The truth serves. It will prevail. And it will inspire

One can follow Twitter to size up the positive sentiment blanketing the United States right now. Obama told it like it is: Times are tough. They are going to get tougher. We are surrounded by hardship. And have been lead there by greed, foolishness and irresponsibility.

And the crowd applauded.

That's new. We are tired of the whitewashing, the shoveling of the shit under the proverbial rug.

We are ready to hear the truth. We don't view it as negative, or bad. It serves to lift the veil of confusion and frustration we feel.

The truth will serve. It will prevail. It inspires. And I am convinced it will set you free.

Real estate marketing departments, pay heed. And ask yourselves these question:

Is the voice with which my company speaks believable?

Bad news is not necessarily negative. You customer is ready for it. They might actually be attracted to it. And seek you out to provide the necessary decision support, guidance, and service to help them through it.

This morning, history was made. Obama dished out a little truth. We took it. Gladly.

Brokers, you can do this.

Yes you can.

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Crumbs from real estate's table

Humanitarian and U2 front man Bono can now add "columnist" to his list of accomplishments. He published his first op-ed piece in the New York Times this past weekend.

Considering his access to the world from places unattainable to most of us, I've been wondering why he would choose a newspaper over the stage, his band's website, One.org or the myriad social networks that span the web.

Bono chose the Times.

Granted it's a well respected newspaper. But it's still a newspaper. And for those of us here in real estate, it's a medium many in our industry have all but forsaken. 

What does Bono know that we don't?

I know real estate's experience with newspapers has not been all that congenial or rewarding over the last decade. But perhaps your lack of success runs on a two-way street. Consider how, over the last decade, despite massive shifts in consumer interests and branding and communications practices, real estate continued to use the newspaper as it always had.

With double trucks framed by agent faces, generic copy, empty messages and pointless Realtor of the Month ads, what did real estate advertisers honestly expect from the paper? After all, what exactly was it your ads were trying to say? And toward whom were they geared?

Certainly not consumers.

Perhaps what Bono understands is the simple fact that people still read the paper. Lots of people. And while they may not always respond well to the array of ads within it, they might respond well to a thought provoking editorial. 

Crumbs

Real estate leaders. You know so much. Some of you have lived lifetimes in the housing business. You understand the cycles, the ebbs, the flows. You have a vast understanding of how markets trend up and down.

Is it too far-fetched to believe that newspapers might be the perfect medium to carry your occasional op-ed piece? Think of them as a platform to share your feelings, analyses, sentiments and, perhaps, even a vision.

All these years you have tried to build a brand based on modes of communication that offered only crumbs from your table of real estate knowledge. Perhaps going forward, you might want to take a page out of Bono's book and consider another look at the newspaper and the impact you could have on your marketplace if you leveraged it properly.

Sure you can write a blog or publish a letter from the desk of the CEO on your Website. That's probably not a bad idea. But until your blog is delivered to the door step of homes throughout your marketplace, this may very well be an option worth considering.

-- Davison

Twitter: 1000wattmarc

The MLS moment

We're bullish on MLS. Or rather, the potential that lies within most MLS organizations. In fact, Marc and I think MLSs hold some of the most exciting possibilities in real estate and technology in 2009.

I know that may sound odd, and more than a little naive. For those of us with a close-in view of the MLS world, it seems at times hopelessly hamstrung by politics. Those just a little further removed see a fragmented, somewhat mysterious assortment of acronyms.

But let's step back for a minute. Way back. Out to Mars. Looked at from this perspective -- with political fault lines and puzzling borders blurred -- we see an industry in a pretty compelling position.

Here's why:

1. MLSs have the most valuable content assets in their entire category. And content, as we know, is King. No one touches them on quantity or quality.

2. MLSs have market share, adoption rates and, as a result, a distribution channel that is the envy of any other business entity on the face of the planet. Never mind why that is. It is.

3. The best and the brightest are lined up outside MLS doors. Everyone wants to do business with the MLS. There must be some value there, huh?

