Permission Based RE -vs- Non-Brokers
Permission, is a geek-ism in the world of technology. It has to do with allowing a person access to make changes to the protocols, files and other operating features of a server, thus changing its resultant output.
Do today’s Broker/Owners operate in a permission-based real estate environoment? I’m inclined to conclude that most of them do and in many powerful ways. The industry is not open-sourced and persmission must be sought for just about everything an owner does. Have we erected a monolithic economic model with too many barriers?
Non-Brokers, those that have no real connection to the real estate industry, have the luxury of operating without permission. Like Nike, they just do it! We on the otherhand, must use what the geeks call permission protocols, or we don’t get the acess we need to the MLS, the markets, the tools, etc. The trend is clear in nearly every major metro real estate market…there is a new kid in town and he is not one of us.
There is just something about freedom protocols that appeals to my notions about creating competing economic models. Why then, have we allowed the erection of so many barriers that snuff-out an owner’s ability to expand his/her company in competitive ways.
Why do owners often empower Franchisors, for example, to authorize (permit) them to have a presence in another market that is not listed in their franchise agreement? Why have we allowed an MLS system to be designed with protocols (permissions) that stiffle an owner’s ability to have direct, immediate and cost-effective access to and use of our own property data with consumers? Why do we as owners have to get permission from our agents to be profitable?
On the otherhand, the Non-Brokers, those who seek to provide online consumer targeted services in order to capture loyalty and yes, economic gain, operate with fully opened protocols…they have permission…self-permission, I might add. Non-Brokers are present in virtually every major real estate market in the United States and they seek to do business with the consumer on the one hand while utilizing traditional brokers who play on the inside.
There are now three clear personalities in the battle over market control:
- Traditional Brokers - Industry Fundamentalists
- Neo-Brokers - New-Age high-tech Brokers
- Non-Brokers - Entities with no Historical Connection to the Industry
From these three will emerge a new breed of broker who eventually steps out of the fight, nose bloodied but victorious.
The operating mantra among the high-tech Non-Brokers and the Neo-Broker is becoming crystal clear to me; the winners will be the ones that can effectively execute their models without permission, while all others scramble to reorganize an obviosly clumbsy business model.
Whereas the Non-Broker is akin to the agile terrorist, the Neo-Broker is akin to the new agile military spending a lot of money trying to catch up. Traditionalists are finally morphing into Neo-Brokers.
Fundamental to the mindset of the Non-Brokers is that they stand over the terra maps in the real estate business development war room preparing to engage the markets using a simple military strategy…surprise attack. The primary tools in the Non-Broker arsenal are technology and the Internet.
The Non-Broker needs no permission! There is no central command and control to which the Non-Brokers, must answer to…they are on their own! Their war cry is, “hit the markets hard, hit the markets fast and hit them at night while the industry is slumbering!”
A few weeks ago I attempted to post something to one of my servers and received an error message known as a permission error, which essentially shut me down for the rest of the day until I could reach someone who had control over the server and alone could grant me permisson to use what was already mine!
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Great site, I enjoyed going thru it. You have a great way of stating what is perfectly obvious, and cutting edge at the same time.
I have enjoyed running a virtual office for several years now, and a paperless one for 3 months. Keeping my data vaulted and web-based is convenient, and faster. I let go of a staff person who just tended faxes, and files.
I look forward to reading your next post.
Tamera Bourne
owner/broker Platinum Key Realty
Some have inquired whether this blog was designed to coincide with the announcement of Zillow to allow consumer and agent posting of listings on their site. The content posted here is a part of the Ten Commandments of the New Real Estate Economy and was in the queue for posting.
Tamera, you’re on the cutting edge, ahead of the curve. There is a New Real Estate Economy that is now in play.