Meeting Member Needs

Doris Nurenberg April 2012

Recap of Rick Harris’ presentation at the National Association of REALTORS® Association Executive Institute March 17, 2012.  Rick is President of Real Estate Seminars in Oregon.

What we do not know and what we as Association Executives can do about it. 

According to Rick brokers are looking for:

·         A fix for the market

·         Good return on their investment

·         MLS at a low cost with great service.  85% of all brokers polled said it was the MLS service that kept them in the organization.

·         They need forums for networking.  Both face to face and social networking on the internet

·         Solution Based Education to make their agents more effective

·         Informed Advice on Tools

·         Higher Standards (But, interesting enough, they are looking for the higher standards in others)

·         Protection from “bad things” – but in a silent way

Association Executives need to start or continue to dialogue with their Brokers and begin to organically work together in addressing agent’s needs. 

Become a better business partner

1)      Measure everything – collect relevant demographics on everything.  Did you know that 50% of your members closed not one deal in 2011?

2)      Find out who else is competing for your member’s business.  Places like Trulia, Zillow, other syndicates, and other brokerages are all competing for the same customers. 

3)      Listen to your members – and ask relevant questions.  Don’t be afraid of the answers, embrace the challenge. 

What Questions to Ask?

Ask:    

·         What issues in your business keeps you up at night?

·         If you could get only one thing from your Association, what would it be?

·         If you were King/Queen of the world for a day and could change any one thing at your Association of REALTORS®, what would it be?

(Don’t be afraid of the answers.  Think of them as challenges and find ways to help your brokers)

Demands of the Market

REALTORS® have entered an era where they need to know what the consumers need before even the consumer knows, as the commercial states; “That was sooooo 12 seconds ago!”

Effective Real Estate Agents are

·         Fixers and that takes ego

·         They don’t like change

·         They don’t like rules

·         They don’t like politics

·         They don’t like the Code of Ethics

·         They like to enlist partners to get things done

Today’s consumers are demanding accurate and independent information.  They want to control their own buying/selling experience.  They want it at a low cost and with very high value.  How can the Real Estate agent help them with this?  They need to be the local area experts and the Association can help with this by providing the information readily available to its members. 

The trouble with our member’s business is that even those with the lowest of skills can sell real estate, but those that are the most effective have always been those with the most expertise.  That expertise is truly needed today as Sellers are unmanageable, unreasonable, and scared to death.  Buyers on the other hand are unresponsive, scared, and still fence sitting.  Members have to work longer, harder, and faster and now for less money, so they need more transactions to make the same as they were a few years ago. 

An association can help by having all the information on new programs available in their area and getting it to the members as soon as possible.

Now is the time to reevaluate your Association.  Change your perspective on what an Association of REALTORS® truly is and means to its membership.  You need to be focusing on your members business and find ways to be a better business partner.

Focus on core competencies.  You are strategically designed to foster networking, just do it in a more member centric way and don’t forget the mobile and social internet aspects of that networking. 

Do a much more through job on information analysis.  This is a key service that most Associations can do very well and can be a critical part of a brokerages success.

Know what tools are out there, which ones are truly game changers, and then make certain that you have a delivery method to your membership on information and training on the technology. 

Start working on consumer outreach.  Endearing the consumer to our industry has been a afterthought until recently.  Make strong bonds in the community and make consumers feel the transparency of your organization. 

Political advocacy is becoming a critical service that all Associations must now deliver.  There are tools available from your State Association and the National Association which will assist you.  But be aware, that the brokers do not want to be associated with patrician politics.  They are afraid of the consequences in being labeled one way or another, as they are providing services to all consumers.  Stay in the background when it is not an issue based avocation. 

Focus on what you do really well.  Partner with other Association to provide services. 

I know this is pretty blasphemous, but the MLS is a “silver bullet”.  It can be your friend or your undoing.  Brokers need the MLS for data and compensation agreements.  Stop competing with others and look at the scale of the service area.  Can one MLS do a better job that multiple MLS’s?  Think of this again from the member’s perspective.  What would make them more efficient and be more cost effective? 

