Blog: Steven Groves

Before we get going here, we'll define 'social media' as a set of tools and technology accessed via the Internet that accommodate & promote social interaction. There are more tools coming into this category than we can possibly cover in one post, but the point being made right now is that it will impact real estate significantly - possibly more so than other industries because of the predominate characteristics of how real estate is transacted and how housing impacts socialization in general.  There is a lot more about how social media will impact real estate in the Agent2.0 model.

For example, we are seeing blogging taking the real estate professional by storm right now - early estimates are that almost 70% of the community will begin blogging this year. Some think this is a silver bullet to connecting with clients - reality says it is not - the same analysis goes on to state that a majority of the those who attempt real estate blogging will fail - maybe some other social media tactic will work for them though. Time will tell.

There are a few real visionaries out there actually testing the limits of social media in a way you should know about however. Here is a great example -

A few weeks ago at the Inman Connect 2007 conference in San Francisco, Coldwell Banker announced a listing presentation technique that no on else has ever done before, but one that I think many will try as the market advances. (BTW - they also won the Inman Award for 'Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise')

Coldwell Banker had a model built in Second Life, the 3D online social networking community, of a home for sale. The home is situated on Mercer Island, outside of Seattle and is listed for $3M, so the portion of the market interested in this kind of property is relatively small for sure.

So why take the time and spend the money to do it?

To help answer that question, you can listen to a collection of interviews recorded in a podcasts (you can listen to them with out an iPod - don't worry) with Suzanne Lane, the local agent from Coldwell Banker Bain, Suzanne Mueller, the marketing director for CBBain and David Marine, Senior Manager for eMarketing for Coldwell Banker HQ out of Parsippany, NJ.

The short answer is because now you can; Coldwell Banker has shown that you can now present a 7x24 open house for a global audience that can be visited whenever the prospective client wishes. You can now stand in the kitchen of the virtual house and see the view as if you were in the actual house on Mercer Island. You can walk through the home and get a sense of proportion of the 30-seat home theater and the 3 car garage.

This is much more than an agent today might usually invest in selling a home, but I wonder... how long before we see more of it?

Real estate is in a tough way right now.  For the casual real estate professional, it simply means that the friend of a friend is a little more rare.  For the full time professional realtor, it means they are not working as much as they would like and their income is impacted.

While you pay attention to the here and now, there is something you can do to prepare for the future and the eventual return of the market - get a credible strategy for using social media started in your business now.

Social media is impacting the real estate industry for many reasons, most important of which is the basic fact that real estate is still a person-to-person business; and it likely to be so for the foreseeable future.  What social media does is it appropriately adds next generation Internet technology to the equations - technology loosely defined as 'Web2.0' technology.

To get started with social media in your real estate business there are two workshops being presented next Thursday; one here at Jobing.com by 1st Class Funding and Go Crazy Marketing and one in the southeast Valley at the offices of SEVRAR, being presented by my friend Shailesh Ghimire / Arizona Mortgage Guru and sponsored by Grand Canyon Title.

I will be presenting at the Jobing-based event and describing why social media is important to the next generation real estate professional under a model called 'Agent2.0 - the real estate professional of the future.'

Both events are sure to useful and informative.  The SEVRAR event is the first for Shailesh and the Jobing event is a second iteration of the team presenting - Greg Gotcher, Dave Barnhardt and myself.  At the Jobing event, Dave will be talking on blogging in general and I will be talking about Agent2.0 and they why of a social media presence for real estate professionals.

At the Jobing event, someone will be awarded a free blog site from Business Blogging Pros and we will be giving away free websites to everyone who attends who wants one.  The websites are from what I think is one of the best agent website in the industry; they are from Point2 Technologies - I'll be showing one off at the seminar. 

• Who - Real Estate professionals (agents, brokers, lenders)
• What - Real Estate Blogging Seminar / Workshop(s)
• When - Thursday, August 16th, 2006 @ 3P
• Where - Jobing.com offices / 4747 N. 23rd Street, Phoenix
                              - and -
                SEVRAR Offices / 1363 Vineyard, Mesa

Auuugghhh - it's everywhere!!!

