My Projects
Yes…the Real Estate Blog is Dead!
My opinion is based on several years of running sites for My wife’s team and working with agents at M Realty.
When it comes to generating leads from search, the past, present and future of real estate sites is SEO, not blogging, transparency, authenticity and finding your voice. The way to get clients is to show up where the most concentrated group of most motivated buyers/sellers are hanging out and ask for the business. This is why SEO focused content kills blogging…it is targeted directly at the relevant phrases and lands on pages designed to satisfy needs AND convert into conversation. Directing visitors interested in Portland Real Estate to our site generates appointments with new clients. People searching for Homes for sale in Sellwood neighborhood will register on IDX display of listing in the neighborhood. As I tailor most of my content to support the landing pages for valuable terms am I still a blogger or have I become an SEO focused content writer…is there a difference?
I am defining the Real Estate agent blog as an agent site to publish thoughts and ideas about real estate and possibly other things. A traditional agent blog can have solid impact in the direct support of an agent sphere relationships. It can become a dynamic newsletter of sorts that can be referenced in facebook and can be the content source of actual email newsletter campaign. This site will not (in general) produce quality organic traffic from search engines that will convert into clients at a rate that justifies the effort. Unless the site is used as a support to a more traditional campaign of meeting people IRL and direct marketing its ROI sucks. If you feel it is your calling to write and this is you outlet fantastic…do it because you love it. If you see a blog as a lead generator think twice.
IMO…the future of agent sites that have measurable ROI are hybrid site that use blogging platforms (WordPress) and employ very good on page SEO targeted to terms that convert leading to landing pages that generate registrations of some sort. The “blog” or “dynamic” content serves to supplement the high quality static landing pages that are the primary conversion points of the site. That is not to say the site necessarily must become a cold site with no agent personality coming through.
The future of web generated leads belongs to agents who become very proficient in SEO, understand conversion, and can write for the humans and bots that end up on the landing pages.
Don’t get me wrong I am all for transparency and authenticity. However I would suggest spending significant time and effort on the structure and conversion so your authentic, transparent voice will produce a significant number of transactions not just an opportunity to lead a session at Barcamp. WOW that was a tad snark wasn’t it 
WalkScore heat mapping
WalkScore is a data tool that allows you to look at a property as it relates to walkable places in the community. The heat map shows the concentration of walk scores as an overlay. You can use it as a guide to listings that have a high Walkscore…or low walk score if you hate walking:) Use the live version to search portland real estate with the Walkscore heat map.
Panoramic Gallery
We are utilizing Next gen gallery to manage our image galleries and we modified Lightbox 2 to load a Pano viewer if it encounters an image it thinks is a pano. The pano viewer is only working in Map view currently. click here for map view
[Gallery not found]M The new brokerage
I always feel like such a goof when I see myself on video! But this is me. Please give me some feedback on this video. I am contemplating placing on our corporate site. Is it too long? to informal? too anything? Thanks
View the Agents
Here is our latest steps towards being the transparent brokerage. We love working on our WP/IDX map and this is maybe our favorite project ever!. We are combining RMLS listings, agent blog posts and the homes agents actually go inside to view.
How it works…
Agent geo-coded posts. All of our agents have their own custom branded WP sites and are posting about the real estate market and community on their sites (example Marisa - pdxmetroproperties.com ). We built our WPMU network to draw the posts from the agents sites into the main M Brokerage site mportlandhomes.com.
Marisa WP Blog
M Realty corporate blog
Homes Viewed by Agents Looking at homes is vital to being a good agent connected to the inventory and market. We think seeing what the agents are looking at is a really good idea. The data is pulled from the electronic key card system then our system turns a listing viewed to an orange icon. See Marisa Swenson’s activity
Active homes for sale. the site has a direct feed from the MLS that is updated every 20 minutes. The listing are processed to ensure correct placement on our map. Agent activity is integrated into the property search so you can which agents are active in the neighborhood and can reach out to the agent directly. for example Marisa Stevens lives and works in Montavilla check out the homes for sale and see Marisa at the same time.
Production vs Development
I was recently discussing my frustration around our product development with a friend of mine. The problem centered around how we handle always wanting to build more than we have capacity to possibly get done. Tony asked me a simple question that changed the way we develop Homequest. It also directly applies to building our brokerage and to us as individual agents.
Do you know the difference between production and development? my answer was I think so…um yeh…um no whats that. I felt a little stupid because I have been in direct charge of Homequest Development for years and this sounds like a simple question. It is a simple question and the answer is simple and the implications are huge.
production is where there are no unknowns. for example we sell custom headers for our agent IDX sites. they are $500-1,200, we have a set process for meeting with the client, evaluating their needs, generating mock up, We know how much time and resources they take and block out capacity each week for header production. This program runs on auto pilot we don’t have to think about it, just sell and produce. It is clearly in production. It got that way because we designed it from the start to be in “Production” the internal structure was put in place, we tested our assumptions with a pilot, made some adjustments and now it is reliable.
Development is where there are unknowns. for example we are in the process now of developing a virtual tour integrated into our IDX and Looking glass. We also are in the last stages of development of “orange dots” they are about to enter the Pilot phase where we measure the effectiveness and make small adjustments. You can’t sell things that are in development this includes services as well as products. They are inherently unreliable, take more effort than you think, and it is very difficult to meet the clients expectations.
