Monthly Archives: May 2009

[Research] Brokerage Performance 2008/2009 – Speculative Analysis

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The annual Brokerage Performance Report put together by REALTrends is one of the most useful and important studies for the real estate brokerage industry.  Unfortunately, the last report was released in 2007, and nothing has been released since then.

The trouble with the 2007 Report, as valuable as it is, is that it uses 2006 data from respondents who submit the information voluntarily.  And housing market started to decline sharply really starting in 2007, and 2008 may have been the annus horribilis of the real estate industry.  It may be that the respondents of the REALTrends study simply didn’t want to tell anyone how horrible a year 2007, and then 2008 was even worse.

Either way, lacking 2007 and 2008 performance data means that it is nearly impossible to guess what constitutes “average” performance.  And lacking information means decisionmaking is at best made in a vaccuum with no baseline, and at worst is haphazard.

I’ve always been keenly interested in tracking as much performance data as possible.  And I’m into speculating on stuff I can’t measure.  So I figured I’ll take a foolish crack at some numbers.

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A Contrarian View on the MIBOR Anti-Indexing Issue

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Photo: Mick oOo, Flickr

If you’re on the RE.net, then you know that the hottest topic within the community right now is the issue of NAR’s ruling that search engines are no different from scrapers.  Even my post on this blog talking about social media process using just the NAR handling of the issue as an example got enormous traffic and commentary.  I think it’s fair to say that the overwhelming opinion within the RE.net community is one of outrage, anger, and outright rebellion against MIBOR and against NAR.

So it was a surprise when I got an email from a reader who asked for anonymity expressing a contrarian view.  S/he is a REALTOR who actually agrees with MIBOR’s ruling (backed up by NAR) that indexing of IDX listings should be prohibited and MLS members should be forced to block search engines from finding those listings.  I encouraged him/her to post the email as a comment, but got a firm refusal, as s/he was worried (with some justification, I think) about possible negative reaction from the RE.net.

In fact, I ended up chatting with this REALTOR and agreed that instead of posting his/her email, I would just understand his/her point of view then write it up myself.  While I wouldn’t normally bother, the issue is an important one, and the sensitivities are such that I felt it would be helpful to the conversation to present a contrarian opinion without fear of retribution or accusation of bias.

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Introducing… 7DS Associates

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7ds-logoSince my announcement last Thursday, I have received an enormous outpouring of support, concern, and above all, questions.

“Where are you headed?” and “What’s next for you?” are common questions.

Truth is, I have no idea.  The-event-that-shall-not-be-discussed was only last Tuesday, and suffice to say I hadn’t planned on it.  At the same time, I’m not one for sitting around looking backwards when exciting things are happening all over the place.

So it is with great pleasure, and greater trepidation, that I announce the formation of 7DS Associates.  True, the “Associates” in “7DS Associates” consists mostly of my other personalities, but the mightiest oak began as an acorn dreaming.

Even that is somewhat more grandiose than I had in mind, because truth is that I’m looking at all my options, entertaining all opportunities, opening every door, and looking under every rock.  But there are things that I love doing, and things that I’m passionate about, and I rather think it would be fun to blend all of that together to work with some of the coolest business people I know.

For now, I we will be offering advisory and consulting services through 7DS in the following core competency areas:

  • Marketing: This includes interactive, Web 2.0, social media, and alternative marketing strategies, as well as the traditional market segmentation, marketing mix, and competitor analysis.
  • Operations: Organization analysis, workflow process, financial operations.
  • Strategy Development: Business plans, strategy formation, trend analysis.
  • Technology Assessment: Business cases, vendor research and management, platform analysis, tools assessment.
  • Product Development: Ideation, product development strategy and documentation, market and product requirements, and execution.

Those are the subjects I know, have over fifteen years experience doing, and find endlessly fascinating.  Upon request, I will throw in wardrobe consultation (for men only, as I’ve only worked in men’s fashions) at no charge.

7DS Associates’s tagline is: “Intelligence for sale”.  I think it’s rather appropriate.

As it happens, not only am I looking for interesting projects, tough challenges, and cool clients, I’m also looking for people to team with me in one or another capacity.  Y’know, the whole “Associates” part of “7DS Associates”….

The 7DS Associates new (brand, spankin’ new) website is here: www.7dsassociates.com.  Please, refrain from criticism until you’ve heard how I’ve put it together with my bare hands in two days’ time. :)

My new business email: rhahn -=at =- 7dsassociates -=dot=- com

Thank you all, and look forward to hearing from you!

-rsh

Is Social Media… Media?

