligations under the law, such as insurance, health care, unemployment insurance or training. And mostly, he doesn’t withhold his taxes and contribute half of his Social Security benefits. For most companies, this arrangement is normal, and usually occurs between two “companies” such as a software company and a marketing firm; a dry cleaner and a delivery service; a car dealer and a towing company. In the case of our builder, he says: Show up at this location; Look at the plans. We’ll agree on a price. Do the work. I’ll pay you.

The other definition of the independent contractor is the market definition: An independent contractor - according to the market - is an entity who promotes themselves as capable of completing a certain kind of service, is engaged by another company or person to do so, and is compensated upon delivery. In the market definition, neither party provides the other with an office, a cell phone, necessary tools or an email account. In practice, independent contractors bring their own tools, supplies and most importantly, know-how. A contract software programmer already knows how to use the software that another company requires him to use to create a piece of software code. A hairdresser knows how to use the scissors she will employ in the styling of customers’ hair for her affiliated salon. A landscaper will bring his own mower and trimmer to the job, with his own gas and tools just in case the equipment breaks down.

In every case, the independent contract’s most important market “feature” is his ability to bring the required “know how” of the process to the job.

None of these legal or market conditions, however, apply to the vast majority of REALTORS.

Set aside the top 10% of the industry. In that case, we are more likely to find the nearest definition of independent contractor in the business. Teams and top producing agents in any company are the best examples of service professionals who are independently trained, employ their own equipment and require little input from the “job boss” on how to get it done. Just as the builder does not have to tell the electrician how to install the breaker-box, the real estate broker rarely needs to tell the top producing agent or team how to prospect customers or close a transaction.

As for the remaining 90% of the industry (and you can go 20/80% if our analysis is already making you cry) we don’t have anything near the legal or market meaning of independent contractors. Setting aside the legal definition, for we can truly care less if Uncle Sam wishes to play wink-wink-nod-nod for REALTORS escaping the Ponzi Scheme called Social Security, let’s focus on the other side - the market meaning of these 900,000 or so “pseudo” contractors.

According to the market (and the law) they are certainly “agents,” but that only means they sat through 40-hours or so of lecture and paid their $99 fee to be anointed by the State. But are they independent contractors - like our electricians and computer programmers - to the degree that brokers should desire to work with them? More critically, do they possess the tools, training and know-how that customers require to get the job done?

Absolutely not.

In the builder-electrician example, would we ever expect a builder to risk his investment by hiring a “licensed” electrician who came with no tools and no training other than the basic principles of electricity? Why, then, does this happen in real estate? Why do brokers ask consumers to pay for brokerage services delivered by an ill-equipped contractor? For decades, brokers have recruited the majority of their practitioners from the least experienced, least trained and least equipped ranks of the labor pool. Most REALTORS do not come to the broker with the right technology - less than a third have a Smartphone, can use their laptop in a listing presentation or create virtual tours for marketing purposes. Similarly, a tiny few have completed post-license courses on marketing, business planning, customer service, technology or negotiations. And worst of all, these “sales people” have never gone through a “sales course” before being unleashed on the consumer. Not a serious one, at least.

The mythical independent agent comes to the broker and needs them to provide everything: training, tools, experience and knowledge. Even owing for the fact that a tiny percentage will be motivated to spend the time and money to complete the REALTOR GRI course, or designations like the Certified Buyer Representative or Certified Home Marketing Specialist course, the vast majority do not. Never mind completing the Ultimate Technology Certification or Integrity Selling courses - those are certainly too expensive for a fresh-faced sales person to pay for.

Does anyone else think that, when hiring independent contractors, the broker should be reviewing contractors who already have the training, tools and know-how?

So the REALTOR independent contractor is clearly a legal fiction only. Fine. Let’s assume it’s just a hoodwink on the Feds and we’re all willing to go along with it.

What about the consumers?

Imagine a typical real estate office, with one broker and a bunch of independent contractors running around. The 80% Unprepared Group is sitting in the office, waiting for the broker to provide them with a free training class, a free email account, a free set of business cards, free ads in the newspaper and even free prospect leads. Who needs competitors, with these mooches sitting around? Sure, some of them go through the motions, but are they successful? Decide for yourselves. Why do we have 50% of the current agents, in the business under five years, with no formal training in prospecting? Why do 88% of all internet leads get thrown away after 48 hours simply because “the consumer didn’t call me back”? Why are there 264 For-Sale-By-Owners trying to sell on their own within 20 miles of the center of Boston?

Consumers get this. They understand more than ever that they run a risk when they just “accept the next agent in rotation” or work with the one who was on floor-duty when they happened to call.  Consumers don’t ask for discounts on commissions if they thought they were working with someone who was skilled enough to merit that fee. Top Producers rarely cut their commissions; they command the full fee because their tools, training and know-how supports that value proposition. Agents who are just “sneaking by” using the broker’s office computer and letting the lawyers do the heavy lifting are the ones who instantly collapse under commission pressure. So maybe even the agents know this, too?

