Notorious R.O.B.

So now that Benn Rosales of AgentGenius has jumped into the fray with his latest post, which comes on the heels of Jim Marks’s critique of my Inman column (subscribers only), I figure it might be good to consolidate my responses here.  And this is not to mention the various commenters on the Inman post, conversations via Twitter, email, etc.  This topic’s got folks fired up — in a good way.

Let me point out that the critiques come in three different flavors.

1. Social media is a great marketing platform!
2. Interaction on social media, including Twitter, is no different from offline networking.
3. Twitter is a great tool for building sphere of influence!

Let us go through each in order, then summarize with what I think is a larger lesson about marketing strategy.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the comments of this post, the Blogfather of La Blogstra Nostra (loosely translated as “this blog-thing of ours”) Joe Ferrara succintly makes a great point: realtors should blog about ‘solds’.  This is a fantastic idea that I frankly do not see enough of on the RE.net.

And writing a case study (a marketing case study, not a business school case study) is really simple and straightforward.  I don’t know that I’m the best at doing these, but I have written a fair amount of them over the years, and adapted to real estate, here are my suggestions.  In fact, I’ll write a fake case study along with this post as an example.

Overview & Organization

A case study is a brief description of a client, a problem (or set of problems), a solution (or a set of solutions), and result.  It should be no more than three written pages long, and most of the good ones are one or two pages.  If you aim at between 750 – 1000 words total, you should be fine.

The typical case study is broken into five parts:

1. Summary
2. Intro
3. Problem
4. Solution
5. Result

The Summary is typically right at the start, or inserted as a sidebar (look, for example, at this case study (PDF) in the IT industry).  It succintly states the key facts about the client, summarizes the Problem, the Solution, and the Result.  Write the Summary last.  Even if you know exactly what you want to say, it’s best to write the summary after you’ve written the whole case study just in case you see a different way to phrase things.

Intro

The Intro should be one paragraph that sets forth the client and the client’s goals/objectives.  Avoid the temptation to get verbose in the Intro.  You want the reader to understand who the client is generally and what the client wanted to do, and that’s it.

In our fake case study, the client is a young couple who recently had a baby and has decided to buy a house (a very common story, after all).  They live and work in NYC, and make a moderate income, which makes it impossible for them to buy in the City.  They’re new, they’re confused, and they don’t know much of anything except that they want a nice house, with more space than their 1BR apartment, and want to spend maybe $300K in total.  They have saved up $30K for a down payment.  Maybe their names are Joe and Susie Evans, and they have a 9-month old girl, Madison.  Joe is an advertising exec for a small agency in Manhattan, and Susie is in Event Planning for a big corporation.  Their annual income is $125K collectively, but Susie is thinking about going part-time.

We can go on and on, but most of these facts are not relevant.  So the Intro is brief and to the point:

Joe and Susie Evans, a young first-time buyer, was looking to buy an affordable starter home near New York City after having a child.  Their budget was about $300,000, and they had saved up about $30,000 for down payment.  They came to me from a referral, as I had helped a friend of theirs buy a place in Jersey City.

Problem

In this section, in as many paragraphs as needed, state the problem(s) that the client was facing.  One paragraph per problem.  Since in real life, there are dozens upon dozens of problems and issues, you will want to focus on one or two that are really relevant to the case at hand, and also illustrate the particular solution you crafted.

In our example, the problems are several:

• 10% down payment is not much, especially in a tightened mortgage environment.
• Joe and Susie Evans turn out to be prototypical yuppies, who can’t survive without Whole Foods, Starbucks, public transportation, great restaurants, and an urban environment.  The kinds of towns they like are way out of their price range for a single family house.
• Both of them work in NYC, and proximity and ease of commute to NYC was critically important for them.  Joe in particular did not want to travel more than 45 minutes each way to get to work in Midtown.  Again, most communities that fit the requirements are way out of their price range.
• Joe wants a big backyard for little Madison to play in, while Susie wants topnotch public schools, a walkable downtown, and both want lots of space after six years in a tiny 1BR apartment in Brooklyn.

There can be other problems as well — maybe joe is in a bowling league in Brooklyn that’s important to him, so he wants to be nearby.  But cut things down to essentials in writing the Problem section.  For our example, we’re going to focus on the mismatch between their expectations, their financial ability, and the market conditions.

