QR Codes and real estate – the five Ws and one H

If you’ve been awake and working in the real estate industry for the past year or so, you’ve probably heard of QR codes by now. If not, you should probably go apply for a job at Old Navy, because they’re all the rage right now in real estate (and a few other industries, too), thanks partially to a massive campaign by those selling QR codes and related QR code management software, and partially to the nature of the Internet, which spreads every “latest” thing like wildfire, even if that latest thing is, well, kinda lame and pointless. If you have heard about them, you know they’re either the latest and greatest thing in the world and you must use them, they’re just so-so and you probably don’t need them or they’re  rehashed, old technology that is merely making its last public dying breath before becoming obsolete for all of eternity. But which scenario is true?

Will QR codes replace Facebook? No, that's ridiculous.

First, we’ll start by saying that our official opinion is that QR codes are potentially useful for agents, and potentially a giant time (and possibly money) sinkhole for brokerages. The reason why QR codes, if implemented poorly, can spell a management disaster for a brokerage is because each and every QR code is unique and can only be pointed at one website at a time, obviously. This means using a different QR code for every active listing in your brokerage would be like having a single unique yard sign for each and every active listing that can’t be easily reassigned (without paying for QR code management software) to other listings in the future – not exactly cost effective.

However, if you do your research, QR codes can have a beneficial impact on your real estate business.

Let’s start with the “what” since you really need to know what it is we’re talking about here before you’ll get any value from the rest of this blog (the WHO should be obvious…it’s you).

WHAT: A QR code is a “quick response” code that is basically a two-dimensional barcode for any item in the world. When these codes are scanned by a QR code scanner, it will direct the user’s phone to a URL that the user’s phone will (hopefully) load and display something valuable for the consumer. But for this to all work properly, a few things have to happen. The user must have a smartphone (not just a feature phone), that user must download one of hundreds of QR code scanner applications (apps), the user must get out their phone, launch the app, hold their phone in front of the QR code, wait for it to scan and then wait for the page/video/website to load with their phone’s browser. This lengthy and possibly clunky process may seem like a major inhibiting factor to using QR codes, and it can be if things don’t play out just right.

Currently, there are hundreds of websites that create free QR codes, but no one is dominating the market just yet, and smartphones aren’t coming shipped with QR code scanners pre-installed on them, which is a major dilemma for those pushing QR codes. This means every consumer you meet could have a different branded scanner on their phone, each with operating in its own way with different levels of success in scanning barcodes – just yesterday we compared a Blackberry Torch with QR Code Scanner Pro with to a Motorola Droid 2 with a different barcode scanner and the time it took to scan the same QR code was wildly different. So, because there are different sources for codes and different apps to scan them, that’s the first dilemma.

WHY: The big “why” with using QR codes centers around one question – do QR codes actually make anything easier, faster, better or more useful for the consumer? Or are they just another (possibly slower) way of doing the exact same thing you can do by typing a URL directly into your phone’s browser? After all, every phone that can handle a QR code scanner must have a data plan and application functionality, meaning it likely has a pretty slick web browser and a nice, big screen already. To go to a mobile site on a smartphone, you simply launch your browser – which already comes installed on every smartphone – and type in the URL in the address bar. Pretty simple.

However, to scan a QR code, you have to get out your phone, download a QR code scanning app if you haven’t installed one already (remember, they don’t come on phones when you buy them), launch the app, scan the code and wait for the site to launch. My guess is that if you’re familiar with your phone and are a pretty good typist with your thumbs, it’s probably going to be easier to type a URL directly into your browser than use the QR code functionality.

But there are a few instances when QR codes could be better/easier than printing a URL directly on the publication at hand.

WHERE: First, QR codes are square, making them much friendlier to square and rectangular form factors, such as business cards, flyers and the like. Second, QR codes can be virtually any size, and they don’t need to be read to use them. So on a business card, for example, you might be forced to print the URL in a very small font that is hard to read for many people. A QR code is instantly recognizable and can be scanned regardless of the vision of the consumer.

QR codes can be placed on business cards in real estate

Second, QR codes are scalable, meaning you can make them very small – say .5″ by .5″, or very large, like the one used in Madison Square Garden for a dinosaur promo.

However, this introduces another dilemma to using QR codes – distance. For a code to scan properly, it has to visually fit the screen of the phone that is scanning it.

Giant QR code in Madison Square Garden

That means that the farther away you get from a QR code, the bigger it has to be for you to be able to scan it. So QR codes are really only going to be cost effective if it’s a handheld marketing piece, such as a business card, flyer or magazine.  Or, if you’ve got a wild budget, you could buy a very large banner or billboard for your QR code, but given the harsh aesthetic of QR codes (remember, they’re giant black and white barcodes, not colorful logos or charming slogans), it’s hard to see this being a valuable use of large advertising spaces in most circumstances.

WHEN: So, when should you use QR codes?

We suggest using QR codes for unique, specific promotional purposes, and not for widespread, general use. For example, create a QR code for a personal video introducing yourself, or for a custom landing page within your website that features some kind of special content. Do not create a QR code that simply goes to the home page of your website! Especially if you have an easy URL in the first place, such as www.cbtghomes.com/ — consumers will just be irritated that they went to the trouble of scanning a code to go to a site that they could have gone to more quickly with their browser.

Another time when it’s relevant to use a QR code is when you have a long, clunky URL. Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Group is launching a QR code project that will feature a code on the front of our weekly tabloid, and that code will link to our YouTube channel so consumers can view the featured video tour for the listing on the cover of the tabloid. This is a beneficial use for us, because our YouTube channel URL is relatively long – http://www.youtube.com/coldwellbankertg – so we either choose to print it in a large enough font that it’s legible (and we hope our customers don’t typo the URL in their browser) or we provide a single QR code for easy scanning. This is also a good use for us because a single QR code is easy to maintain, and the code can be swapped out for a different code/URL any time we choose, should we decide to feature other content on our site.