4. It appears as if users of the MLS really need it. It looks to pass the "if it disappeared tomorrow, would you really care?" test. That type of utility means the MLSs are not only relevant, but can solve problems for their customers.

These realities don't disappear when we come back to Earth; we just lose a clear view of them.

That was the crux of a presentation we gave to several hundred MLS executives at NAR a couple months ago: You can kick ass -- but you had better get moving. Click here for the slide deck, or view it below. You'll miss a lot of the details without the discussion, but it's a broad outline of our observations.

It starts with your brand. Yes, an MLS is a brand, and a brand is a unit of meaning. Ask yourself, "what does [my MLS here] mean? If you can't answer that in two seconds, you've identified a core problem.

We offer some ideas for moving forward with this broader perspective, but the important thing is in the stepping back. 

We absolutely believe:

1. Brokers have no better partner for surviving this market than their MLS

2. MLS organizations can take a leadership position in the online real estate category

3. Consumers -- and the Realtors that serve them -- can benefit immeasurably from products built by, or off of, the MLS (API, anyone?).

But that can only happen if MLS leaders step back and look at the bigger picture, forfeit near-term comfort for long-term value, and start messing with the playbook.

Last week at Inman, I moderated a woefully short session on the future or MLS that featured leaders that have done it. David Charron at MRIS [disclosure: 1000watt Consulting has performed work for MRIS] and Bud Fogel at Midwest Regional Data see the big picture and have done the hard work of sharing it with others.

It is my hope that more join them this year. I think they will be rewarded.

Here's the presentation:

MLS: A view from Mars

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business Presentations & Slid branding real estate

Real estate's year of competence and leadership

The ascent from JFK was bumpy. My back hurt. I had not slept well for days and spent inordinate amounts of time paying attention.

A week at Real Estate Connect. Exhausting but great.

I stared at the small screen on the seat in front of me, coming to the conclusion that cable television is much more interesting without sound. I tried to relate this to real estate without success.

I'm in the middle of re-reading The Grapes of Wrath, hoping to gain some perspective on the times, so I tried that for a while. This required too much concentration. I quit.

I then spent the next several hours shifting around in my seat thinking about what the week meant, trying to figure if some clear call to action had emerged from the chatter.

The vibe of the event was palpably pessimistic. Which I loved. No joke. In the closing session I said I was optimistic about pessimism and I meant it. It's been over three years since the market started its slide and for too long too many kept on fantastically grasping at the merest hint of a quick recovery, which sustained people and practices that needed to be replaced. That was almost absent last week, and that rocked. The grown-ups at the event handled the truth just fine.

But a takeaway? A replacement for transparency? That was tougher to discern.

But here's what I've got:

2009 will be the year of Competence and Leadership.

Competence

Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election by declaring "This election is not about ideology; it's about competence."

See, competence is boring. People like ideas. But I am thinking that for now we have enough good ideas in real estate.

Take online marketing. Most brokers and agents would probably find a session on ideas for leveraging microblogging platforms fun, but circling back to untangle a kludgey IDX solution would produce more results. 

In one of the broker sessions I moderated, Nicolai Kolding from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate [disclosure: BH&GRE is a 1000watt Consulting client] explained to brokers in the room how to calculate company dollar per desk and offered some good profitability benchmarks. It struck me that many in attendance were not doing this, and probably lacked the operational resources and systems to even try. Twitter all you want, it's this sort of basic business competence that will separate the winners from the losers in 2009.

This theme appeared in session after session.

Leadership

In the same broker forum, we were talking about the how to straighten out a brokerage P&L by shrinking physical footprint and cutting the cord on low-impact, high-cost print advertising. The two brokers on the panel, John Vatistas, chairman of Russ Lyon Sotheby's International Realty and John Reinhardt, CEO of Fillmore Real Estate, explained how they had done both of these things with very little collateral damage.

I pushed them: "Don't you find it hard to recruit without offering a private office?" "Don't sellers and agents scream when you pull print advertising?"

