Real estate marketing has changed, and Sequim Real Estate Agent Chuck Marunde is pleased to announce the publication of his third book, The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents. It’s already catching the attention of real estate agents around the country.  The book will be available on Amazon.com in a matter of weeks in a paperback version, but it is available now as an eBook download for $9.95.  Following are some quotes from the book.

Real Estate Marketing Has Changed

How is real estate marketing changing? Real estate offices are closing all over the country. Real estate agents are hanging up their licenses all over the country. The traditional bricks-and-mortar real estate brokerage is hemorrhaging, and all that keeps this archaic business model alive is consolidations.  As offices close, some agents quit, but the survivors move their licenses to another sinking ship, a ship that looks just like the last one and often with the exact same name on the bow.  The changes in real estate marketing are dramatic.

Real Estate Marketing and Traditional Real Estate

Real Estate Marketing and the Internet

The future real estate broker and the future real estate agent have already arrived, and they look a lot different than the broker or agent of the past 30 years.  It is absolutely amazing how rapid changes have hit the real estate business, but it’s not just because of the real estate recession and the economic recession.  The dramatic changes to the real estate business, which have huge implications for buyers and sellers, are really the result of a convergence of a number of major factors.

Buyers are no longer using newspaper classifieds to search for their next home.  The National Association of Realtors conducted a study which revealed that 85% of all buyers start their search for their next home on the Internet.  And guess what they are doing?  They are using Google to search for their next home, as well as free online MLS search sites.  This means that buyers are searching for their next home and filtering their list down to a practical number of homes, which they schedule to see with their Realtor long before they even arrive in town.  These buyers are not subscribing to the local newspapers, and they are not in an area where local home magazines are on the news stands.  Real estate brokers and agents know that their newspaper ads are not working, because they are not getting calls and selling those listings.  It’s not like it was years ago when the newspapers were the only way to advertise homes.

Because technology and the Internet have given buyers so much freedom and so much control over how and when they search for their next home, traditional advertising is no longer nearly as effective as it was.  This is one of the major reasons newspapers are going out of business all over the country.  Classifieds are no longer effective.  Craigslist has put a major dent in newspaper revenue, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  With the growth of the Internet and free consumer resources on the Internet, buyers are loving the privacy and freedom they now have to shop for their next home.  The convergence of the death of traditional media and the growth of the Internet have created a perfect storm in which traditional brokers and agents are sinking and consumers, especially buyers, are finding new freedom and power.

The brick-and-mortar real estate office can no longer put agents in cubicles and have them wait for the phone to ring or for walk-ins.  The phone no longer rings like it once did, and walk-ins are very rare.  Agents of traditional offices are leaving the business in droves.  I’ve been buying their lockboxes for half price.  That business model is not the future of real estate.

Buyers know this.  They have for a while.  Sellers have been a little slow to pick up on these dramatic changes, and traditional agents are not doing a great job educating their clients.  The way a home is advertised and promoted today to reach qualified buyers is so different than yesterday.  Granted, we will have the traditional office around for a while, and agents will continue to advertise in newspapers and magazines, but not because it sells homes like it once did.  Agents all over the county and the country tell me the only reason they put their listings in the Sunday newspapers is because their clients expect them to.  That’s just plain dumb.  Why not educate clients and stop wasting money and time on advertising that is not effective?

The real estate broker of the future and the agent of the future is going to be so different.  They will use the Internet and the most powerful technologies to reach buyers and sell homes.  The future agent will be engulfed in cloud computing and digital document management in a paperless office.  He will use the best ways to connect sellers with buyers, and the best CRM (customer relationship management).  This future will also network some of the best real estate agents around the country in entirely new ways to create a brain trust and training and mentoring that brick-and-mortars only wish they could have.  The old ways are fading rapidly, and the real estate business of the future is here.  I’m loving it, and I’m thoroughly enjoying connecting with buyers from all over the country using these technologies.

Are you taking advantage of these technologies to market your home?  Is your agent connected with the most powerful Internet technologies and business model today?  Ask me about what I do and how I do it?  You might be surprised.  You can start by digging around on this blog.  You’ll fund almost 700 articles written by me about Sequim and Port Angeles real estate issues–almost any real estate issue you can think of is here.  You’ll find the most powerful and easy-to-navigate MLS search tools here.  All these tools are free and require no registration.  You’ll find educational videos produced by a 20-year real estate attorney and broker.  You’ll find audio recordings on a variety of real estate issues I call Traps for the Unwary.  You’ll find a free FSBO eBook download, and you can download the Introduction to my upcoming book, Buying and Selling Real Estate in the Rain Shadow.  In other words, you will find this is a content-rich site, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.  There is much more behind the scenes to serve my clients in new and powerful ways.  You might guess that my real estate office is a virtual office–the real estate brokerage of the future.  Only this office is here today!