HOW: Lastly, how do you use QR codes? Simple. Google “QR code generator” and pick one of the first 500 sites that comes up – they probably all generate easy, free QR codes. Going with the first Google result, we find http://qrcode.kaywa.com/. I have no idea who this company is, but one visit to the site and you’ll see it’s ridiculously easy to create a QR code there. Type in the URL, choose a size for the code and click “generate.” Then take that jpeg/png/image file and print it on whatever marketing piece you choose. QR codes have a tremendous tolerance for error (I’ve read it’s up to 30 percent), meaning even low print quality, odd coloration or other distortions won’t typically affect the performance of the QR code.

As far as scanning codes is concerned, QR Code Scanner Pro is a good app, though virtually all QR code scanners will do the same thing and do a pretty good job at it. The key is to get a free app that isn’t going to ask you for some kind of contract or subscription to another service.

BONUS ROUND!

WHY NOT:

1. You don’t have any unique or creative content to which you can point the QR code. Don’t use them if they aren’t going to deliver something special to the consumer, unless you’re limited to a very small advertising space and a QR code fits better than a URL.

2. QR codes are currently used by a minority within a minority. Explained: Most cell phone owners don’t own a smartphone, most smartphone owners don’t use (or even recognize, in many cases) QR codes. This could very well change, but as of late 2010, only 28 percent of cell phone owners had a smartphone, and of that 28 percent, it’s estimated that only 10-20 percent of those people have ever scanned a QR code. It’s impossible to measure precisely, since it’s difficult to accurately track how many scanners have been downloaded nationwide due to the sheer number of apps.

3. QR codes are not standardized. This simple little fact could spell an absolute disaster for a brokerage that invests a large amount of time and money adopting QR codes company-wide. It’s not the most probable scenario, but Google, Apple, Microsoft or another major tech player could come out with a rival scanning technology that is not compatible with QR codes. If Android phones all began shipping with a unique scanner that was not compatible with QR codes, then QR codes would essentially become obsolete overnight. After all, Android is projected to own nearly half of the U.S. smartphone market in the next few years, and people will always opt for the standard app that comes with a phone rather than downloading a third-party app to replace it.

This standardization problem also means that there’s no guarantee that every scanner will work with every phone will work with every QR code. Phones without auto-focus cameras can have a difficult or impossible time scanning a code because at close range, it’s just too blurry. As auto-focus cameras are only now becoming common, that means older phones (including many Blackberry models) won’t be able to detect the code properly.

As you can see, the waters surrounding QR codes are still murky, to say the least. If you can find a specific and easy way to implement these codes in a valuable way (without gobbling up tons of time and money), then sure, go ahead and use them, and be sure to document your successes and failures along the way. But realize that until a few major things happen in the world of QR codes, the jury is still very much out on whether they’re valuable and here to stay or they’re just another flash in the marketing and technology pan.

“Friend” your real estate clients on Facebook – Part II

This post is a response to the article titled “Understanding online real estate conversations” by Bernice Ross at Inman News. Her post was an update to her prior blog, “‘Unfriend’ your real estate clients on Facebook,” which we wrote about last week.

Now, Ms. Ross is back to clarify and provide some follow-up thought after her first blog received huge attention from blogs across the country, most of which was negative or contrary to her initial assertions.

Unfortunately, we still have to take issue with Ms. Ross’s comments in this follow-up blog.

First, she hits back on the privacy issue, which you’ll remember, we agreed with. Facebook has some privacy issues to deal with, but these issues are not unique to Facebook or real estate, but rather general concerns shared by users of all social media outlets. Concerns like: where do my pictures go? How secure is my personal information? etc. etc.

She writes:

For example, a high-profile agent whose husband is a co-founder of a Fortune 500 company shared how her husband asked her to address his privacy concerns. Her stepdaughter had just given birth to their first grandchild. Her husband was so concerned about who would have access to the baby pictures posted on his daughter’s Facebook page that he insisted that his wife immediately unfriend his daughter to protect his grandchild.

This is certainly a valid concern, and can be addressed easily with Facebook’s photo privacy settings when you upload the photos. One or two clicks and all of your photos can be seen only by you or by a select group of friends or family. Again, this isn’t specific to real estate, but it’s the example provided.

Ms. Ross then gets around to a discussion she had with a “gentleman” colleague named Jeff Turner. Here’s how she summed up Jeff’s angle on using Facebook for Realtors:

Jeff summed it up this way: “We can’t mitigate the dangers online. The issues arise from the same issues that cause agents to get into trouble offline: bad judgment, lack of training, and lack of personal discipline in terms of what they say and where they say it.”

Jeff then raised the issue about your purpose in terms of how you engage in social media.

“Why do we have to share every minute detail with others? Instead of focusing on you, the question you really need to ask yourself before you post on any social media site is, ‘How can I help someone today?’ … In response to Jeff’s comments, Byron Van Arsdale, my husband and business partner, suggested that we modify the old WAIT (“Why am I talking”) negotiation approach to “WAIP: Why am I posting?”‘

Ugh! This conclusion is completely missing the boat and is precisely the wrong way to think about social media. If we all asked ourselves “Why am I posting,” Facebook wouldn’t even exist because as the water cooler of the Internet, social media exists solely as a place for people to discuss the things that don’t always matter, but we talk about them anyway. You know, like Charlie Sheen. And in the process, we also talk about other pointless and irrelevant things, such as job promotions, new additions to the family and when we have to move to a new city (oh wait, these are all things that could help an agent interact with their client! Whoops!).