The key is to really understand your business as it relates to production vs. development. Production is where all the money is generated and development is where innovation occurs and future production components are generated. A balance must be found where new revenue is consistently generated from production and development continues to move the company forward.
This obviously applies to a development company like Homequest but it also directly applies to an agents real estate practice. Can you identify the activities and programs that you can classify as production. Those programs that run on auto pilot and consistently generate revenue? are you spending most of your time coming up with new programs that you are going to implement? I see lots of agents planning and devising new programs but not understanding how to package, test, adjust, and move a program into production.
Our team has esablished an internet marketing program that is now fully established into production mode. We have two new programs that are in development that wil be piloted this years and may or may not reach full production depending on how well they work. The key is that the new pilots will not interfere with the current production that generates our revenue.
Work hard to get programs into production quickly then opperate, and make small adjustments. Only then work on larger innovations and new programs.
96.5% of Portland Agents Abucted by aliens
And guess what…there are now the correct number of agents to service the Portland area.
There is no doubt our industry is massively inefficient. It is entirely possible for an agent to close 4-6 transactions per month with the proper support system. In the market area we service there were 687 closings in December with two side per that’s 1,374 sides. agents Required = 1,374/5= 275 agents
That’s right! in an efficient system there would only need to be 275 agents to service the demand for the entire area! I don’t know exactly how many agents we have currently but it’s in the 5000+ range.
Why is there such a dramatic difference? The fundamental problem is in the traditional brokerage business model. The sweet spot of maximum profit is to have a high agent count with low average production numbers. The maximum profit for the brokerage(s) occurs when the total number of transactions is perfectly matched with every agents production stopping at their cap. The cap is a limit to how much the agent pays the brokerage. Caps run around $20,000+-, The agent is usually on a 70/30 split until they reach the cap then they keep 100% of the commission.
example:
cap @ $18,000. Average commission 8,000, split 70/30, Brokerage take = $2,400, $18,000/$2,400= #transaction to cap = 7.5/year, 7.5/12=.625 transactions per month. 1,374 transaction/0.625 = 2,198 agents!
Holy Crap! An efficient system only needs 275 agents and yet the point of maximum profit for the companies occurs at 2,198. Understand that all companies strive for maximum profit. It is what they do, if it is not what you do as a company, you suck as a company!
The basic business model with agents capping at 6-8 transactions per year handcuffs the brokerage. All energy is put towards recruiting, retaining and getting some production our of the marginally effective agents.
This is not a system that can possibly innovate or commit to efficiency because it is direct conflict with it self interest. If there were only 275 agents in our market all of the existing companies would be out of business. There is no incentive for the brokerage, so it is left completely up to the agent to build an efficient and highly productive system.
It is possibly to start from scratch and build a brokrage tht is ideally suited to our new environment that focuses on building the technology and model that thrive with the 275. It won’t happen over night but our industry will move toward efficeincy.
Talk is Cheap
Talk is cheap and getting cheaper every moment. As we move towards more transparency we need to make a fundamental shift in our activities. As yourself this question: ” If the world saw what I am doing right now, would they see me as great agent?” Did you spend time looking at homes, studying the market trends, gaining expertise on short sales, actively working on a transaction.
It is very simple…do the activity that result in you being a great agent everyday. Then place yourself in an environment and structure that creates visibility to a large audience. The age of personal brochures and ads that highlight your mission, integrity, customer service etc. is over. The faster you embrace and leverage technology and social networking to expose your greatness the better.
Blog…engage with Facebook…start twittering…get a flip video camera and upload to youtube.
The world has shifted dramatically in the favor of the agents that are very active out in the world looking at homes, meeting with clients and being an active member of the community.
We are a commodity
I am an agent. I have always been a solid producer. I think I am pretty damn good at it. I have integrity I work diligently on my clients behalf. I have been involved in well over 100 transactions. I put my clients interests in front of mine. blah blah blah…I could go on and on why I am a great agent.
Guess what..if I quit tomorrow no one would care. There are hundreds if not thousands of agents in our area that are just as capable as I am that would have done a fine job with all of my past clients. Competent agents are a commodity. We don’t like to believe it but it’s true.
I realize I am painting us with a broad brush. There are many factors such as communication styles, area expertice, etc that go into whether an agent client relationship will work well. And there is a large population of agents who’ production is so low that they don’t have the experience to be a realy good agent. But I contend that above a certain level (experience, communication skills, work ethic, education,etc) we are all about the same and there are lots of us. We are a commodity with slightly different styles.
Transparency
Transparency has the potential to topple the existing Real Estate structure. Create a truly transparent view, give it massive exposure and the consumer will come. It is very easy to flippantly say that “We are transparent” but if one thinks deeply about this and adheres to the idea of real Transparency the implications for the Real estate brokerage and agent are staggering.
Transparency has been a guiding principle for M Realty, Homequest and Portland Octopus from day one. But in the new environment of high speed internet, blogging, facebook, twitter etc. the platforms and infrastructure to become transparent are in place. Now it is up to us to embrace the idea and run with it.
I can see clearly now