What do you want to be when you grow up?
At the recruiting presentation for a past brokerage, my future manager said, "I'm an SOB,... Son Of a Broker." That didn't say much for his Mama; and unfortunately, it did say much for him either.
Real Estate, Realtors and the NAR have taken a lot of hits in the past few years as we evolved from Real Estate 1.0 to Real Estate 2.0. We've had attacks on our profession, our technology, our data and our policies. And it seems we've made enemies of the Banks, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission; and lost the friendship of our Big Government buddies.
The NAR had an opportunity to take a big jump into Web/Real Estate 2.0, but "We" decided to bag the agreement with Google to provide our Real Estate Search and continue our affiliation with Move Inc (aka The HomeStore) and Realtor.com. So we still hide our data on our MLS's, on Realtor.com and on the Invisible Web (It's still so Real Estate 1.0).
The joke for Real Estate 1.0 was "Don't give away the milk, or he won't buy the cow." The joke for Real Estate 2.0 is "Give away the milk; and sell ads: on the cow, on the milk carton and on the 'Got Milk' Website".
Inman had a provocative post/question on its blog last week in preparation for Real Estate Connect NYC 2007: "Is the Realtor becoming irrelevant in the Internet age?"
So, Realtors aren't still debating whether or not we're a profession, but whether we're relevant, or whether we'll even exist.
It's helpful to look at history, even the short history of the sale of goods and services on the Internet, to see where we Realtors may be headed.
True, the home sale is a sale, but it is the sale of a person's most valuable financial asset, a sale tied up with many emotional and personal issues and a sale different and even unique in many other ways.
Home sales have some similarity to commodity sales like autos, and even sales of CD's, DVD's and collectibles. But there are also great differences in price, emotion and time of sale.
The more a Real Estate sale is like the sale of a commodity (an auto, a CD, a DVD or a collectible), the more irrelevant Realtors are, the less value Realtors can add, and the less we Realtors are needed.
If Real Estate ever becomes a commodity, we'll have more to fear from Amazon.com, Ebay.com, Walmart.com and the other Retailers; than from Google, Zillow and the other Search Engines.
The more we Realtors can offer value-added services, like other licensed professionals offer for tax, legal and medical services, the less our Mamas have to fear; and the more they can boast "My son the Realtor".
GOT NEXT! Happy Searching.
WebHomeUSAblog; The Blog of Real Estate Search Marketing
In looking over the home sale process for possible advertisers for my Website I found 4 areas of the home sale that have 4 groups of potentially different advertisers around the housing information:
- Early Sale: Think to buy or sell: Realtors, Lenders, Lawyers, home stagers, landscapers, etc.
- Late Sale: (pre-closing): Inspectors, Movers, Insurers
- Early Homeowner: Contractors, Telephone, Cell Phone, Internet, Cable TV, Banking, etc.
- Late Homeowner: Everyone who advertises in the Yellow Pages and Sunday Newspapers
The credit loans suppose to be very useful for guys, which are willing to start their own career. As a fact, that's easy to receive a short term loan.
Posted by: PriceElla | May 27, 2010 at 04:04 AM