Geordie Romer

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Rob- great post. Broker brands are weak beyond imagination. Whenever I hear my broker's brand promise, I cringe and wish it were true. In your past discussions of business models you've tackled the biggest issue. It makes sense under the current model to hire agents in quantity, not quality. What an easy way to dilute and destroy your brand. Some small portion of the consumer base out there buys into these lame brands, but most do not. To be successful it's been crucial that I create a brand that is my own and separate from that of my broker. In part, it is my escape plan. Once my broker and all the other brokers associated with the franchise have killed off any brand value, I'll still have something left. I argue that it is crucial for agents to create their own brand, because the brokerage is failing in this department. A brand is not a logo and it's not a picture with a dog. It's a promise and it's an identity. An agent without a brand is an agent sitting at a desk waiting for the phone to ring. The future for such a business plan seems bleak to me. Leavenworth WA real estate agent @geordieromer http://iciclecreekrealestate.com

Amen! I find any online rating systems laughable. One company (See my rants over at FOREM) claims that Agents A+B are the recommended agents for my market based on data from an MLS that doesn't really work in our market. Their recommended agents haven't sold a single home in this zipcode in 2009. Not one. So much for transparency. I see the same issues with Zillow's All-Stars and Locals badges. What percentage of these folks can tell you the mayor's name in our town, much less the average sales price or which neighborhoods have recently banned vacation rentals? I think the closest we will come to online ratings is looking at the recommendations on LinkedIn. It doesn't quite correlate with the Net Promoter Score that Rob Hahn promotes, but if you have 20 past clients saying nice things about, you must be doing something right. Good agents are rewarded by their clients with referrals and repeat business. The other 80% go back to their old job. We don't need a vendor with a bad business plan to sort this out for us. Leavenworth WA real estate agent @geordieromer http://iciclecreekrealestate.com

All the lists about "influential" re.net folks put me to sleep. I really like most of the vendors involved, but I couldn't care less who has more friends, blah, blah, blah. Too many agents follow these vendors leads and end up with contact lists filled with 300 vendors and 600 bored and underperforming real estate agents from around the country who will never send them any business. http://www.geekestateblog.com/realtor-on-realtor-action-is-the-renet-a-waste-of-time/ I use Twitter to meet new people. I try and follow folks who have been talking about my nice little vacation town or who fit the profile of my clientele - tech savvy folk from Seattle. Does it work? When I go to Social Media Club events in Seattle I know lots of people in the room and they know me. I have had coffee or lunch with strangers met on Twitter and even took one new friend and his wife out to see a play. I have had strangers inquire about my listings and 1 such inquiry lead to a listing that is currently under contract. Twitter is a tool or a toy, you'll just have to decide how you want to use it. Geordie Romer Leavenworth WA real estate agent @geordieromer http://iciclecreekrealestate.com