First, I have to explain to Jeff – social media is a painfully narcissistic venture for its users. After all, why would you create a personal profile with your favorite quotes, favorite books and movies, birthday, status updates, photos from social gatherings and other personal material if you weren’t interested in talking about it or if you weren’t a bit proud of the things you’re doing in life? Social media is called social media for a reason. If it were called professional media, then Jeff’s issues would be well taken…and also, it would be terrible. The world has enough stuffy, bland cocktail parties with suits biting their tongues, in fear they might say something that makes them sound uneducated or inferior to their peers. Besides, if you want to engage in professional media, stick with Facebook business pages, which have an entirely different purpose (which we will discuss in a later blog post).

Fortunately, social media is the exact opposite. If you want to yack about your hunting or fishing hobby, do it! Ironically, Inman News just published a new article today about a cosmetics blogger who is a highly successful real estate agent because of her gossip blog that has nothing to do with real estate. She took the exact principles we’re talking about here and is seeing wild success because she’s engaging on a personal level and not on a marketing or sales level. Here in Idaho, we strongly encourage agents to not only take part in the things that make Idaho great (I wrote about these things a few months ago here), but to make those things a part of who they are as a real estate agent because when you sell a home in Idaho, you’re also selling a bit of Idaho along with it. It’s the old sales mantra – know thy product!!

Social media is about engaging with your clients and customers on a human level. Who walks down the street thinking “Man, I wish I could see some more billboards!” Who gets home from work to a stack of new phone books sitting on their porch and thinks “GREAT!! I wonder which lawyer is advertising on the binding this year?!” Here’s a hint: no one!

Be a socially-savvy agent!

So when you sit down at Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/LinkedIn – I want you to do exactly what Jeff suggests:

Step 1: Repeat Jeff’s words to yourself: “Why do I have to share every minute detail with others? Instead of focusing on myself, the question I really need to ask myself before I post on any social media site is, ‘How can I help someone today?”

Step 2: Now, do the exact opposite of whatever Step 1 guided you to do. Do not think “How can I help someone today?” because that is not, and will never be, the point of social media. If we all asked ourselves this question before posting something on Facebook, Facebook would have 12 members and they’d all be too scared to talk to each other out of fear of offending someone with potential mediocrity.

Instead, when you sit down at your computer and begin your engagement with society through social media, ask yourself the question “how can I interact with my clients today?” and then do whatever you conclude from that question. Because the point of social media is to be a human first and a salesperson second. We are all born human – but very few of us are born salespeople.

“Friend” your real estate clients on Facebook!

This blog posting is a direct response to Bernice Ross’s article on Inman News, titled “‘Unfriend’ your real estate clients on Facebook,” in which she addresses some perceived problems with promoting a real estate career on Facebook. Bernice’s intentions are certainly well placed, but they require a bit of perspective to truly understand why her article is missing the boat in big ways.

A bit of a disclaimer, first: All of Ms. Ross’s concerns are exclusive to installing apps and “liking” pages. These are things you have to do intentionally, and cannot be done without your knowledge. If an agent is merely using Facebook to share links, post status updates and view photos of their friends, they will never encounter any of these problems.

Ms. Ross writes:

“… if you post an ad for one of your listings on your profile page, you have violated the Facebook terms of use and can have your account canceled.”

This is somewhat misleading. There is nothing against Facebook policy in posting a link to an agent’s listing online somewhere. Facebook specifically says a user cannot use Facebook for personal commercial gain. While you do stand to gain financially if you post a listing and someone buys it, that doesn’t mean your posting was merely for commercial gain. You could have been posting the listing simply to inform your friends that you took a new listing and are proud of the home you’re representing, with no intention to sell the home to any of your friends. Sort of a “here’s what I’m doing at work” intention.

It’s also important to understand why Facebook made this policy in the first place – they don’t want people administering businesses via personal profiles. Real estate agents exist in a huge gray area on Facebook, in that their personal and professional lives are mixed fairly heavily in many cases. Does this make them unable to have Facebook profiles? Certainly not. All it means is that they have to be careful with how they utilize the social network, so as to not annoy their friends by overwhelming them with commercial content.

“Second, if you’re playing any of the Facebook games provided by third parties, often these games are data-mining schemes. The designers harvest the information about you and your friends and sell them to third parties. Failure to block these applications means that even if you’re not involved in playing these games, if any of your friends are, your information may be harvested due to their activities.”

Let’s start by saying you probably shouldn’t spend a lot of your personal time playing Facebook games if you’re going to use Facebook to interact with clients. It just looks bad. But if you choose to play the occasional round of Farmville or Mafia Wars, Facebook has very clear privacy settings with regard to games and applications and it is very easy to keep apps and games from taking your personal information if you simply go into your privacy settings under “privacy settings,” then “Apps and Websites” down at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see the link that says “info accessible through your friends” and if you click edit settings, you can disable any ability for Apps to gather information about you through your friends. Also, this is a concern for all people on Facebook, not just real estate agents.

“On Jan. 26, 2011, Barbara Ortutay wrote an article describing yet another change in Facebook policies.

‘Facebook users who check in to a store or click the ‘like’ button for a brand may soon find those actions are retransmitted on their friends’ pages as a ‘Sponsored Story’ paid for by advertisers. Currently there is no way for users to decline this feature.’

In other words, if have clients in your Facebook database of friends and you click “like” for a particular brand, Facebook may display that choice as a “sponsored story” on your client’s page without your permission. To your client, it will look as if you put a paid commercial for a company on their page.”

