February 2009

Three Stooges: ’09 Acid Test #3

Meet Curly – Part 3

REALonomics predicts the market mop-up will drag until late 2008 (best scenario) but most likely until the first quarter of 2009. We hope to be wrong.

Until then, we have an open door to begin a process of retooling our enterprises for the New Real Estate Economy, where we will need to compete for fewer transactions in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment. We have to deal with our lingering Stooges and our ability to do so will be the acid test of real estate brokerage firms during the next upturn in the markets.

1. Acid Test Number One: Revise our Retail Models (bye-bye bricks-n-mortar).
2. Acid Test Number Two: Redefine our Markets (leaving micro for macro).
3. Acid Test Number Three: Redirect our Methods (consumer obsession).

This post focuses on Acid Test Number Three…it’s about our business methods, about the consumer, about business methodology.

Marc Davison wrote a brilliant little piece for Inman (Aug. 7, 2007) entitled A Real Estate Fable, in which he recapped his recent experience at the San Francisco Real Estate Connect. Marc’s article contains many gems, but this statement especially caught my attention:

I asked the speakers…what doesn’t work in the Web 2.0 world. Each, without hesitation, said ‘the hard sell.’ The soft embrace replaced the headlock, the conversation supplanted the pitch.

Right on! Hard sell is out as a business methodology. Why? It’s wrong and it doesn’t work with informed, information laden consumers. Savvy consumers are now rejecting our headlock-like methods. In the Third Economic Wave, which I refer to as the consumer-centric era, conversations will replace the trite sales pitchy lines we learned during the First and Second Economic Waves of the real estate industry. You know, the old Tom Hopkins-like closing approaches…50 lines written on 50 cards!

Body Slamming the Consumer

We are talking about business methodology designed around old selling and marketing techniques that seek to lock-up the consumer in a full nelson. The acid test for 2009 will be seen in our ability to execute a methodectomy that shows itself in hundreds, if not thousands of ways throughout our industry. Our strong arm methods are seen in our information control structures and our lack of industry transparency. Look a bit closer; it’s present in the way our websites look and operate, the language we use in ads, our designations and indeed our business methods that have literally said to the consumer “buy or get out of my car!” Oh, the arrogance!

Stop right here! Before we go further I want to caution you, however, that we resist the temptation to simply replace old, patently obvious selling methods with equally silly and trite, Starbuckian relationships.

Diminishing Self, Elevating the Client

The third acid test for rebuilding our operating models is to actually partner with the consumer…as soon as possible…yesterday is too late and so is today and tomorrow. We can’t retool our relationship with the consumer fast enough. The consumer is the methodology…get it? It’s about a mature relationship that is premised upon respect, transparency, excellent customer service, affordability, convenience (for the consumer, not us). It’s speed, accurate answers and images that convey a diminishing of our self-importance in favor of elevating the consumer to seat of prominence.

We have entered the Third Economic Wave (era, if you please) of the real estate industry. It’s a consumer-centric era. The consumer is your new BOSS and he/she/them are going to control the outcomes. It might be a good exercise to ponder what Davison is referring to when he wrote, “The soft embrace replaced the headlock.”

I’m wondering if the current lending mess is the logical outcome of an industry whose models have been predicated on control, secrecy and the slick side of selling…just a thought. Is the current sub prime melt down the result our methods being more about our interests than about our client’s well-being?

Our industry is finally moving toward the acknowledgement that we must be consumer obsessed in all matters. This is an incredibly special time in this industry.

Once again, here are the three acid tests for our real estate business models for 2009:

1. Acid Test Number One: Revise our Retail Models (bye-bye bricks-n-mortar).
2. Acid Test Number Two: Redefine our Markets (leaving micro for macro).
3. Acid Test Number Three: Redirect our Methods (consumer obsession).

And your comments are?

Three Stooges: ’09 Acid Test #2

Meet Larry – Part 2

We’re moving through an unprecedented era in the real estate industry consisting of serious lending problems, increasing inventory, foreclosures, new competition, profitability issues and of course, an industry whose operating models are being brought into question. We are going to have to ride out the storm. Is there another choice? We are going to have to hang tough and endure the pelting. REALonomics has taken a position that “market stability” is not likely to emerge until the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

In the meantime, we have a huge opportunity to accelerate our business model re-development so that our organizations are prepared for the future…really prepared. We are going to have to deal with the Stooges of the past model that have harmed owners and their sustained profitability. Part 1, Stooge 1, has been addressed; our tank-like, high-cost operating models that inhibit mobility and agility. This is the first and most critical acid test in route to ’09 and the new market realities that will greet us when we arrive.

Before we can re-design and re-invent we need a confession that our buildings and processing models are heavy, expensive and ineffectual in the consumer-centric era; they are antiquated as a competitive business model. They are no longer suitable for the next generation profitability standards we need to adopt. This is our new operating reality that must be faced by owners who desire to reinvent.

