The latest tumult in real estate feels like our world has been turned upside down yet again. But underneath all the frenzy, I see a genuine opportunity for us to turn this into a positive and come back even stronger than before. I often think of the term “Anti-fragile” from the book of the same name by Nassim Taleb. The principle is that people and organizations can build their success around being able to come back even stronger after a wallop, instead of just withstanding the impact. This is real estate’s moment to become even more anti-fragile.
Own our worth
Almost as soon as the commission verdict was announced, most major industry voices came out with marketing campaigns and webinars about how agents can demonstrate their worth. While all this is a helpful start to the new normal, we don’t need to demonstrate our worth. We need to own it, too. Since we now need to have a signed agreement with our buyers before we take them on tours, we have an earlier opportunity to have a longer conversation with them and to sell ourselves. I predict these “buyer presentations” are going to start having as much depth to them as our listing presentations. This means we will need to have more marketing materials and visible proof of our accomplishments that appeal to buyers. But we can’t risk these materials being taken by others and used for their marketing purposes. Whether it is our research on homes that are coming soon or our hard-won tips and tricks for navigating the market, it’s time to embrace digital tools that give us ownership over the deep knowledge we each have about our markets.
Hone our approach
As independent contractors we have to continually hone and refine our approach. I often tell my agents we are the Swiss army knife of real estate since we have so many different skills. With such a variety of skills comes the need for different tools, but I sense we’ve gotten carried away with so many tech platforms and software….