We touched on the transition that the world of real estate sales is in the midst of in this article. Now we have found via our new friends over at Bloodhound Blog a great article by Michael Price of Mike’s Corner. Mike outlines the processes that a real estate agent will need to be successful tomorrow.

The central theme that we are going to see in real estate is change over the next few years. The boom that was felt nationally allowed two things to happen. The long time real estate agent was allowed to get complacent and the new technology is being built underneath the radar screen of those very same agents.

So the long term agent through up a web page and an email address and said I am on the internet. They were so busy and sales were so easy that they gave up the competitive edge they own to the new boys (and girls) on the block who spent part of their time getting ready for the next generation.

Going back to Mikes article, he has a great point on who and who not be successful in the future selling homes.

Want to go to the Real Estate 2.0 soiree? If you’re spending all of your time thinking up ways to defend why and how much you charge for your services, you’re not on the list. If you’re spending your time coming up with ways to bash and belittle people who don’t do business the way you think they should, you’re not on the list. If you’re spending your time creating stories to explain why old business models should be preserved for the greater good of an industry, you’re not on the list. If you’ve spent the better part of your career letting other people do the heavy lifting for you while you “networked”, you’re not on the list. If you’ve ever defended yourself by saying “That’s way it’s always been done” you won’t even be allowed in the neighborhood.

I think he nailed it dead on. The real estate game will not be done the old way. Sure, you can sell homes to your Rotary and golf circles, but the homes sales to the younger and more mobile buyers are never going to know you exist.

• They will be with the brokers that let them browse the homes from their initial dream stage, not call me when you are ready to buy.
• They will buy their homes from agents that return emails and provide additional information to them online. They will love you if you target the information to them. But remember, don’t spam them, target to them specifically.  
• They will buy homes from those that do not sell the old way, they will arrive in town with their own list of homes that do not have commission structures in them. These buyers are not concerned with your commission, they are concerned with buying their home.
• And last but not least, they will buy from an agent that communicates with them how they communicate.  So if you are smart, think of how a buyer would want to buy, not how you would like to sell.

And at the end of the day, if you build your business around the buyers and sellers, you will be selling many, many homes. And you know what, the commissions will probably be lower, but you will also have all the technology that will make the transactions go faster and much more efficiently than your other agents. So at the end of the year, you will be making more per hour.

Related posts:

1. Real Estate Agents Have To Be Psychologists, Mediators, And Marriage Counselors.
2. New Jersey Loses One Third of Real Estate Agents In 2008
3. Some Interesting Real Estate Employment Statistics