In consulting with the Evans about their needs and wants, it turned out that their expectations were unrealistic considering the market around NYC.  They did not want to commute more than 45 minutes to NYC, wanted a large house, a top-notch school system, and a walkable, attractive downtown area with restaurants, shops, and entertainment.  The homes in markets around NYC which fit their requirements averaged $750K in price, with the low end still a healthy $100K over their budget of $300K.

Furthermore, even at their budget of $300K, a 10% down payment was going to be tough in the current mortgage environment.  It was not at all unusual to have banks require 30% down payments before making a loan.

Solution

In the Solution section, focus tightly on the problems as defined.  If you’re writing it up at all, chances are, there was something unique about how you solved their problem(s) that makes you stand out and look good.  How can you connect it up to the problems as defined?  The Solution must flow from the Problem.  It doesn’t have to be one-to-one; chances are, the Solution is where the bulk of writing happens.

Also, be specific when discussing the Solution.  “I worked hard with the client to help them” is not a Solution.  It’s an advertisement, and no one has any reason to believe you.  Try to use only facts to showcase the solution, rather than generalities.  It wouldn’t be a bad idea to trim every single adjective and adverb from the entire Solution section, actually.

In the example, I’m going to make up a probably unrealistic story about builders caught in a credit crunch.  But it is important that the Solution here relates to how the agent ‘solved’ the unrealistic expectations problem.

In order to assist the Evans family, I had to properly attune their expectations with the realities of the market to avoid disappointment.  Using our Needs Assessment Matrix, I walked the Evanses through 25 factors, separating them between Practical Needs and Emotional Needs.  Through the NAM, I was able to help them prioritize their requirements.

After having set the priorities, I showed them market reports showing listing price, sold price, time on market, inventory levels, and trends in all of those things over the past 90 days, 180 days, and year.  Upon request from Joe, I pulled a report showing those data points over the past three years for seventeen areas within 45 minute commute time from midtown Manhattan.

In addition, I asked Bob Corbett, a mortgage broker with 25 years experience, to sit with the Evanses and explain the current mortgage market.

During the week or so that the clients were considering their options, I leveraged our office’s e-Marketing and social network platform — my personal blog, Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn — to reach out to various market participants, reaching over 5,000 Realtors, mortgage brokers, attorneys, and other professionals in the NYC metro region.  I explained the situation, corresponded by email, instant messenger, Twitter, and telephone with over seventeen respondents.

By the end of that first week, I found a developer who had purchased a 2BR condo in Jersey City that he had planned to renovate for resale.  Unfortunately, the recent troubles in the credit markets threw that plan off-track, and he was facing significant losses.  He had paid $275K for the condo originally, and was willing to sell it at cost to avoid foreclosure.  I notified by clients, and arranged for a showing the very next day.  At the same time, I arranged for Bob Corbett to go to work for my clients with the bank servicing the developer’s mortgage.

The Evanses, having reprioritized their requirements based on our NAM process, and having a clear picture of the market conditions, saw the condo.  It was a ‘fixer-upper’ requiring significant renovations.  Nonetheless, given their financial situation, it was a real opportunity.

I negotiated with the developer directly and arranged for his company to get the contract for renovation, while dropping the sale price to $250K.  He wouldn’t even have to move his equipment from the location, would end up recouping most of his losses on the sale through the renovation work, while my clients got a deal on a property that met most of their top priorities and could be resold in a few year’s time for more than they had paid.

Result

In most marketing case studies, the result talks about ROI, increased revenues, efficiency metrics, and the like.  For realtors, I’m not sure those things work.  But testimonials do.  And this is the ideal place for those.

You want to connect the Result directly to your Solutions as much as possible.  In fact, it isn’t a bad idea to write the testimonial you want, then get permission to use it.  Most people you ask for a testimonial are happy not to have to do the actual work of coming up with a testimonial anyhow.  As long as they sign off on it, the words are as good as theirs.

The Evans family moved in six months ago into their new 2BR condo in Jersey City.  Financing was difficult, but the lower cost of the property meant that $30,000 was actually 12% down payment, and Bob managed to find a willing lender at a competitive rate.  The developer accepted an installment plan for his work, and is being paid monthly for the work done.

“We could never have done this without you,” said Susie Evans in a recent phone call.  “Without your helping us understand our own priorities, I don’t know if we’d ever have thought of Jersey City.  Without all your social networking tools and contacts, we could never have found this property in the first place.  I just don’t know how to thank you enough.”