There are plenty of skilled salespeople we could be hiring into real estate. Computer, pharmaceutical and car sales people in every town come in successful varieties, with certificates of completed courses and Smartphones visible on their belts. Why are brokers still hiring people with absolutely no experience or training or even just the basic equipment? It will come as no surprise when the consumer - especially Generation X who is entering the first “move-up” phase of their real estate cycle - demands to pay less when they’re not working with the top agent in the office.

Hiring skilled sales people - or at least holding off on hiring entry-level agents until they complete rigorous training classes and invest in some minimum tools-of-the-trade - would be the best way for brokers to provide high-compensation services to consumers. And it’s not just about recruiting the top-agent from the other brokerage down the street; the sales industry is dozens of times larger than the real estate industry. There are plenty of skilled (sales and technology) candidates that would support full-fee brokerage - not to mention cross-sell the ancillary services that are the real basis of profits in most brokerages. Consumers would jump for joy if they experienced more qualified agents more often - not rank the REALTOR below lawyers and used car dealers every year.

What holds us back? For one thing, brokers have “always done it this way.” For decades, the guild has brought the unskilled apprentice into the shop and let the veterans rub-off onto them. That worked fine, when the consumer’s choices were few and the process was shrouded in mystery. Then there was that boomlet for a few years - the one where sales could be made by any licensed Vanna we could stand in front of a listing. In the hot market, more manpower was all that was needed to take advantage of historically high sales leads. No actual “sales” was going on; most of the bidding was run by the buyers themselves, leaving agents to just push the paperwork through.

Something else holds brokers back, though. It’s not just being spoiled by the good times or pining for the past. It’s an imbalance of power. Brokers do it this way because they think they need the agents to be successful. True, they need some agents to be successful. But they have forgotten that some does not mean all. Most brokers won’t fire agents because they’re really not the ones in control of their own companies. The agents are. They won’t “mandate” agents go to training or implement new technology if the agents “threaten” to leave. They won’t look at chronic non-producers and ask them to move on. As one broker put it, “What if I ask them to leave and they go to another broker and then sell $10 milllion next year?” Yeah, right. That’s really going to happen. Brokers need to do a reality check and ask themselves who really needs whom?

No, brokers aren’t insane. They’re just not in control. This isn’t an anti-agent screed, either. The electrician doesn’t tell the builder what to do; The builder sets the standards of performance and hires sub-contractrors who want to go along for the ride - usually quite profitably. Today’s brokers have it in reverse: the agents are all fighting for the rudder, leaving the broker to row all by himself. The top agents eventually jump-ship; leaving the direction to be set by a group of people who have never studied the stars and noen of which brought an astrolabe (let alone a GPS).

If brokers want to right this ship (how did we get into this naval metaphor? oh well…) they have to do three things:

1. Return to the wheelhouse. Set the standards of agent performance according to the consumer; not the standard of consumer experience according to the agent. Lay down the vision - as long as it’s one that the consumer is willing to pay for.

2. If you want to hold onto the legal fiction of independent contractors, then at least redefine the market meaning for those you choose to engage. Hire - and fire - any agents who don’t bring anything to the table. The ability to fog a mirror isn’t sufficient any more. Agents must bring their own resources - and that means equipment and money - to the party. If they won’t come to free training or pay for professional training; if they won’t purchase a Blackberry or pay for an enhanced REALTOR.COM package; if their idea of prospecting is scientifically-proven-useless newspaper classified, then the Captain must throw them overboard. Or at least put them on the dingy and send them back to shore. Otherwise, the consumer will do it for you.

The boldest brokers will go one step further; They will transform the concept of independent contractor into one of “interdependent” contractors at their company. Brokers will learn from the most successful performers right in front of their eyes: The agent teams. Top agents know they must create a division of labor. Each person on the team has a special talent, and they are focused on that every day, all day. Brokers must do the same in their organizations. Don’t expect every agent to be excellent at every stage of the process. Split up the work and activate the talent within the organziation. The Myth of independent agents has prevented real estate companies from taking advantage of efficiencies of teamwork. That’s what happened when the cottage textile industry moved to the factory method: Teams worked in the mills, empowered by technology. Each person focused on their best skills and the system created unsurpassed output.

And customers were happy. Instead of wearing only one sweater their entire lives, the customer bought three, four, five. In different colors. At different - lower and higher - prices. Once the myth of cottage industries was broken and a truly empowered team organization unleashed - under the direction and planning of the boss, employing a group of independently skilled workers - was the greatest productive period of mankind unleashed.

It’s time to put away the past and look to the future.

According to the NAR Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers (2007), buyers who search online real estate want to see the following (In order of importance):

1. Pictures
2. Property Descriptions
3. Virtual Tours
4. Area info
5. Maps
6. Agent Info

Now, most real estate agents look at this list and immediately see #6 and get all upset. What? It’s not about me? They don’t want to see my high-school photo? Oh no!

Of course, they completely skip numbers 1-3, as countless entries in our blog continue to point out that too many sellers would be better off putting their own photos online, considering the complete lack or poor quality of some of the stuff that shows up on REALTOR.COM. And yes, the average listing sheet is still pathetic, compared to some of the print marketing that other companies - like computer and car companies - send out.

