Dec 3, 2008 21
Tackling the Future of Real Estate Brokerage
I can see the future! And boy, is it weird.
I was tempted to jump in after part 1, when Danilo Bogdanovic threw down the gauntlet. But man, am I glad I waited until he was all done with his series on the future of real estate brokerage. You really owe it to yourself to read the whole series: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. As it happens, this is a topic that I’ve also written about a little bit.
So… before diving in… let me see if I can do justice to Danilo’s main points of argument.
I believe there are three main takeaways from what Danilo lays out.
- There are too many crappy agents working in real estate.
- There are too many old fogies who don’t get technology working in real estate.
- There are too many hands in the agent’s pocket.
So his solution is something he calls “White Label Brokerage”:
“White Label Brokerage”. It has an agent-centric versus broker-centric focus and a fee structure that does not interfere with an agent’s business focus. It allows agents to brand themselves, the team to brand their team, and the small brokerage office brand their own company name.
It’s not about the big broker and the brokerage firm’s name and ego. It’s about the agents that do all the work and deserve the recognition. After all…without the agents, there would be no brokerage firm.
Agents who are or intend to be the best professionals in the industry will recognize the financial advantages of this new model as well as the freedom and control it will give them. The freedom that the current brokerage model refuses to embrace is the basis of the future “White Label Brokerage” model.
But the full chain of logic goes something like this (in my opinion):
There are too many brokers who have their hands in the agent’s pocket, charging them ridiculous fee after fee without any training and no support. Because of that, these brokers couldn’t care less whether they were hiring good agents or crappy ones. As long as they can charge fees to these warm bodies, they’re happy to keep it going.
Plus, today, the old-timers who are in business with the fat referral networks, with decades of experience, are more than happy to keep doing the same old crap that no longer works with new consumers who are tech-savvy. Brokers are more than happy to keep these old fogies around, because they’re bringing in dollars, but they’re mortgaging the future.
NAR should be maintaining professional standards, but because they have a vested interest in having as many members as possible, they don’t do nearly enough in enforcing standards or raising standards.
The solution, then, is a new brokerage model that places dollars over ego and grants extraordinary freedoms to its producers, while keeping the bad apples out. The broker needs to support the new technologies, the new marketing methods and channels, and stop imposing their stupid brand rules that actually hurt the on-the-ground producer.
I think and hope that does justice to Danilo’s argument.
I love Danilo’s vision. I applaud his daring. I think he’s speaking for a large number of the new generation of real estate agents — the Gen-Xers who are poised to take over the leadership ranks in the coming years.
Unfortunately, I just see things differently. It probably stems from the fact that Danilo is an on-the-ground real estate agent. He has to go out and get listings, find buyers, do the showings, advise and counsel consumers through the process of buying and selling a home. He has that wealth of experience to draw upon. I, on the other hand, come out of the interactive marketing division of a national franchisor, and work for a technology and data provider to the real estate industry. My experience is rather different.
Therefore, let me disagree with the greatest of affection and respect for Danilo, with whom I plan on imbibing a wide variety of adult beverages in the very near future. 
