Mon 7 Aug 2006
God, I love a good Elvis metaphor in the morning…
Posted by Marlow Harris under Computer & Internet, Elvis, Real Estate
[6] Comments
Marc Davison’s excellent article on Inman “Time for Elvis to pass the torch” caught my attention because how often can a writer include Elvis and real estate in one sentence? I got a contact high just scanning his commentary.
His article was about Inman’s Connect technology conference. He starts with relating a story about an old-timey broker calling him, but he just couldn’t drop the doobie and take the call.
“His point of view was irrelevant now. His words are bubble gum music and I’d just seen Hendrix. I turned my cell off, opened the window and let the wind cry Mary.”
He was hung over. His head throbbed. His body ached. “Conjure up the day after Woodstock.” So he opens up the newspaper.
“…. Page after page I searched for signs of the award-winning brands, innovators and progressive people I partied with for three days inside the Inmansphere. Something that would deliver me a new and exciting experience. With each turn of the page my post-conference high diminished. Midway through I imagined an announcement over the Starbucks speaker system: “Attention. Testing one, two, three. Hey man, don’t eat the brown acid. It’s bad! I repeat the brown acid is bad, man.”
I ignored the warning. My page turning pace increased as if I had lost something and was frantic to find it. Things like virtual tours, videos, mapping, digital signatures, online estimates, neighborhood data – ideas and services witnessed during the Worlds Fair of real estate. My bad trip included giant agent heads dwarfing tiny shots of homes that all looked exactly alike and carried the same message. One ad freaked me out completely: The Realtor in the picture claimed she “IS the changing face of real estate. She IS the eyes in my community. She IS the ears listening to my needs. She WILL sell my home.” With what? I thought. There IS no link to a Web site, there IS no e-mail address.
Was Connect real or did I hallucinate it? Didn’t I brush up against innovators? Had I not held meetings with the rock stars of our business? If so, how did I end up back here at home surrounded by personalities rather than a real estate reality that doesn’t include Redfin, Trulia, HomePoint, digital signatures, paperless processes, Neighborhood data, TMS, or an Oodle of LocaModa – services as opposed to individuals. It’s wrong, it’s antiquated and it’s whole-heartedly unfair to consumers.”
The Rock Stars of real estate? Man, them are pretty powerful words. They brought me back to earth. I was trippin’ but I crashed and came back from my own contact high.
So who is this Marc Davison who writes so eloquently, and the only other guy who can write about real estate and Elvis in the same article?
His point was that it was time to pass the torch from the traditional ways of doing real estate to this new way envisioned by the CEO’s, venture capitalists and technical writers.
“Two thousand Beatles appeared at Inman’s event last week. These people – the attendees, speakers, vendors and visionaries- are the most important people in this business.
It’s a new era now. The old real estate business, with its million-plus Elvises might be able to find some work in Vegas but as of now, the torch has been passed. There’s no going back”
So, I’ve been thinking about this more and more. Are real estate agents outdated and obsolete? Will they be replaced by the mash-ups and data sites and the do-it-yourself searches and the electronic signatures? Is it just a business of software writers and venture capitalists now?
Marc Davison is vice president of OnBoard, a real estate data provider based in New York. Davison previously served as vice president of VREO, a provider of electronic signature and Web site software for the real estate industry. OnBoard supplies data to companies such as Coldwell Banker and J.L. Scott.
So, I’m thinking…… if he’s one of the rock stars of real estate, are the agents just lounge singers?
His attitude is similar to many other CEO’s of technical and software companies who supply a product to an industry, but this one just happens to be real estate. They seem to get confused about who actually does the work. Rather than seeing themselves as a useful business tool or partner, these guys lose sight of who their client is and what role they perform. Just like coke gives those with low self-esteem delusions of grandeur, the software designer’s high he gets from creating the business’s webpage or supplying some data somehow makes them think that they now are more powerful than the business they were hired to make the webpage for…..
So many CEO’s of these brave new software companies are frustrated that business, not just real estate, remain in what they consider the stone age. They get inpatient with the fact that many people still depend on print advertising as a major source of revenue. From reading interviews with these guys, I get the feeling that they’re frustrated with agents and brokers for continuing to advertise and for buyers and sellers continuing to read that damn newspaper!
“Don’t you see? We’re the wave of the future! We software designers, CEO’s, venture capitalists, technical writers and paperless signature processors, WE are the true rock stars of real estate and all you real estate salespeople are just the, uh…. groupies.” Or something. Not sure. Oh, maybe we’re just supposed to be their clients and pay them to create products they design to “disintermediate” us…. Again, not sure. Many things remain unsaid by these guys.
One thing I do know is that if agents and brokers quit doing what we do, then many guys like Marc Davison and his company OnBoard, could lose much of their client base. If traditional agents and brokers are forced out of the business, then who will be left to purchase his product?
Picture yourself in a boat on a river. With tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes…..
August 8th, 2006 at 11:37 am
Marlow – What an excellent post. I loved it! I am going to talk about it on my blog! Great phrase!
