Where do we go from here?

8/3/07

Audience feedback:

Q:  What is the future of buyer agency with some much innovation driving buyers directly to listings?

Brad:  The internet has become the buyer agent?  Most innovation is still focusing on sellers, not buyers.  I think it is a great subject.

Male:  Fascinated by the sociology of what is happening here.  A more informed buyer is not going to need as much help, and it makes my job easier.

Brad:  What about the comments, like violations of fair housing laws?  The risk of that is less than the offline world if you moderate your comment area.  It's free speech, but you have to manage it.  There is some risk, but the opportunity is worth it, too.

Q:  What's a take away for you?

ZipRealty.com:  Lots of innovation with social media, but where it the relationship? I love all of the mobile applications, but we need to see through what attracts us and what will attract consumers.  What will consumers use now, and what will they use 18 months from now.

I LOVE the comments about real time real estate, and that's what the mobile device creates.

ColdwellBanker.com

Blown away by blogging experience, the energy and enthusiasm made me think about how it will impact the future of the business.  Blogging will allow our agents to express themselves, and become part of the social networking scene that agents are looking to connect with.

Hugh MacLeod's message is important:  the internet allows us to reach a huge audience in an effective way.

Alex Perrillo and his wife, who is not even in the business, took 20 pages of notes, and they are both excited about launching their own blog!

Fidelity: Need to think about how are we going to segment the conversations on social networking site.  Seller oriented experience, buyer oriented experiences, owner experience.  There is an enormous amount of energy about building those forms of community.

Bank of America:  Real question in the mortgage industry is the availability of capital.  I think we are experiencing the tip of the iceberg ... not sure where he was going with that comment but seemed to suggest that the subcrime problem is going to get worse. 

Those lenders who sell their loans are being forced to discount, and not enough investors willing to buy mortgage securities. 

Fun to watch community, for example watching Dale Stinton of NAR talking about making data more available to the world.  The info needs to be disseminated -- we have 900 MLSs!  For the first time

Last speaker:  This is Inman 2.0, the original real estate social networking event.  Last night, we were bouncing back and forth between conversations on different topics, and now the web is beginning to mirror real social events.

MORE AUDIENCE FEEDBACK:

Need more round table discussions for developers to really dig into

Need follow-through with innovative training

Back to panelists for closing comments:

Fidelity:  A genius product would be something that can do the work for us.  Technology has the capacity to do that. 

Bank of America:  Business School 101, need to keep learning group small, no more than 15 people

Last speaker:  Even if you are on the right track, you are going to get run over if you are not moving forward

Q:  What kind of tools are you using for training?

ColdwellBanker:  Use WebEX, podcasting, and videos.

Brad:  Videos should be short, no more than 3 minutes, and inspiring.

Closing comments from the audience:

Days of control are over, need to be open with information and share more freely.

We do paperless transactions so there, so there is got to be Peace in the Middle East