Yet even if more photos get online, and we work harder to write meaningful, interesting descriptions of properties, it’s still amazing that so many listings lack video tours online. In a world where Generation X and Generation Y are constantly entertaining themselves on YouTube, you just have to wonder how REALTORS can’t yet figure out how to put at least one video tour on every listing. Just one. I mean the average twelve year old can upload a video from their cell phone to YouTube with one eye closed and a mouse tied behind his back, but professionals being paid thousands of dollars will come up with every excuse not to put videos on every listing.

Now, it’s not like just anyone is using video to sell online. I mean, sure, it’s only car companies and faucet companies that really use video to sell their goods. For example, my favorite from Mercedes Benz:

Click the picture above and you’re going to get an awesome 55 second video from Merzedes Benz that grabs your attention, teaches you something about their product - which, at about $150,000 is as much as some houses REALTORS sell - and then provide you the option of a further guided tour with the sales lady who brings you right into the front seat of the car and takes you for an online drive. Just AWESOME!

And did I mention faucet companies? Yes, that’s right: The people who make KITCHEN SINK FAUCETS sell them online with a video clip.

Look at that - it’s a FAUCET - marketed by a powerful, emotional-response evoking video.

Now, it’s perfectly understandable that most REALTORS would look at these videos and say: Hey! We don’t have that kind of production studio or graphics capability. And you know, I’d agree with that entirely. But heck, what about a simple video taken with your standard digital camera, uploaded to YouTube and inserted into your listings? Just press the “other” button on your camera and take a video. if you’re really bold, try narrating it at the same time, even. It’s understandable if you’re not ready to create such a wonderful video as this AWARD WINNING REALTOR video from Mike Lefebvre at Century 21 Commonwealth in Massachusetts:

I’d be happy with something more basic; even just a shaky vid clip of the kitchen, pan the living room and even a spin-me-around in bathroom will do. Anything, really. Just ANYTHING in motion will do!

Of course, if we don’t see more video on REALTOR listings, things might get really ugly. I already caught a lot of flak from my suggestion that REALTORS were like vending machines… People were really “offended” that I suggested they were outdated, coin-operated stand-in-the-hallway junk food dispensers. And while I stand by my initial thoughts, perhaps I was a little hasty. Maybe I picked on the wrong machine - sorry vending machines. Perhaps REALTORS without videos on their listings are not like vending machines at all.

One thing’s for sure: REALTORS without video on their listings aren’t even like gas pumps. Like these new gas pumps in the rest stop on the Mass PIke:

So, I can watch “Gas Pump TV” while I’m making a $75 gas purchase - but I can’t get a single video on most real estate listings that are asking me to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, including the REALTORS’ commissions.

Can anyone explain that to me?

Part 1 of a 3 Part Series on Video and Real Estate by Amy Chorew.

You have less than 6 seconds to capture a visitor to your website. Can video be the key to engage the consumer? Could be, if your video is professional looking and polished. Creating good video is an art form - it gives a good first impression each and every time. If you ever need to be reminded of how bad real estate video can be, just visit YouTube and search for some real estate videos there…. Okay, real estate video is evolving…

What can we learn from industries who have already made video on their websites standard fare? First off, the types of videos we should have on our websites. Consider:

• Welcome message
• Testimonials from Top Clients saying
• Property Showcase of particular listings
• Town Profiles and other “informational” video

The consumer comes to your website from many different entry points. Not everyone finds you on a Google search (believe it or not). And you only “begin” leveraging your videos through your website: adding them to your newsletters and email campaigns will help maximize each video production. One potential entry point could be video syndication on sites like TubeMogul which lets you to post a video and then “send it” to Youtube and other sites like Blip.tv, Googlevideo, Aolvideo, Facebook and more.

Adding your videos to these sites is free and leverages the social networking aspect of Web 2.0. Make sure you fully set up your profile on these sites, too; Add your photograph and pertinent information about your company. Them make sure they can click through - and back - to your actual website.

Just for fun, go to Youtube put in your city, state and the words “real estate” and see who is marketing this way. A great example of this is done by Coldwell Banker in Massachusetts. Check out their video below.

Notice that not all real estate video has to be about “houses” to attract and inform consumers.

Also keep in mind multiple uses for your video so you have a great return on your investment. Once your videos are produced they can be packaged and marketed as:

• Banner video ads on relevant websites
• Client videos sent to potential new clients
• Video on your blog or e-newsletter
• Video clips sent to the press for new services or updates on the market.

Also consider vendors, and industry websites that might welcome your video on their website.

As with all social networking sites, never, never SELL. A topical video will get more play, increase distribution and visibility. It promotes you to expert and thought leader in your area. Your goal is to “inform and entertain. This will allow you to take advantage of the viral nature of video on the web, people who find it interesting will recommend it and send it to others.

Web video packs a punch. It can be highly engaging, keeps people there and consumers can take immediate action on what they see.

