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Just a quick reminder about the approaching dues deadline – All membership renewals must be paid in full prior to February 1, at which time a $25/month late fee goes into effect. All dues not paid before February 15th will incur an additional 10% late fee from OAR, and any member who has not paid their dues in full prior to March 1 will be subject to having their membership terminated according to the bylaws. Questions? Call the board office at 348-3032 Attached Files:As my last post I used the line Steve Jobs always said when the presentation was over, but he wanted a bigger finish. I have enjoyed writing my thoughts on the Board web site but I wanted to add my last thoughts. The ultimate destination of real estate will go on after we leave the business but what lies around the bend is something we can’t see clearly or predict, but based on experience we know something is there waiting for us. Many challenges lie just ahead and I want to use the lessons I learned from the autobiography of Steve Jobs to illustrate our challenges. Technology: In the beginning it was just Jobs and Wozniak. Wozniak was the true nerd who knew what was under the hood. It may surprise you but people like Bill Gates looked down on Jobs because he wasn’t a programmer. What Jobs completely understood was that technology was a tool and it had to have a desirable use and application. Like him it is not important to know what is under the hood, it is the use of the tool and what it serves. Close versus open: Apple was totally averse to the Microsoft model, they felt that seamless integration of the hardware and software created quality control and insured the user experience would be simple and universal. The fact that I am typing on an iPad and not worried about having virus control on upload proves the point. Real Estate is to a great extent a closed system. We start at the top with NAR, then to OAR, to our Board, then our agency. This system has constantly been challenged since the advent of the Web, and our MLS system is always under attack. We need to understand that throwing the system out could be chaos, and like with Microsoft with open use, we may have the real estate equivalent of the green screen and virus attacks. We need to push for change but as long as NAR fights for a Code of Ethics industry, the end user, our buyers and sellers are better protected. Imagination: Steve Jobs never quit thinking and dreaming. Too often we get bogged down with minute details we should leverage out, too often we get upset at what others are doing wrong and forget that what is more important is what we do right, too often we get concerned more about money we make than the goals we set. Even though Jobs was incredibly wealthy from Apple and Pixar that was not what he was about. The money was a byproduct of seeing that what he could imagine could be made real. Dream big, realize those dreams, and create a legacy that is about benefits to those you serve: the money will follow. Vision: Beyond the technology, Steve Jobs had incredible vision. He knew we need a better experience in computers, mobile devices, music, and animated movies. We can’t match his vision but we can use his methodology. We have to strive to see the big picture, and not only be a transaction to transaction manager. His inspirations not only came from his industry, but also the world of art, calligraphy, literature, and even mechanics. We have to go beyond our industry for knowledge because we exist as a part of a bigger world. Reading Tolkien, Chopra, Tolstoy, or whatever teaches us about life and broadens our vision completes our real estate work. For 2012 don’t just think about your budget, how many transactions you need, and what geographic farming is yours, go get stimulated by an art museum, watch how a great restaurant gives an integrated experience from the entry to finish, read like crazy, brainstorm with people without limits to the discussion, look at the stars in the sky and know what they are but focus on the awe of the size of the universe. Yes we should constantly pay attention to what may be around a hidden bend, be willing to adjust when required, but we should never lose sight of how our career fits into a bigger picture and be willing to give back. As I finish this on the iPad, I can’t look inside of it, but I can marvel about it as a mystical thing, and a miracle in my presence. The road does go ever on, and it is a wonderful spiritual journey as long as real estate is part of a really big picture.
