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Posted by Nicolai Kolding
I think it’s well past time for the layout of the “traditional” real estate office to change. As a customer, I see woefully little that is designed around my needs. As someone with a vested interest in the success of this industry, I see wasted costs galore that make my stomach churn. As I’ve written before, I believe we can do much more with much less. I can’t imagine a better time to move forward with revolutionary designs.
Dear brokerage owners and managers:
I know times are awfully tough right now and, believe me, I’m not trying to kick you while you’re down. But I have a nagging question I need to ask: have you considered the possibility that you may never make more money than you are today? I’m not even thinking about what you made, say, in 2004 or 2005. I’m talking about never earning more than you are right at this very moment. Think about that possibility for a minute. What if this is as good as it gets?
Posted By Bob Albanese
In this time of almost apocalyptic change on the consumer side of our business, evolution must also continue in the area of business consulting and service support from a B2B perspective. It seems to me that the very word “consulting” is being associated with a more generalist type of role rather than one of a serious business-development function. Innovation in producing creative financial reporting structures, business analytics, menus of strategic services, and competitive analyses is needed in order to help real estate brokerages thrive and expand their each.
Hello everyone,
My name is Bob Albanese and I will be a regular blog contributor. I have been in the real estate industry for 22 years and have seen this industry from every vantage point. Whether as a top regional salesperson (1986-1990), award-winning Broker/Manager (three locations, 1990-1999) for Weichert Realtors or as Director (1999-2006) and later Vice President (2006-2008) for The Prudential Real Estate Business Consulting Team, real estate has been my singular focus.
Posted by Nicolai Kolding
For those of you who have read the first two parts of my trilogy on long-term strategic planning: I swear I’m almost done. If you have actually enjoyed this ride, well, thank you. We should meet one day. I can only assume you’re one-of-a-kind, wildly misunderstood, absurdly funny (if only to yourself most of the time), and have the kind of mind that collects countless random statistics (most of which have no practical applications). You probably drive a manual transmission.
Posted by Nicolai Kolding
In my April 11th posting, I raised five broad questions of what could be asked in each of the STEEP (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political) categories for building a Scenario. Let’s now work this down to two and make the questions more industry-specific. Remember that we’re trying to ask questions about the world sometime in the not-too-distant-future that are specific yet far-reaching in their implications. Being able to plan for the Scenarios created is intended to give you a distinct competitive advantage.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
There have been way too many fun and downright cool postings here lately. Let me do what I do best and douse all this excitement with my buckets of pragmatism.
…you don’t decide when to stop.
As I chatted recently with a colleague about the collapse of Bear Stearns, he observed that the United States is now coming to grips with what individual European nations wrestled with a generation ago: we do not control our own destiny, nor will we ever again. The stark reality of the global economy is being hammered home by the day in ways we are only beginning to appreciate.
We must now accept that whenever it is that we pull out of this (presumed) recession, it will be driven in large part by global forces. Like it or not, the US economy will improve thanks to the efforts of far-away corporations and governments (either directly by buying Treasuries or indirectly through investments by sovereign wealth funds). The fact is our banks’ cash positions have so dwindled due in large part to toxic mortgage-backed securities that many are too thin to make even good loans. To get cash the banks will have to either rely on government bailouts or more interest rate deductions (though, as this WSJ blog notes, the Fed can only go to the well so many times) or raise capital that will often come from foreign sources.
The increasing influence of sovereign wealth funds is clearly starting to make some people nervous. I refuse to take a blanket isolationist view; the idea of an open worldwide market can and should be embraced. At the same time, I cannot help but lament the areas where foreign trade is just a euphemism for foreign dependence: imported oil, exported jobs, and non-existent manufacturing, to name a few. Nor do I understand the consumer-driven, borrow-to-the-hilt mentality that runs from individuals to corporations to our governments. We have collectively lost our discipline. I cannot help but to connect the dots from these places to what happened to our dear, overleveraged Bear Stearns.
What message does this young curmudgeon have to tie this back to our housing woes? For starters, whether you’re a homebuyer, homeowner, agent, or broker: recognize that our economic troubles run far deeper than the subprime crisis and therefore require a more introspective look at what ails us. We need a return to the fundamentals at the government, corporate, and individual levels. Washington must lead the charge by getting its house in order. With a national debt nearing $10 trillion, we are seriously overleveraged and in real danger of having our Treasury bond ratings lowered. At the corporate level, to our real estate brokers: now is the time to rethink your model. Trash many of the old ways and the expenses that go with it. Deliver the finest customer service you ever imagined. If you feel really daring (and now is the time for radical thinking), there are some great ideas in this 1000watt blog post. Buyers: find an agent who works with you to find a properly-priced home that’s within your means. Your investment will appreciate in the long-run and an agent worth keeping is ready to wait many years for your repeat business if they so earned it.
This bear ain’t done dancing yet, folks. What happened over the weekend matters to all of us but the full story runs much deeper. Each of us needs to recognize our role in the troubles and then contribute our part to the recovery.
If all else fails, you can either laugh or cry along with this entirely different perspective from Steven Colbert:
If you’re a broker, go grab your P&L. Look to see when the last year was that had GCI about the same as 2007 and then compare the two years’ percent retained (the percentage of GCI kept by the house after sales agents receive their “splits”). My guess is 2007 was worse. Maybe a lot worse.
As the news about the unprecedented fraud conducted by Jérôme Kerviel at Société Générale continues to unfold before our eyes, it’s easy to chalk this up as perhaps interesting reading but something irrelevant to most of us. But the unfortunate truth is fraud is happening every day, to companies of all sizes, and in every industry.
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Sherry Chris |
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Nicolai Kolding |
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Wendy Forsythe |
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Scott Schubiger |
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Robert Albanese |
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Jason Steele |
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Kevin Doell |
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Paulette Costa |