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Last night, I got into an interesting debate over Twitter with Ari Herzog among others over the topic of whether social media is MEDIA.  Because Twitter isn’t really the appropriate forum for laying out one’s arguments, I thought to transfer it here in hopes of advancing it some.  Or at least getting my thoughts down.

The Setup

It all started when Ari tweeted:

ari-1

I casually responded:

@ariherzog ain’t social media… y’know… MEDIA? that there is a fundamental problem of modern journalism.

That launched a series of back-and-forths with others jumping in that was one of the more interesting Tweet-Debates I’ve had to date.

My basic point was that if major news sources embrace social media, then that basically puts the value proposition of journalism into jeopardy, because I view social media as a new form of media.  Why subscribe to a RSS feed from the LA Times when I can subscribe to RSS feeds from the people and organizations that the LA Times reporter spoke to to get his facts?

It turned out, Ari had a different definition of “Social Media”:

ari-2

Well, can’t argue with that.  If he meant by “social media” stuff like people mashing up maps with data… okay, then journalism has no issues at all.

But what if he’s wrong?  What if “social media” isn’t just a stand-in for the undefined term “Web 2.0″?  What if it really is a new form of media — transfer of information from one party to another?

I thought it worthwhile to lay down my arguments on… er… “paper”.

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Message Control and Social Media

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What do you mean these Fireside Chats arent enough? Fireside Tweets is undignified man!

What do you mean these Fireside Chats aren't enough? Fireside Tweets is undignified man!

Back when Todd Carpenter was applying for the position of Social Media Manager at the National Association of REALTORS, I endorsed him with reservations. Those reservations had nothing to do with Todd, as he was (and is) perhaps the most qualified person to head up social media strategy for NAR.  When he got the position, I was extremely happy for him personally, but concerned about a few implications of what “going corporate” would mean for Todd and for NAR.  I wrote about those here, and made a couple of recommendations.

Fast forward to last week, when an absolute blogstorm erupted over the issue of NAR endorsement of a local MLS rule forcing members to block Google from indexing IDX listings on their websites.  Some of the responses of people on that thread were extraordinarily interesting from a social media strategy standpoint.  The substance of the issue in that post is addressed there and elsewhere.  The focus of this post is on the process of deploying social media strategies for large organizations, particularly when the organization brings in a well-known figure in the wider community.

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Channels and Social Media ROI Question

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Benn Rosales (@agentgenius) is one of the smartest guys working in real estate and social media today, and as the proprietor (?? – maybe czar? emperor?) of AgentGenius, one of the best real-estate industry sites out there, he brings a great deal of credibility to everything he says.

A few months ago, he and I had a tremendously exciting and stimulating debate on the telephone about measuring ROI from social media.  I think we ended up disagreeing on some points, but the whole conversation was so enriching and so enlightening that I have been looking forward to the next chapter.

That next chapter has been opened:

I’ve had this conversation with many people over the past 6 months about tracking ROI and at the time, no study, nor documentation really existed, however, in recent months this all changed with Dell, when they bragged about their $1 Million in sales from Twitter.

Interestingly enough, it was done through channels with channel specific deals which leads me to Trulia, Zillow, and local MLS Boards, as well as FSBO, REO, and other property aggregates and large Brokers themselves as a means to move volume inventory.

Benn goes on to hypothesize that “real-estate channels” may be

the beginning of the answer to real estate and social media above and beyond the agent but allow the agent the opportunity to participate with their particular social spheres.

All in all an interesting opening, and one well-positioned to move the discussion forward.

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A Brief Personal Announcement

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As of Tuesday, Onboard Informatics and I have parted ways, and I am no longer with them.

So for those of you who only have my Onboard contact information, or my old cell number, I wanted to provide the new contact information going forward.

Email: rob -=at=- notorious-rob -=dot=- com

Phone: 917.921.7612

Twitter: @robhahn

Thanks!

-rsh

Jumping into Shark Infested Waters: REonomy

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REonomy.com: The Next Big Thing?

REonomy.com: The Next Big Thing?

Normally, I greet the news of yet another real estate search website launching with a giant yawn of utter disinterest.  Seriously, this space is starting to get pretty crowded.  Just among the major players, you’ve got Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, HomeGain, RealEstate.com.  Throw in Roost, Estately, Redfin, BlueRoof, and then the major brand sites like Coldwell Banker, C21, Remax.com, and so on not to mention the hundreds of thousands of local realtor websites and you really have to wonder if there’s room for yet another real estate search website.

But REonomy.com, a odd hybrid real estate/MLS/social network play that just launched last Friday (?) made me at least pause in mid-yawn.

