Opinion: How real estate will come back stronger

The latest tumult in real estate feels like our world has been turned upside down yet again. But underneath all the frenzy, I see a genuine opportunity for us to turn this into a positive and come back even stronger than before. I often think of the term “Anti-fragile” from the book of the same name by Nassim Taleb. The principle is that people and organizations can build their success around being able to come back even stronger after a wallop, instead of just withstanding the impact. This is real estate’s moment to become even more anti-fragile.

Own our worth

Almost as soon as the commission verdict was announced, most major industry voices came out with marketing campaigns and webinars about how agents can demonstrate their worth. While all this is a helpful start to the new normal, we don’t need to demonstrate our worth. We need to own it, too. Since we now need to have a signed agreement with our buyers before we take them on tours, we have an earlier opportunity to have a longer conversation with them and to sell ourselves. I predict these “buyer presentations” are going to start having as much depth to them as our listing presentations. This means we will need to have more marketing materials and visible proof of our accomplishments that appeal to buyers. But we can’t risk these materials being taken by others and used for their marketing purposes. Whether it is our research on homes that are coming soon or our hard-won tips and tricks for navigating the market, it’s time to embrace digital tools that give us ownership over the deep knowledge we each have about our markets. 

Hone our approach

As independent contractors we have to continually hone and refine our approach. I often tell my agents we are the Swiss army knife of real estate since we have so many different skills. With such a variety of skills comes the need for different tools, but I sense we’ve gotten carried away with so many tech platforms and software. We need to lighten the load while also keeping pace with the level of professionalism other industries set for their clients. Our differentiator no longer needs to be the latest shiny app but software that shows our clients we bring higher standards to protecting every step of a digital-based transaction.

Strategic CRMs 

We can also become much more strategic in how we use our marketing materials. Before the digital era we had an idea of how much they resonated with clients because we were often there in person while some of our potential clients were viewing them. Now that so much is sent digitally, we need to use tools that give us more profound, more granular insights into how others are interacting with them. We can choose tools which show us if they have downloaded the materials we sent them, forwarded them to others (and to whom), and spent longer than average time reviewing specific sections of our websites which indicate what they are interested in. All these analytics give a fuller, more three-dimensional view of what our clients are thinking, which provides us with stronger ideas about how to be ready for their needs. 

There have always been massive shifts in real estate, and we have always responded and adapted in ways that strengthen us. With digital tools, we can build our way to an anti-fragile profile, so we aren’t just resilient but immune to all the ways people outside the real estate industry try to erode our importance.

Allen Alishahi is the President and Cofounder of ShelterZoom.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.

To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com