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Real estate brokerage and the business of buying and selling real estate is in the midst of extraordinary changes not seen in the last three decades of business as usual. Business models of the past are quickly becoming irrelevant as consumers shift their buying habits. Brokers and agents who learned to become automatons of business, using traditional methods of marketing and sales are suddenly finding themselves on the sidelines. The top producers of yesteryear are learning humility in obscurity.

Thousands of agents who have always been hard workers and earning a good living are feeling like a mouse on a running wheel going faster and faster but not making any progress. Brokers who have stocked their office cubicles with agents and feasted on their 30% to 50% commission share are being stretched to the limit financially and wondering how many more months they can continue to feed the brokerage.

Real estate’s captains of the industry are feeling like there’s been a mutiny, but they don’t know who to accuse. Consumers en masse have taken over the ship and rendered the captain powerless. The real estate industry has entered a new phase–the age of the consumer.

While traditional methods of marketing real estate are fading quickly with the demise of print advertising in newspapers and magazines, technology and the Internet have empowered consumers as buyers and sellers in ways that were never imagined only a few years ago. We need new terminology to explain what has happened, but as soon as we think we have defined the boundaries of new consumer powers, creative tools and processes expand those powers exponentially.

The rules of the real estate industry have been changing so fast that long established players are suddenly finding themselves out of the game. The middlemen of real estate, such as database compainies, database brokers, accounting services, customer service and management companies, public relations companies, advertising agencies, magazine and newspaper advertising departments, real estate franchise services, and franchise brokers are watching their dominance fade.

Replacing these long established powerhouses are consumer-centric tools that change the rules of the game. The best of these new tools are more powerful than traditional methods, far less expensive (many are totally free), and eliminate the need for dependence upon other players. A moderately tech savvy Realtor can build a beautiful website online, create a real estate blog optimized for the search engines, and establish an online professional persona to clients anywhere on the planet. New ways of networking on the Internet have launched hard working agents into the stratosphere of real estate marketing. Syndicating, social networking, and the most powerful real estate online network (ActiveRain) give the individual Realtor marketing power he never had before. Great marketing devices that have only been possible for large corporations and far too expensive for small businesses or individuals are now affordable. Low cost website and blog hosting, low cost storage, audio and video production, database management systems, widgets, gadgets, podcasting, and mobile services are available to a single agent working out of his home.

A single Realtor no longer needs the massive brick and mortar building of his broker who confiscates 50% of his commissions. While large real estate brokerages will still be major players, provided they adapt and learn to bridge the gap from the past to the future, these industry changes have given the individual agent the ability to create their own business model with low overhead and keep 100% of their commissions. Large brokers no longer have the upper hand. A consumer can now connect directly with a Realtor, and no middleman is necessary.

How do I know any of this is true? How do I know these tools really work?

As a Realtor I practice what I preach.  A substantial part of my business is coming through these technology tools and the Internet. Last month in a very small community and market (Sequim, Washington), I closed four transactions, which made me the second highest producing agent in the county. This may not sound all that impressive unless you realize that I am a one-man show, keeping 100% of my commissions with extremely low overhead, and competing with large brick and mortar franchises and the agents in those franchises with all the traditional support they are getting at the local level and at the national level. I do zero print advertising. But making all of this happen is not easy. I work from early morning until late at night building my Internet presence deeper and wider.

I love what I do, and I love the independence this new frontier has given me. I love real estate, marketing and sales, and I love writing and technology. I think I’ve found my place in life.  The greatest news for the consumer, for buyers and sellers, is that these changes in real estate brokerage redound to their benefit.  The consumer is taking back control.  I love that idea, and as long as I serve my clients well, it’s a win-win scenario.

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The real estate brokerage business has been experiencing an earthquake of sorts, and the very foundation of its existence is being violently shaken.   Most people are unaware of this, and what is even more amazing is that many agents and brokers are unaware of this, although brokers are wondering why they have a non-stop headache.   I’ve written elsewhere on this subject, Traditional Brokerage is Dead.

