Isn’t This All Getting More Than A Bit Tiresome?

I mean blog wars, talk about disintermediation, transparency..blah..blah..blah…!

I am new to blogging, having only launched Real Estate Radio USA on January 2, 2008. Yet, in this brief period of time I can CLEARLY see the fruits of my labor, the rewards derived from the efforts of my team, the tremendous spike in daily traffic, and last but not least, the building of valuable strategic business relationships. In addition, many personal relationships have blossomed as well.

But all of this going back and forth with real estate agents who are resisting change and ignoring the writing on the wall just seems so boring. Do I really care any longer about trying to share what I have learned and to assist those in business who can not or will not seize the myriad of opportunities that abound in a Web 2.0 world? I used to. I was full of fire and energy to help a lot of Realtors see the Promised Land but now that spirit, in just 3 months, is waning.

I can only imagine how people like Mary McKnight, Greg Swann, Pat Kitano and Stefan Swanepoel must feel. These people have been going at it for much longer than I have. I salute each of these pioneers and others like them and wonder where they find the patience to persevere with such a seemingly obvious lost cause.

In order for myself to continue in such an arduous endeavor, I have to measure my efforts against the potential ROI. Wasting time with obtuse Realtors has become the bane of my existence and it seems useless to continue to engage. It’s like being on the Titanic and arguing with Thomas Andrews that the ship was unsinkable.

Real estate blogging has jumped the proverbial shark and it’s a waste of time to think things can be changed. I read a post or two this weekend on Active Rain, you know, that social network that shows 70,000+ members yet only the same 100-200 or so people ever comment? You know, that social network made up of dinosaurs and has-beens that spend more time saying what doesn’t work to even try to implement that which does. You know, that social network where everything is a “great post” unless you dare to question the Almighty Point Leaders. By the way…are they point leaders or investors? I can’t seem to figure that out.

Active Rain, in my opinion, has an absolutely great premise. It’s stated purpose is an admirable set of core values and ideologies. However somewhere along the way it seems to have been hijacked. Sometimes when I read what some of the members post I feel like I am in Stepford. When I comment I feel like Robert Neville left alone on an island of mutants looking at me like I’m the one who is out of place.

ActiveRain believes that it is in the best interests of real estate professionals to build a community that is focused on educating one another.  ActiveRain believes its future depends on members of all experience levels openly sharing their experiences and best practices with others in the field.  This communal dialogue offers a unique opportunity for professional growth and is the way to share in the dynamism and excitement that constitutes the modern real estate business.

Oh really? Like I said, admirable in design, flawed in its participation. The architects of the platform must at times, behind close doors, wonder what has become of their creation and how did it morph from its stated mission. Surely it is not their fault, not at all. It’s a statement on the industry and where it is headed.

This is not an Active Rain rant…it’s not by any means any reflection on their product. I just am wondering aloud what’s to be done. Do we continue speaking about Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, new business models, disintermediation and transparency to an audience that desires to ignore it.

In any event, what’s the use? Isn’t there far better use of our time? Aren’t there sellers and buyers out there who deserve better than tepid discussions between bloggers. In the midst of what is seen as the worst housing crisis in history and with millions in danger of losing their homes, does anybody really care about what any of us have to say other than “do you have a buyer”?

Over the weekend we visited 32 houses on the market. The agents can’t afford to market and the Seller’s can’t afford to stay in the home. We used to call these people motivated Sellers. I like to now call them hostages.

In house after house, we ran into homeowner after homeowner that are locked into wholly egregious, one-sided listing agreements with some real estate agent who has deemed themselves a financial analyst.

No, the house won’t sell, no, you don’t know how to properly perform a short sale, and yes, you will have another client whose livelihood is going down the tubes because they had the misfortune of signing a listing agreement.

Think that homeowner has any interest in disintermediation or transparency?

My vocational experience was derived from an entrepreneurial mindset with a heavy influence from the consumer product business world. This is a world wherein compensation is based upon DAILY performance, not performance in 60, 90, 120, or 180 days.

When I created marketing campaigns for consumer product companies they looked at our proposal, analyzed the data, and if the proposal made sense and the client’s expected ROI was achievable, they greenlighted the campaign. They proceeded based upon the premise that a fresh marketing campaign would help their brand(s) connect with their target consumer.