Ms. Ross’s concern with Facebook Places and sponsored stories is legitimate, though totally overblown. Sponsored stories can only  be seen by your friends, and they only reflect things you are already doing. If you like radical or controversial pages or waste inordinate amounts of time playing Facebook games, your friends can see that by simply looking at your profile. Sponsored Stories merely helps you connect with your friends on a different level. More importantly, Sponsored Stories could prove to be very beneficial for agents. Say an agent “likes” their brokerage’s fan page or they “like” a story about low interest rates on a news site. This information is actively relayed to that agent’s friends, showing their friends that the agent is informed and also passing along relevant information.

Unfortunately, Ms. Ross is a bit misled when it comes to what “likes” Sponsored Stories look at. She writes:

“… you might have a friend who is an agent at another brokerage. You post a ‘like’ about something your friend did. If your friend takes out a Facebook ad, it’s conceivable that your ‘like’ would now become a ‘sponsored story’ that endorses your friend as an agent — not such a great move for your business.”

This is just wrong on a few levels. First, the “likes” Facebook looks at is when you like Facebook pages or check into an official Facebook Place. It is not when you click “like” on a photo of your friend’s puppy or on a status update. Second, this has nothing to do with your agent friend taking out an ad. Ads really don’t have anything to do with Sponsored Stories.

A real scenario in this regard is that if your agent friend creates a fan page, then you go to the fan page and “like” it, then one of your other friends goes to the fan page, you could show up in a sponsored story on that fan page. However, you were the one who intentionally “liked” your friend’s fan page, and any of your friends can see that by simply visiting your FB page. The important takeaway is that you need to be conscientious of what you do on Facebook just like you have to be aware of what you do in public. If you wouldn’t be seen supporting a business, cause or person in real life, don’t do it on Facebook either!

In addition to these issues, on Jan. 17 PC Magazine reported on another potential problem. Facebook is now allowing app developers to request access to users’ contact information, including their address and mobile phone number.

Ms. Ross’s concern about app developers is also a bit overblown. The operative word here is “request.” App developers can request the information, but if you decline that request, then they don’t get your information. When you install an app on your profile, a pop up appears on your screen that says “This application is requesting access to your information. do you accept?” If you click “no” then that’s it, you’re done. There’s nothing mischievous about it. Do you need to pay attention to what you’re doing? Yes. But they’re not exactly employing any trickery here.

One of her last lines is really concerning to me:

“‘Users should delete their phone numbers and addresses from their profile information.‘

While this may seem extreme, it probably is an excellent idea. The challenge here is that we are in an entirely new realm and there aren’t a lot of guidelines to help Realtors navigate through these issues.”

Ms. Ross seems to suggest that this new digital world is too treacherous for Realtors, so they should probably give up. When you consider that Realtors are essentially small businesses, and small businesses need to be modern, savvy and ambitious to succeed, her suggestion here is basically a death sentence for anyone who heeds her advice.

Her last example is my last concern:

“… what are your obligations in terms of protecting your clients’ private information? Do you need a disclosure that says that if a client becomes your Facebook friend that Facebook may distribute their contact information including their cell phone number to third-party advertisers? Could you be sued for violating client confidentiality?”

If you download a Facebook app and you allow that app to have access to all of your information (unwise), PLUS your friends have not established their privacy settings in the Apps and Websites section, then in some crazy alternate universe, their information could possibly be retrieved by an app. However, this is a result of their lack of knowledge of Facebook’s privacy settings and has absolutely nothing to do with you legally.

Are there a myriad of issues to navigate in the digital world? Yes indeed. Are these problems and issues exclusive to real estate agents, and are they exclusive to Facebook? Absolutely not. These are issues every company and every individual has to deal with. But they are not scary, industry-changing issues. Facebook, social media and technology in general helps agents in 1,000 ways for every one way it hinders them.

I would absolutely not advise agents to unfriend their clients on Facebook. What I would advise is for agents to read their privacy settings, use apps with caution (if you’re busy working you probably won’t have time for games and apps anyway) and inform your friends and clients to do the same. Ultimately, though, it is up to the individual to decide what they are going to “like,” which apps they are going to install and who they are going to be friends with. And for now, I see nothing but benefit from using Facebook to connect with your current, past and potential clients.

Quantifying the magnitude of mobile technology and the Facebook “fad”

Over the past five years, a website has gone from a start-up network for Harvard students to use to share party pictures (and little else) to a nearly 600 million strong behemoth corporation that is so ingrained in society that it’s often hard to remember what the web was like without it.

This site has gone from a destination to the destination. Its links, buttons and logos are found on virtually every website across the web. This site’s brand imprint is more prolific than any other brand on the web, including Google, Microsoft/Bing/Hotmail/Live, Sony, Apple, YouTube, Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay or Craigslist. CNN relies on this site to traffic the vast majority of their news that is shared anywhere on the web at all. More people share news, statistics, articles and columns through this site than they do through email, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube. More conversations are started, more relationships are made (and broken), more comments are posted, more content is shared and more business is done with the help of this site than any other social site on the Internet today.

Unless you’re living in a cave (and you didn’t read the title of this blog), you know this site is Facebook.

Facebook has gotten fairly popular.

Facebook has grown to nearly the same size as Google in terms of unique visitors per month, yet Facebook did it in less than five years, while Google has been around for almost twice as long and operates on a much broader scale than Facebook does. So how is it that Facebook has come to obliterate every other website (but Google) on the web? Facebook, after all, is nothing more than a place where friends talk to each other about meaningless topics, right?

