Brokerage Models, Consumerism, REALonomics

Cat Counselors…Herding Chaos

Economics, as a discipline, is about the management of assets as a priority. Indeed, REALonomics has addressed the management of the real estate industry’s true business asset, the markets.

Like Cat Counselors, real estate company owners have spent inordinate amounts of time attempting to manage real estate practitioners in ways as bizarre as the industry itself. Many owners will privately acknowledge their dissatisfaction over the requirement to engage in herding chaotic environments filled with self-serving independent contrators that distract them from true ROI engagement. What should owners manage?

The fourth of the commandments of the New Real Estate Economy contends that the asset is the market. It follows then, that the primary objective of economics is the management of assets for short, intermediate and long term rates of return.

Discussion of market management makes for good talk…but flip the coin over and look at the other side; what do you see? The consumer! We are really talking about market management for and in favor of, the consumer. After all, who can now doubt that we have entered a Third Economic Wave in the real estate industry, with the consumer controlling the joy stick.

Market management in favor of the consumer…has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

How does one manage markets in favor of the consumer? There are several components necessary for true market management. These include:

1. An understanding and dedication to providing what the consumer wants;
2. A knowledge of the primary components of the real estate transaction;
3. A platform for market presence that is just as real as having a building.

What the Consumer Wants

Few real estate practitioners would argue that the real estate transaction is an effective, smooth and joyful experience for the consumer or, anyone else for that matter. From the old days of MLS dominated information systems, the consumer has been telling us, “I don’t like this experience and therefore, I don’t like you or your industry.”

Consumers want unfettered access to community and property information so they can investigate and explore their options independent of any contact with a real estate professional.

At the right time and under the right circumstances, it is the consumer who elects to initiate a relationship in the markets with a broker or an agent. Therefore, it is the market that must be managed in terms of maximum presence to insure that your company is present when the consumer is predisposed to act. This is one of the components of market management.

Simplification of the Experience

Market asset management in favor of the consumer requires more than just having a website with property listings. Simplification of the transaction process within the markets through the implimentation of paperless technologies for agents and back office management solutions for brokers such as SureClose® offered by Stewart Transaction Solutions.

We are really calling for the management of the transactional componets within the markets in favor of the consumer. The transactional components are:

• a market presence
• a multi-market agent
• a consumer/buyer
• a seller with property
• the capital wherewithal
• a consumer friendly, high-tech closing sequence

We understand these transactional componenst in our office-based, uni-market models, but have not applied new technologies that can enable us to consolidate and manage all of these components in multiple markets simultaneously (ah, bigger asset!).

Through web-based paperless transactions and streamlined closing processes we can now manage the markets without the risk of capital traditionally associated with growth.

Platform for Total Market Presence

In the past, we have viewed our primary market expression as the locale in which our building(s) are positioned (ah, limited asset thinking!). We must stop doing this and instead understand that we are now engaged in a new contest for cyber-market presence.

Owners can expand their asset base by utilizing community-based Internet marketing platforms such as that created and implemented by the e-Partner National Relocation and Brokerage Services Network.

The asset is the market, managed in favor of the consumer. Are you herding cats, managing chaotic enviornements at the expense of the pursuit of the true asset? The market arena is the new conference room; just as real to the consumer as walking into an office.

It is here, in the markets, that the consumer is brought together with the remaining components of the transaction. Does your company have a platform for total market presence? What are you, the owner spending time managing?

Read more about Market Management. Find out more about e-Partner.

SureClose® is a service mark of Stewart Transaction Solutions, Inc.

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