Anne Randolph On Real Estate Technology RealitiesAnne Randolph from Murray Consulting on the changes in real estate including technology and real estate marketing with the use of social netowrking and real estate brokers need to become experts by the use of blogs and zillow and trulia
BrokerIPTV : Today we are talking with Anne Randolph from Murray Consulting. Anne thanks for being with us. Anne Randolph: Well, you are welcome. BrokerIPTV : Real Estate and the internet. Can you ever do real estate, the old fashion way again? Anne Randolph: Well, first of all we have that the fine old fashioned. The reality is I think that - I use this example frequently. I ask people when do you think, the consumer started really getting control of the information about listings, it was definitely not with the internet, it was when baby boomers like myself would beg last week's MLS book, from their agent, when the agent wasn't suppose to share with them, so that they could look themselves. I mean that's just the nature of the consumer. They want to able to look themselves, so I think while the information is now flowing directly to the consumer and they can access it fully, it has not impacted the number of people, who want to use an agent. We are still saying a well in excesses of 70%, who absolutely will use an agent.
BrokerIPTV : Because, the search starts on the internet. They gather the data, then they are not sure what to do with the data. So, they call their real estate agent, who they have a relationship with and say "what do I do with this Data?" Is that it? Anne Randolph: Exactly, they will come and say "I have already looked in seven neighborhoods, I have noted down to two, I like these houses, here is why" so that's much shorter conversation than you would have had with an agent in the past, but it also makes little simpler. BrokerIPTV : Yeah. I mean the consumer doing some of our work for us. Anne Randolph: That's true, but the most important part of the work is the negotiation, it is making sure that you don't buy something that has serious flaws that you don't recognize. It is really making sure that you do not overpay for a property and let you know what is you are buying. It is really that trusted advisor role which is most important now versus the information. BrokerIPTV : You walked into a hope pitiful of real estate agents, and you said "marketing, what works, what doesn't," what would they say? Anne Randolph: What would they say or... BrokerIPTV : What is your reality of what works and what doesn't? Anne Randolph: Well, I think it really depends on your audience. So, if you have a first time home buyer primarily Hispanic audience, do not advertise in the newspaper, because they do not read it, Ok. Really, the very best things are to have a very strong visual presence in the neighborhood through signage to learn how do use the internet effectively and that means, when you get a contact, you get back to them immediately, and that's the touch, it doesn't mean you have to go to a long winded explanation of who you are. It just has to say "thank you for contacting me. I call clients back from 5 to 7 in the evening. I hope this time will be ok and if not please let me know." It just has to say, "I have heard you." I think the other think that it still powerful of course are referrals and direct response marketing. Yes, but what happens is we think that just spending out like l said before "recipe cards to people who do not cook is a good idea?" No, it has to have something a value that causes the person to want to respond to that message. BrokerIPTV : You have got a group of people going around the countries saying "Listen, what you really got to do is, you really got to figure out how to tap into 16 or 20 million people at a time, so you ought to be looking at social networking." What do you think about that for real estate? Anne Randolph: I think for the certain audience, is just not a bad idea, ok. I think maybe for younger audience for whom that is an absolutely comfortable communication and information sharing environment. It is not a bad idea. The problem is you cAnneot serve 16 million people and you can better off figuring out "how do I socially network in the area were I am an expert." So, if you are a person yourself national luxury properties that might be a place like www.uniqueglobalestates.com or might be www.luxuryrealestate.com in the blogs or answer question on www.trulia.com, because Trulia has an opportunity now where if a consumer ask a question, an agent from that area will answer it and there begins the dialogue. So, I think there is the place for that, but it is probably not baby boomer focused ways to tell business and make no mistake boomers are still the biggest market. BrokerIPTV : Since you brought up that Trulia, let's bring up the Zillows, let's bring the Redfin, let's bring them all up and there is clearly an internet war on for consumer Zillow Anneounces that they doing agreement with the newspaper deals to get their listings. It is who can get more listings, who can better serve the consumer, who is going to get all the traffic and at the end of the day end, who wins that battle? Anne Randolph: I don't know yet, I really don't. I would not want to hazel, because we ought to also through www.Point2.com which is a National Listing Site into that mix and I think what's happening right now is brokers and agents are testing. They are working with them in modest ways to figure out "where do I get the best return on my investment" and that's something that both agents and brokers have never done before. They have never looked at return on investment. BrokerIPTV : This is just a side question. You are just a little amazed at the amount of capital that these guys are pulling in for backing on their sites - on a product, that is incredibly untested? Anne Randolph: With Wall Street nothing surprises me anymore. That the issue we have I think in the financial markets is way, way, way too much money, looking for a place to invest and not enough great places to invest. So, people look at something like real estate which all you have to do is look historically. It is the business that keeps growing and growing, of course it has a few dips, it had one in 80 - 81 when interest rates were 18%, I bought my first house, but it is much more stable a place to invest, than a stock market. So, I think you are not seeing the levels of investment that you saw during the dot.com era. I mean saying things worth hundreds of millions of billions of dollars they are just not there. BrokerIPTV : Market: Denver, Colorado National. What is going to happen with this? Anne Randolph: Well, it is interesting. The places that will recover the quickest are the places that have the least exuberance in appreciation. Now, the Denver market is really a bunch of individual micro markets and there is still appreciation in places like Castle Pines in Highlands Ranch places like that. You have a terrible situation in Adams and weld County were you have tremendous percentage of housing there facing defaults and foreclosures. Now, one thing that we - that is the media does not want to tell you because just not exiting is Seattle is up, Charlett is up, Atlanta is up, Dallas is up, Ok, even the Standard and Poor Case-Shiller index which is 20 MSAs markets. Well, let me pick any 20 markets in the country is above whether and I can make it sure that the markets up, instead of down. So, I think the media has not shown a very good thing for this population. I think it is really scared people and it is hurting the real estate market, because people are afraid to buy right now, because they are afraid the market will go down further. Denver is pretty stable we are down about 1% and that is mostly driven by places were there was very very big sub prime exposure. BrokerIPTV : Financially small part of Adams County... Anne Randolph: It is only a small part and so on an overall basis location, location, location, San Dieago was up a 173%. Home prices were up 173% from 2000 - 2006 and now they have declined about 35%. Well excuse me, but if you bought your house in 2000 or 2001 or 2002 you are doing just fine. BrokerIPTV : Anne, fascinating information, thanks so much. Anne Randolph: Thank you. Related PostsInman NYC 08, The Real Estate Web Portal Battle by Ashfaq MunshiInteractive Technology Specialist David Hiebeler Pushes Syndication Brendan King-Point2 NLS-Largest 3rd Party Listing Portal Can Metrolist Compete In A WEB 2.0 World? Mark Lesswing - "Information Free Radicals" Theory at Inman Connect NYC 2008 http://www.brokeriptv.com/0000C7 Posted on March 11, 2008 09:15:35 by Mark Eibner
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