Beyond brick and mortar
Rethinking the real estate office
By Glenn Roberts Jr., Thursday, February 19, 2009.
Flickr photo by marklarson.Internet-capable handheld devices are deploying typical office functions in the field, allowing real estate professionals to be increasingly less reliant on a brick-and-mortar brokerage building.
Today's real estate office can be a car, a coffee shop or most any location within reach of a signal tower or Wi-Fi hot spot.
An increasingly virtual brokerage office can serve many purposes. Shifting from paper documents to electronic documents can create greater efficiencies and improve tracking in the transaction process. There is also the simple "greening" effect of curbing paper waste.
The increasing use of Web applications and Web metrics allows brokers and agents to better measure productivity and their bang for the buck in marketing while keeping up with instant updates in property status.
This month, Inman News is focusing coverage on rethinking the traditional brokerage office and new innovations in "virtual" brokerage operations.
It's part of a series of monthly topics that Inman News will be highlighting in our coverage throughout the year. This month, for example, we are focusing coverage on issues related to real estate compensation, including percentage-based commissions and alternative pay models for the industry (click here for details).
We invite your continued participation in the discussion about these focused topics.
We are accepting guest essays related to mobile real estate technologies and rethinking the traditional brokerage office.
Guest essays should range from 500 to 1,000 words, and we are rewarding the author of each essay published in full a free pass to the upcoming Real Estate Connect conference, which runs from Aug. 5-7 in San Francisco. Please do not use these essays as a marketing tool to promote your company or product -- such entries will be disqualified.
You can send all essays, letters to the editor, story ideas and tips to future@inman.com.
Click here to participate in the "Beyond Brick and Mortar" reader survey. A survey participant will be selected at random to win a $200 Amazon.com gift card.
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Submitted by Catherine Read on February 19, 2009 - 1:18pm.
I think this is a terrific topic to focus on! I've discovered in teaching classes on social media technologies that one of the first hurdles is agents who don't have a laptop to participate in hands-on training. To me that is symptomatic of a much larger issue: agents don't realize they need to be more mobile with their technology. The "netbook" class of computers could provide one possible solution: well priced, highly portable and functional, they can be used in working with clients anywhere and everywhere with a wireless card for full connectivity. It's one step up from a Blackberry or iPhone and not as cumbersome as a full size laptop. This is just one consideration when looking at agents leaving the bricks and mortar behind, and I look forward to seeing what others contribute to this thought provoking new topic.
Catherine S. Read
Creative Read, Inc.
Submitted by Jay Thompson on February 19, 2009 - 1:58pm.
As the owner of a "virtual office" real estate brokerage, I'll be interested to see the results of this survey.
Some agents clearly see that a fancy brick & mortar office isn't required to be successful in this business. But it's just as clear some think said office is the key to success.
Jay Thompson
Broker / Owner
Thompson's Realty
Blog: www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com
.
Submitted by Glenn Sanford on February 19, 2009 - 3:35pm.
Running a Virtual Real Estate Company with Offices and Teams in 8 cities we are working on being a fully virtual as possible. Still dealing with a few holdouts. I think another name for Virtual Office is Home Office, because in reality agents will probably use their homes as their home bases. Virtual offices are in some respects the outward facing websites and the materials presented online along with the commentary that takes place whether via Video Conferenceing (like GMail Text and Video Chat) or online GotoMeetings or GotoWebinars.
Glenn Sanford
--
Founder / CEO
BuyerTours Realty LLC &
Working The Magic, LLC
Check out my Real Estate SEO blog
Direct: 360-220-1470
Submitted by Larry Whited Sr. on February 19, 2009 - 4:42pm.
Be careful calling each agent a “Home Office”. You may run into State License, MLS and Board regulations as I did. I started my virtual company 7 years ago and with 100+ agents working in their home office I have been challenged by all three.
Seems some of my “friendly” competitors have sent in anonymous complaints to the above. With agents in 9 MLS system & Boards across my state I have been billed for agents in Boards & MLS system other than their primary Board & MLS.
I have had to waste time proving that they only had to pay in their primary board and the only MLS system they have access to. At one pint I had to get the legal staff at out state association call the offended Board to explain their NAR Charter they operate under.
I have been informed by the state license division that I might have to have a branch office license in each home office. Per Board and MLS regs each branch office would then have to become a member which would increase our cost many times more than now.
Now I have a Branch office license in one home office in each MLS area we operate in and all agent licenses assigned to that branch. At State, Board & MLS I have myself registered as the manager of all of each branch office. Thus I must be a member of each Board & MLS system.