Well…no. That’s not even wrong, it’s actually totally absurd. Facebook is now as much a part of personal, social and professional lives as is Microsoft, Google or Apple. In terms of time spent dedicated to each company by consumers, Facebook beats out even those mega-corporations, too. The fact is that today, every single type of relationship or transaction that can be built and enhanced in the real world can also be done (and enhanced) on Facebook. And on top of that? Facebook can probably do it faster and more thoroughly too.

When considering the title of this blog, there are a few things that should be addressed. First, no one can quantify the magnitude of Facebook, so I’ll just put that right up front. Estimates from economists peg Facebook’s value anywhere between $10 billion and $100 billion; an unspeakably huge number that sounds more like figures from major multinational banks or oil companies than from a web startup that didn’t even exist in 2004.

Second, I use the word “fad” with extreme sarcasm, since Facebook is far from a trend, a flash in the pan, a hot topic or a mere fad. Quite simply, Facebook is the evolution of the web to the point where the web is perhaps even less important than Facebook is. Of course Facebook relies on the web to exist, but beyond that, people are spending more time on Facebook than they are at Google, YouTube, Twitter, Myspace, Amazon and Wikipedia COMBINED. Yes, you read that right, and even more, those figures are about seven months old.

What I’m getting at here is that the concept and reality of life existing in a parallel “e-society” on a global scale has become so much a part of life for the entire modern world that there is no going back. In fact, I would say with 99.9 percent certainty that the human race will never again see a day pass without the existence of some sort of globalized e-society. The only thing that could break this certainty is something like a global war that physically destroys much of the progress and technology we’ve made over the past 20 years. Without physical destruction, technology will continue to churn ahead at breakneck speeds until every human with enough money and access to these tools has exactly what they want, exactly when they want it. Because technology is driven by consumption, and consumers have a penchant for being rather fussy about getting what they want, when they want it.

What I’m talking about in the near future is simply the flushing out of technologies we have today. First things first, some sort of pocket Swiss Army knife-style device that does everything we need it to do with no restrictions (other than cost):

Communication – Obviously, the cell phones today do pretty much everything we could want in terms of communication. However, video calling through data transmissions (a la Skype) will become standard on all new phones, and I’d expect some kind of built-in projector to display the video call on any flat surface (or in thin air?) of any size. I’ve already seen this kind of projection in digital cameras, so it can’t be too far off for phones as well. This ability, coupled with faster connection speeds for HD video conferencing, will be all people will need when it comes to casual communication.

Entertainment – We have already seen Netflix, YouTube and every website on the planet come to mobile devices, usually in HD and with stunning transfer speeds. Once the bridge between online television and actual television is complete, wifi-enabled cell phones with 4g/5g/?? connection speeds will permanently replace the need for cables, modems, DVRs, HD boxes, digital converters and antennas at home. Once your wifi-enabled TV, entertainment console (Wii, Xbox, etc) and stereo are patched into your phone’s high-speed wifi connection, you’ll have all of the television, Internet access, movie access and DVR functionality you’ll ever need, and you won’t need a hard drive to do it because they’ll all be accessed via cloud computing. The only things standing between today and this scenario are legal battles between the telecoms, internet service providers and content creators (movie studios, musicians, etc.), since the technology is already capable of doing all of these things.

Flexibility/connectivity – Clearly, these devices will need to be as flexible as people require, so everything you can see on this mobile device (calling it a phone is really becoming outdated) will be able to be either projected or broadcast to a monitor/TV (there’s really no difference anymore). This is already possible with some devices, but there’s still progress to be made.

Networking – Last but not least, this device will do as most Android and iPhones already do, which is to connect you immediately to any social network you want in real time. Since Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube have essentially created the social media + smartphone frenzy, these networks have already gotten preferential treatment by phone manufacturers and developers, so other than the changing of the social networks themselves, not much else needs to be done here. This is a huge variable, though, since any network can make a mistake at any moment and change the entire game immediately. However, once Facebook’s phonebook feature becomes more widespread and it is synced up with a Skype-like service, people will be able to make video calls to each other without even having to use a known phone number, since the systems already have you connected in the first place via logins and digital connections.

Of course, all of the speculation above about mobile devices is not related to Facebook directly, but once the mobile world comes full circle and the majority of Americans are using smartphones (or “superphones“), Facebook and other social networks, as well as a flood of new technologies, will be in the pockets of 100+ million Americans, and will therefore be the portal through which all businesses will access consumers.

Now, the last major variable is time. The fact is that there are millions of people from, uh, certain generations who are not interested in taking part in this tectonic shift in society, and they’ll live out their lives with a landline telephone, a TV with an antenna and a dial-up modem, if any modem at all. And that’s just fine, because those people aren’t the innovators or the consumers that the youth and tech-driven society needs to move forward. So while those old infrastructures will still remain for several decades, the faster, sleeker and entirely wireless infrastructures will continue to be built on top of them until the old systems are totally phased out.

Of course, the tech society could take us in a totally different direction based on parameters unknown to us, such as energy consumption, political problems and dilemmas (nationally and internationally), legal problems between all of the players involved or some other unknown variable. But be aware, mobile technology, innovations in hardware/software development and the desire for the common consumer to be permanently connected to every fraction of their life with a personal electronic device (in real time) is the driving force between today and ten years from today. In fact, most of what I’m talking about will likely become widespread in modern societies in the next five years, if not sooner.

