Welcome to real estate Bedrock
The Davison Files
By Marc Davison, Tuesday, June 17, 2008.
Abracadabra. Your Web site has vanished.
Your blog: MIA.
HomeGain, Trulia, Zillow, ActiveRain … all gone. As if they never existed.
You reach for your phone but there's no dial tone.
Your computer -- no Internet activity.
No e-mail. No IM. Dead calm.
Lead generation, TMS, CRM … fond memories.
Lockboxes. Coaches. Trainers. Continuing-ed outfits. Gone.
No more "vendors" profiting inside real estate.
Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet
It's been water cooler talk. Now it's taken hold in the blogosphere: The notion that real estate would be better served if vendors could be deleted from the process.
We're not just talking about technology vendors. Conference vendors, professional services vendors, training vendors and brokers, too, should be banished -- especially those who attempt to offset the cost of operations by selling things like training, education, Web sites and marketing materials
Utopia? I hardly think so.
Without vendors, real estate would be a sort of Bedrock filled with Fred Flintstones, Barneys, Wilmas and Bettys. Door-knocking. Cold-calling. Scratching out deals on paper using wood writing devices filled with lead. Driving documents across town for $5 a gallon. Praying at the altar of the paper gods -- fax and copy machines, postage clerks and file cabinets.
Agents would be viewed as glorified delivery people. Gatherers. Order takers. Desk-bound. And tied to the apron strings of convention -- the archaeological dig where only the fossils of the past reside.
A 'yabba-dabba-doo' time
Real estate without vendors. A prehistoric landscape void of critical tools. Agents would be milling wood and hand-carving stone tablets to create yard signs. Slinging paperclip darts from rubber bands to generate leads instead of paying others for Web sites, blogs or e-newsletters. Reading stars for navigation and using smoke signals for communication instead of GPS, smart phones, Twitter, live chats and other overpriced tools produced by predatory vendors.
They would be weaving local market reports with the sinew of opinion rather than fact-driven analytics ported by feeds, applications and reports assembled by vendors who provide great agents the tools to look and sound as great and modern as they are.
Without vendors, real estate today would be a page right out of history. No one would be having a "yabba-dabba-doo" time.
Let's ride with the family down the street.
The real estate bus is big enough for everyone. Agents, disintermediators. Interlopers. Vendors. Outsiders. Vendors. Them.
Us.
No one owns this space. Or has any given rights to it. Or entitlements. Real estate, the consumer, opportunity, innovation -- all of it -- belongs to anyone and everyone with an idea.
Granted, not all vendors are great, fair or deliver on their promise. But everyone has a right to be here. And have their fates judged by the tribe as a whole. That's what makes this a modern stone-age story.
Go forward. And have a gay old time.
Marc Davison is a partner at 1000watt Consulting. He can be reached at marc@1000wattconsulting.com.
***
What's your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer, click the byline at the top of the story.
All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
You must login or register to post a comment.
Submitted by Mike Sparr on June 17, 2008 - 1:33pm.
Marc, I love your blog post. This is a great one that gets you thinking back to the "stoneage". No computers, no cell phones, no nothing but a pen and paper pad? I don't think I've done that since elementary school, which by then we already had the computers with black screen and green writing.
As the real estate market turns with the rest of the world, it's hard to imagine doing business as it was done back then. Makes you wonder if someone could really pull it off like they did when some of these offices were founded. The other day I was browsing a brokerage website, on the east coast I believe. It said something like: "Founded in 1908" or close to it. I thought to myself; "WOW, I bet the turn around time for giving and receiving information was sure a lot longer back then." Everything was done in post mail I'm sure. I can't imagine!
Thanks for getting my mind turning!
Have a great afternoon!
Erika
www.goomzee.com
Submitted by Jay Thompson on June 17, 2008 - 4:11pm.
I must have missed the "no vendors allowed/needed" buzz. But I can say one thing about that...
That's just plain silly.
I'm relatively technically adept, but there are a TON of things I don't want/need/have the time/ to recreate. There are also many people a who lot smarter than I am that can build these necessary tools. Let them do what they do best, and I'll take what they do and do what I do best.
TOGETHER we can get things done. I have zero desire to fly solo in this world.
Jay Thompson
Broker / Owner
Thompson's Realty
Blog: www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com
.