One last thing: Enjoy the journey. Joe Pryor I just chaired my last Board meeting as President, and now it is time to look back on what we accomplished this year. Let me say what I really loved about us was an unprecedented cooperation with all segments of the real estate community working together for the benefit of our clients. The numbers I want to talk about could not have happened if we did not work together. The final sales figures are not out, but based on the November Preston Report of closed sales and pending contracts, we will have our best year since the record year of 2007. Not only did we increase in gross dollars and units, we raised the median sale price, and we saw the beginnings of the recovery of the high end of the market. The high end starting to move is great evidence in consumer confidence, especially in Edmond. As a real estate group we raised the roof on fundraising. Our annual auction was a record, the golf tournament was a huge success, RPAC had a record year, and Habitat for Humanity was funded with by far the largest amount of money raised ever. I have said this many times, as a group there is none better at giving back to our business and our community than the Edmond Board of REALTORS® and Affiliates. We held out numbers as a Board also. We will end the year with about the same amount of REALTORS® as last year, and it looks like we will have even more affiliates. These numbers are especially important because without question this is a much more difficult industry to be in than before, and to stay in you have to have some specialized skills and tenacity. The takeaway to this is that the public is being better served by people with greater competency. Now it is my time to fade away but I do it with a great sense of satisfaction. Being surrounded by all of you made my responsibility a pleasure, one that I would recommend to all. We have many challenges ahead at the state, national, and world levels that will affect what we do here and we will need to stay involved and committed. I have one more message to bring to you before the end of the year about what to look for in 2012 and beyond. Call it fearless predictions, food for thought, and hopefully the beginning of important discussions. On behalf of the Board members and staff, our thanks to all of you, and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Joe Pryor Our industry changed radically when the internet became the World Wide Web in the 1990’s. It has taken another seismic shift in the last few years with the advent of Facebook and Twitter. But one constant remains which is person to person contact and building relationships with potential clients. It is different only in how we make first contact since 92% of all real estate searches for homes, REALTORS®, and information start on the Web. Let’s explore some basic rules for your marketing and social engagement with this medium. Ask Permission. The Web empowers the consumer and no longer are we the exclusive portal of this industry. We should remember that choice is now with the client, and asking permission is important. We can’t just shove real estate down people’s throats like on Facebook. This doesn’t mean that we can’t talk about real estate, but just using social media as a listing portal gets us nowhere which leads to the next section. Pull Marketing. Pre-internet we pushed out information and it was very agent-centric. If you advertised in the newspapers it was listings and how good we were, remember being a multimillion dollar producer? Now it is not about pushing out, it is about pulling people in with what they are looking for and directing them to information that aids the real estate process which is about point 3. A benefit not features. Let’s go back to that multimillion dollar producer. That is a feature of your business but where is the benefit? If I say I have had over 2000 transactions it may mean I am too busy for you or it is only about my numbers. Taking a feature and promoting it is fine, but I also need a benefit to them like, I have seen all the variation of problems in a transaction and this experience works for you. If you list an Energy Star® home and say you save money on utilities, why not make it a true benefit by saying $100 a month can go to your child’s college education? Put both together so that it is all about them, not you. This builds point 4. Building Community not websites. We went from having to say we advertise in the paper to get listings, to saying we have a website. I know that the Web has been called The Information Super Highway but that coldness translated into test on web pages, has been humanized by the Facebook experience, and Web 2.0 is all about real time communication between you and an individual or group. Even if the community is one person it is all about the connection that has been the basis of real estate for as long as there were agents and clients. Having a website is not enough, we now have places like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, youtube.com and so much more that our presence has been extended and out connections unlimited in what we can use. Warning. If you try to do it all, you may be much ado about nothing. It is important that you focus and really get something right. Just one part of the Web like Facebook, or youtube.com, or blogging or Twitter takes time. Make some choices and be sure that your message is not diluted and doing too much can create inconsistency. Most important, have fun doing it, you joy will resonate with those you connect with. Joe Pryor Imagine having this conversation, you meet with your investment specialist and they tell you if you give me $1000 I can turn that into $33,000 in one year. I assume you would tell them they are crazy and start looking for another specialist. If so the joke might be on you, but not because you didn’t invest it in the stock market, you invested it in one syndication multimedia program, blogging, and youtube.com videos. That is what happened to me this year. I obtained 3 buyers through clients paying www.realbird.com $89 for their pro program, and response from blogging and video. Now there may be more to the buyers than that but this is what got the engagement going, and this is just the buying side of my listings. The point is, not every marketing strategy you use, you need to do metric measurement on what is your return on investment. Sometimes this isn’t easy because you may not be sure how you got the sale, but normally it is because you don’t ask, or if you do you don’t keep the record of it. Whether it is newspapers, direct mail, referrals, or forms of internet marketing, make sure you ask for the primary catalyst for how they connected. This is the first step in determining what the best use of time and money is. If you invested in stocks, mutual funds, annuities, or whatever I am sure you know what your yearly return is and marketing should be no exception. Obviously my example is a 5 figure annualized return, but if direct mail is 395% return ask yourself, if I invested that in a mutual fund what would be the chance of getting that return? Virtually none is probably your answer. I have always heard to invest in what you know, so to me an absolute investment is in marketing my services for real estate clients. I am not saying that you should not invest elsewhere, what I am suggesting is first, take a different attitude towards marketing. To many times a listor tells you what to do to sell the house. Imagine if you could show them that what they are saying is invest in a 20% return versus a 4000% return. I believe that they would look at you as even more professional because you have analyzed your own marketing numbers. You can take control of your business, and you can have the metrics to determine where you spend your money and time, if you can change your mindset, and look at this as investing in your exit strategy because one of these days you won’t be in the business. Think about investing in what you know, learn how to compute return on investment, and make sure that you are tracking where your success comes from. Joe Pryor |
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