Real Estate Evolution

by Stefan Swanepoel

Remargining your business to stay ahead of the curve

Everyone in real estate will acknowledge that the last few years have been confusing.  We are not talking about the declining business economy yet surging housing market, the rising consumer index or declining mortgage rates, but rather a fundamental shift in the business structure of the real estate transaction. Let me share in summary with you a snapshot of items that should be incorporated into your next strategic planning session.

Maturing Internet

Although the Internet’s first five years were focused on things such as location convenience, stickiness and travel reduction, the Internet that is now moving into its fifth stage of development is more focused on things such as real-time participation, effective e-business, speech-to-text and text-to-speech initiatives.

Mutating Consumer

With the maturing of the Internet, so too has the consumer been changing with respect to what he or she is expecting. Increasingly they anticipate being  in control of the purchase process while having more and more choice and access to information. Quick, friendly and reliable service is also on the increase.

Merger Mania

Never before has the real estate industry experienced so many acquisitions; on such a large scale, magnitude and in such a short time. NRT and HomeServices have both executed numerous and very impressive purchases of large real estate companies. In the process they have created the two largest real estate firms the country has ever seen. Although the race has slowed down it is by no means over, and regional independents and leading franchisees are also consolidating smaller brokerages into the fold as large companies strive toward maximum economies of scale.

Transforming Telco

Communications is the backbone of real estate sales and therefore telecommunications products and services such as the mobile phones, pagers and fax machines have always enjoyed a very high adoption rate in the industry. With three major trends converging - technology power, networking and telecommunications - we seem to be evolving toward a yet to be standardized form of wireless web-based voice portals.

Information Integration

For the majority of the later part of the 1990’s the industry was in search of the elusive transaction management solution. With the acquisition of about one dozen MLS and real estate software companies FNIS seems to be well placed to finally help real estate professionals integrate the huge variety of property, consumer and marketing data for maximum efficiency in utilization.

New Business Models

During the last few years a deluge of new business models have been introduced to the industry.  Although we are clearly at the early stages of this event and the success of most new models is still undetermined, you should in light of this advancing tide, do your homework to insure that you grasp and understand the following models: Buyer Brokerage, One-Stop-Shops, VOW’s, Annuity Agencies, Fee-Based Services, Employee Estate Agents and Superstores.

Summary

Over the last five decades, our Industry has been in a constant state of evolution. One can look back and clearly distinguish between business models and trends that have noticeably changed the way we conduct business and those that have been passing fancy. Although the dominant trend for the current decade has not yet been established, various trends are already flexing their muscle and we are most likely to look back at the early 2000’s and refer to this period as the decade of the consumer and of corporate America’s involvement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stefan Swanepoel is a sought after keynote speaker and is widely recognized as the leading industry visionary on trends and change. He has penned eight books and whitepapers including the best selling “Real Estate confronts” series. Stefan is Chairman & CEO of RealtyU, the largest network of real estate schools in the nation (www.RealtyU.com), and also serves as strategic advisor to numerous companies, both locally and abroad. More information visit www.RealSure.com