The NAR conference wrapped up yesterday with a meeting of the group's Board of Directors. One of the main topics discussed was the question of who owns listing information...but we'll save that for another day.
Alan Dalton, CEO of Realtor.com (a site operated on behalf of the NAR) gave a report to the Board on the sate of online competition in the real estate market. Mr. Dalton commented that, "The battle to attract traffic is one that we engage in every day. We invest tens of millions of dollars every year to attract consumers to Realtor.com." Mr. Dalton went on to point out that there are "other online companies" that are a threat to a Realtor's place in the real estate transaction. These companies will frame Realtors as "overpaid and undeserving of their commission checks," with the goal of diminishing traffic at Realtor.com, he warned.
Huh? I guess when you live your life as a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail....but I'm willing to bet that these "other companies" aren't hell-bent on diminishing traffic to Mr. Dalton's website. Instead, they're hell-bent on diminishing the amount of business traditional realtors do, and increasing the amount of business they do. It's called competition. And too many Realtors have brought that competition upon themselves.
By failing to embrace consumer-friendly technology in a timely manner, Realtors left the door wide open to new companies who have a better understanding of the online consumer (that is, all consumers today) to stake their claim in the real estate market space by offering new business models.
By choosing to provide a minimal level of service, too many Realtors have left themselves and the rest of us open to be characterized as "overpaid and undeserving of their commission checks." When you allow your service to be defined as a commodity, then it's always going to be about offering the lowest price.
But all of this marketplace interruption will not be resolved in the Boardroom. It will resolve itself in the same manner it was created -- one agent at a time. Some Realtors will see these new compeititors and their new business models as a wake-up call and begin the process of defining who they are and what their service proposition is really all about...and making it relevant to their customers. Others will keep their heads buried comfortably in the sand until they are unexpectedly bulldozed by agile and aggressive competition. Either way, the consumer wins...the market space re-defines itself...until the next wave of change occurs. Then we all go back to Square One and start again.
Competition is a wonderful way of bringing out the best of a business every single day. It's something that shouldn't be feared by our industry, but embraced. Progress is a bell that can't be un-rung...so let's not waste too much energy as an industry trying to turn back the clock. -- Jon Strum
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