So, don’t leave them hanging. Try to include between one to four call to actions Consider some of the following:

• Send more information
• Schedule appointment
• Ask a question
• Download PDF with more information
• Share video with a friend
• Subscribe to a newsletter or listing search

Make sure you track your results so you can gain insight into your prospects and develop better content as you go.

Next up: What makes a good video? Stay Tuned!

- Amy

Listen to this blog entry!

Click the podcast image to stream the recording (opens in a new window)

Been having a great discussion with the fellow over at 4REALZ.NET over the new REALTOR.COM Home Estimator tool just released - and quite quietly, we might add, since even we techhies missed the press release (so we suspect the public did too…. and about half the REALTORS who don’t even know REALTOR.COM exists…)

Here’s his initial post and my comment summarized:

The part that seems to be missing is accuracy of the listings.

And how right he is: Now we have TWO groups offering consumers basically FLAWED MARKET ESTIMATES of their home’s values.

Now, Zillow might have started this fight, but rather than fight back, the REALTORS have once again been coopted into losing a battle on the other guys’ terms!

My initial reaction was this: Instead of just copying everyone else, maybe REALTOR.COM (and by extension, NAR) could make some decisions based upon market realities. And the reality is that Zillow (and other similar tools) are really inaccurate because the “conditions” on the ground are always so fluid that “estimates” based upon “market data” which is always stale because of “time” are really bad education for consumers. REALTORS should know better. Many consumers buy homes “regardless” of their estimated market comparable - and many sellers are able to sell for higher (or can’t sell nearly the same as a computerized estimate) because of all sorts of NON estimated items - like poorly performing schools, local tax changes, crime, etc - NONE of which can be accurately reflected by a computer. Only by REALTORS who keep up with “the full marketplace” of issues that impact homes.

And Dustin rightly replied that, well, if Zillow has already captured the public’s imagination and attention with their estimating offer, why shouldn’t REALTORS get on the bandwagon, too? He notes that if REALTORS don’t provide the public with online estimates, they’ll go somewhere else to get them.

And he’s right. To some extent.

Zillow has changed the public’s expectations and caught the real estate industry with its pants down.

In fact, that’s what most of these “so called” industry changing companies do: They just go around the slow-moving, stay-in-the-same-lane REALTORS and go direct to the public. REALTORS really do a very poor job of even RESEARCHING the public - I ask in EVERY CLASS whether ANY of the attendees has purchased NAR’s Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers - and NONE OF THEM EVEN KNOW IT EXISTS! So how are they going to invent anything - a pricing tool, a marketing tool, a new service - if they don’t know a thing about the consumer themselves.

For two decades, while internet and technology companies have wreaked havoc on the industry, the COMMON theme amongst REALTORS was “hunker down” and close the shutters! Notice the San Diego MLS this week’s “latest technology” was to create another security barrier against - GASP! - customers getting into the MLS!

So copying the “estimator tool” is still silly - because it means that REALTORS won’t actually stand up and say that the “zestimates” are wrong; Instead, they’ll say, “Hey! If you want wrong estimates of your house values, we’ll give them to you TOO!”

The last part is what I’d suggest we focus on: If everyone “knows” that most online home value estimates are WRONG, then shouldn’t we assume the PUBLIC knows they are wrong, too? Or are we just going along with Zillow’s real estimation: the consumer is an idiot? The price of a home is RARELY simply the averaging power plus/minus adjustments of MLS data, recent sales, or even tax assessments.

I’ve been in towns where the market value of property is SOARING even in THIS DAY AND AGE. For example, Des Moines. Why? Not because the REALTORS are doing anything right - or the Zestimator or MLS is either. But the local government is - and the local employers are - and the full employment numbers are pushing up wages, which are driving up home prices. NONE OF WHICH is accounted for in the estimating power of MLS, Zillow or REALTOR.COM.

Go the other way: Go to Detroit - ground zero for an utterly destroyed real estate and business marketplace. Look at this listing (click it to go to the REALTOR.COM page for it)

Now, go to REALTOR.COM’s VALUE ESTIMATOR and put in that address. Click on it and here’s what you get:

Now help me out: If I read this chart properly: The VALUE ESTIMATOR says that 3 bedroom homes in this zipcode have recently LISTED for under $50,000. That’s FIFTY THOUSAND. That’s THREE TIMES LOWER than the current listing price - although the TWO BEDROOM properties are apparently in MORE demand in this neighborhood - listing for $75,000 more (on average) than the subject property we’re looking at - and FIVE TIMES the average of significantly LARGER homes (like the 5 bedroom ones).

Now, even if it were TRUE that two bedroom homes are more “desirable” in this area, if there were FIVE bedroom homes available for ONE FIFTH THE PRICE, don’t you think there would be DOWNWARD PRESSURE on the 2-bedroom prices? Even a “little”?

This is why ALL ONLINE HOME VALUE ESTIMATORS ARE SIMPLY CRAP.

Oh, but unmercifully, I won’t stop there. Those were just the CURRENT listings. Let’s look at the RECENT SALES for the area: OOPS! There AREN’T any - either in the data or for real, we don’t know… So how can any of the information in the estimate have any meaning, if it’s not VALIDATED by sold data - which is the only true test - EVIDENCE - that any market data is correct or not….