Based solely on the tour (I haven’t had time to join the thing and testdrive it, nor do I really want to just yet), this is one slick puppy.  Seriously, go check it out.  You may be impressed, you may think it’s bunk, but you’ll probably have lots to think about.

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What Makes a Realtor Good: An Answer

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Few months ago, I asked “What Makes an Agent Good?” and triggered a bit of a conversation.  I was after an objective standard of quality by which a particular real estate agent can be measured, but ended up in a discussion (which is still ongoing one way or another) about professionalism, understanding technology, perspectives, and viewpoints, and so on.

Marc Davison, of 1000watt, even wrote a post somewhat in response and concluded:

A bad Realtor is one whose marketing effort for a six figure listing pales in comparison to a seven-year old’s playful regard for his $11.95 pet dinosaur.

A good agent is one who says “no problem, I’ll take care of that” when asked to compensate for the bad agents job.

As much as I like that colorful description, it still raised more questions than it answered and didn’t provide a framework for analysis.  In what way does a bad Realtor’s effort pale in comparison?  If comparing two Realtors with each other, does the one who puts out more effort automatically trump the one who doesn’t?  Would the agent who hires a skywriting airplane be “better” than the one who doesn’t?

Over the weeks, I’ve been turning the question over in my head.  Then I found the answer today.

What Makes A Realtor Good: Ease of Use

The answer came from a law blog I read periodically. Dan Hull of What About Clients is one of the finest commentators on issues of client service, from a lawyer’s perspective, but other service professionals can learn much from him.

His post, Ease-of-Use for Services: Will we ever get there? is an eye-opener.  Read the whole thing.  Dan posits that companies in every sector are competing more and more on concepts of ease of use, and advocates that services companies also embrace the concept, as difficult as it is:

Law firms, of course, have always sold services. And we are a small but powerful engine in the growth of the services sector. We strategize with and guide big clients every day. While that’s all going on–day in and day out–what is it like for the client to work with you and yours? Are clients experiencing a team–or hearing and seeing isolated acts by talented but soul-less techies? Do you make reports and communications short, easy and to the point? Who gets copied openly so clients don’t have to guess about who knows what? Is it fun (yeah, we just said “fun”) to work with your firm? How are your logistics for client meetings, travel and lodging? Do you make life easier? Or harder? Are you accessible 24/7? In short, aside from the technical aspects of your service (i.e., the client “is safe”), do your clients “feel safe”?

What if law firms–or any other service provider for that matter–”thought through,” applied and constantly improved the delivery of our services and how clients really experience them?

And then competed on it…? (Emphasis added)

A lightbulb went off in my head.

Following Dan’s lead, I am ready to advocate that what makes one realtor superior to another is ease of use.  Her services are easier to use for the client than another realtor’s services.

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Lessons from Counterinsurgency #4: Final Thoughts

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(Part 1, 2, and 3 of the Lessons from Counterinsurgency Series)

Final Thoughts from Gen. Petraeus

Finally, we always must strive to learn and adapt. The situation in Afghanistan has changed significantly in the past several years and it continues to evolve. This makes it incumbent on us to assess the situation continually and to adjust our plans, operations, and tactics as required. We should share good ideas and best practices, but we also should never forget that what works in an area today may not work there tomorrow, and that what works in one area may not work in another.

Honestly, this needs very little elaboration.

The American military is a huge organization.  It is not known for its friendliness to change.  If anything, the military tends to be conservative, holding onto its hallowed traditions.

Nonetheless, in a counterinsurgency, the doctrine is to continually assess the situation, learn, and adjust plans.

No matter how large a Big Brokerage may be, learning to adapt will be a key factor in whether they emerge victorious or fall by the wayside over the next few years.  CEO’s and other senior leaders must not only be prepared for rapid change but insist on organizational nimbleness across the board.  Bureaucratic barriers must be brought down; resistant personnel moved out; cumbersome processes reexamined to see if they are really necessary.

Senior leaders must also question some of their most hallowed, deeply held beliefs about how the industry works.  “Getting back to basics” may be fatal if the lessons from the last war you fought are completely inappropriate for the current counterinsurgency action.  Is having the greatest number of yard signs really the most important competitive advantage?  Really?  Don’t take the answer for granted: investigate it, and you may be surprised.

Finally, in the new business environment, I don’t believe that any answer remains the answer for long.  As Gen. Petraeus points out, what works in one area may not work in another; what works today may not work tomorrow.  Organizations must be remade, reforged, and retrained to deal with the fluid, ever-changing environment they face today.  Why?

Because the insurgents are constantly changing, constantly adapting, and constantly investigating how they can stay one step ahead of you.

-rsh