Brokers don’t want Associations to just give them tools; they want you to teach them how to use them.  Make certain that tablets are cost effective and that members truly understand what a dynamic new tool this can be. 

Raise the Ethics bar

Granted the brokers are not specifically asking this, but they must do business with their competitors, you members, everyday.  Make certain that you have an effective program.  That you dispute resolution process is member friendly and that you offer mediation and an ombudsman when possible.  Disputes, no matter how small, are huge resource eaters for a brokerage.

Beware of the “Echo Chamber”

Rick’s terminology is perfect, recycling of leadership seems to sometimes be the only way to fill out a slate of officers, but begin to trend away from the mindset.  Start or partner with someone to develop and train new leadership.  Remember that a 10 page Strategic Plan is too large and too lofty.  It is not a blueprint on how the organization will be run for the next year or two.  Make certain that your Strategic Plan is just that, marching orders for the Association Executive and staff for the next 12 months.  If you haven’t already done so, a demographic study must be done to establish who you are serving.  Then you must base every decision from Leadership upon the answer to the question:  “What will this program or policy do to benefit our member’s needs?”

So, you need to partner with your broker members, listen to their needs, and begin to deliver the correct mix for your area.  You are the hub that can be the catalyst to reinventing the Real Estate business.  Strategically begin to re-craft the organization for efficiency, economy of scale, and well prepared leadership.   Partner whenever possible.   All in all, Rick was completely prepared for his audience of Association Executives and provided 90 minutes of outstanding, need-to-know information.  I would recommend him as an educator, at any level. 

The following are my picks of Rick’s links to various websites which will be able to help you accomplish suggestions within this article.

The Michigan Association of REALTORS® website  is a great example of an Association website that facilitates multiple membership types http://www.mirealtors.com/content/

This is a great example of a broker counseling hotline from the Greater Boston Association of REALTORS:  http://www.gbreb.com/hotline/

The Minneapolis Association of REALTORS® is doing an outstanding job with their data management and the resulting statistical information to be used as a brokerage business tool.  http://www.mplsrealtor.com/market.aspx

Pennsylvania has been able to offer its members group health insurance, could you? http://www.easystreetinsurance.biz/

Technology is such a big challenge to every brokerage.  Could you partner with NAR to offer reviews, suggestions, and assistance? 

http://www.realtor.org/technology

Could you partner with Florida, like Atlanta has to offer your brokers a technology hotline? 

http://www.abr.org/Resource-Center/tech-helpline.aspx

The East Bay Association has put together a “how to” help for your members with the Ipad and mobile apps applications.  Is this something your members need? 

http://www.bayeast.org/ithink

 http://www.bayeast.org/resources/mobile

North Carolina has developed an outreach program for consumers which prove REALTOR® value and drive them to your members.  See if you could provide a similar program for your members. 

http://www.letarealtorguideyou.com/

Rick shared a dozen more links.  Email me and I will send you the complete list.  doris@dorisnurenberg.com

 

Leadership and Transparency

Harvard Business Review's Dorie Clark and done it again with this great article on "Transparency is the New Leadership Imperative". Dorie takes us through why social networking is allowing great leaders to be more transparent with their staff, Boards of Directors, consumers, and peers and why that is so important. A blog is a great way to communicate with those who are connected to you. Read the full article at: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/transparency_is_the_new_leader.html

Review of the Seminar on Political Strategic Planning

Bill Malkasian, Political Strategic Planning, NAR

March 19, 2012   AEI Institute Louisville

Political Strategic Planning is a necessity for a proactive and efficient government affairs program.  Advocacy is a permanent part of the 3 way agreement with locals, states, and the national association. 

Key Issues

-In reference to Advocacy, there are train wrecks coming because everybody is broke

- In the next 1 – 5 years big changes are coming to our country and our industry

- All Associations must have or begin creating and implementing a Strategic Advocacy Plan. 

Associations can take the offensive by creating and utilizing a demographics study of their area.  This data is critical to politicians and therefore can work as a tool to endear the politician to the association.  Associations can dig much deeper into their MLS data to use it effectively in our Public Advocacy programs. We can use these numbers to win or defeat city, county, and state government.  Local demographics are powerful numbers for the media, as well.  Release of the numbers must be and take a political avenue. 

