? by Bradley Inman
Inman News Features
Most real estate brokers have too much at stake to sit back and let technology, the Internet and top-producing real estate agents shrink the value of their business franchise.
That’s why it isn’t surprising that brokers are slowly waking up and becoming bolder with their business. Internet leads and lead management may be the next frontier for this newfound courage.
Over the last several years, such companies as HomeAdvisor, HomeGain and LendingTree have made aggressive moves to capture leads off the Web while many brokers moaned, whined and fretted about these new entrants into the market.
In the grip of their own entitlement complex, many brokers complained about online companies taking leads from their own backyard and selling them back, even though most brokers were unwilling to invest their own money to get leads off the Web.
While there was a dramatic consumer jump from print to the Web, the most many brokers would do to market to fast-growing online consumers was put their Web address on existing print ads. This hesitancy occurred while the online upstarts invested millions of dollars for leads on Google, AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft.
Initially, many brokers trusted REALTOR.com to be their online answer. When the National Association of REALTORS®’ enterprise stumbled, many brokers turned to a defensive strategy, trying to hold onto listings—through MLS and NAR politics—as a way to thwart those who were investing in online leads. Regulation has always been a way for old-line businesses to shun competition.
Smart brokers are realizing they are losing ground with the three-point strategy of whining, depending on REALTOR.com and erecting regulatory barriers.
Some brokers are finally stepping outside their self-inflicted paralysis and investing in online leads and lead management capabilities.
Elizabeth Blair, Senior Vice President of Yahoo!’s listings division, recently said the consumer-oriented media company is planning to throw the switch on the new virtual office Web sites.
“Two of the next five companies we’ve been talking with are very traditional names, very well-known old brokerage names, and they aren’t really very far behind (the e-brokerages in implementation),” she told Inman News.
On the lead management front, Lennox Scott, broker of Seattle-based John L. Scott Real Estate, is leading the way with a new Web site that puts the brokerage more in control of customer relationships by offering buyers and sellers more services. A feature dubbed “Work With Me Online” enables John L. Scott agents to become their client’s “online agent” by signing them up for a Home File account.
The agent is not cut out, but Scott is centralizing productivity functions on the main John L. Scott Web site. In addition, the Web site features an online office where agents can manage their listings and access their e-mail system as well as a business information center. The online office also houses a contact manager database, in which agents can manage their customer relationship contacts. The Web site was custom built by WhereToLive.com, a national technology company that develops Web-based software platforms for agents and companies in the residential real estate industry.
Just publishing listings is not enough. Brokers now must invest in driving leads to their Web sites. Companies that are fooled into thinking their brand will instantly attract leads will be rudely awaken. Just ask Coke and Pepsi why they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising every year.
Brokers have lost ground in the last few years due to their inaction. They drifted away from the transaction into after-market schemes. But at the end of the day, that is only dessert, their entrée is the transaction. The longer they hold back on directly investing in Web leads, the further they drift from their bread and butter. Then, they face starvation.
— Editor’s note: Inman News
Publisher Bradley Inman is also the founder and chairman of HomeGain.