Just do what everyone else does: Look up your own house. I live in a 1750 sq ft condo with 3 beds and 3 baths; it’s REALTOR.COM estimated at $580,000; just a condo, mind you… Three doors down on the SAME STREET is a FULL SINGLE FAMILY HOUSE with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2300 sq feet and built a full hundred years after mine (1949 vs 1840) and it’s only estimated at $530,000. And he OWNS his whole yard. I just get a piece of mine on the deed… Right. And his neighbor’s house, on the corner, with the same beds, baths and lot size: $1.64 Million. That’s a mighty increase for the house next to the stop sign on the corner…

Zilly Computer! Estimates are for humans!

This is why all REALTORS should fiercely resist computerized online estimator tools. They are senseless most of the time. This tool clearly can’t reflect anything but some raw numbers we don’t really know from where… Somehow smaller homes are five times more valuable than larger ones (no, it’s not that buyers don’t want to heat larger homes because of fuel oil… they’d buy the bigger house, trust me, and put on a sweater!) It’s because these tools can’t reflect the realities on the ground - like the fact that Detroit has outrageous taxes, no local industry and people are fleeing the city for myriads other reasons.

The REALTORS might think it’s just easier to “go with the flow.” Yet the proof that even the public could care less about computer estimates is this: They STILL INSIST on pricing their property FAR ABOVE whatever the computer says - whether it’s MLS, Zillow or REALTOR.COM.

If they really believed the computer and trusted it so much, would we really have 2-bedroom homes priced five times higher than 5 bedroom homes on the market in Detroit?

LOL!

I love technology. Of course I do - I’ve built a company around it, with it, because of it. Every day our technical support call center answers thousands of calls about technology. We help REALTORS build careers with the benefits of technology. I’ve even been known to play a video game or two, in my day.

But sometimes, doesn’t technology just seem to be dumb?

I don’t mean that the people using the technology are dumb. That’s just normal: Some of us just take a little longer than others to find the scroll bar or locate the “any” key (when asked to press any key to continue…)

That’s just it. If we can press any key to continue, why do we have to press a key at all? Just do it. Don’t wait for us slow-poke humans. If there is no consequence to what key is pressed, why does the technology make us jump through the hoops? There are countless points in our day when the computer pops up a window and say, “Hey! I’m about to do this to you!” and the ONLY button it offers is “OK”. What if it’s NOT ok? Too bad - no button for “Not Ok!” Once in a while there’s an “OK/Cancel combination” but then again - Why would we cancel? If we started a process, shouldn’t the computer assume we want to do it? Stop? I want the computer to speed up!

Another example is the “Click here to stop receiving our email” links that appear at the bottom of email marketing, e-newsletters and other stuff that clutters our Inbox. Some of this stuff we have actually asked for - we signed up for a newsletter or a feed alert - and perhaps we over did it and now need to de-clutter our Inbox. Fine. But if I click a link to UNSUBSCRIBE - which means “please stop sending me your stuff” then WHY does the software need to SEND ME AN EMAIL to confirm it will STOP sending me emails? Hello? Am I the only one who thinks this is just plain dumb?

Then there’s the spell checker. What an absolute waste of computing power. Assume for a moment that most spelling errors are really typos. Yes, some of us still can’t remember “i-before-e-except-after-c” and all that jazz, but MOST of the computing typos are because they keyboard is laid out wrong (remember, it was designed to slow down typists because mechanical typewriters couldn’t keep up with the human mind/body at the time). Now, if the computer can DETECT typos, why can’t it JUST FIX THEM itself? Look, most people use less than 800 unique words in their ENTIRE lifetime. Maybe 900 if you studied Latin in high school and got a 790 on your SAT. It shouldn’t be that hard, then, for the computer to make a REALLY EDUCATED GUESS at what word you “meant” to type. Does it really think you meant to type “costumer” instead of “consumer”? I supposed if your email was @partycostumes.com it might be justified… Mostly, however, the “basic, everyday word” will do nicely, thank you. Just correct it for me. If the computer really, really must keep track, then make YET ANOTHER USELESS BUTTON on the Microsoft Word ribbon that will “reveal all instantly fixed basic everyday words” with a green squiggly line so we can “double check” the computer’s work. Otherwise, can we agree that the PURPOSE of spell check is to CORRECT the word - not to just point out how poorly we type (or spell)?