Submitted by Jon Strum on June 17, 2008 - 4:26pm.
Marc,
Great post. Simply posting it on Inman News allows you to preach to the choir. But the sad reality is that in describing "real estate as practiced in Bedrock", you've described Nirvana for a (still) large percentage of agents.
When these agents look back upon "the good ol' days" they fondly remember them without cell phones, computers, the Internet and email. Don't even think about blogs, social media, Trulia, Zillow or (gulp!) text-messaging.
They not only fear change, but they fear those who embrace it. Or promote it. Hence, life without vendors. It's a professionally embarrassing position to take. Yet each luddite agent takes comfort in the symphony of voices around them.
I think that's the problem. And the opportunity.
Jon Strum
homsho
Blog: www.LARealEstateBlog.com
Submitted by Marc Davison on June 17, 2008 - 4:45pm.
I think the majority of agents welcome vendors and thank lucky stars for them. That's my naive take. For the ones you accurately describe Jon, the problem with their logic is that socially, people have all advanced forward. Withour vendor products agents would really be at a loss for communicating and services them and themselves.
If real estate could enter a time machine and go back to life before vendors... well, you know what, they would find just as many vendors there as well. Different, sure. But vendors all the same. As long as there will be field reps and sales and service people, there will always be those who innovate products for them. Vendors.
Both need each other.
Very badly.
And I think, that's a great thing.
Marc
1000Watt Consulting
Turn On!
Submitted by Derek Overbey on June 17, 2008 - 7:29pm.
Marc,
Great article as usual! From my perspective of the last five years on the inside, some agents and brokerages are unwilling or unable to keep up with the pace of vendors...especially tech vendors.
Even though these vendors are making advances that can make life easier and your business more productive, it takes an effort to learn and implement these things into your business. I think this may be why some agents and brokerages might be looking for the good old days.
Derek Overbey
Senior Director of Partnership Strategy
Roost.com
Submitted by Derek Overbey on June 17, 2008 - 7:33pm.
Marc,
Great article as usual! From my perspective of the last five years on the inside, some agents and brokerages are unwilling or unable to keep up with the pace of vendors...especially technology vendors.
Even though these vendors are making advances that can make life easier and your business more productive, it takes an effort to learn and implement these things into your business. I think this may be why some agents and brokerages might be looking for the good old days of powering a car with your feet.
Derek Overbey
Senior Director of Partnership Strategy
Roost.com
Submitted by Marc Davison on June 17, 2008 - 8:14pm.
Two things:
First - Congrats on the new position
Two - Yes, vendors do make ya work a bit. But then again, powering your car with your two feet all over town vs. sitting back with a Macbook at a Starbucks slam dunking a new listing through your twitter account built over time with names collected from your Homegain leads, ported into your Myemma and Feedburner account, linked to your Active Rain, Tomato and Typepad blog, that also has a your Terabitz IDX and Foreclosure Radar FLX feed data that is keeping you in business today while everyone else is wondering where the business is.
Not a bad trade-off!
Marc
1000Watt Consulting
Turn On!
Submitted by Bill Lublin on June 18, 2008 - 2:28am.
Bill Lublin CRB,CRS,GRI
CEO CENTURY 21 Advantage Gold
Visit me at MovePhilly and REreflections Or Click Here to
Find Homes in PA & NJ
Marc;
Interesting post, though I'm sorry I missed whatever it was that started this thought process in your mind.
Its really based on a fallacy though. I did start in the business before all of the technology you mentioned (I was exceptionally young of course). Newer technology was an electric typewriter -In fact I remember when copy machines were so expensive that the owner of the small brokerage I worked for would send me to the Title Insurance Company to make copies.
However there were Vendors even then - they just sold different stuff. I'm sure that there were Vendors in Bedrock, and I'm sure that the Jetson's real estate agent will have vendors also. Its just the nature of the business.
Submitted by Ralph M on June 18, 2008 - 6:15am.
Now, if we can only get rid of the real estate professionals who provide;
FREE market analysis
Utilizing lockboxes all together
Have agents be present at all showings of their clients
AND
get rid of the Days on Market,
we would really be out of bedrock.
www.aarsteam.com
www.iuuzit.com
www.weuuzit.com
www.nosellercost.com