The data can also be a tool to educate the public on housing trends.  Your governmental  advocacy program must have an  instantaneous messaging.  All governmental affairs directors must have I pads.  Bill strongly emphasized that your GAD must have a mobile device, must have a 24 hour response, and must utilize social media.  Social Media has turned the governmental affairs realm on its head.  Associations need to make their issues go viral, utilizing things like TweetDeck, HootSweet, and other Social Media Components. 

The way the current US government is looking at housing today, as a way to find more funds to defray its giant deficit, is a danger to our member’s livelihood, home ownership, and Association’s viability.  We need to be talking directly to the public alerting them to this governmental plan to increase the cost of home ownership with taxes and more regulations.  We need to be the voice not only of our industry but on behalf of the homeowner, as well. 

How are we going to be prepared to respond when NAR sends out millions of correspondences to the public in our state and town?  We will need to have a plan in place for the an immediate response to inquiries for more information and a developed outline on the Association’s stand on the political issues. 

Government Affairs needs to take these issues directly to the public getting them to buy into our side of the issues that directly affect our membership’s livelihood. 

Where to get more money without a dues increase? 

Associations need to hire, find, cultivate, or recruit a grant writer who can then write grant requests to the National Association of REALTORS® and apply for the funds.  If you have someone; great, share them with the surrounding associations.  If you don’t have one, ask to share someone else’s.  There are 10’s of thousands of dollars available from NAR.

Rapid Response Team

Government Affairs Director has to be involved in and have knowledge of social media.  Associations may need a new team member or to capitalize on a team member currently tasked in another area.

Begin to segregate out funds

Any overage that you have in your budgeted expenses for governmental affairs for this year should be segregated out and accrued to the future.  Roll funds over at the end of the year and don’t move it but keep it and keep your base increasing.  A surplus this year may cover a short fall next year.  Associations cannot afford to come up short when a large issue needs immediate attention. 

What do you want your GAD doing?

1. Raising hard money
2. Running campaign issues
3. Handling the press and social medial
4. Is your Association issues or campaign based?
5. May need to add significant campaign services skills

Governmental Advocacy Program Levels 1, 2, and 3

Level 1 – AE is doubling as the governmental affairs director

Level 2 – part time GAD mostly doing fundraising

Level 3 – A sophisticated system

Build a tool kit for each level. 

Level 1:

Make certain that you have a good Call to Action system, raise funds, interview candidates, and make recommendations.  This is the very least you can do.

Level 2:

Must be doing all of the above, elect candidates, and be involved in issues.  This is definitely a step in the right direction.

Level 3:

With an on staff governmental affairs director you should be doing all of the above and plus do polling, campaign for candidates, and be involved in issues as well. 

Learning about campaigns

Most of us have lots to do because we currently do not have the infrastructure.  Fortunately most states and NAR do.  So we need to bring these resources to us and have them assist the locals in building their strategic advocacy policy. 

Next we have to engage our brokers in the process without offending their customers and straining their business relations. 

Finally begin to explore ways to build a public advocacy plan and governmental strategic plan.  Make it a 1 to 3 year plan developing how you will grow advocacy for the Association.  And, now is the time to drop the battle of my board versus your board and build strategic cooperative partnerships

In closing:

1. Learn to utilize the money and the structural assistance that is available to you.
2. How do Associations do public communications?  Identified by topic, buy reliable lists and then sanitize them.
3. On issues, buy lists.
4. Communicate with the public but check state law; Associations may need to be or develop a separate C4 corporation.
5. Associations must develop a good group of volunteers to that will craft and time your messages. 
6. Social media must be responded to!

This was an excellent presentation. 

Doris A. Nurenberg

Five Emerging Trends and How to Leverage Them

Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, NAR; Ginger Wilcox, GRI, CSM, e-Pro, Head of Industry Training, Trulia, San Francisco, CA presentation at the March 17, 2012 National Association of REALTORS® Association Executive Institute.

People are Making Instant Connections

The Real Estate Industry is taking a giant step in its evolution with the advent of mobile technology, unlimited access, social media, and more.  Current statistics show that 31% of all adults prefer to communicate via a text message.  