What is it? Inman recently stated that 2007 will be 'Summer of the Blog' for the real estate industry; last month, Shailesh Ghimire / AZMortgageGuru.com presented the first ever, Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference and yesterday several dozen real estate professionals got together to meet and greet the team from the sellsious Blog Tour USA and find out more about this thing that is coming into the market, EVERY market at a rapid clip.

What is real estate blogging? Why is it important to real estate professionals?

The answer is that there are a lot of reasons for these developments and you can attend a free workshop next Tuesday, July 24th at the Jobing.com offices, 4747 N. 22rd Street to find out more.

The event is sponsored by Go Crazy Marketing and you have to visit their website and go through their events page to register, but it will be well worth your time to do so. There are only 25 slot available for this first time event so visit Go Crazy Marketing now and claim your seat!

See you there!

Sounds like sage advice, huh? Not really, but knowing what tomorrow is going to be like today is a real difficult task. Let me share some observations and some practical information.

Observations -

1. The real estate industry today is nothing like what it was even two years ago.
   
   It is completely changed from what it was 10/20/30 years ago. How has it changed? The Internet is the biggest change, but the problem is that even the Internet is not what it was five or 10 years ago. Marc Andreessen was one of the people behind Netscape (remember them, they were the one of the first popular browsers for the Internet years ago) - now he has a venture-funded company called 'Ning'.
   
   A recent post in his blog stated that "... the Internet is just now coming of age." Just now!? Yes - just now. I agree with Marc a blog post here. 
2. Social media will impact the Real Estate industry more so than many other industries.
   
   Why? Because no matter how much technology we interject into it, real estate is still a business of people (real estate professionals) helping other people (buyers and seller) with their home buying needs. Social media does that like nothing else and with the Long Tail effect of the web, it does it for longer and to a much broader audience than any previously considered communication tool.
   
   Pat Kitano of Transparent Real Estate says unequivocally that 'The Impact of Social Media on real Estate IS Going to be Huge'. I also agree with Pat. 
3. The two previous observations complement one another and, when taken together, create a call to action by the real estate agent of today - if they want to be a part of the industry tomorrow.

Practical Information -

Begin by reading about social media, one of the best sources is the Social Media Club, but there are several on the web. One of the baseline tools for the agent of the future is the real estate blog.

• Greg Swann / BloodhoundBlog.com provides an online book at www.RealEstateBlogging101.com.
• Greg Gotcher / Go Crazy Marketing is presenting a free seminar on Blogging for Real Estate Professionals at the Jobing.com next Tuesday.
• Jim Cronin / TheRealEstateTomato.com has the tools and training to make you and 'A'-List Real Estate Blogger (that would be one of the top real estate bloggers in the country) - it has a commensurate fee associated with it.

Which would I do of I were an agent? Whatever my budget allowed... but let there be no doubt, I'd do it today and I would seek out brokerages that get what is happening in this arena.

Welcome everyone to the first post from Steven Groves. I am the Director of Marketing for REALTY EXPERTS, INC. and the profile tells you who REALTY EXPERTS, INC. is, so I will not bore you with that detail here.

As an introduction, I have been working with entrepreneurs and real estate professionals for over 5 years here in the Valley. I am not a real estate agent so if you are - no, I'm not going to steal any of your ideas or clients, to quote Jim Cronin of the Real Estate Tomato, I'm actually your biggest fan.

What I will do here at the Jobing.com blog is share with you the founding principals of Agent2.0 and all the news that's fit to print about the Arizona real estate market that Jay Thompson, Greg Swann, Christoph Schweiger and Johnathan Dalton will let me share (I consider these four the big guys in Phoenix blogging; I would have also included Shailesh Ghimire in this mix too, but he is a mortgage guy - real estates = yes; property sales = no)

1st Real Estate Tip - Expand your exposure with a Real Estate Blog - I will tell you about a great new free event I came across recently that I think will be of interest to every real estate professional in the Valley. It is a free real estate-specific seminar workshop from Go Crazy Marketing and Business Blogging Pros! It is scheduled for July 24th and it is at Jobing.com. Here is a link to the flyer advertising it.

If you are in real estate, you've started hearing about blogging - it is a social media tool that can really impact your visibility in the real estate community and this is the place to learn about how it fits into your business.

Come learn from the pros - Business Blogging Pros and Go Crazy Marketing!

BTW, the workshop is sponsored by 1st Class Funding and Todd Schwartz. Check him out for your lending needs.