If I am analyzing the results correctly

there are several search terms which are twice and three times more effective than City/state/real estate. If anyone wants to know the results I came up with, contact me (this is top secret stuff and you have to have clearance).

It's very interesting though and has caused me to change directions with seo efforts. It has to do with # of pages hit more than traffic numbers. Most of you experienced agents will know this, but I have once again confirmed it for myself.

It makes me wonder why city/state/real estate is still perceived as most significant.

Another way for experienced agents to make it in the real industry

After writing the last article, I began thinking about my situation and the choice I have to make between developing a team or going in my present direction as a lone wolf. I have made the decision to start a team, but the make-up of the team might just be an extension of my present direction. Currently, I am combining sales with investments.

An experienced agent should learn about investing after a period of time, but investing is not necessary, just an option. Part of my business is working with selected buyers, part is taking selected listings and part is investing (and working with investors).

For someone who wants to avoid the big company environment, creating a small, diverse company that does a little of it all can be the way to go. I prefer this route because it fits my personality and the investing side is interesting and challenging. Managing properties is also a part of it. To create a good managment company, I believe the small and personal touch is better for the investors, otherwise their investments get lost in the hustle and bustle of larger offices where everyone has demands on their time and priorities get bumped.

I plan to gradually build my own investment properties and manage  the properties of others until I can eventually transition to investments while keeping a small team of high producers to work with buyers and sellers.

For more experienced agents who don't want to be in large office environments, this is an option.

So, even though I think for the majority of agents the team route is the best route, there are other options for agents the more experience they acquire. Later I will write about another opportunity I see for agents with the right skills -- marketing specialist. I believe more and more companies will begin to realize they need a strong, local marketing specialist, inhouse and integrated, and that this position will be a very important position. It's one thing for companies to be part of large franchise operations with national marketing, it's another to have a local, inhouse marketing specialist focusing on a particular franchise in a particular location. How big does an office need to be in order to justify a marketing specialist? Should marketing be contracted, or is it best to hire the right person with the right skills who truly understands the local real estate market and the real estate industry in general?

Jeff Brown makes a good point about Rainmakers and teams

http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=3198

I think the real estate enviroment is changing to the point that diversified marketing efforts and service demands require a team effort and that the team should be made up of producers with diverse talent.

This is not to say that a lone wolf agent can not still carve out a successful niche. The problem is that there are only so many niches, so for the majority of agents, teams seem to be the way to go. Being one among many in a large office that's unorganized and chaotic is probably a poor choice in today's market. I have never completely understood this business model of hiring as many agents as possible regardless of their production, but many brokerages are made up this way.

I suppose it is the same idea behind MLM, that a whole lot of agents will sell a few homes to family and friends and you just turn over frequently while having about 10% that produce on a regular basis.

It seems to me that a office with a hundred agents would be far more productive by creating 5-10 teams that are made up of producers, but this changes the whole nature of the individual contractor who in reality is running his/her own business through the broker's license, so I see where not everyone would want to be on a team -- still I don't see the point from the standpoint of the company. If being productive and profitable is the goal, then it seems that teams are the most productive and profitable route to go, even if it means changing your model and requiring anyone who wants to work with the company to be part of a team.

In other words, agents may prefer the independent contractor route because it gives them freedom to do as many or as few transactions as they feel inspired to do, but the companies have control over their models and who they take on and how they write up the independent contract agreements.

If companies built more efficient business models, it would eliminate the dabblers in real estate and those not suited for the real estate business. This wouldn't necessarily eliminate all part-timers, but it might create a situation where an agent/independent contractor would have to prove value to the company on a part time basis in order to be accepted by the company.

Large companies need to stop the practice of taking on all agents who have a license and start running the businesses more efficiently -- this will be better for everyone, not just the companies.

I have decided to go the small team route not connected to a large office or franchise. What I'm developing will not be for everyone because the demands and expectations will be greater. So, getting back to the majority of agents, I think our whole industry will be better off if companies take average agents and create good teams working within good systems. The truth is that most agents are average -- there is nothing wrong with this, it's just reality -- not everyone will be a superstar -- life doesn't work that way. However, good systems can be universal, but companies have to implement them and manage them and hold people's feet to the fire until they are internally motivated to produce without hot-feet.

This will take a major change in mental models among real estate companies, but I think it has to happen.

Social Media, Facebook, Identity and The Complex Relationship

The advent of social media has changed the way we communicate, do business and relate to the internet. Now everyone has the opportunity and means to create their own hamlet in the kingdom of the web. In the kingdom of the web countries are being formed and the good news is that the New Country is the country that should be -- free, prosperous and open to those with the ambition to create.

Facebook has become a platform (free country) whereby applications and features can be added outside central control. In my opinion, Facebook has created the standard. The mistake many social media efforts made was creating centrally controlled sites not open to the many possible applications from outside. Facebook is creating something endlessly fascinating, chockful of possibilities for individuals to create their worlds and establish their identities.

Furthermore, Facebook is creating an information stream that will most likely become more and more powerful as time goes on and more applications are added, and as more and more people use it to share their links, offerings, wisdom and news. The great thing about it is that the information is user-generated and not controlled by Facebook's idea of what is valuable.

This combination of open-source and open-use whereby the user can create a hamlet of personalized space to create identity and share with friends and associates is incredibly attractive to those who want to establish presence and a base of operation. An operating system where the user has control to develop their own information network is changing the way the internet is used. I have only begun to see the possibilities for my system -- not only business-wise as a real estate broker, but as a person utilizing the internet to create social space that gives me identity and enables me to connect to streams of useful and enriching information -- and to create complex relationships that form a diverse network.

Perhaps "complex" is not the best word, but what I mean is the operating system builds a diverse network of relationships that are connected in more and more far-reaching ways -- from friends, to consumers, to colleagues, to vendors, to information sources to partners. This spider-like connection is dependent on the creative development of the network using Facebook's platform of continuously growing applications and features -- and the good thing about the openness is that it brings the applications of other sites to my space and integrates all the tools necessary to build and strengthen the network.

I don't believe as some do that Facebook will replace Google as the Great Generator, anytime soon, but I do believe Facebook has created the solution to developing networks, creating identity and managing information. The combination of Google search and Facebook's open platform is a powerful combination that creates a beautiful connection between seekers and those who wish to be sought. And the stream of information is the life blood of it all. 

(photo from www.travelblog.org)

Hectic Week

It's been a hectic week for me -- a good week, but hectic. I have a sense (also backed up by increased business) that the turn around is here. Perhaps there are still parts of the country that will experience more hardship in the housing market, but I have a feeling the majority of the country is out of the slump.

I hope to get back to writing more than I have lately, but if I have to choose between writing and business, writing will have to take a back seat for awhile.

One subject that has been weighing heavy on my mind lately is social media. I know it's been discussed ad nauseum, but there seems to be something big in the making that needs to be expounded on. I've recently had some insights into social media as it fits into our culture and relates to some old battles of ideas and power.

Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I can begin straightening some of these thoughts out in my head enough to write something coherent.  Hopefully.

(picture from www.wind-dancer.com)