REinvent your real estate business now…you have to!
by Jose Perez on 12/06/09 at 9:49 am
We benefited from a hot real estate market until the real estate bubble burst so we didn’t feel like we had to do anything.
I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, but how long have we been talking about needing to make changes in the real estate business? How long have we been talking about profits shrinking? How long have we been talking about “interlopers” taking our listings and selling them back to us? How long have we been talking about how could this have possibly happened?
Now you throw in the “funk” we have been in for the past two or three years and we really have some cause for concern. Unfortunately, most people we talk to are just struggling to survive so they cut expenses, dodge bullets, and try to keep people motivated. What most in our industry are not doing, in our opinion, is being proactive. They are so concerned with their survival that they can’t see beyond tomorrow or next week. Unfortunately, that’s just not going to cut it if we are going to be successful in the new and completely different environment that will exist when this is all done.
Let’s look at some other industries that chose not to do anything:
- U.S. auto industry
- Print media
- Travel
Do you see any similarities between the real estate industry today and where those industries where at their seminal moments 10 or 15 years ago? GM and Chrysler are in bankruptcy and print media is just about dead. Who still uses a travel agent anyway?
We benefited from a hot market until the bubble burst so we didn’t feel like we had to do anything. As Warren Buffet said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
Well folks… the tide went out a couple of years ago, it has still not come back, you are naked, and it is time to get proactive… you have no choice!