Tech dumbness isn’t only found inside the computer, either. I remember the day my old Acura TL’s navigation system was guiding me down to Ocean City, Maryland, from New Jersey - when suddenly it said: “Proceed two miles and board the ferry.” Ferry? A boat? Where’s the bridge?? Don’t you think that if BOAT TRAVEL might be involved in automobile navigation a BIG RED BOX should have appeared at the beginning of the process that said “WARNING! BOAT NEEDED TO COMPLETE YOUR TRAVEL” ? Good thing they included the “detour” button so I could then backtrack two hours and go through Wilmington…

There’s the cell phone that charges by USB; but if you connect it to your computer it says, “This USB port does not provide enough power to charge your phone. Do you wish to remain connected?” Um… Can I download some electrons if I keep connected? And the cable box that lets you setup a “scheduled” recording of your favorite program by selecting it from the on-screen programming guide. But somehow, the on-screen guide can’t tell if the network starts the program a minute early or runs it three minutes late - and you end up missing the crucial minutes of the cliffhanger episode of Lost. Not to mention the Samsung wide-screen television which comes with a remote control that is compatible with most cable boxes - EXCEPT those built by MOTOROLA - who is the exclusive provider of cable boxes for Comcast’s 24 MILLION customers. So now, like most Americans, I have TWO remote controls. I think I’d rather get up and fine tune the UHF dial again…..

Do you really want to delete? Click OK to continue…. Here’s an email to confirm you won’t get any more emails from us… You’ll need a boat to continue this route…. Your new 42-inch television is only compatible with outdated cable boxes…. Sometimes, just now and then, it makes you wonder if someone the dumb things technology makes us do isn’t the invention of some little green men who are laughing their multi-lobed heads off as the silly little humans still struggle to right-click their way through a business memo.

Perhaps I’m just getting old, but I still don’t get the fascination with the iPhone (new or old). Maybe someone can help me out? I just read the cool story at Engadget (love their site - bookmark them!). Apparently the whole universe has become star-struck again as Apple plans to release its next version - cuter, cooler, whatever - of the iPhone. And they’re about to release a software development kit so people can write software apps for it. Just about the only thing I can say about these two moves is: It’s about time. Apple must have learned its lesson about releasing the SDK, because it’s lock-down on hardware/software in the Mac personal computer end of things prevented it from dominating the universe. Remember, a “better” product can only be better if a) more people can put it to good use than competing products and b) more people can afford it. Those two things aren’t something Apple has ever been really able to do for a) business people in general and b) in terms of economy of scale (price) compared to Microsoft, HP, etc.

And that’s why I still don’t get why anyone is excited about the iPhone. Correction: Anyone over the age of 25. Look, it’s a fantastic multimedia device. Surfs the web very nice. It even makes decent phone calls. But there’s just no way that Joe Average is going to find it “easier” to manage email and corporate data (calendar, tasks, etc) with a “virtual” keyboard. Admittedly, there are 45 million Gen Y babies out there - but not all are in line to (afford) get a new iPhone. What’s more certain, however, is that hardly any business people - whose lives revolve around managing client communications on a near-instant basis - are waiting in line for the new version.

Yes, yes, it’ will now sync up with Microsoft Exchange. Woo hoo. Can someone tell me how any new “Smartphone” could possibly ever be released today that doesn’t do this in the “beta” version? Most business people have already “mentally” written off the iPhone because version one couldn’t do their corporate email (or even SMS, if I remember???)

Even if you lines up every “coolness” feature of the iPhone - and I’ll admit there are many - there’s one part of the equation that is missing: A fundamental understanding of the customer who uses a Blackberry today. And I don’t care what engineers and geeks think are cool - it’s what the customer thinks is cool. Remember, once Apple found out how quickly they ran out of young kids who could shell out $600 for their phone (and it was fast!) and then saw how many business people said, “What? A smartphone without a keyboard for five times the cost of a trust old Blackberry (or even a scratchy old Treo)?)” And that’s why no matter what else they jam into the iPhone - and how heavily AT&T subsidizes the price - it’s not going to catch on with mainstream business people.

Because it lacks a keyboard.

Look, the world today is run by 45-65 year olds (at least in business). Whether we’re selling encyclopedias or cars or computers or real estate, the money is made by Baby Boomers and late Gen X’ers. Now Boomers still can’t correctly use the right-click on the mouse (and I have 20,000 tech calls to our call center a month to prove it) and Gen X’ers (who learned to use PC’s with DOS) still hope the Function-keys will make a comeback. So Boomers “need” the keyboard - because it makes them feel safe, as in the “good old typewriter days” and Gen X’ers are SO keyboard oriented that we still use the Alt- and Ctrl-key shortcuts combinations in Microsoft Office rather than click the damn mouse. Both generations hate the touchpad (and the eraserpoint some pencil-neck created at IBM (I always wanted to write that line!)). We grudgingly use the mouse. We buried the Palm “stylus” and their bizarre hieroglyphics writing scheme. The ONLY things we like to be touch-screen are our ATM machines and navigation systems in our cars.

There’s just no way the Boomer/Xer generation is going to start smudging their way through an email reply on the cool surface of an iPhone. No matter how sensitive it is. It just doesn’t compare to the ability to click-out a quick reply one-handed with our Blackberry Pearl while maintaining the lane at 90 mph on the interstate (and drinking a cappuccino at the same time).

