Former bartender, cow-milker, globe-trekker, marketing manager, conultant and more turned real estate coach 2.0. I focus on bringing the best of technology and branding to agents across the country.
Teresa, I really enjoyed reading your post, however could not disagree with you more. I have had this debate with a number in our industry and out, and continue to believe that personal branding is more important than ever before. "branding" isn't your name on a card, your logo, or your necessarily your advertising campaign. My belief is that your personal brand is comprised of "brand values" i.e. the values of which you demonstrate (both personally and professionally) and that dictate your every action. Your brand as an individual is more important than ever because it takes into account what I feel are your "true" differentiators. Every Realtor can search the MLS, Show you homes, put them in the MLS, (most) can navigate a contract, etc. Your personal brand allows you to not only differentiate yourself but show your clients HOW you do things differently. That's just my 2 cents... thanks for writing. MAtt Matthew Dollinger Performance Coach @properties, Chicago IL
Thanks for all the comments. I might suggest that all brokers looking to recruit or retain agents take a look at this post featured over at Active Rain and the "agents" perspecitve. 99% would love to work there. I truly dont think that it would cost THAT much to build an office this way or to revamp an office into this one if you actually embraced the ideas of Web 2.0 (collaboration) into the build out. What do you think that coffee shop on the corner is worried about right now - yup - overhead. Why not work together on this? Anyway, it's a thought and out of the box... and that's what i was going for. It's not for everyone or every market... but I think for some it would be perfect. Matthew Dollinger Performance Coach @properties, Chicago IL
Kris, GREAT POST! And I mean this in a not-a-7-year-old-or-I'm-just-commenting-because-it-boosts-my-SEO-and-online-presence-type-of-way. I had written a blog post about this a long time ago when I first found out how the S&P Case Schiller report was calculated for our city of Chicago. The report, and many out there, tend to spew information and not KNOWLEDGE, which I believe is the ultimate difference. Here are the "general facts" but let's not boil it down to a granular or local level... that's just too much work. We deal with this alot in Chicago. There actually was an article in the Sun Times (not the Chicago Tribune however... too bad) about the fact that nationwide Median home prices were down over 20% and in Chicago we were seeing 8% drops city-wide. This great article of FACT and KNOWLEDGE was swept aside quickly and buried by the fact that foreclosure rates were up some 60% year over year in Illinois (still 1 in 600 homes respectfully) REally really glad to read your post however, and stresses the fact that in this age of information overload the cream of the agents, those that I refer to as Real Estate Advisors, will rise to the top and show their worth to their clients. Keep it up and you just got a new follower on Twitter! - MAtt Dollinger Matthew Dollinger Performance Coach @properties, Chicago IL