As they explained how they got it done, how they made the tough calls, it became clear why they succeeded where many others perpetually struggle: They are leaders capable of articulating a vision. Force of personality coupled with sound business sense powered them through obstacles.

That sounds trite, but I believe it to be the truth. There are a limited number of exceptional leaders in real estate, and the pool got pretty diluted over the past decade. Many retired. A year and a half ago we asked the question "Where is real estate's Steve Jobs?" We may not have found our Jobs, but I ran across some true leaders last week. You know them when you see them, and seeing them will become a lot easier as this market grinds on: They will be the only ones left standing. 

If you have one of these people in your organization, get out of the way. If you don't, hire one. Time is of the essence.

Touchdown

I was beyond fatigue when we hit the runway at SFO. My mind had been reduced to jelly during the last hour by watching Hardball without sound. Chris Matthews resembled a postmodern Howdy-Doody, all jawbone.

So take my impressions with a grain of salt. But that's what hit me: Competence and leadership. It's not sexy. It lacks the newness of "transparency" as a buzzword.

But it's going to be what it takes in 2009. Bring it on!

-- Brian Boero

Forget transparency: Let's find a new clarion call in 2009

 

That's my mortgage broker, letting is all hang out.

My Realtor? When my wife and I sold, I knew exactly what she netted. I knew her split. I asked.

The closing costs on my recent refi were of course conveniently broken down for easy scrutiny. "Document preparation fee" sounds like bullshit, can we get rid of that? Done.

Many called for "transparency" in the real estate business over the past few years. It became an easy Web 2.0 buzzword. I put a lot of stock in it too: If we just make the information available and uncloak the sales games, the real estate experience will improve. Zillow raised $87 million dollars on this idea.

I was wrong. Very little changed. Buyers and sellers, though armed with comps, Zestimates, school reports and trend charts, still ended up paying an under qualified agent too much money far too often. Brokers got less profitable. Good agents suffered armies of fools. And the public's view of real estate is more jaundiced than ever.

In reality, consumers could always see the compromised links in the real estate value chain quite clearly. They certainly knew the score on commissions. The light of day can shine with the power of a thousand suns into the dark corners and clauses of the real estate transaction. The real problems, which are structural, remain. 

Yes, some people did get burned. But that wasn't for lack of transparency in most cases. It was a double helix of profit motive and magical thinking that is, in retrospect, nearly impossible to untangle.

So as I head off to Inman's Real Estate Connect conference today, I am looking for a new clarion call for all of us who want the real estate business to be better.

See, real estate matters. We're not selling ringtones here, folks. We're talking about shelter. Lives. Families.

We can do better. But can has seldom been enough. Perhaps now, in a time of must, it will happen.

Coming down

Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I'd smoked my brain the night before,
On cigarettes and songs I'd been pickin'.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid,
Cussin' at a can that he was kicking.
Then I crossed the empty street,
'n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken.
And it took me back to somethin',
That I'd lost somehow, somewhere along the way.

That's Kris Kristofferson's Sunday Morning Coming Down. Real estate's coming down pretty hard too. And many are finding they've lost something along the way: Perspective. Business sense. Integrity.

I'm hoping we can get it back this year. But to do so we've got to move beyond believing that if we open things up a little it will all be okay.

With what, then, do we lead the charge to a better industry?

Honestly, I'm not sure. People smarter than me have suggested possibilities in the past few months, but it's not clear to me yet.

I am hoping I'll come back from Connect with some answers. 

But please: Let's drop transparency. It didn't do the trick.

Stay tuned.

-- Brian Boero

Brokers, it's time to get out of the cockpit

Brian wrote this piece just about a year ago. The title became the basis for a live presentation we have given throughout this past year on a variety of topics including branding, marketing and communication, sales and creative thinking. 

----

“Good morning, folks, my name is Brian Marsh and I’m your first officer on today’s flight out to Aruba [pauses amid chuckles].

How many people on this plane have never flown jetBlue before? Great, how about you stand up and tell us a little bit about yourselves?

