Dead Dinosaurs Walking

by John Rowles

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Author website

As far as I can tell, the RE.net has been advocating for better broker Web sites for as long as there has been an RE.net. Many articles and posts focus on the twin pillars of eCommerce — Search + Content — but many brokers still have Web 1.0 sites or, worse, Web 1.0 sites tarted up with gimmicks to look like Web 2.0 sites while offering the same old stove-piped database search of the same old IDX content.

I started my company to bring common sense eCommerce strategy and Best Practices to Real Estate. To be honest, it has been harder than I thought it would be to get brokers to play ball and, lately, I have been thinking about why that is.

I’ve found that brokers are unique creatures in many different ways, but the most frustrating thing for me when it comes to improving Web marketing programs is that many of them seem to operate on the principle that ignorance is bliss because its cheap. Our clients are the exceptions that prove the rule, but even among them the pace of acceptance and progress varies widely.

Let me put a finer point on that by comparing a project in the real world with what often happens in the Oz of Real Estate:

I just started a new integration project for UVEX Sports. This project will replace the Web-based Business to Business (B2B) platform they are currently using with one that is hosted in-house and tied directly to their enterprise management software. UVEX sees a huge benefit in making the information and functionality that their software holds completely accessible to sales reps and customers via the Web.  This is a significant upgrade over the current platform and a really, really good idea.

This exercise is understood by UVEX’s management, consultants and vendors as an integration project.  Integration projects have two basic components:

1. Technology Integration: Integrating existing systems with new software and hardware.
2. Business Integration:  Teaching management, customer service people, sales reps, and retail buyers to use the new system and make room for it in their day to day running of the business.

Once the project is complete, UVEX’s management understands that the system will require an on-going investment to maintain it and, crucially, manage it so that they get the maximum return on their investment. They also understand that the cost of all of this is going to be greater than the system they are replacing. Its Business 101.

(The guy who runs UVEX Sports USA is no dummy when it comes to free publicity, either, which is why he OK’d a 25% discount when you order from UVEXSports.com and enter “bloodhound” in the discount code field on the checkout page. The offer is good through the end of July. Their melanin sunglasses are excellent.)

Let’s contrast my UVEX experience with what I often encounter when I talk to brokers:

Brokers typically look for a new Web site when their current Web site generates few, if any, leads. Usually, they, their agents or both think another broker in their market has a “better” Web site, or a “cooler” one. They think a new Web site will generate more leads. It probably won’t, but there is no shortage of Web site vendors who are happy to run with this assumption.

All a new Web site will do is give them a better looking version of the problem than they had with the old Web site. This happens because many brokers refuse to see the problem for what it is: A fundamental lack of technology and business integration.

It gets worse — try to explain it in those terms and the only thing that breaks the glaze over the eyeballs is when they get wide-eyed at the suggestion that properly integrating their Web site with their business is going to cost more than the useless site they have now. All bets are off when I explain that quality content doesn’t create itself and success depends on getting agents and admins on board with new responsibilities that require new skills and that means — The Horror, The Horror! — management and accountability. Recently, a broker said to me, dismissively, “Maybe you should be a Real Estate broker in your next life.”

I guess the perception is that I am an unrealistic idealist. They wish.

The reality is:

• Compared to a project like UVEX’s, Real Estate broker Web site integration projects are usually pretty straight-forward and relatively inexpensive.
• No real change is possible unless broker/owners (and their senior managers, if there are any) are willing to demonstrate the leadership that is required to push change through their organization.
• Nothing worthwhile in business works unless its managed properly (I know, “Duh”, right?). Putting a dedicated, preferably experienced,  eye on the Web marketing ball is crucial to having a successful program.
• Each of the above has a cost associated with it. The benefits outweigh the cost by an order of magnitude, but the bar is set by the vendor who sold them the Web site they have that doesn’t work. It makes me wonder if they would go to a Porsche dealer and demand to pay what they paid for the Hyundai they are trading in because both are cars.

And that is the difficult, sad conclusion that I am coming to: Many brokers really don’t want a Web site that works. They may nod their heads and agree that the benefits are obvious and necessary, but unlike businesses in the real world, businesses like UVEX who understand both the benefits of integration and the costs associated with it, they aren’t willing to put their money or their time where their mouths are.

This, I think, more than anything else, is what makes many of today’s remaining old school Real Estate brokers the modern day equivalent of the dinosuars who were on Earth after that asteroid hit the Yucatan. Dead dinosaurs walking.