The recent turmoil in the real estate industry feels like our world has been turned upside down once again. But behind the frenzy, I see a real opportunity to turn this into a positive and come back even stronger than before. I’m often reminded of the term “antifragility” from Nassim Taleb’s book of the same name. The principle is that people and organizations can build their success around not just enduring shocks, but bouncing back even stronger after upheavals. Now is the time for the real estate industry to become even more vulnerable.
own your value
Almost at the same time, commission Once the ruling was announced, most of the major industry voices expressed themselves through marketing campaigns and webinars about how agents can prove their worth. While all of this is a useful start to a new normal, we don’t have to prove our worth. We need to own it too. Now, you have to sign a contract with a buyer before you can take them on tour, giving you the opportunity to have longer conversations with buyers and sell yourself sooner. I predict these “buyer presentations” will start to become just as deep as our listing presentations. This means you will need more marketing materials and tangible evidence of your results to appeal to buyers. However, you cannot risk these materials being obtained by others and used for marketing purposes. Whether it’s research on upcoming homes or hard-earned tips and tricks for navigating the market, it’s time to take advantage of the digital tools that give each of us ownership of the deep knowledge we have about the market. It’s coming.
Refine your approach
As independent contractors, we must continually hone and refine our approach. I often tell agents that we are the Swiss Army Knife of real estate because we have so many different skills. With such a variety of skills, you need a variety of tools, but I feel like we’re hooked on too many technology platforms and software. We need to lighten the load while keeping pace with the level of professionalism that other industries set for their clients. Our differentiator is no longer necessarily the latest shiny app, but software that shows our clients that we have implemented higher standards to protect every step of their digitally-based transactions.
Strategic CRM
It also allows you to be more strategic about how you use your marketing materials. Before the digital age, we were often directly on site while some of our potential clients were looking at them, so we could tell if they would resonate with them. With so much information now being transmitted digitally, we need to use tools that provide deeper, more detailed insight into how others are interacting with us. We use certain features on our website that tell us whether they have downloaded the material we send them, whether they have forwarded it to others (and to whom), and what they may be interested in. You can choose a tool that shows you whether you spent more time than average reviewing a section. All of these analytics give you a more complete and 3D picture of what your clients are thinking, giving you a stronger idea of how you can meet their needs.
There has always been significant change in the real estate industry, and we have always responded and adapted in ways that strengthen us. Digital tools allow us to build an invulnerable profile, making us not only resilient but also immune to all the ways those outside the real estate industry seek to erode our relevance.
Allen Alishahi President and Co-Founder of ShelterZoom.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire Editorial Department or its owners.
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