Seriously, I’m grateful you’re on board with us this morning. We’ve got some tailwinds, so our flight time out to D.C. will be a quick four hours and thirty minutes. And all reports indicate a smooth ride.

Sit back and enjoy the jetBlue experience – and thanks again”

I was headed out to Washington from Oakland on a jetBlue flight last week.

The screen in front of me had already told me I “look good in leather” – the material covering my seat – and commended me for being a “good screen reader”. Now the first officer had come out of the cockpit to greet us, joke around a bit, and tell us what to expect.

The week before I had flown from Houston to Oakland on Continental. My seat smelled of body odor. The flight attendants were surly. My tray table restricted my breathing. I arrived home with a sore back and headed straight for the shower.

The guy flying the plane could have made me feel a little better about this, but he chose not too. He remained, as most pilots remain, a leaden voice coming through the squawk box, distant and unconcerned.

I hate Continental. I love JetBlue.

Brokers, it’s time for you to get out of the cockpit too. Times are tough. People are hurting. They’re angry, and unsure.

It’s been a long flight and the peanuts aren’t helping.

How often do you, your office mangers or your VPs, personally greet clients in your office? How often do you call buyers to congratulate them upon closing? Or send them a handwritten note?

Do you speak candidly and sympathetically to your customers about the challenges facing home buyers and sellers? Or do you remain ensconced in the soundproof cockpit of the executive suite and let your marketing department do the talking?

Have you lent humor to your interactions with sellers? Or are you still hoping to still the anxious minds in your market with postcards?

All this buzz about blogs? It’s not about technology: it’s about you, your voice, and a conversation you need to be having with your customers.

I know. There are reasons to stay put. You don’t want to edge in on agent relationships. You don’t want exposure to criticism. Let me tell you something: When you speak to your customers with a human voice you are forgiven for your mistakes. JetBlue botched hundreds of flights and stranded a hundred and fifty passengers on the tarmac at JFK for nine hours last winter in an operational meltdown. People gave them the flack they deserved and went on loving the company.

Get out there. Hold a town hall meeting. Spend 20k to hire a top shelf economist or personal finance expert to help your customers navigate a challenging economy. Give them the data they need, however ugly it may be.

Speak frankly. Be open. Push yourself to communicate in new ways. Take a look at this. I know -- it’s far from perfect. And the opening video is filled with cant. But he’s trying. He’s left the cockpit. He’s telling us what to expect and injecting his brand with a dose of humanity.

I know a lot of smart brokers. People who’ve been through rough times before and have a genuine passion for helping people. Trouble is, they don’t have – or don’t think they have – the moves in them to pull something like this off. I think they underestimate themselves. The tools are there. It’s what Web 2.0 is all about.

Get out of the cockpit and face the crowd. It’ll make everyone feel better.

-- Brian Boero

O Canada! One great association event can beget many more

Quebec City - night.

40-mile per hour winds blew mothball sized snow flakes, blasting the tiny slice of skin I left exposed under my lightweight winter clothing. 

I elected to walk from the hotel to dinner where I was to join several dozen of Canada's best and brightest real estate folks. 

I was in town to speak at the CREA (Canadian Real Estate Association) conference -- my second-to-last speaking trip of 2008.  

Despite taking place two days before Thanksgiving, I chose to come for one simple reason: I see Canada as America's attic, a place filled with great treasures. A place you climb up into to discover hidden gems you never knew where there. Once here, you find it's a place you simply don't want to come down from. 

One central consumer facing Website site serves all the many different MLS's and boards across Canada who feed this site with listings. (Thanks to Michael Wurzer and Brian Larson for adding clarity to this). You know that. But until you come here and get inside the Canadian real estate culture, you will never fully appreciate its implications. 

But let's put that aside as the merits of one national MLS will derail the point of this post, which was this association's agenda for members and conference attendees. It was all about Web 2.0, which took center stage rather than some small meeting room far from the typical CE courses that have been hashed and rehashed for the last 10 years. 