With Open Home applications for mobile devices, 93% of home buyers surveyed reported that they started their search for their new home on their phone and/or tablets.  61% report that they call a REALTOR® after they have identified a home or homes that they are interested in.  What does that translate to us?  Our websites must be mobile friendly.  The information that a mobile user sees when they visit your website must have good, engaging information displayed effectively.  It must have buttons that work on any device that is accessing the information.  There is new technology today that you can utilize on your current website that will identify what device is being used to access the information and then automatically returns it in the format that best fits that device.  Smart technology.  The same goes for e-flyers that you or your members are sending out.  Currently, NAR is utilizing this “smart” technology with their new, http:/my.realtor.org.  Several companies also offer MLS and IDX mobile friendly solutions such as Diverse Solutions with a mobile ready IDX and Hillside Software with an MLS application. 

Social Media Connections

One in every thirteen people is on Facebook.  50% of those reported that they are on it every day.  2.8 million messages are sent every 20 minutes.  49% of all REALTORS® are utilizing social networks in their business.  Even 2% of all home buyers report that they found their future home on a social networking site. 

Everyone is being “Googled” or socially searched; therefore agents and brokerages need to have good, strong online reputations.  They need to be asking their clients to review them.  They need to be moving from groups on their social networking sites to creating pages for themselves.  Members need to be educated on these tools and the etiquette in their use to preserve their online reputations. 

Agents also need assistance in managing this massive time requirement to stay current and responsive to their online communication.  Give them information and education on time saving solutions such as Roost and HootSuite.

We must also immediately prepare our members to be reviewed.  This is going to happen, is happening, and can be a very good tool for our members.  They need to build their online army by asking everyone to review them and solicit recommendations.  They need to begin to understand the algorithms that are at work when searching on the internet and begin to create a battle plan to come out on top of those searches.

Listing Syndication and IDX

Our information is everywhere.  Syndicated sites like Homes and Land, Walmart, Lycos, etc. are displaying homes for sale.  Consumers are searching for their new home on the internet.  A startling comparison: in 2001 48% of all home buyers credited their REALTOR® as being instrumental in their selecting the home they purchases with only 8% saying they found their home on the internet.  In 2011 that statistic had changed dramatically; with only 35% of home buyers saying they found their home through a REALTOR® while 40% said they found their new home on the internet!

Core Issues

There is a tremendous amount of information out there and the accuracy is very much in question.  Consumers are demanding more accurate data.  In addition, REALTORS® are demanding more channels for lead generation.  Buyer’s agents and small brokerages don’t want to lose their market share with their current use of the IDX data.  But, if the data is not reeled in and sanitized for accuracy, we may find our industry replaced by another syndicator.

Offices need help controlling overhead costs

Free applications are now out there that can and will prove to be invaluable to our members.  There are now thousands of great programs and applications available which will provide our members, and our Associations as well, with very low cost solutions to current high cost overhead. 

Here are some great tools that Ginger and Todd suggested

Google Apps – Cloud based service

·         Company email

·         Groups, documents, & sites

·         IT efficiencies

Google Calendars

·         Schedule meetings

·         Reserve office space

·         Manage “floor time”

Dropbox

·         Commonly used forms

·         Expense receipts

·         Client folders

Evernote

·         Preloaded with Listing

·         Share client notes

·         Pictures, voice, and text

GroupMe

·         Group text messaging

DocuSign

·         Paperless signatures

Realty Juggler

·         Cloud CRM

·         Access from anywhere

Centralized Showings

·         Cloud appointment scheduling

·         Online dashboard

Ifbyphone

·         Assign floor time by phone

·         Cloud based voice mail

·         Manage inbound phone leads

YouTube and Skype

·         Online sales meetings

·         Online meetings

But in the end, our members are social and their clients and customers are still looking for a face to face encounter.  By making the members more efficient, effective, and finding ways to save them money, they will have more face to face encounters.  They will be better prepared to capitalize upon their leads. 

