jonwashburn: February 2008

Recently I stumbled upon a group of user reviews for Redfin.com. What was most interesting about the reviews was not the opinions expressed of Redfin, but of traditional real estate agents.

Here are a few of the choice comments:

"For me a real estate agent is like one of those disposable plastic rain coats. Just something you buy because it is raining and you need it right then and there, convenient but overpriced and you throw it away after you are done."

"In good conscience, I can't support an industry where the lousiest agent routinely makes more money annually than the best high school teacher in Seattle."

"A huge benefit to listing with a large company like Windermere is the inherent nepotism between listing and buyers' agents. Buyer agents have a wealth of listings to push on their clients..."

"The last thing that should be stated, in the completion of the 'caveat emptor' discussion, is that Redfin listings are actively shunned by agents from other companies."

"Anything that Redfin can do to break the lock that the MLS and Realtor scammers have on the real estate market is a good thing. Go Redfin."

It is clear to me that real estate agents have a public opinion problem. I believe that the reason we have a problem is because we have done a terrible job at communicating our value proposition to the world.

We have been so focused on protecting the listings, our "x% commission structure", and keeping potential competitors out of our industry that we have not been doing the single most beneficial thing for our industry: communicating to consumers that real estate agents are the local market experts.

I emphatically believe that good real estate agents provide a tremendous value to home buyer and sellers, and frankly pretty much anyone who has bought or sold a home utilizing the services of a great agent agree. So that leads me to believe that our whole perception problem with the consumer comes down to one thing: marketing. 

We, as an industry, have put so much of our marketing resources towards marketing listings, that the public has nothing left to latch onto other than "if you want access to the listings, you must use a real estate agent", and although that business strategy did work when the real estate professionals had a lock-down on the listings; it won't work anymore.

The listing war has been lost. It was a foolish war to wage in the first place.  Our true, inherit, value comes from our local market expertise.  That is what we need to market!

(*Please note that the title is not the true mission of NAR! NAR's actual mission is: "The core purpose of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® is to help its members become more profitable and successful.")

And we wonder why we have a public perception problem?

I came across a 2008 National Association of Realtors TV ad today and felt a little dirty after watching it. To say it did more damage than good is an understatement.

Consumers are not stupid. In fact they are quite smart. They can understand a complicated message. As an industry we are only going to be successful if we are able to position ourselves as the expert resources that we are, and we can only do that once all of our messaging is consistent and truthful.

First, here is the ad:

Consumers see right through it, and what they see is not good. Consumers see "The Industry" trying to get them to buy more homes. They see the The Industry, not taking the position of their advocate. Consumers are not dumb. They know that the real estate market sucks right now. They have access to the same Zillow graphs that we do.

Here we are telling them that now is a great time to buy, and just glossing over the current real estate/economic condition. How can we ever gain back their respect if we don't tell it to them straight?

(Additional thoughts:

I don't like the message because I believe it focuses on fitting every (circle) buyer into the same (square) hole. Some people buy homes for the primary reason that it is a good financial investment, however I believe that most people do not.  Most people purchase homes for the security, privacy, and sense of ownership. Many people buy homes that they never plan on selling.  

All I am saying is that our role as real estate professionals, is not to be the cheerleader for the real estate market. Our role is to assess every buyers individual needs and do the best we can to guide them in the right direction to fulfill those needs.)

Broker/owner, your name, your brand on the sign. It's your name that appears on my commission check. This is your office, those are your employees and I totally get that.

But what I sense you don't get is that all of that is made possible by me - the agent. I am the talent. I am the one you recruited based on my local market knowledge. My skills. My reputation. My expertise. My ability to drive the buyer/sell experience.

I am the one whose name appears on the deals.

In an effort to leverage these skills, the ones that drive our collective partnership, I look to you, the company, to match my efforts with yours. While I'm out in my domain -- the field --performing, I need to know that back here, in the office -- your domain -- you are performing as well. I am referring to the inefficiencies, repetitive marketing tasks and other tasks that would be far more cost effective for us and you if they were all automated. Systems that focus on lead generation, lead incubation, follow up lead management and client care - you know, all the touchpoints that are critical to our collective livelihood.

Without it, I the agent have to perform these tasks myself. Every second I stand in front of a copy machine shoving paper into it, I sense the devaluation of my worth, my merit and my production time. I am a real estate professional earning executive level income. I should be mired in executive task and defer menial ones to automation.

I am the talent. You are my agency.

The way things are set up now, it is not working for me. If you want to keep getting a cut of my commissions start acting like my agent. If this isn't resonating, take a look at how William Morris Agent treat their moneymakers. Look at how top talent managers treat their clients. Their entire focus is promoting their talent. From public side -- their website -- to the private side.

When I go to our brokerages website all I seem to find is information about you and the same property listings that can be found on every other listing website. Where's your imagination, your creativity, your sense of building a brand that differentiates from the other brands who are doing the very thing you are?

Don't you realize what you have? Without us, the talent, you have nothing. By not leveraging us, you squander the single biggest asset of our company. Build your brand around us. The talent!

This post is not about politics. It is about marketing.  It is about marketing that is good enough to win the office of President of the United States of America. Good marketing is always about us.

It is not about you.

To win the trust and eventually the business of your clients you also need good marketing. Good marketing that is not about you. It is about what you and your clients can accomplish together.

Political marketing is plagued with marketing that is all about the candidate: "Look how great I am." "This is what I stand for."

Real estate marketing suffers the same disease: "I sold $10 million of real estate last year." "I have 25 years of experience."

Real Estate Agent; It is not about you.

What it is about is what we can accomplish together.

Obama understands this truth and has managed to capture my imagination as a result. Because he cares more about how great we can be together, I don't care so much about how great he is.

(The video below is of his concession speech for the New Hampshire Democratic Party Primary election. The music video above is built on this speech.)

Barack Obama, "Yes We Can" video by music group Black Eyed Peas