Real Estate: Change benefits consumers, invite multiple stakeholders to collaborate

Share moneysaving crowdfunding campaign w/ #DIY homebuyers using http://bit.ly/CrowdREfund

Twenty-five years ago, Ralph Nader said you call tell a lot about an industry by the way members talk to each other.  To dramatize that point, here’s a revealing update from agent-to-agent Facebook group called, Real Estate is Broken — What Are We Gonna Do About It?


Responding to the crowdfunding proposal above, @RealEstateCafe wrote:

Based on the list you shared three years, it’s clear we agree the industry needs to change.  That recognition is good for both the industry and consumers:

http://bit.ly/LindaList091914

Beyond those issues are more fundamental concerns about the future of the real estate ecosystem.  Questions asked in NAR’s Strategic Thinking report point to an existential crisis; and to my surprise, now say the CONSUMER — not the Realtor — is at the center of the transaction.  That report also points to “autonomous consumers” — primarily homebuyers, are using “inventive ways to find homes for themselves” (Source:  Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2017).

Amazon.com drove small independent booksellers out of business only to open their own bookstore.  Zillow attracts 160 million visitors per month, but they’d risk undermining their Realtor-advertising business model if they open a storefront.  Nonetheless,bricks & mortar are increasingly an unnecessary drag on traditional offices, virtual brokerages need an alternative to meetings at Starbucks, entrepreneurs and #RETech innovators working solo need a place to gather.  What’s are the options?  Here’s one idea starter — feedback welcome:

Think Apple Genius Desk meets DIY consumers meets CoWorking Space for Best of Breed moneysaving apps & innovators:

http://bit.ly/RECrowdCafe

NAR’s new leadership wants to “embrace” disruptors and @CRTLabs — the Center for Realtor Technology embodies their evolutionary approach.  To focus on new technologies, NAR announced a new Strategic Business & Technology Group at their recent convention in Chicago.  Suggested background reading from Inman News:

NAR CEO Bob Goldberg: Disrupters aren’t ‘the bogeyman’

http://bit.ly/EmbraceREFuture

NAR’s leadership clearly recognizes the industry is changing as vendors, large and small, create new ways for consumers to act “autonomously.”  That doesn’t mean that traditional brokerages like yours need to change, it does mean innovators — including Amazon and Facebook — are developing new tools for resourceful, tech-savvy buyers, sellers, homeowners and landlords to save money.  We want to offer those change makers — as well as virtual brokerage ALREADY in the market like Redfin —  a state of the art location where they can meet clients or CoWork on subscription or on demand basis.  It’s a compelling opportunity for #REStartUps to test their ideas and gain visibility — at the street level — in a Top 10 Realtor.com market!

The space would be Realtor-friendly, but not Realtor-centric; and RETech partners are invited to demo their products and services to listing agents, buyer agents as well as DIY consumers.  Like your list of what’s broken and needs to change, my hope is that you, as a recognized industry leader, will applaud if not participate in the some of the programming we envision and invite others to cosponsor.

Change is inevitable and multiple stakeholders — including traditional players — are invited to collaborate:  what will the real estate ecosystem look like in the year 2020? Let’s cocreate it via #RE2020:

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