No keyboard means no Baby Boomers. Maybe a few “late” Gen X’ers. Just Gen Y’ers - who will be hard pressed to shell out another $200 for the new iPhone when so many others are “giving away” their Smartphones - Samsung, Nokia, Motorola (does Motorola even have a Smartphone? Oh well…)

In the end, it’s just another story of the Geeks in Love with their Gadgets. But it’s also why Apple might find itself never able to really break through the Blackberry barrier. Motorola’s Q hasn’t made a dent; and even the “first to market” Treo has slipped because their phones are bigger than a breadbox. The lesson, as usual, is to focus on the customer. Not the device. If you want to make a work of art, then you can focus on anything you like: People will look at it and say, “That’s nice.” If you want them to buy it, however, you better find out what they like - and build it from there.

And Apple has never really learned this lesson. Their superior product design (and they are admittedly wonderful) became arrogance - which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but has clearly kept them from understanding how to bring a product to market, dominate that sector, and change the game. We can all say that Blackberries are “more quaint” with their keyboards - but as long as the customer prefers them, it’s a done deal. It’s much easier for Blackberry to add some multimedia, improve their camera, add stereo Bluetooth and all that stuff - to compete with the gadget-coolness of the iPhone - than it is for iPhone to add a keyboard. Maybe that’s why AT&T also sells Blackberries - like the new 8120 with many iPhone-like features.

The question is: What does the customer want to buy? If it’s the business sector (which dwarfs the spending power of the college grads) then someone at Apple better start doing some market research.

- PS: I typed this entire entry out on my Blackberry. With its keyboard.

Ok, here’s a totally unscientific study:

1. I bumped into a REALTOR last night at the registration desk for a conference we’ll be attending today. She was telling me that she had three offers on three properties yesterday and she has another that is coming in this morning. All are likely to be accepted. She is busier than ever!

2. A house three doors down from my home in Andover sold in under a week last month; it actually had multiple offers and it entered a bidding war (My neighbor was one of them). Two more homes within a mile just went on the market and sold within about ten days as well. NONE of these homes was a “prize” catch. In fact, one of them was so ugly, the “front door” was in the BACK of the house and only two garage doors faced the street (honest!). It’s definitely a “tear down” project.

3. Gold dropped about $25 yesterday. That tells me the dollar is getting stronger. Which means commodity prices may start to flatten or even fall. A stronger dollar means more purchasing power for the consumer, and with so much inventory at bargain prices (3 million unoccupied but built homes nationwide) there should be a buying spree going on (except that somehow REALTORS or the press or politicians can’t seem to ignite one…)

So can someone please tell me where the bad real estate market is?

Oh, if it helps, I’ll give you a hint:

1. The bad market is in places where bad deals are offered to consumers as good deals. Caveat Emptor and all of that, but consumers aren’t complete idiots, are you? If American Airlines charges you $15 to check your luggage and Southwest doesn’t, who are you going to fly? If there’s a 2 bedroom home for $300,000 on the market and a 3 bedroom one down the street for $250,000, which deal should you take? There are some markets that are broken - like Michigan entirely, where the tax laws and unemployment rate is so bad that nobody in their right mind is going to move or invest in property there. But otherwise, just because some houses aren’t selling doesn’t mean it’s a bad market. It’s just a bunch of bad deals sitting “on” the market.

2. The bad market is on the front page of newspapers and websites. Of course it is, because there isn’t much other bad news (haven’t heard too much from Iraq on the front pages, lately, have you?) And media only sells bad news. We’re obsessed with “broken, bad, sad” in this country, to the extent that even if it isn’t broken, we’ll break it (think: we tear down our successful celebrities and business leaders rather than celebrate them by publishing dirt about them). REALTORS just bought into this “worship of woe” because we thought it was the easiest way to get a government handout (think: NAR power play, increased loan limits, government bail out). Unfortunately, we drank our own poison and now we have the stomach ache to prove it. Not all of us, though: The market can’t be all that bad because some REALTORS are doing plenty of deals. Wonder why?

3. We’re inflexible. As an industry, we mostly do the “same things we’ve always done” for decades. We’re the “SUV salesman” who has enjoyed a decade of high commissions on gas guzzlers. We don’t t know what to do when suddenly the market wants economy cars and our lot is full of Hummers. No backup plan; no savings in place to make the transition and restock the lot with new, desirable inventory. We just want everything to go back “to the good old days” when MLS data was secret and customers “needed us.” We don’t like having to actually follow up with prospects or incubate internet leads more than 30 seconds. We’re shocked to find that we actually can’t make a sales presentation effectively and our open house skills would have Martha Stewart and Miss Manners fighting over who is going to spank us first. Why can’t we just go back to the “way we were”?

As for the real market, things are actually fine. REALTORS who recognize it’s the Time of the Buyer are selling homes fast and furious: There’s so MUCH inventory that if you know how to price it and promote it to BUYERS (sorry sellers! just sit there and be quiet and let the professionals do the work) you can maximize the market conditions. Some REALTORS have realized nothing is going to “come back” to how it was: there is no “returning” market. There is always just “the market that is.” And good sales people learn how to sell in ANY market.

I’d love to hear other stories from my readers about how they’re selling perfectly well in their markets. Maybe if we collect the stories here, someone will notice (not the media, of course, but maybe some consumers) that things are really quite fine in the real real estate market.

