Inman is exploring what the future of real estate leadership should look like through a series of articles, Q&As with industry pros, and an upcoming 5-part series called Leadership Week. Please send your feedback to leadership@inman.com. If you’re a leader who wants to join us for our exclusive Disconnect in The Desert event on March 26-28, or want to recommend a colleague, send a note to brad@inman.com explaining why.
Lisa Fettner is the vice president of marketing at ReferralExchange, where she leads all strategic and brand marketing efforts, and associated websites/services (TopAgentsRanked.com, Referralexchange.com). Her responsibilities include brand development/management, social media, website, email, events, public relations, evangelism, sales support and business/partnership development.
We recently had the chance to chat with Lisa about the current state of real estate leadership, and her thoughts on what’s ahead for 2018.
As a leader, what keeps you up at night?
Technology is evolving so quickly and new applications seem to be appearing daily. Keeping our service relevant and meaningful for our constituency in the midst of so much hype is definitely a challenge. The accelerated change and capital we are seeing come into the market is unprecedented.
Lisa Fettner
If you could change one thing in real estate, what would it be?
The glamorization of real estate sometimes overshadows the time, expertise and effort involved in every deal. I’d like to see these popular shows highlight the hard work and professionalism that exists in every deal. They can do a disservice to people who are thinking about becoming real estate professionals and lull them into thinking it’s going to be easy. That being said, these shows are good for keeping the next generation of buyers and sellers interested in real estate.
How have your expectations of your management team changed over the past two years?
ReferralExchange has doubled in size over the past two years, and our volume has grown even more. We’ve had to learn how to transition from a startup to a midsize company and scale/adapt accordingly.
How do you keep your team competitive?
We stay focused and try not to get distracted by shiny objects. We’re constantly thinking about how we can continuously improve our service to help our agents achieve their goals.
With so much disruption in real estate, what’s your best advice for managing change?
Recognize that change is inevitable. What was cutting-edge five years ago is now ancient history. We don’t all have to be “early adopters,” but we definitely need to embrace change strategically and figure out how to make it work for us.
Want to connect with Lisa? You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.