Here is an enlightening perspective by author Sean Purcell:

The real estate industry is a never ending source of change and excitement. I can remember only two years ago coaching  agents on what disintermediation meant, how it was affecting the mortgage industry and how it (and the internet) would affect their success. I was never too worried that the mortgage broker would be eliminated, but some agents were more than a little concerned about their future. As it turns out, agents are embracing the internet; they are alive and well and thriving. So, is there a problem?

No, disintermediation is not a problem: but  disbrokeration is. Teri Lussier, blogger extraordinaire, recently posted a thoughtful article on BloodhoundBlog. I certainly found it thoughtful. I have been gnawing on the state of the current real estate brokerage system like a hungry dog with his last bone. I have speculated that the current Broker based system is outdated and weathered beyond its useful life. I am quite sure I am not the only one to have said this. But how do we play this out? What happens, or what is happening, as this model fades away?

I believe the new model is in place, we are just not calling it that yet. Going back at least twenty years to when I was first licensed, the existing Broker model seems to be based on a simple premise: work hard as an agent and eventually, if you have the desire and the money and the wherewithal, you will create or purchase your own real estate shop. You are then the Broker and you hire agents to represent you in dealing with clients who wish to buy or sell a home. In many ways it was a grand retirement plan. New agents counted on the Broker for everything from an office to phones; from training to accounting and from organization to guidance. In return the broker kept a hefty portion of the commission. It was rare for an agent to even reach 50% as it was the Broker who had taken all the risk, fronted all the bills and established him or herself as successful enough to own a brokerage in the first place.

But times change and the intermediary that is now serving less and less of a function: the Broker.

Read the rest of this article at How Do You Find Real Estate Success in Disbrokeration?

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Traditional real estate brokerage is history, just like the Model T is history. Consumers know this. Home owners and buyers have known this for several years. What is interesting is that so many real estate brokers don’t know this.

Real estate brokers who operate under the traditional model are still using a 20 year old business model, but the business world, and in particular, the real estate world, has dramatically evolved in the past two decades.

How does the traditional model market listed properties? This old worn out approach markets property by:

1. Entering it in the local MLS;
2. Advertising it once every 6 weeks in a little newspaper ad.

That’s it! Let’s pause here to answer the objection a traditional broker would immediately have at this point. He/she would say, “Oh, no. We do much more than that. We send out “Just Listed” post cards to neighbors, we send out price changes to other agents through our email system, we put the house on the broker tour, we hold an open house, we run ads in the newspaper, . . . we have it on our website, oh yes, we do so much more.” They would also talk for several minutes in a fast and nervous voice, but when they finished, you would not be able to repeat what they said, because it didn’t really seem to make sense.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. All of these things are just more of the same, and all of this is part of the 20 year old business model.

There’s nothing wrong with such tactics, but the world has changed in the last two decades, and buyers and sellers have become very savvy. Buyers and sellers do not necessarily understand how the world has changed in real estate sales, or what marketing tactics work or don’t work, but nearly everyone is aware that the traditional approach is no longer effectively connecting with buyers.

It’s much more than just ineffective marketing that is at issue. A simple concept called CRM, or customer relationship management, became a popular subject about 15 years ago. The dialogue focused on meeting the client’s needs and communicating regularly with the client during the relationship, keeping the client informed, building a positive relationship, and doing such a great job that the client would eagerly send referrals. Today, 15 years later, the vast majority of real estate brokers have NO customer relationship management system in place.

Again, consumers don’t necessarily understand how it should be, but their gut feeling is that something is wrong, and they are not being treated the way they should be. Clients do not like being ignored for months at a time.

The 20 year old model focuses on the real estate agent, rather than on the client. For example, the old model suggests an agent promote himself or herself, brag about his sales record, or boast in other self-centered ways. But consumers have one question, “How are you going to help me sell my home?” Traditional real estate brokerage doesn’t understand that it’s not about me, the agent, but it is ALL about the client. The client is and should be the center of mass for all decisions made. It is the client’s best interest that should be the focus.

Consumers sense this, and they don’t like it.

The world has dramatically changed in the past two decades. Clients expect more. They expect brokers to sell their homes using cutting edge technologies and in such ways that strong and positive relationships are built during the process. Technology and the Internet have dramatically changed the way the real estate business is done. Most brokers are only slightly aware of the significance of this. In a feeble effort to demonstrate they are using the Internet, they have techies build a website that is no more than a static brochure on the Internet.

Consumers will not be fooled by counterfeits. Consumers are demanding more. How real estate is bought and sold is dramatically changing, and consumers know it. Unfortunately, most brokers and agents do not.

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