NAR Panel DIscusses Technology (or the sun rises in the east)

Friday, a panel of industry pros got together at the NAR annual convention and came to the conclusion that technology seems to matter....maybe a lot...to the "modern consumer".  I'm sorry, but while they were at it, these fine folks could have proclaimed that the sun rises in the east. 

I'm Jon Strum, and I guess I remain astonished each time that I hear a leader in our industry say something that the rest of the business universe was saying in 1999.  For instance, Travis Wright, CEO of Stewart Realty Solutions, a subsidiary of Stewart Title said, "Title insurance companies have become technology companies."  Well, Mr. Wright...with the advent of worldwide networks and the ability to access information instantly...with the ad hoc coming together of virtual communities...with new business models being tried, tested, discarded or embraced on a daily basis...every buusiness has become a technology company.  I guess the only difference between real estate and the rest of the business world is that this fundamental shift happened in the last century for everyone else.

John McWeeny of Inman Stories pointed out that with the today's high market penetration of broadband connectivity, "Every Web page can be a TV channel."    The question here is why should it?  After all...we've had TV for over 60 years if that's the experience the viewer is looking for.  Consider this-- we've had the ability to stream audio over the Internet for several years.  But it took Apple's iPod to help content providers truly understand that what the consumer was looking for was a means of taking their music with them.  The Internet served to facilitate the transaction (buying music on iTunes for instance) and then the system of instant gratification (delivery).  But every Web page didn't become a jukebox.

And yet whena member of the audience  asked that panel about a site like Trulia, that really does break through old paradigms and delivers a new consumer experience, Mr. Wright sniffs that , "...it's an interesting service that has legs..."  Of course, the next thing he points out is that the listing information on Trulia isn't really their information to disemminate. 

I'm truly looking forward to a discussion about how the real estate industry can embrace technology to enhance the customer experience without the issue of controlling information even coming up...and maybe discover a few new business models in the process. 

Now, most of these new business models aren't likely to succeed.  In fact, most will probably fail.  But some will stick, and change everything.  They will re-define how we deliver service, how we define service and perhaps force us to add brand new items to our service menus in order to remain competitive or even relevant to our clients.  But guys...it's 2006.  The genie's out of the bottle, and has been for quite some time.   And it seems a shame that our industry is still in need of a panel to proclaim the obvious.