The Evolving Real Estate Professional!

As an old colloquialism  would advise, “Times, they are a changin”.  With the advent of social media for many years now, we are not alone in any endeavor, especially in business. The one page contract left the scene in the 1970’s.  Brokerage brands are growing by leaps and bounds and many agents that were excellent in the past are losing touch, not only with the future of real estate, but with the here and now!

Online submission of contracts, signatures and even virtual offices are the norm. The day of running to the office, the title company, the escrow company and the court house are gone! The way you grow your business matters!

The hardest concept for many to grasp is the need to not only communicate with others in the field but to cooperate with them. There is great benefit in social media in having colleagues from as many different offices and franchises as possible. The new advertising policies permit the advertising of your listing by any other agent as long as credit is given the listing agent/brokerage. This is a positive if you are willing to see the big picture! You see, the more often your listing is promoted by you OR others, the quicker and more likely it is to sell.

The more people advertising (basically for you) the more listings you will sell and faster! It opens new doors for you as well, you’ve always been able to sell another agents listing, but now you can advertise it, giving you the ability to sell more homes this year!

All of this being said, this is the reason you want other agents (as many as you can get) for friends, contacts and followers on social media. Each person has friends who will be influenced by their own friend. It opens doors you cannot open another way. Sharing the post of someone having an open house or advertising a property doesn’t just benefit them, it benefits you because it is you that your friends will call.

Holding things too close to the vest is the best way to lose in today's market (a huge change from the past way of doing real estate). Go with the flow, learn to be flexible, and you will find you are  having more fun and selling more real estate!

DON’T PANIC YOURSELF OUT OF BUSINESS!

The information highway is a blessing and a curse in this day of split second happenings and knowledge, some of which is true and some of which is simply hype. The normal response to the initial wave often spears panic because as humans we are conditioned to run and hide at the first sign of what we perceive to be danger.

Problematic is the word ‘perceive’. Before jumping ship at the first wave, it is better to analyze the true affect on you, your business and your clients. Often larger ships in the harbor will try to intimidate the smaller crafts, but if you know anything about the ‘rule of the seas,’ you would know that the small crafts have the ‘right of way!’

The recent news of information leaving a particular social media site and being used by an analytical group is a prime example of the type of scare that can cause a mass exodus without first thinking through and  analyzing ourselves why it would be beneficial for large companies to act like they are incensed and try influencing the smaller market out of the harbor.  Who really looses in this scenario?

Everyone has been using analytics for some time now on our websites, our social media, our CRM’s and more. Are we so naive as to think it is wrong for big companies to research us but we have the right to find out everything we possibly can about our potential and current customers. Think about it, we know that even stores we walk into chart our buying habits, not to make us like drones but to get us to buy more from them than their competition.

Fear is a good thing in the right situation, but this will either blow over or one big ship will attack the other big ship and we will all be left to pick up the peaces and profit from them. Keep navigating the course you know will work for you and keep a watchful eye on the sharks in the water as they are the real threat!