Post your stories in our Comments!

- M

I never ceases to amaze me. With the industry in turmoil - real turmoil meaning homes aren’t selling, credit is harder to come by even for good borrowers and silly groups like the Austin City Council trying to kill local real estate with local environmental-efficiency upgrades before permitting a house to sell - the REALTOR industry just keeps shooting itself in the foot. Never mind a weak dollar, shaky lenders and foreclosures undermining the markets in the states with the largest economies in the country - FL, NY, NV, and of course, California. Don’t worry about the changing generations of buyers disrupting the comfy-cozy medieval guild system we used to call the real estate business. And as for new third parties like Trulia and Zillow, they aren’t even on the radar of really disrupting the business, considering how easily they were co-opted into playing nice with the big franchisors.

Nope: Just leave it to the local MLS system to put the final nails into the coffin of good old real estate.

That’s just what’s happening in San Diego this morning, as Kris Berg, a local REALTOR and member of Prudential California reports this morning in a wonderful article (written as an open letter) on the Inman News site today (See the article or her personal blog or trackback link).

Here are just a couple of my favorite highlights, written with a wit after my own heart:

To better serve me, you recently gave me a new MLS system. You call it Tempo 5. I am writing to thank you. Although I never asked for my former and, dare I say, functional MLS to be replaced, you seemingly knew exactly what my clients and I needed….

…[S]ome bad apples were sharing their [old MLS access] with unauthorized evildoers… so I get the whole “key fob” thing … My new Security Authenticator, as you call it, is really neat. … Now no one except me can input or update my listings, including my partner, my assistant and the other agents on my team. Sometimes I can’t even update my listings…

… I love how adding a listing now involves 219 distinct input fields. While only 111 of these are mandatory, you can bet I am going to use every one….

[And my personal favorite section of her letter...]

… Now, I can’t highlight and right-click statistical reports anymore, but that’s OK. Why would I need to share this proprietary data with my clients on my Web site or blog when they can just go to Zillow? It’s our MLS, after all. Let them go find their own IDX feed and figure it out themselves!

How is it that REALTORS are still hand-wringing over the “security” of their MLS database? Hello?!?! The issue is dead. Moot. Move on! Your data is out there, gone over the ether, on any screen, in any Blackberry, spread around like to much manure it really represents (The quality of MLS data is insanely poor. Berg notes that she’s looking forward to seeing the new listing with 3000 bathrooms she just found in the MLS. And everyone knows how few photos most MLS contains. And we’re worrying about the security of this information???)

And what’s with this “security authenticator” device. I think we should make up an acronym for it: SAD. It’s just so sad that REALTORS are “fighting the good fight” against MLS data piracy, when they still haven’t figured out how to price homes to sell, stage them to show properly - or how just take their laptops to an open house so buyers can ask more questions and REALTORS can provide answers more than “I’ll have to get back to you…”

Sheesh. Of all the problems we have in this business - ANOTHER MLS SECURITY UPGRADE doesn’t seem like it’s of PARAMOUNT ISSUE, now, does it?

Well, of course it is! Especially to “committee members” who aren’t busy doing anything else right now (like selling homes or marketing online). It’s the same old story: Some old-school REALTORS think they’re losing control over their data. Quick - lock it down! Get a security guard! Bite, Fido, bite! Protect that data - because heavens forbid the consumer actually see it! What might happen then?

So the security device is really perfect: It’s a SAD reaction to a SAD strategy for being relevant in the modern real estate marketplace. Save the MLS! Save the data! Save the Alamo….. Ooops. That one didn’t work out so well, now, did it?

Believe it or not, there is a serious business analysis of this very situation. Let’s channel our inner-Drucker for a moment and we’ll quickly discern:

“Computers may have done more harm than good by making managers even more inwardly focused. Executives are so enchanted by the internal data the computer generates–and that’s all it generates so far, by and large–that they have neither the mind nor the time for the outside. Yet results are only on the outside. I find more and more executives less and less well informed (about the outside world).”

This is absolutely the trap of the “MLS-data-security-SAD” paradox that the San Diego Association of REALTORS (and many other Associations) find themselves in. They are focused on the “computer” and “the data” and “security” - all of which is simply “internal stuff.” And internal processes are only costs and efforts. Never profits. Only on the outside - in the world of the consumer, who can desire our products (our data) and compensate us for it - can profits be made.

Ironically, “securing the MLS data” is like “locking profits” outside of the REALTOR community.

Well, it’s not unexpected. At least not for us here at our company. The Security Authenticator Device is just another last-ditch effort to keep change at bay. The last gasps of outrage before the wheels of change grind it all beneath their awesome power.

Alas, the San Diego REALTORS will give it one more try: To hold on to the pre-industrial days of real estate - when every brokerage was a little cottage dotting the serene hills of a managed mercantalist marketplace. Back then, not a factory - or internet connection - was in sight to thwart the local guild with things like efficiency, immediacy or competition. In the good old days, only the “initiated few” had access to the secret comparables book of properties. Even advertising to the p