What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas – Well, not if you have attended Inman Connect

Inman Connect took place for the first time in Las Vegas at the spectacular Aria Hotel. As promised, it delivered a bigger, bolder, and a better experience.

Bigger: Space, Network

Bolder: Questions, Allegations & Rebuttals

Better: Knowledge

Here are my key takeaways from this event.

Whether you like it or not, but the fact of the matter is that iBuyers are here to stay. iBuyers resemble investors  and provide a systematized option for bringing ‘investor’ offers to consumers. Though the concept may offer a simpler and convenient user experience, it may not work for all.

I do not think iBuyers are going to replace the agents. Though, it is recommended that the agents be aware of them, understand their functioning, and discuss their pros & cons with the clients.

One way the agents can gain an added advantage is by developing an internal software tool. This tool would provide a comparison between iBuyer quoted price v/s agent calculated home value. The tool can leverage key parameters to arrive at the calculated home value. The agents can provide a value-added service using their own ‘Automated Valuation Model’ or AVM.

Most real estate professionals use more than two tools; be it simple excel sheets or full-fledged CRM. Having interacted with many professionals during the event, I concluded the following:

1. Most offices follow custom processes.
2. Tools are not being utilized to their full extent.

Tools should enable the teams to be more productive, automate wherever possible, and spend more time with your clients.I believe that if you have a custom process, you need to have a custom tool. If the agents are not leveraging the off-the-shelf tools, customized software is the way to go ahead.

It’s predicted that voice searches would contribute close to 50% of the total online searches. But will the voice searches take over real estate? I don’t think so.

At the most, voice commands would add an element of convenience for the real estate professionals and consumers. A typical example can be, the consumer says, ” Siri, schedule an appointment with the property agent representing this property. ” This event then triggers a call which auto-creates a lead in CRM.

Another example can be, the real estate professional says, ” Siri, remind me to follow-up with John Doe next Wednesday. ” This event then triggers an entry in CRM.

Anyone identifying the use-case for convenience via voice search would be a disruptor in this space.

– People don’t like changes. Brand loyalty drives customer acquisition and retention.

– Most people would prefer to work with real estate professionals with whom they have worked before;

– Most people would also refer their friends, relatives, co-workers for inputs.

As with any industry, efforts in getting leads from within your network has a better ROI as compared to the efforts required to generate new leads. Branding needs to develop a trust factor and hence, consistency in publishing informative content, creative ads, and connecting with old clients will help build a long-term relationship.

Data Standardization is nicely taking shape due to the sustained efforts from RESO. Many brokers, data geeks, technology experts have started getting involved in this. Everyone in the industry now recognizes a need for common data standards to fix the broken processes.