Post Contributors: Sherry Chris, Marc Davison & Kevin Doell

One of the best parts of any industry conference is tapping into the collective brainpower of very bright and committed professionals. At Inman’s Real Estate Connect San Francisco we sponsored the “Real Estate Brokerage of the Future” breakout sessions.

To wrap up the sessions, we wanted to play to the strength of the attendees by getting them to interact and put down their best ideas on paper. Turning an afternoon panel session into a dynamic group workshop, we captured what the “Brokerage of the Future” should look like according to the 50+ attendees willing to role up their sleeves to share their ideas with colleagues and competitors alike.

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Posted by Nicolai Kolding

Recently (and I use that word liberally), Sherry Chris “memed” me.  This is basically an invitation (another term I’ll use liberally) for me to share a bit of myself on this blog by answering some questions.

Who is your favorite musical artist?

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“Breakfast with Bloggers” captures the thoughts of the Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate leadership team as they wrapped up their launch week at the Inman Real Estate Connect in San Francisco. In one jam-packed week, the brand transitioned its first brokerage, launched a consumer Web site and network extranet site, held a press conference, threw a launch party, and managed panel discussions and workshops at a real estate conference. With that all behind us, now the “real” work begins.

Yesterday was launch day for our new brand. We made our debut at Inman Real Estate Connect in San Francisco. We had a great press conference to kick things off. Check out the link to the video of the Webcast that featured Sherry Chris, Alex Perriello, Gayle Butler, and our very first broker, Tom Wilkins.

http://tinyurl.com/65lo82

Posted by Wendy Forsythe

Twas the night before launch–all the systems are in place,

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate–is ready to enter the race.

The listings were all entered–online with great care,

Just waiting for consumers–to go and find them there.

The staff are all nestled–all snug in their beds,

While visions of Inman Connect–dance in their heads.

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Posted by Nicolai Kolding

On July 3rd, I proposed three floorplans for a residential sales office.  I’ve taken all of the comments that followed into consideration and would like to offer up just one more plan:

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There are very few people in our real estate and technology world who are recognized by their first name and “Rudy, the Social Media Guru” from Trulia is one of them. He sent me a message on Facebook a few weeks ago suggesting a visit so he could preview what we were working on at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC. We spent a few hours together Tuesday. Here is a video clip of his visit…

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Posted by Wendy Forsythe

Whenever I meet with a manager or broker to discuss their growth plans and objectives, I always ask what their talent attraction strategy is. I often get a blank or somewhat confused look. Most brokers and managers are former agents, and one thing we are not known for is our diligent business planning and strategizing. So, it is no surprise that we carry that trait over into our growth plans when we become managers or brokers.

Here are some questions I ask to get them thinking: Read the rest of this entry »

Some of you might know that part of our launch strategy involves Twitter. We have partnered with Joel Burslem and his team to Twitter at Inman Connect. I admit that, at first, I didn’t fully understand how Twitter worked and what the benefits were going to be. I became even more confused when suddenly a bunch of people sent me e-mails to let me know they were “following me” on Twitter. “How did that happen?” I asked myself.

When I went on the site, all of my followers had invited me to follow them, so I clicked on the “yes” button. I was following around 40 people. I knew a bunch of them, but not all. They started sending me messages saying things like “thanks for the follow.” Twitter has its own underground language, just like everything else.

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Posted by Wendy Forsythe

I heard once that out of every 10 people we meet, we immediately like 2 of them, immediately dislike 2 of them, and are indifferent to the other 6.  The next time you are in a room with 10 people, look around and test out this theory!

After reading a recent article on Inman News reporting the latest Hitwise Top-20 Real Estate websites for June it occurred to me that the chemistry we feel for people we meet is similar to the chemistry we feel with different websites we visit.

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