I never had a brand manager from a Fortune 500 company ignore proven data. ..and this was often someone actually trained to review the data. I am not saying that each campaign that I created was greenlighted. Of course not. There were companies that had better ideas than I did. There were companies that had better priced campaigns that I did, but the point here is the consumer product company did not have to be convinced as to the merits of a campaign, they simply had to choose from the proposal they liked the best. They all knew that they HAD to do a branding or marketing campaign and that such campaigns are an ongoing component of business.

When new technologies are seen in the marketplace, it’s not an if, but only when the brand will engage in the new arena.

There are somewhere near 1.4 Million active Realtors. Maybe 1-2% of them have grasped a Web 2.0 mindset. What can the other 98% possibly be doing. Discussions about disintermediation and transparency? Forget that…someone needs to launch a psychological study as to the why there is general acceptance to an obvious of lack of general business knowledge by many in the real estate industry.

I imagine some folks did not really listen to Alexander Graham Bell, nor did some rush out to rally around Henry Ford. More recently in our lifetime a lot of people thought a geeky Harvard dropout was nuts when he created Microsoft and I am sure there are some former Royal Typewriter execs really kicking themselves. However, I doubt you will find 1.5 million people in a single business completely ignoring technology the way Realtors do.

Why? Could be a hundred different reasons. But like I said, does it really matter. Right now the agents don’t care. Homeowners just want to be rescued and the industry’s trade organization (NAR) is a laughing stock.

So why are we even discussing Web 2.0 ideologies to an audience with deaf ears. I like reading the articles here but I already know where Jeff Brown stands. I already know where Russell Shaw Stands, I already know where Greg Swan and Brian Brady stand. We can order some beers and pizza at UNCHAINED and have a discussion until the wee hours of the night over disintermediation and transparency (which might not be a bad idea anyway), but will it matter?

If we took all of our blogging traffic together, and added our own individual spheres of influence on top, what are we talking about in terms of agents in the Web 2.0 pool? Are we really having all of these discussions for less than 5-6% of the real estate agents willing to improve their “business”? Isn’t that just all of us having the proverbial sword fight in the shower? It just does not seem to matter.

This world of business blogging is evolving each day. We have begun speaking with major companies from pharmaceuticals to snack food giants to purveyors of wines and spirits and they actually WANT to learn about what it is we do. Imagine working with a client who has tens of millions of dollars at its disposal who actually wants to learn about what it is we do. Imagine a consumer product that wants you to design a Web 2.0 marketing campaign that helps them reach out to their customers. Isn’t that what we have been trying to do as bloggers with Realtors? Isn’t that what many of you are already successfully accomplishing…helping business improve? I don’t envision Web 2.0 as being just for real estate. In fact I believe that to be much to the contrary.

Web 2.0 ideology is much better suited to a “business” than an independent contractor-led industry with no cohesive plan or structure. This technology is meant to provide dynamic content that enriches the user’s experience, encourages the user’s participation, and is highly scalable. It also is vital in its ability to capture collective intelligence on the participant while featuring an aura of freedom, openness and empowerment.While this may be the case in some real estate blogs, it is readily apparent that this is not the norm.

Anyone even remotely knowledgeable about the business of consumer marketing understands that the 18-24 year old demographic is the most sought after demo. It has been proven that an individual’s buying patterns are formed very early in their adult life and that if you interact with an individual at that stage of life you may obtain a customer for life.

In a business with the average age of the participants being 51+ it seems we are wasting time speaking to an audience of individuals who seem to have long since become set in their ways. Would it not be more beneficial for us to take our abilities and information to those companies and industries that are enthusiastically embracing the tool that can truly allow their business to compete on a global scale?

Tim O’Reilly who coined the term Web 2.0 says there are seven core competencies in truly being a self-described Web 2.0 business, much of which has been discussed herein (did you miss it) and not the least of which is the development of a business model to harness the ideology.

I just don’t see the benefit of continuing a discussion with 1 million plus real estate agents with 1 million plus opinions. The real estate industry is fractured. There is no apparent competent, national, leadership or direction and today’s real estate agent seems less knowledgeable technologically speaking than one would expect in today’s wired world.

The frightening aspect of that thought is that most seem quite at peace in being technologically negligent and remaining wholly reliant upon the ignorance of the consumer to conduct business…which in itself is counterproductive to any discussion of transparency.

So what are we all talking about? Are we merely spending time speaking to the choir, or like Fonzie, have we jumped the shark on this thing and just don’t realize that it’s all down hill from here in regards to real estate agents truly embracing this new world.

Or, perhaps is this the rant of someone who had some bad sushi last night and is upset because Carolina got booted from the Final Four.

I guess we’ll see how I feel in the morning.