Back to the Summary

Now that you have the case study done, now you can go back and write the Summary.  Use bullet points or very brief sentences.  You want the narrative in a single glimpse.

Client: Joe and Susie Evans

Type: First Time Buyer

Challenge:

• Improper expectations from lack of market knowledge
• Financial resources inadequate for the kind of house they wanted

Solution:

• Educate them on the market, on mortgages, and help them prioritize their needs by using the Needs Assessment Matrix
• Leverage social media, contacts, and e-Marketing platform to find properties

Result:

• Located a developer who was facing foreclosure on a 2BR condo in Jersey City
• Negotiated an off-market deal benefiting both the seller and my buyer clients
• Helped arrange financing, as well as renovation work
• Clients could not be happier in their new starter condo home

Final Thoughts

This whole fake case study was about 850 words, and comes to two pages of written text in a word processor.  The story itself may be completely bogus and full of holes — for one thing, I may have broken all sorts of laws and regulations in New Jersey.  But that isn’t the point.  I’m not a realtor, and I don’t have war stories.

The format, and the techniques of writing these simple case studies might be something worth investigating.

For a case blog post, as opposed to a formal case study, you can obviously relax all of the rules, as long as you are able to put together a coherent narrative.  The important thing is to tell the story of the client, of the challenges, the solutions, and the positive result — all because you were involved in it.

In my view, this may be the among the most effective sort of marketing and self-promotion that an agent or a brokerage can do via blogs and websites.  How better to establish your expertise, your specialty, your unique tools and platforms, your unique skills than by telling stories of actual clients you have helped and how you’ve gone about it.

In fact, I’m sure that there are many realtors who have already been doing this. I’d love to see examples of what’s worked (send me the links, or just post them in comments — I’ll have to approve the ones with multiple links, but happy to do it).

-rsh

A reader of Dustin’s sent him an email that both were kind enough to allow to be published at 4realz. The reader, a member of a MLS committee, raises some very interesting and very important questions provoked by the discussion on Cluetrain marketing in real estate between Dustin and myself. Read the whole thing.

This is, of course, right up my alley so uh… let me clear my virtual throat here. The reader (and the MLS members) face a real conundrum here.

This conversation issue is not driven by the word “control” but rather by the “agency relationship” created to the client to “market” their property for highest and best sales price. The conversation is also with consideration that at the MLS it is a cooperative membership to assist the process of buying and selling property. It could be devastating to the industry to get caught up in a war of words about the value of any one property. Why would I list my home with an agency if when the listing is posted online It gets poor (or worse –slanderous) reviews by MLS members or public on the very same site that is suppose to market the property for sale?

So back to the idea that broker members of the MLS recognize the value of an open, interactive dialogue with the consumers to grow their web presence at their individual web sites. However they are reluctant to allow this dialogue with opinion of the competing brokers/agents (which may be an opinion rooted in competition and not fact) or the potential “sensationalism” that can be created through “negative news” allowed to be expressed by the public or within the MLS membership.

So in context of the ClueTrain and with the legal regard for agency relationship in mind my questions to you are; 1) what would your opinion of the MLS discussion be and how would you advise the MLS to proceed with this line of thought. And 2) If you were an individual owner of a real estate company, how far would you go (or allow to go) on your company/agent’s websites to allow what may be disparaging comment on a competitor’s listing or your own company listings?”

Although this MLS committee member didn’t ask for my opinion, I’m going to give it anyway. That’s just how we roll here. Heh.

My take on it is as follows: take one step at a time, very gingerly.

Fact is that there are laws and regulations that bind up real estate and real estate brokerage. Even as I rail against such laws, I can’t advise anyone to incur legal liability while the laws are on the books. Having said that, we need to do much more in terms of earning the consumer’s trust through authenticity.

So first, with respect to the MLS discussion and how I would advise the MLS to proceed, I would suggest that they debate the meaning of “agency relationship” in the current context. Is it really in the client’s interest to be seen as selling a house that is badly mispriced and pretending that it is not? Does the agency relationship impose a duty of telling the client that he has to update his kitchen to the 20th century or face significantly lower bids? I think they do.

In fact, if I were selling my house, I would want my agent to have the intestinal fortitude and professional pride to tell me when I’m being an idiot. I might insist that the deep purple shag carpet in the master bedroom is teh sexay; it’s your job to tell me that I’m smokin’ the devil weed too much. If I elect to ignore your advice, then it’s on me. If you never tell me in the first place, because you’re afraid that I’ll just go find some kiss-ass agent who’ll tell me that I’m an interior design genius just to avoid annoying me, then that’s on you.

