Leaders of REALTOR associations and MLSs have 3 options and it’s time to pick one. Over the holidays, I read “Flash Foresight” by Daniel Burrus, which I highly recommend. Burrus says, “predicting the future is easy … but predicting it accurately is hard”. Can you relate? He goes on to say that we are generally too focused on our current challenges (the housing market, difficult transactions, challenges in lending, etc.). Instead, he recommends that you think about the challenges and problems you are ABOUT to have next. If that is difficult,... [Read more]
… some challenges and successes relating to digital music and parallels between the music and real estate industries. Mike Masnick will speak about this at Inman Data Summit January 25 – 26. For instance, as consumers now have ever more real estate-related information at their fingertips from both third-party and industry sites, the role of the real estate professional has shifted from gatekeeper of information to enabler, Masnick said. “There is still a role for middlemen to (help consumers) understand the process and the pitfalls and the best practices... [Read more]
30 leading REALTOR associations in South Carolina and Indiana are working together to identify new ways for reducing operating costs, balancing budgets and becoming indispensable to their members. This group represents a “cooperative” of 28,000 REALTORs (95%) across two entire states. REALTOR association execs and board members are well aware of the “value crisis” that is brewing. Membership is declining and so is income. Technology is moving faster than most association decision-making and the data, which used to be exclusive to the local MLS, is... [Read more]
I don’t typically plug conferences and we all have plenty of meetings to attend, but I want to make sure you know about this one. If you are going to Inman SFO in July, you might want to add the Inman Data Summit to your travel plan. This is a first ever event for Inman and I am honored to be involved on the Board of Advisors with some of the smartest people in the business. Check it out and I hope to see you there on July 25-26. I will also be staying the rest of the week. Why not, it’s San Francisco! I’ll keep you posted with more details of... [Read more]
For the past few months, I have been mostly quiet about my ideas and vision for the future of our industry. I realized sometime last year that the “noise level” has been getting louder and louder so I intentionally stepped away from these distractions to really listen and learn from what I was hearing. I have a lot to share about what I learned while avoiding the distractions and based on my work with 100 organizations over the year. I have a lot to say about your future and the future of the real estate and MLS industry in general. In May, I stepped away... [Read more]
Reassess You’ve been moving, you’ve been taking action and now you think you have arrived. How will you know you have arrived at a successful destination? Step 7 involves reassessing and re-measuring your past performance. It’s been nine to twelve months since you started your journey and now is the time to reassess. Did you do what you set out to do or did you get stuck along the way? Let’s face it. There are a lot of moving parts in our industry right now. Change is occurring at a very fast pace. It’s easy to think you have been on a particular course... [Read more]
Take Action. Now that you have your roadmap to success, which was custom made for you to get from your current location to your successful destination, your next step is to take action. The best directions in the world will not get you anywhere unless you step on the gas pedal. Take action, be proactive and get moving. You have done the work to know where you are starting and where you want to end up. Now is the time to do something to get moving forward. So many organizations plan and strategize only to check the activity off their to-do list. So they end up with... [Read more]
Governance – How to Make it Work Better Does your current decision-making structure and governance ensure your future success? How can you arrive at your destination if you don’t have reliable transportation to support your journey and roadmap? Does your organization need a tune-up? This fifth step to your “Roadmap to Success” deals with improving your governance and structure to allow your leadership to do what they need to do when they need to do it. Technology is advancing at a very fast pace. You and your leadership need to be nimble to make the right... [Read more]
Learn How To Communicate Your Value Proposition To Members From the previous steps, you know how you measure up with your competition and what your members value and need most from you right now. In this fourth step, we will make a stop, to refuel so to speak. Now is the right time to tell your members how you measure up with others in the industry; what you are offering them and what you are DOING for them. Many say, “Our members don’t read!” Let’s think about what it is that you have been telling them (to which they aren’t paying attention). Does the information... [Read more]
Learn How To Do More With Less and Balance Your Budget We’ve been talking about the first two steps of the MLS Roadmap to Success the last couple of weeks and this third step is critical to thriving right now. If your goal is to do more for your members with less, balance your budget and avoid future cuts, you must take the most direct route. Similar to the GPS, there are alternative routes you can take to get to your destination and some are faster than others. With this third step, you will be setting up your GPS preferences for the most direct route to your success. Most... [Read more]