The heavily populated ballroom was filled to capacity. Mostly boomers. Most had no Facebook account. Most never shot video. Most never blogged. Most still have a dependency on print marketing and advertising.

But these folks were engaged, despite the long day of speakers and challenging topics. During one panel, the audience was taught how to use their smart phones to send tweets to a twitter account the moderator created for the session and projected on two screens - one in English and one in French. It appeared Twitter was a phenomenon only 2 out the 600 in attendance had experienced.

No magnet vendors here

I walked though the vendor area. No magnet booths. No sign booths. No jewelery. There were a handful of carefully selected technology vendors and, as you can see above, Apple. Chew on that.

Conversations at dinner

Pictured here is the 2-story, 300-year old building that houses the restaurant at which we had dinner. The entire party save myself and one other took a cab. We chose to walk through the cold. Strolling through the walled entry to the old city was worth the frostbite. 

My table-mate was Sano Stante, a boutique broker out of Calgary. Throughout dinner we hashed out his vision for the virtual office he has been planning for the past year. Every bit was well thought out.

As he spoke, I wondered how many of his peers down in Silicon Valley have isolated their inefficiencies so well: The big offices, the empty cubicles, the Cat 5 cable connected to printers and copy machines. I wondered how many brokers in the US are planning their virtual play like this pioneer sitting next me.  

I wondered how many associations in the USA are gathering their flocks into one place like CREA has done here where the cans of radical discussions and topics are popped open.

One Canadian summed it up gracefully. She said for every one stodgy old AE that fights change, there are ten young bucks with degrees looking for jobs in the Canadian real estate industry that believe change is paramount to survival. It's got everyone on their toes. 

What should 2009 look like for real estate associations?

For starters, all of you should be on your toes too. The new value you could be bringing to your members is urgently needed.

For starters, redo your websites. Most appear fluff-full of pleasantries. If I view one more association website where the front page features agents holding over-sized checks I'm going to wretch.

Focus your events for 2009 on topics that really matter for your members. Forget the award sessions and courses on how to become an expert witness, and wealth building secrets -- the stuff that has been the standard fodder forever. Replace them with the things that matter right now: Foreclosures, global real estate, auditing your P&L, the virtual office, social media and social marketing and communications, understanding the Gen X&Y customer, and a session called "Good Vendor, Bad Vendor" which I personally want to host to help the throngs of agents and brokers learn how to discern between the snake oil salesmen and the real deal. 

And let's focus on eradicating the statement "I am computer illiterate" from this industry forever. Being computer literate, being able to write, report and broadcast must be viewed as part of the skill set of today's agent.

Teach agents the 15 things they can be doing right now that will keep them from ever having to take out a newspaper ad again and show them how real and powerful social media marketing can be.

And bring in a few Canadians! First on my list is one of the most progressive agents in Toronto. Richard Silver uses all forms of Web 2.0 successfully garnered from his self-funded trips to Real Estate Connect for the past 10 years to make sure he stayed on the cutting edge. And it's paid off. As Richard loves to remind people, he is a young 60. 

Canadian front

 

I don't take to the cold much. Living in California has softened me up. But the fresh blast of cold progressive Canadian air will stick with me as I think through the possibilities for real estate. As the days, weeks and months progress into 2009, the weak among us will exit and the cream of this business will rise. What will emerge can and should be a better, stronger, smarter, force of agents.

Associations, 2009 can be your year.
Seems pretty darn exciting to me. 

Let's rock, eh?

- Davison 

Eruption

He was a grown man on the brink of tears. A broker. Relating a story to a fellow speaker after a conference session a few weeks ago. 

I happened into the conversation by virtue of proximity. I became engaged by solidarity.   

The broker, a smart and eloquent man, was relating an event unfolding in his business, a family enterprise now on shaky ground.

It was 133 days into the unsuccessful representation of a listing when he was called by the seller to intervene. This seller, on the brink of foreclosure, could faintly hear the flushing gurgle of his family's hopes heading down the drain. 

The broker spoke with the listing agent to assess the marketing campaign and pricing.