It’s a new era now. The old real estate business, with its million-plus Elvises might be able to find some work in Vegas but as of now, the torch has been passed. There’s no going backâ€
August 8th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Actually, I was sort of disagreeing with the author, as I don’t believe traditional real estate is dead yet, nor anytime soon, at least in our market. Their is still a “cult of personality”, it is still local, and it’s still “who you know”. Now, that may change, and there are definite indications that the way agents do business is different now with the internet. But I don’t see the internet replacing real live agents across the board anytime soon.
But thanks for your enthusiasm.
August 9th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
A friend at NRT sent me the link to Marlow’s post which I read with a huge smile on my face. Touché! I loved everything you wrote. Your comments are valid.
For your benefit and those who read these postings, I want to share this to better understand my perspective.
Two weeks prior to Connect I fielded 12 proposals from agents looking to list my home. The average commission was $63,000. The best marketing plan of the 12 did not include a virtual tour, did not include posting on major portals like Craigslist, Oodle, Trulia etc., which none of the agents here heard of. None included the use of Google Base or mapping to show how my home sits inside an exclusive cul-de-sac that overlooks the beautiful town below. None included the use of Postlets.com or submitalisting.com so my home could be marketed internationally across the web. None had Blog sites. None had My Space sites.
Requests on my part to consider these things drew blanks stares. In fact, none of the proposals included the use of anything different than methods used 8 years ago when I bought the home when the commission was 1/4th it is today.
So post Connect, I thought about the $300,000 I spent remodeling my home over the years, the natural appreciation that occurred here in California and how as a result, 12 people are being given the opportunity to earn 4x what they made 8 years ago and none felt it important enough to rise to the occasion and increase their ladder of benefits.
As anyone who knows me will testify, I do not disregard agents. I believe in tradition – the tradition of putting the customer first and giving them the best possible set of services available. My mother was a real estate broker in NYC in the 60’s and 70’s. Her legacy to me plays in my head every day. “In life†she said, “don’t just do a good job. Do a great oneâ€.
That’s the sentiment I had when I wrote the Elvis piece. There are too many agents that are simply along for the ride of a lifetime – earning fat commissions selling homes because the Market has been great. Not because they are. That is what I believe needs to go to Vegas. The Fat Elvis. The Elvis that sold out, did crappy movies and stopped being influential.
Real estate is about the cult of personality. It is about who you know. I totally agree with you. The 12 agents I called, alas, I knew them all. But it wasn’t enough. That’s my point. Consumers demand better and more progressive services. Perhaps not yet in your town but imagine if you delivered it anyway. That’s the point of my article. The ones who are riding the wave, the consumer will pass them by as I have here. I won’t go FSBO but I am holding out for a pro worthy of my $63,000.
All the technology vendors can do today is what we do best. We’re analysts. We study trends. Consumer trends. And then we build products based upon meeting their needs. That’s why we are so vocal about getting them into the hands that would most benefit by them – the traditional real estate agent. I welcome continued communication for the benefit of connecting great Realtors with great business opportunities.
MD
August 10th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
OK
Marlow, you’re right, but don’t forget you are one of them. After this I went over to Rain City Guide and read a discussion about internet searches.
Let me share this with the MD guy then let’s take a little look at reality.
Hey! MD, your house is going to be sold by a person at a cocktail party who thinks it’s cool.
That person has spent $300K, or more, so far this year going to the trendy parties, driving a trendy car, eating in the trendy cafes, so they can meet the trendy people who will think your place is as cool as you do.
The internet may create a buzz, but closing the deal takes a pen and paper.
Stop whining and sign. If you want to sell it yourself then you take the liability.
Man, that guy was a smoothie.
Marlow!!! Wake up!!! Wake up!!! You’re becoming one of them!!! You are fighting the good fight, but these weasels are breeding in a box and eating each others young. Soon, very soon, thier niche will be full.
This is like the rocket to the moon where in 2001 we were all going to have robots doing all the work, and colonies on distant planets.
If I’m reading the MD rant correctly he was talking about a software convention in Las Vegas. Software, Star Trek, Software, Star Trek conventions in Las Vegas. In ten years these guys will be dressing up for the 2016 Real Estate software convention.
It’ll be a get together talking about the glory days. There will probably be a secret handshake and talk of the piles of money they made off the unsuspecting public. Maybe the government will step in with an investigation of all the people swindled by internet Real Estate transactions so these guys can talk about that.
The fact is I sold a house this week, one hundred and fifty thousand below asking price to some one I met at an open house on Sunday.
August 13th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Interesting comments!
Marc Davidson, thank you for your response and well-thought out commentary.
David Losh: I’m one of WHOM? A technological dweeb? A tired out lounge singer? LOVED the comparison of real estate computer techies to Star Trekies… you may be right. I’d probably see them all at my weekly Dungeon and Dragons gaming night.
August 25th, 2006 at 5:23 am
Great Article. Traditiona or New Breed Real Estates. What matter is that you can be trusted..