Larry A. Whited, Sr., CRB, CRS, GRI
President & Founder
www.WebMLS.net & www.maxUnet.com
P.O. Box 757
West Chester Ohio 45071
Cell - (513) 543-2727 Fax - (513) 297-7497
Submitted by Larry Whited Sr. on February 19, 2009 - 6:32pm.
PS: to the above:
You must have a branch office in each MLS area or they will bill you for all your agents in each MLS you want to belong to.
In some areas one MLS covers several board areas. I decide which board I will belong to as a company in that MLS area, usually one of the larger boards with more service to the agents. Which board they belong to is irrelevant. Which MLS they belong to is critical.
When an agent decides they want to join my company I make it clear they have to move their board membership to the only board I belong to in that MLS area. They usually do not have a problem with that.
If they do have an issue with leaving their small “friendly” board I tell them their “friendly” board will not be so friendly when they join our company and start offering a reduced commission to sell property.
I give them 2 options; move their membership or pay all cost for my company to become a member of their “Friendly” board. They think switching membership is a much better option and switch.
My agents pay their own board & MLS dues. I just pay the company Board & MLS fees for the one branch office.
Larry A. Whited, Sr., CRB, CRS, GRI
President & Founder
www.WebMLS.net & www.maxUnet.com
P.O. Box 757
West Chester Ohio 45071
Cell - (513) 543-2727 Fax - (513) 297-7497
Submitted by Donald S. Teel on February 27, 2009 - 8:54am.
This topic, "Beyond Bricks and Mortar," should be a telling round of communication that will reveal more than the "Roadmap to Recovery" revealed and this will be good for all of us and helpful the industry as it struggles to reinvent itself.
What my group believes will be revealed is the fact that our industry has finally entered what we have been calling the New Real Estate Economy" wherein a redefinition of our markets and our models is literally being forced upon a struggling industry. We may well discover that a large part of our industry is moving forward kicking, struggling, scratching and clinging to doomed model that cannot sustain meaningful profitability for broker/owners and now agents as well.
There is a disconnect between the needs and desires of the consumer and the antiquated bricks and mortar (B&M) retail models we are struggling to maintain. This disconnect is much larger than we care to acknowledge.
We have spent considerable time articulating the financial eras associated with the historical development and flow of the industry. See the post and presentation here.
There are reasons why companies like Larry Whited's (see his comments) have to join multiple MLS services and be racked with unreasonable expenses. Our Association models are in a battle that has more to do with job retention than with meeting the needs of broker/owners, the industry and more importantly, the consumer, i.e., we are still trying to control property information and old definitions of "market." Using astronomical MLS access costs is just another example of the outmoded, anti-innovation practices still existent within the industry.
We applaud the Inman team for creating an industry framework for hard-core discussion that can truly result in an candid exchanges. The larger need is real change that goes beyond verbal and emotional theory and results in the transformation of our models into open market, freedom models where our industry finds renewed favor and partnership with millions of consumers who await the change and who are desperately in need of professional assistance with their real estate investments.
Donald Teel - Founder
e-Partner Real Estate Services
www.ePartnerUSA.com
REALonomics - New Real Estate Model Math
www.REALonomics.net
877.380.1000
Submitted by Richard Fisher on March 15, 2009 - 7:44pm.
For the agents and offices which are going Mortarless and Officeless you will need to go paperless. Try ZipformOnline, Docusign and TransactionPoint, and you are fully mobile. Transaction signing and storage only take minutes instead of hours and everyone has 24/7/365 access to their documents. Try it, you will like it. It is the Green way to go.
Richard Fisher
Designated Broker
RFisher@MorroBayRealty.com
Submitted by Jared Yost on March 19, 2009 - 6:52am.
http://geodatatechnologies.com
Hello, We are bringing “Virtual Realty” technology to Real Estate. We have built a collaboration tool for real estate agents to be able to communicate with local and or remote buyers using a 3D landscape, realistic terrain, MLS search and neighborhood info such as home locations parcel boundaries, schools etc. If you get a chance visit our website to check it out. We can upload all kinds of information to the landscape from 3D models to video on terrain and even avatars. Our website has videos that show it in use and a live demo to check out the technology. We are a very market driven company and would like to hear what you need.
Jared Yost
Director of Product Technology
GeoData Technologies
1555 West Ontario Street
Sandpoint, ID 83864
Tel: 208.255.7215
Toll Free: 1.888.773.3969
www.geodatatechnologies.com