At that show and tell moment, the broker came face to face with all the words he has read in the past, the speeches he has heard, the cautions and advice he had been given but chose to ignore.

"Only two photos," I heard him say.

"After 133 days, all my agent did was take two photos of the home. Put it on the MLS. That's it. This is a home worth millions that is about to go into foreclosure." he  said. "And it's all my fault."

Pain has a profile. It pushed hard against this man's brow. He looked at both of us, his eyes continuing the conversation his voice couldn't. A lesser man might have looked down. Or said nothing. He continued.

"I could be sued," he said.
"I should be sued," he echoed.
"If I were the seller, I would sue me. We have done less than nothing to help him."

No longer was I a passerby.

"Nothing yet." Was his reply to my question: "So what have you done about that agent?"

I peeked over at my colleague. Waited a few cautionary seconds before speaking. Hoping he, being far wiser than I, would intercept the moment and say something sage.

Seconds.

"What you should have done is handed that agent back their license," I said. "Right then. On the spot. Send a message to every other sub-par agent in the company looking to do as little as possible and make the most. Then I would have called every broker in the city and made sure this individual never works in this profession again. I would fire my GM, take over the reigns and send a message out to every agent that at this moment, everything in the company changes."

The broker looked me square in the face. "I never should have hired him to begin with," he said.
"Forget that," I said. "What's done is done. Fire his ass and anyone else who has an issue with it. And either close the doors to your brokerage or use this as an opportunity to rebuild."

I expected him to tell me where to shove it. I would have deserved it. Or give me fifteen reasons why such drastic moves were impossible.

Neither occurred. The next day I saw him in the hall. As he put it, he was "erupting with new ideas."

Way to go.

- Davison

Zillow jumps into the credibility gap, naked

Last week, Zillow lifted the veil on its much anticipated mortgage initiative halfway. The consumer-facing part is still under wraps, but we now know the company plans to screen the mortgage professionals it allows to interact with its consumer visitors.

They have jumped straight into the credibility gap plaguing the housing industry these days. Naked. The splash was big and some people are uncomfortable.

Since the company launched two years ago, they have played around the edges of the industry's Achilles heel -- the space between what it says and what it delivers -- by giving consumers free access to information that had been jealously guarded by practitioners.

They have now moved beyond data to the practitioners themselves. Who's good? Who's bad? Who's going to tell me what's what? Zillow will.

Bravo!

Those who are professional, who have hewn to the consumer side of the line all along, should welcome this. Those who floated on the magic carpet ride that was the boom market with thin credentials should freak out.

I won't ascribe too much importance to this development. Last week's announcement was not a launch. And the originator requirements they outlined are only impressive relative to the anemic standards set by licensing authorities. But this is nonetheless a signal moment that should not go unconsidered by real estate brokers and loan originators alike.

Why

Go here. It's the "President's Message" to consumers on the Website of Tarbell, REALTORS, a major California brokerage company. It reads, in part:

"I am confident our highly skilled real estate professionals will provide you with the unparalleled level of service and expertise that you deserve"

Then go here. This is the page for the "Real Estate Licensing School" the company runs. It's featured on the home page of the company's Website. The key phrase here is: "Pass or don't pay".

Tarbell is a venerated company in many industry circles. And the folks there are honest and decent. I use the example above because when I came across it last week I was struck by the astonishingly vast philosophical chasm exiting between Zillow (and many others in the online real estate category) and much of the "traditional" brokerage community.

Transparency on the one side; fog, in my opinion, on the other.

So what happens if Zillow starts putting its imprimatur on Realtors? How vulnerable will most brokerages be if (I would say when) a ratings/review site like HomeThinking, AgentScoreboard or IncredibleAgents gets its bearings and takes off? How quickly will consumers drive out bad actors once they have the means to do so?

A time to destroy

Philosopher Joseph Shumpeter coined the term "creative destruction" to characterize the process by which capitalism sustains itself: New entrants -- innovators -- destroy old and sometimes still valuable companies, processes and markets to create new value.