To wrap up, we need to find more affordable alternatives to traditional office solutions, we need to educate and assist our brokerages in utilizing the cloud services.  Our associations also need to be moving toward a more affordable cloud solution.  Social media and mobile technology are here to stay.  Make certain your Association and membership are prepared to embrace them.  And, finally, beware of the “shiny Object Syndrome; there are and will be new apps and technology that may not be a solution and therefore must be researched before jumping on board.  That research can be another very important tool for Association’s to provide for their membership.  

Doris A. Nurenberg

This struck me as an extremely relevant.  You should read it!
Two lists you should read every morning:

Harvard Business Review - Two Lists

Key Take-Aways from the 2012 Association Executive Institute

The word in halls at the 2012 National Association of REALTORS® Association Executive Institute held March 16 – 20^th was about social media and technology, staying relevant, and having an effective governmental affairs program. 

Associations that do not currently have or are not working on immediately implementing an effective social media delivery of communications will not stay relevant in the critical next few years.  The National Association of REALTORS® Strategic Issues Work Group in 2011 identified 12 future trends that will be affecting the Real Estate, number two of which was social media.  Not only will effective use of social media be critical for Associations to remain relevant for their members but also for their members staying relevant with their customers and clients. 

An effective social media plan must include not only the creation of portals on the major social media sights like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and a myriad of others, but the dedication to updating and streaming critical new information, for both the members and the public.  This will become an extremely vital way to communicate and stay connected.

Making certain that the Association staff understands the relevant new technology and becomes an authority on the impacts this technology will have on the Real Estate business will further strengthen the bonds between the Association and its REALTOR® membership.  Smart phones and tablets have become indispensable tools of the Real Estate trade as more and more consumers are starting their search for real estate with these tools.  According to a new survey 93% of all recent home buyers began their home search on the internet.  And, 61% of those searching the internet for homes contact a REALTOR® after they start the search.  Further, they are contacting the REALTOR® utilizing the technology they were using, while doing their search.  It is now not unusual for a REALTOR® to be contacted by a consumer asking to see a specific home, meeting them in a local coffee shop in the neighborhood of the prospective home, having the REALTOR® show a preview of the home on his/her tablet device, while contacting the listing agent for permission to show the home.  After the showing, they meet back at the coffee house and submit an offer via email with a text message announcement to the listing agent.  The offer is finalized and all documents will reside in the “Cloud” where both of the REALTORS®, the buyer and seller, and all parties to the transaction will have 24/7 access. 

More and more Real Estate agents are beginning to question the relevancy of staying a member of the local association when, in these economic times, their financial reserves are dwindling.  Therefore it is now of utmost importance for Association Executives and their volunteer Leadership to make certain that their organization does not fall into what Stephan Swanepoel describes in his Swanepoel 2012 Trends Report; as his number one trend; “On The Brink of Irrelevancy”.  Swanepoel calls for REALTOR® organizations to reinvent themselves.  To be the “Association Of and For the Future”.  There were many examples given of Associations around the country, that are making ground breaking innovation on goods and services provided to the 2012 REALTOR® member. 

Finally, it has become a necessity for this industry to perfect and implement an efficient governmental affairs program.  In the next one to five years local, state, and national government will be looking for ways to make up their budget deficits and if the REALTORS® are not vigilant and proactive, it is quite conceivable that those funds will be drawn from the real estate transaction unless the REALTORS® and consumers unite to prevent it. 

Prevention of unwanted legislation will be a key member benefit going forward and if done effectively, will endear the public to our much maligned profession. 

REALTOR® organizations must immediately craft or revise their Strategic Advocacy Plan.  This can be done with help and financial assistance from the National Association of REALTORS®.  It must include ways to dig deeper into the MLS data and effectively utilize it in a proactive approach with politicians to assist them in realizing the vital role that Real Estate sales will play in the recovering United States economy.  Demographic data is critical to politicians.  This data will also make a strong connection with the media so that the media can be utilized when it is critical to get a strong message out.  And, it must include a social media plan so that a call to action can be accomplished when speed is imperative to implementing good legislation.

This year’s 2012 NAR AEI was so filled with critical industry information that it was, quite possibly, one of the industry’s best opportunities to prevent “Irrelevancy” ever provided.  It was certainly the place for all Association Executives to assimilate the tools to take their organizations successfully into the next decade of association management.