Dual Agency; is it a double loss for the consumer?

Have you ever wondered why dual agency is legal? I mean, I've never understood. I came into this industry befuddled by the fact that the same agent could represent both sides of the transaction. It sounded like an attorney that was representing both the defendant and the plaintiff. I couldn't understand how it could be legal. As a consumer, or should I say consumers, that is involved in a dual agent situation, you are not receiving the same level of advice or representation as a consumer that is not in a dual agency transaction. So at that point, my question is, what are you paying for? I'll let you ponder the answer to that question....

http://realestatecafe.blogs.com/real_estate_cafe/2008/01/misleading-home.html

Everyone wants to sell real estate!

The real estate industry will face a new type of competitor; the type that they never thought of before. Companies like Walmart, HGTV (www.frontdoor.com), Virgin, and Google are looking at the real estate space to expand their business...

I mean, why wouldn't they? They already "own" thousands of consumers who trust them? They already know their consumers' spending habits. It just makes sense that they would tackle the largest purchase that most consumers make. So the Next Generation Real Estate brokerage must keep this in mind. You're not competing with Realogy, you are competing with Priceline.com, Zillow, and HGTV...

http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/best-of-forem-crossover-real-estate-brands

Truly understanding your customer

Being in touch with what your customer expects from you as a service provider has become multi-faceted. It's not just enough to know the demographic profile of your customer any longer. Providing good customer service and giving your customers what they expect means understanding every aspect of their lifestyle, especially when marketing to Gen XY consumers. As a next generation real estate company, we will be aware of the music our consumers listen too, where they shop for clothing, which celebrities they follow, who their sport heroes are, what type of food they like, what their children like to do...and the list goes on. Technology has set the bar that the rest of "us" non-tech industries much catch up to because it is driving most of the trends today.

As a social media company that sells real estate, we will look at customers in a different way than most traditional companies do today. It's not just about the price of the home you want to buy or sell, it's about who you are as a consumer from a macro level. It will be our job to understand our customers' lifestyles and the trends that are being set in order to design an experience that they will come back to and refer their friends to as well.

It is a monumental task to keep up with the changing landscape of consumer buying habits, but we are up to the challenge. We will be in the middle of the newest trends and start a few revolutions ourselves...

Generation Y

Our business case targets the Gen Y and Gen X demographic profile. However, the Gen Y group is the largest since the Baby Boomers and the uniquely the most diverse. Comprised of a high percentage of early adopters, targeting this group with technology can be both profitable and challenging. Being born and growing up in a world where progress is measured by gigabytes; keeping their attention will be a CEOs most pressing issue. Innovate constantly and you just might make it.

http://www.emarketer.com/Articles/Print.aspx?id=1006354&src=print_article_graybar_article&xsrc=print1_articlex

Proving the concept of Viral

We decided, about a month ago, to test the waters of how impactful social networking can be. So, I built 4 social apps on Facebook, and sent it to 18 friends. Out of the 18 friends, 4 of them have been working on the iEnfluence concept with me, including the co-founder Ryan Cox. So we sent this simple real estate app to our friends just to see how fast it can grow. And in one month, these apps have been installed on Facebook profiles over 10,000 times, with an average of 200 active daily users. The impact for lead generation is phenomenal.

You can play with these apps on Facebook:
Mansions:http://apps.facebook.com/mansions-bbgbi/
Dream Swimming Pool: http://apps.facebook.com/dream-swimming-bccga/
Beautiful Rooms: http://apps.facebook.com/beautiful-room-bjcdb/
Gourmet Dream Kitchen: http://apps.facebook.com/gourmet-dream-bdabh/

Now the fun starts...

The barriers are being dismantled

The DOJ ruled that the National Association of Realtors must give access to the MLS to brokers that discount their commission. This is a huge victory for iEnfluence because one of our main roadblocks would have been getting access to the MLS. To read more about this, go to this link http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/05/28/doj-strikes-deal-with-realtor-group-how-will-it-affect-consumers/?mod=homeblogmod_lawblog. Nevermind what they say about it not affecting the consumer. It will affect the consumer and in the long run, it will save the consumer money because Web 2.0 based real estate companies will become more popular and more Enfluential!!

This is how it all started

I read this deck from NAR in late April of 2007. It absolutely made my head spin. I knew that I had read this for a reason and I haven't looked back since. The real estate industry has been standing on the sidelines while just about every other industry is being revolutionized by the internet and now Web 2.0...not anymore...

http://rodomino.realtor.org/Research.nsf/files/07KleinMarketingForum.pdf/$FILE/07KleinMarketingForum.pdf