Real Estate Predictions, Wish List for 2011
Industry pros share insight, hopes for new year
By Inman News, Wednesday, December 15, 2010.
Flickr image courtesy of centralasian.Editor's note: Inman News asked our audience to share their views on what's in store for real estate in the year ahead, and also to list their wishes and resolutions. This is the first installment in a series. (How to participate.)
Predictions: Shift happens:
1. Data usage: Associations will need to become more expert in data usage and syndication. Smart brokers and agents better get up to speed quickly on this topic, too.
2. Mobility will be critical. Most customers are totally mobile so real estate professionals better catch up! Everything from smart phones, iPads, netbooks, portable scanners, e-signatures and more need to be in their daily arsenal. To adapt a quote from R.H. Grant, "When you use tools that are smarter than you are, you prove that you are smarter than they are."
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3. Realtor associations will need to continue to adapt their business model and services. As Realtors get busier or more afraid of the market, the availability of volunteer resources will continue to dwindle. Association staff will have to pick up the slack. This means changes in staff assignments or actual changes in staff. "The quality of the play cannot surpass the caliber of the cast."
4. Real estate professionals will need to find their area of expertise. They aren't the only ones that know what's for sale and they can no longer control the transaction, so they had better become the "hyperlocal expert" or the "lifestyle consultant" or some other expert. Somehow they need to know more about something than their customers do!
5. Banks will need to work together with the real estate professional. If they don't, no one will sell anything and no one will get paid! Communicate and work things out for the benefit of everyone. Don't keep the rules secret and don't keep changing them."
6. The real estate market will continue to change -- at an ever greater rate of speed. Real estate professionals must keep abreast of market trends and changes or they will be lost.
Wish List: Banks need to effectively work with the real estate professional to communicate and work towards an expedient sale. If they don't, sales will continue to be slow and all parties will suffer.
Pam MacConnell
CEO
West Volusia Association of Realtors
Orange City, Fla. ...CONTINUED
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Submitted by Eric Bryant on December 16, 2010 - 11:10am.
Short, Sweet, and On Point! Thanks Pam...RE Agents are entering the most challenging year of their career. Decisions to "Get on Board" or "Get The Hell Out of the Way" will need to be made. Brokerages will need to focus on support and education in Technology, like never before.
Agents will need a "patient" approach to learning...Speak up Agents, if your Broker is not providing you with the support and training you need, YELL and yell loudly!
2011 will be an amazing year for all of us. Great things are in store. I wish you all the best =)
@TheRECoach
Coldwell Banker Coastal Alliance - Long Beach
Submitted by Ruthmarie Hicks on December 16, 2010 - 11:39am.
Hi Pam - Good List - but I am not that optimistic.
#1 - Associations also need to get wise to the long-term plans of some of these syndication efforts and put the brakes on those whose long term goals are to simply sell our listings back to us for a ginormous bite of our commission.
#2 - Check - I'm using an iPad with consumers for listing presentations and for quick searches on the MLS when we are on the road.
#3 - Do you REALLY expect real estate to get that busy? I don't. At least not around my area.
#4 - I don't think that's the problem - at least not for agents putting out an effort and for whom it is a business. I think the public doesn't know what it doesn't know. "A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing" applies here. Just because they can Google listings and asking prices doesn't mean they understand what goes on with respect to value or how complicated a transaction this is. No its not rocket science - but there are a lot of moving parts. We need to educate the public that there is a lot they just DON'T KNOW.
#5 - Nice request - now try getting them to comply? Wake up folks! The banks are sitting on piles of cash after we bailed them out. The new republican majority in Congress wants to take the long knives out on Elizabeth Warren - who is the one person that might force them perform for the consumer - which what they are there for to begin with. They have no need nor incentive to cooperate which is one reason why I don't see sales volume increasing.
#6 - This is true - yet many very productive agents have not changed the way they do business in 30 years...They are doing well while the newer innovative agents suffer from a lack of a strong database.
Submitted by Michael Maher on December 19, 2010 - 11:25am.
I wish for agents to embrace becoming better communicators.
The #1 Complaint at NAR? Communication or lack thereof.
The #1 Way to Keep Sellers Happy Longer? Communication. Every Seller Every Monday.
The #1 Way to Turn a Lead into a Client? Communication. Is what you are saying working?
The #1 Way to turn a Client into an Advocate/Ambassador? Communication.
The #1 Way to Educate a Buyer or Investor about the current rates and why to buy now? Communication.
The #1 Way an Agent will Survive the current economic environment? Communication.
There are seven levels of communication and those who embrace these and the Influential Zone will survive and thrive. Yes, I understand this seems like self-promotion. It is and it isn't. Communication will be the difference. I wish for agents to become Master Communicators.
To Your Success,
Michael
Michael J. Maher, MBA
Bestselling Author and Realtor
America's Most Referred Real Estate Professional
Author, (7L) The Seven Levels of Communication
Ask me about BOOST! and BOOST!+PLUS