And while I haven’t mentioned a whiff of real estate or business through this entire blog, this all-encompassing infrastructure I’m talking about is what the entire world will be built with over the upcoming decades. As the last few hiccups in business transactions are overcome by technology (namely the issues of tangible paperwork, authentic signatures and the need to see and feel products being purchased), we’ll eventually realize the permanent future of business, which will take place free and clear of virtually all time-absorbing activities (booting up computers, checking emails, dialing phone calls, flying to conferences, printing stacks of papers, filing paperwork, backing up computers and hard drives, tech support, etc.). This includes the real estate business, as digital signatures and video tours become more available and accessible. iPads have already made it possible for people to sign legal, digital documents, and once the industry catches up with technology and video/audio tours are standard for all real estate listings (as photos are standard today), more and more business will be done either remotely (purchasing homes without ever visiting it or signing a sheet of paper) or on-site, with the possibility of visiting a home, writing an offer and closing all possible with nothing but a data connection and an iPad or comparable mobile device.

Technology always comes in waves, with the first major wave obviously hitting through the 90s with the introduction of email and the Internet. But those were slow and more or less primitive by nature and while they were better than the alternatives (faxing and doing research with tangible materials, which is time and resource consuming), they were not fast by any means. Then came the organization and consolidation of the Internet, with Google essentially drowning out the search engine field and Microsoft dominating in the productivity and browsing arenas.

But now we’re in the midst of another wave, which is based all around bringing ourselves online as people, while simultaneously bringing the Internet and its power to our mobile person via GPS and unbelievable wireless speeds.

This is really only where it begins…once all of the speed and resources are at our disposal 24/7 and there are no bottlenecks left in bringing the entire digital world to our pockets, what will we do? Get ready to see the entire world of advertising, marketing, research, sales and business in general follow the lead of the technologies we’re all using in our personal lives but haven’t yet realized in terms of their power as a tool for commerce. The next 5-10 years is going to be very interesting indeed…

Treat yourself as you’d like to be treated.

Lately it seems there have been a ton of blogs and articles going around about work schedules for real estate agents. Some believe agents should have a fixed schedule, while others say there is no realistic way for an agent to have a schedule at all. Some even laugh when you mention the phrase “day off” or “vacation” in the context of real estate. So today we approach the topic of, you guessed it, time management!

Our fantastic Coldwell Banker consultant John Schumacher has a blog over at http://jshoes2.wordpress.com/, where he has recently written two fantastic blogs entitled “The Time of Your Life” parts I and II. Shoes, as we affectionately call him, gives a myriad of invaluable tips for managing your time, which will make you a more effective real estate agent and a happier and more well-adjusted person if you employ these techniques and practices.

Don't run your life like this woman.

But I want to take a step back, since even disorganized losers deserve a day off, too (who said you have to be successful to have the privilege of a personal life?). This all comes down to not only time management while working, but time management in your life as a whole and how it relates to who you are as a professional real estate agent.

First off, lets look at the subject of being too available. Now, many agents believe that it is their job to be there whenever a client needs to speak to them, no matter what. This is true – it is your job as a professional to be there for your clients. But this is not true in that it is your job as a person to be there for your clients. This is a critical distinction, people!

Being too available is bad for you, your client and your transaction with that client. This may seem counterintuitive, but think of the following scenarios:

1. A little kid grabbing his mom’s leg in the grocery store, begging for her attention, crying, whining and screaming. Does this kid look appealing? Does the mother look entertained? I think not.

2. A boy has a crush on a girl. So he calls her…and calls her again…and sends her 37 texts within 24 hours of their first date. He also writes on her Facebook wall five times and sends her three emails that say something like “MISS YOU! <3″ or “JUST THINKIN OF U!!:)”

Is the girl going to call the boy back? Let me think…no. Pathetic.

3. A person walks into a music store to look at guitars. The salesperson runs up to them, asks them in seven different ways if they can help the customer, and then follows the customer around through the entire store, waiting to make sure the customer doesn’t go one second without the opportunity to have someone at their feet like a dog starved for attention. Is this customer going to be impressed by or respect the salesperson, even a little bit? Nope.

I’m sure you can think of examples in your own life when someone was overly needy or overly available and you immediately became disinterested in that person. Heck, tips on not being needy or too available are practically featured in romantic comedies ranging from Dazed and Confused to Hitch, and surely many more. The fact is that when people are too available, it signals to everyone around them that they do not value themselves, their own time or their own energy, and are in a way simply desperate for attention.

There’s another downside to this, too. Having a disorganized work routine, as discussed by Shoes, is one thing. But having a disorganized personal life that is twisted, broken, interrupted and molded to accommodate your work life is unhealthy, mentally, physically and emotionally, and a massive insult to your friends and loved ones, who are undoubtedly at the butt of the joke every time you answer your cell phone during dinner, miss an evening date with your spouse because of a last-minute, late-night appointment or skip a Sunday afternoon picnic with your family because you agreed with an hour’s notice to run across town to show a house to someone who you probably know isn’t going to buy for another six months anyway!

This isn’t to say that having the schedule of a real estate agent is easy, and it’s certainly not to say you shouldn’t ever work after 5 p.m. or on the weekends, because we all know that isn’t possible in real estate. But what is possible is scheduling! Just like a college professor, you should have something equivalent to “office hours,” which is the time outside of a normal workday that you’re available for, you know, whatever comes up. If you make these “work hours” known to your clients up front, then it is your choice to make exceptions to that scheduling, and if you do make an exception, then you are doing the client a favor, and it’s best you and the client both remember that!

Controlling your own work schedule as an agent is not a privilege. It’s a right! If you want to be treated like a professional, you have to first treat yourself like a professional. Otherwise, you’re lying down like a door mat, just waiting for people to walk all over you. And be sure, no one respects a door mat. Make your decisions, take control of your career and when you’ve got your life put together, there’s only one thing you have to remember. Don’t apologize for it.

Realtors…are you fit, or are you flabby?