We have a second Stooge to deal with…the markets…meet Larry, the second acid test.

Welcome to our New Market Reality (circa 2009)

In Part One, REALonomics discussed our “Market Models” and their inadequacy for the economic wave in the real estate industry. On top of the market model transition underway in the industry we are faced with a new emerging “NEW” market reality, one that will reshape the landscape, its boundaries and create new operating rules for broker/owners.

Fast forward, please, to 2008 and beyond. What once constituted an owner’s “Effective Service Area” or “Market Service Area” is going to be completely redefined by the industry and will have a whole new set of rules governing market management.

A set of emerging economic and operating factors will converge into a market expression sometime during the next upturn, which we slate for 2009. Among these converging factors are:

• Acceleration of Non-Broker entities vying for consumer loyalty
• Consolidation of property data at key levels in the industry
• Emergence of streamlined franchises who have jettisoned old models

REALonomics contends that the biggest threat to current traditional owners and their models is their inability to redefine their core asset as the market, not agents, listings or even pending transactions.

We are going to be forced into a confrontational stand-off with our current limited definition of what constitutes a “market” where our businesses operate. The three factors above represent the pressure points that will afford owners the opportunity to fact the current market stooge in favor of a new, dynamic and fluid operating landscape.

Acceleration of the Non-Brokers

By 2009, entities outside the mainstream of the industry will have themselves positioned in the fluid markets where the consumer resides. We can also be there, but it will take acknowledgement, attention and discipline for owners to realize that vertical, limited, rigidly defined local markets can no longer produce the ROI necessary when measured against the risk inherent in ownership. We will require a new definition of “market.”

Non-Brokers are those entities who understand the emerging transparency and consumer-centricity of the real estate industry. I have called it “The Democratization of Real Estate” and have blogged about it, extensively.

The acid test for owners in 2009? When we get there, will be have a new definition of our markets or will we still be operating under the notion that locally defined geographic territories can bring us sustained and meaningful ROI. The Non-Brokers don’t believe or build on the local market premise as the central economic engine for the real estate industry.

Consolidation of Property Data

Property data, its consolidation and availability to consumers will radically redefine the term “market.” We are already seeing the merger of MLS data into regional conglomerates as owners confess, “we need more territory” in which to capture consumers. This is the centralization and globalization of data that redefines what constitutes an owners market area.

But it isn’t just MLS data. It’s all data related to property. It isn’t just all data related to property…it’s also, all historical derivatives related to property. During the now defunct Broker-Centric Era of the real estate industry, owners controlled the data; consumers came to us in our buildings to talk to our agents about property. Exorcise that concept from our minds. Erase it from the market model map. Expunge it, it’s gone, we lost control…and now we play under a whole new set of rules.

Question: Who is writing the rules and controlling the property data sets? As consolidation gains momentum owners will face serious questions about the economic relevance of things like broker price opinions (BPOs). The authors of the new rules are mostly outside the industry. Our historical bias toward control of data has become a Department of Justice issue with NAR.

Will the major franchises, independent brands and broker/owners be poised for the consolidation of property data into consumer-friendly model? More importantly, do we have any idea how to reinvent our brokerage models so that property data consulting is a meaningful part of our client relationships? Consumers have rejected our old data control model…and that model is no longer valid in the open markets of the New Real Estate Economy.

Emergence of Streamlined Franchisors

Although under foot currently, we will see a third factor that will redefine “market” as major franchisors are forced to redefine how they relate to an emerging open market model.

During the market run-up that ended in mid 2005, franchisors were still peddling the old notion that if owners sign-up for their local city market, zip code or a piece thereof, they would flourish. Not so fast. Franchisors, most of them, are in the same dilemma as owners, however, they have the luxury of defining open markets to their advantage and sometimes they do so at the owner’s expense.

Those who have the power to define markets have the power to control them and their economic potential, short and long term. Franchisors are being forced to redefine themselves and their own relevance to consumers and company owners. Franchise control models that lock-in and lock-down owners will become counter productive to sustained profitability…in short, owners will rebel forcing a streamlining of the traditional franchise agreement in favor of fluid markets where their exists a high degree of competition for the consumer.

Traditional franchising, with all the hooks and barbs of market definition, has all but reached saturation. New franchise models will emerge that unlock the chains that currently have owners shackled to a limited geographic territory. may the best owners win and may the best franchise model win! Here, here!!

The second acid test on the road to 2009 is going to be how owners define and relate to their most precious asset, the markets around them. Our ability to redefined this asset and how we build and sustain business models in a consumer-centric, no boundary arena is going to not only be challenging but exciting. New opportunities are in front of us but we must reinvent.

« Previous Page