Why would I list my house with an agency if upon being posted online, it gets hammered by criticism? Because the agent in question would have prepped me for it. She would have sat me down and explained the facts of life in real estate, so that such negativity doesn’t faze me. In fact, I might incorporate that into the overall marketing plan:

“Total 70′s era house available for sale. I know the place needs major renovations to tear out the tigerprint carpeting, and the mirrored disco ball in the master bedroom, and yes, you may have to replace the leopard print wallpaper, but that’s why I’ve priced it below market. I don’t want to repaint the place while I’m still here, as my agent tells me to do, but you can after you buy the place from me. The structure is solid, all of the fixtures work, and the boiler was replaced last year. So it’s a bargain for you if you don’t mind a bit of interior redesign work.”

In addition, what I would expect is for my agent to defend the house using facts and expert analysis, thereby silencing the uneducated rabble, through the conversation. For example, suppose some consumer gets on the site and trashes my house.

“Man, that is the UGLIEST house I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t buy that for a dollar, nevermind $350K.”

I want my agent to get on and respond, something like this:

“The owner has already agreed the aesthetics might not be for everyone, which is why he’s priced the house at $350K when comparable homes in this neighborhood have been selling at an average price of $370K. Fact is that the house is located in South Mountain school district, one of the top elementary schools in the county (link to PDF), and pricing has been bucking the downward trend (link to graph). Indeed, the owner would not sell it for a dollar, but will entertain reasonable negotiation.”

That is the key to resolving the consumer vs. competing agent issue as well. As an MLS, I would prohibit members from posting personal opinions — they can and should post professional opinions. I would absolutely discipline a MLS member for a personal opinion driven more by competition, but encourage professional opinion driven by facts and expertise. The distinction might be fine, but honestly, I think people know the difference when they see it.

For example, compare these two opinions:

“Wow, is this house terrible. I’ve got three other houses for sale right now that are far better value.”

“I think this house is overpriced. The sales comps for similar properties in this neighborhood going back six months is $15K lower. Further, the zoning for that area has change to mixed residential/industrial. I don’t know that I could sustain this pricing given those factors. Perhaps there is some special amenity or unknown factor here that would warrant the higher price, but in my opinion, this property is overpriced.”

It’s fairly obvious which one is just competitive bullshit and which one is a professional opinion. The latter can be debated, while the former cannot.

As a matter of fact, I would advise the MLS not to open up for public comments if their members are not allowed to comment. Because without expertise, without leadership, the public tends to become a mob. If consumers who know jackshit start badmouthing a property, the calm, expert, and knowledgeable professional opinion of an agent can help calm the waters and reveal the naysayers for the idiots that they are. If they are silenced, however, then the mob mentality just takes over and it gets ugly, fast.

So my recommendation to the second question follows naturally. As the owner of a brokerage, I would positively encourage commenting on my website and listings, and encourage my people to comment on competitors’ listings as well, provided that my people restrict themselves to professional opinions that can be backed up with evidence and data and expertise, and that my people stomp out the idiot consumers who just flame for the hell of it. In fact, part of the value that we would provide to those who list with us is our vigorous defense, based on facts, research, and expertise, against morons who got nothing but emotional flaming. This overall effort has to be tightly coupled with a generall “Whole Truth, And Nothing But the Truth” policy as it comes to dealing with our seller clients.

We will spare them nothing in our honest, authentic, and well-considered professional opinion. If such an opinion leads them to go elsewhere to list their house, then so be it. I will consider it a point of professional pride that I and my people have never refrained from telling a potential seller client our absolutely honest opinion about their property, about the pricing, and about their neighborhood.

If one applies this standard, then I think even commenting on competitor’s listings is a valid part of the Cluetrain method. If your competitor has a listing up that is really just wrong in your professional opinion, then you owe it to the market-that-is-conversation to let your opinion show. If he’s a professional, then he will defend it with professional expertise, facts, and data. If he’s not a professional, but one of these sham-agents, then he needs to get out of the business, and his client needs to find better, more ethical representation.

I think MLS and broker organizations can make Cluetrain marketing work. But the conversation must involve the client. And the standards of expertise, leadership, and fact-based professional opinions must be kept in order to provide value (not just entertainment) to the community (not the mob).

-rsh