Surely you’ve heard the news…the real estate market is doomed! The American Dream is dead! The fundamentals of the nation’s economy are collapsing before our very eyes!!!

etc, etc.

So if the real estate market is doomed, that must mean real estate agents are all bankrupt, right? Realtors are throwing in the towel and moving to much more lucrative 32-hour-per-week jobs as Walmart greeters, right? After all, if the industry is in shambles, the real estate companies that rely on the buying and selling of homes to stay in business should resemble, at least economically, a nuclear wasteland, correct?

The real estate industry, according to media outlets

So, if this is the case and Realtors nationwide are surviving on nothing but irradiated water (figuratively speaking, of course), then how exactly do you explain the more than 12,500 real estate transactions that took place in Boise in 2009 alone? Or, how do you explain the 9,500 homes that have already sold in 2010, with still another four months to go (and the fact that from January through August of 2010, we’ve seen nearly 2,000 more sold listings in the Boise area when compared to 2009)?

I’ll tell you how you explain it, since the mass media won’t.

See, the real estate industry is like a big bowl of soup. Or a cake…or a giant pizza. No, it’s a pie. We can all understand sliced-up pies…and for this analogy, I’ll refer to my mother’s apple pie (made entirely from scratch!), which will both serve as a useful analogy for this blog and as a joyful reminder to me that the holiday season is approaching.

Point being, the pie is finite and can only feed so many people. These days, the pie is smaller than it was a few years ago. So that either means we all get thinner slices, or it means fewer people get to eat pie, but those who get to eat at all are given a regular-sized slice. But unlike with the pie, which would inevitably be divvied up equitably for everyone by my loving and compassionate mother, the real estate market is sliced up not by a omnibenevolent force for Realtors to share equally, but by the Realtors themselves…meaning you can not only have a regular-sized piece of the pie, but you can have an even GREATER sized piece of the pie than you would have had five years ago…heck, you can even have the WHOLE pie!  You just have to WORK for it!

Now, just because I said “work” doesn’t mean you have to stop reading. Fear not, I’ll talk more about pie later. But right now, we need to go back to capitalism, work ethic and survival of the fittest to complete the story. See, none of these forces work well in a family environment. Other than in the TV show Family Guy, I’ve never heard of anyone sit down at the dinner table and say “there’s still going to be food, it’s just going to get a little competitive.”

However, in a multibillion dollar industry, these forces work marvelously! That is, for those who are willing to use them.

Let’s go back to my numbers from earlier. In 2009, we saw more than 12,500 homes sell in the Boise area alone, at an average price of $167,000 or so.  So that means that at a regular commission rate of 3 percent for the buyer’s agent and 3 percent for the seller’s agent, there was more than $125 million in commissions in 2009 that were split up between agents and their brokers (for a little perspective, that number was $333 million in 2006).  Should $125 million in commissions be enough to keep an industry afloat in little ol’ Boise, Idaho? I should hope so!

Without getting too much into the details of splits and other boring topics laden with real estate jargon, I’ll simply say that by my numbers, $125 million in commissions should be able to provide a quite comfortable middle-class life for about 1,500-2,000 real estate agents, plus several hundred staff members who work for the various neighborhood brokerages that house these agents.  Of course, like in any market guided by capitalism, that $125 million is not split up equitably among everyone. It’s up to you to decide if you’re going to be one of the agents who succeeds or one of the agents who fails. This is where the moral of the story comes in!

Nothing in life is free – such a common proverb, and such an important one to remember. But, you MUST remember the converse is also true – if you have to work for everything in life, then generally speaking, shouldn’t those who work the hardest receive the most?

The answer is…yes! Hooray!

To get back to thinking about delicious apple pie, consider this….there is no one and nothing stopping you from getting as much of that delicious pie as possible. No parents to say “only take your share!” so the rest of your real estate siblings can get some, too. No…while the pie is limited in size, the only thing limiting the size of your piece is…can you guess the answer?

You!

So unless you’ve made more than $125 million in commissions in the past year, there’s still some pie out there for you to get your hands on. Are you going to sit back and wait for mom to give you what you think is your “fair share” or are you going to get out there and take it?  Remember, the saying isn’t survival of the laziest or survival of the most entitled. It’s…do I have to say it? Survival of the fittest, and now is the time to decide…are you fit, or are you flabby?

Real estate, Boise, Intermountain MLS, Coldwell Banker, CBTG Homes,

This week’s featured video tour – 436 W Two Rivers Drive, Eagle, Idaho 83616

Check out Jake Conklin’s Two Rivers listing in Eagle, Idaho. It’s a beautiful 4,300+ square foot custom home with a fireplace that will knock your socks off!

CBTG Homes + YouTube = excellent!

Have you heard of this new website called YouTube?

This is the logo for the YouTube

Apparently it’s a popular place for people to be…a place where people share videos and other multimedia files with each other and then other people can watch the videos and comment on them. Sounds like a cool website!*

Not ever wanting to not be in on the cool trends of the moment, we here at CBTG Homes decided to jump on the bandwagon and get in on this pop culture sensation. Our big brothers at Coldwell Banker (national/corporate) in New Jersey already made this jump quite a while ago in creating what they call Coldwell Banker OnLocation (you know it’s a social media site because there’s no space between On and Location, see: YouTube, MySpace, FourSquare, OnDemand, etc.).  But this site covers all of the Coldwell Banker national advertising/marketing needs, plus hosts thousands of videos from across the country offered by Coldwell Banker agents, which means little ol’ Boise (and its suburbs, of course) doesn’t get all of the attention that it deserves.