Zillow is rocking the creative destruction angle right now. Real estate brokers and agents that want to be around ten years from now better join in.

To do so will be painful. But safe is no longer an option. Whether you look at it as a Hail Mary pass or a long term investment in your future, it may be time to:

• Destroy the blinders maintaining a closing-to-closing range of vision
• Destroy the comfortably hackneyed voice emanating from your marketing department and recognize that while honesty with the consumer may lose you one deal or recruit tomorrow, it will gain you a hundred over time.
• Destroy the porous walls around your brand and build real standards into your recruiting and training processes.
• Destroy the gap between claims and reality you can no longer hide from consumers in a Web 2.0 world.

A happy ending

I am not sounding the real estate brokerage industry's death knell. I am underscoring opportunity. When I survey the industry, I think there are plenty who will fail to seize it. But there are some, too few, who will take a cue from Zillow.

The old real estate sensibility is a teardown. Start swinging the ball now.

-- Brian Boero

Rewriting the book on how to kick ass

Alright! Everybody up
You say, I cannot get there from here
Then I don't care where I'm goin’
Here's to your thin red line
Mmm, I'm stepping over

-- Van Halen, “Unchained”

1978

Van Halen erupts onto the music scene finger tapping and tremolo diving like no one ever had before. Their music was living, breathing and pulsating from Eddie's guitar and out his Marshall stacks in a wild combination of looped guitar effects sequenced in a whole new way.

They rewrote the book on how to kick ass.

I know, I don't ask for permission
This is my chance to fly
Maybe enough ain't enough for you
But it's my turn at a try

What makes a rock star

True rock stars bring something different to the table. It's why they rise to the top and stay there. They have a their own look. Their own special feel. It’s that difference that cut Zeppelin apart from Sabbath. And Deep Purple apart from Cream.

It's the same in business. Rock star brands set themselves apart. Their look, their feel, their products, message, and service are all carved from that same sense and position. It's what sets Apple apart and sends its sales soaring. 

Then there are the clone bands. The ones that copy someone's else's look, sound and feel. Like Badfinger. Like every hip-hop act since Tupac. 

Tell me that our industry isn't filled with clone bands. Each copying the other. Same yard sign. Same newspaper ad. Same website. Same consumer proposition. Their lead singer agents? Mostly glam, no gravitas. Their lead guitarists? More suited for the campfire than the big stage.

I had posters on my wall as a kid. My room was a shrine to the artists I worshiped. I came to know them intimately through their music, their lyrics, their album art, their music.

As adults, we still build shrines. Only these days, the things we worship are the products we buy. The brands we swear by.

But does this relationship occur as often as it should in the context of the most important purchase American's make? What real estate acts do consumers worship? What agent posters do they hang? And no, refrigerator magnets don't count.

2008

Real estate could use a few good rock star brokers encased in spandex, air humping their way across their boardroom inciting a riot. Inciting change. Or a solo artist agent crotch thrusting through their marketplace building new fans into a frenzy by virtue of their ingenuity, flair, and intense market brilliance. 

Real estate rock stars believe they do more than sell homes. They believe their customers are more than just leads. They believe in the big picture. They don’t reflexively resist anything different.

Change, nothin' stays the same
Unchained, and ya hit the ground runnin'
Change, ain't nothin' stays the same
Unchained, yeah ya hit the ground runnin'

Unchained

Nothing ever does stay the same. A European invasion is rocking our shores with foreign brands like Engel and Volkers, Dothomes and others coming into our space. Rock star practitioners like Noah Rosenblatt and Kevin Boer are emerging in market after market bringing with new strategies, new philosophies, and a forward looking disposition.

Whatever you thought was untouchable, unchangeable or sacred about your business, the emerging rock stars are leaving by the wayside. They're bringing a whole new sound that is taking each of them up to the top of their local charts.

If you're clinging to what you did, what was, what you know and what everyone else does ...

Nothing ever stays the same.
Whatever, whoever, tries to keep it that way will wither.
And wander off into the fade.

-- Davison