So, at CBTG Homes, we decided to embark on a new project that will bring you a new featured video every single week, for the rest of eternity (or for the rest of YouTube’s life, which may or may not be eternal).  We don’t have a fancy name for this project, so if you’ve got one, let us know, since no marketing program is complete without a cool name (ideally one where we don’t have to put a space between two words, like “CBTG SpotLight, or CBTG HomeFocus, or something even cooler!) to go along with it. If you come up with a name so amazing that we end up using it, you will be given the immeasurably valuable award of continuous praise from CBTG agents and staff, plus a possible monetary award!!!**

Without further ado, head on over to our local YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/coldwellbankertg and check out the first video of this long, long series of video tours!  Or just see it here!***

* we actually do know what YouTube is, the entire first paragraph was a joke.
** under no circumstance will there be any monetary award for anyone.
*** we apologize for the dorky voiceover, it was our multimedia skills coordinator, who never claimed to be a voice actor.

Is a company’s greatness in its revenue or its people?

After seeing that the Tomlinson Group (uh, that’s us) is ranked #35 in Realtor.org’s latest survey of the top 100 real estate companies in the United States, it got us thinking…what is it that makes a company great?

Is it nothing more than the sheer number of agents selling on behalf of that company at any given moment? Is it the total dollar volume that makes us great, or is it the values and ethics that make us great, which then naturally lead to a high dollar volume?

We here at the Tomlinson Group know that it’s our agents that make us great, since they’re the ones out on the street, passing the company’s values and integrity on to the customer, which then results in a snowball effect in the community, gathering us more sales, more clients and more new agents – which is the exact same snowball effect a good agent will see in their own personal business.

This also plays into a basic marketing strategy, which says “show, don’t tell.” It’s common knowledge that if you’re great, you don’t continue your greatness simply by saying “Hey, we’re great! Do business with us!” No, instead, you should continue to employ whatever integrity, ethic and initiative it was that first made you great, and continuing greatness will come naturally.

So I guess this is a simple blog saying: don’t think the Tomlinson Group is great because we’re ranked #35 in the nation this year. Don’t think we’re great because I say so here in this blog, don’t think so because our agents show you a chart or graph with our numbers towering over the competition. No; it is not our numbers, our quantity, our value, our statistics or our spin that makes us great. Those things are all merely symptoms of what all of our agents and clients already know, but what can’t be measured on charts or graphs.

To Photoshop or not to Photoshop…or, is your listing a dog squirrel?

Is your listing photo a dog squirrel?

I was reading a great blog over at ActiveRain earlier this morning, written by a Re/Max agent in Houston named Greg Nino. It’s not a long or elaborate blog, but it does bring up a hugely important and somewhat controversial topic in the real estate industry: Photoshopped pictures of real estate listings. Greg had the unfortunate experience of coming across a listing that his buyer wanted to view, based on 16 beautiful photos of the property posted online. Unfortunately for the buyer, in the “agent remarks” section in the listing, the listing agent mentioned that the photos were Photoshopped images to show the “potential” of what is currently a disastrous fixer-upper.  Greg points out that it wasn’t merely one or two Photoshopped images, which might be considered an “optimistic” listing instead of a “fraudulent” listing.  No, all 16 images were Photoshopped, leaving not a single photo for buyers to view that was actually representative of the property for sale.

Photoshopping listings has been controversial since the first Photoshopped photo hit the MLS, but it has largely gone under the radar, as most agents only use the powerful image editing program to remove superficial and cosmetic blemishes with the home, such as kids toys in the front yard, a brown spot in the grass, a pile of leaves in front of the house or some other trivial blemish.  And yet still, even Photoshopping out a stain in the carpet or nail pop in the wall could be seen as deceptive to a buyer, even if it would only take ten minutes to fix.  Most buyers would agree; if the fix hasn’t already been made by the buyer, the property should not be advertised as if the fix has been made. Simple, right?

Don't try to list a squirrel moose. Buyers will not be impressed.

Fortunately for buyers and sellers, there is a remedy for all of the aforementioned problems and dilemmas…

Video tours!

Now, it should go without saying that we believe it is never acceptable, under any circumstance, to deceive a potential buyer. This should be a no-brainer (right??).  And if you’re wondering what constitutes “deception,” smack yourself across the face and remember this one thing – if you get even a tiny pang of guilt when you upload an altered photo, your gut has just understood the definition of “deception” and you should probably remove the photo and replace it with a more honest representation.

That said, we can now move on to the exciting topic of video tours. First, it’s important to recognize that any reasonably tech-savvy individual can figure out how to use the clone stamp tool if they have Photoshop or a similar photo-editing program. This simple tool lets the user cover up carpet stains, holes in the wall, dead grass patches, missing roof shingles or even a car-sized hole in the middle of the living room floor (this isn’t a joke).  Second, a quick touch-up with the hue/saturation tool can turn lifeless, pale green grass into a lush, dark green lawn, it can make faded, worn-out wood floors and cabinets look brand new and it can make paint colors look so vivid it’s unbelievable (which is why it is unbelievable!).

However, making these kinds of deceptive “improvements” to a home becomes virtually impossible with the use of consumer video products. This poses the illusion of damaging the listing agent and seller because video is brutally honest, but in reality, it actually helps the listing agent and seller because buyers/viewers of the video know perfectly well that the video tour is going to be accurate, which provides legitimacy to the agent and seller and almost guarantees an unsurprised buyer when they come to view the house. After all, most listings are not sold sight-unseen! So, unless you (the agent) are the type to lie on the first date, only to disappoint your significant other down the road, you’re going to want to be honest from the get-go and use video tours.

But how do you get started with video tours? What kinds of shooting techniques are necessary? What kind of equipment should you invest in? Topics for another day…