20 tidbits from two months on the road

I’ve traveled a lot the past two months. Too much to be honest with you. Posting here has been light as a consequence. That’s something I’m committed to changing in 2011.

But in the meantime, I thought I’d share some things that have popped in (and out) of my head during my travels: questions for which I am unable to find answers, beginnings of aborted blog posts, memorable flashes of conversation.

Tell me what’s kicking around your head in the comments!

1. It makes me sick to think how many innovative (and MLS compliant) ideas that could have helped practitioners have died in mid-conversation when someone said, “We’d have to deal with MLSs to make that happen.”

• Brokers and agents are obsessed with scripts for recruiting and selling, but put no effort into how they speak to website users. I don’t get this.

• More real estate executives should have a point of view.

• Street View is now integrated within Google Earth. We’re edging ever closer to apps that let us – or, more to the point, homebuyers -“be there.” This is a vision born in 1996 with virtual tours that still has disruptive potential.

• Why do consumers continue to hire realtors they “like”?

• Real estate data has jumped the shark. It’s all about brains.

• I like being 39 better than being 29 because I’m more at ease around people who are smarter than me, richer than me, or better looking than me (or all three!).

• Delta = dread; Southwest = love

• In marketing, a story is almost always better than an argument.

• What am I not understanding?

• When faced with a choice between Malcolm Gladwell and Phillip Roth at an airport bookstore, choose Phillip Roth.

• I was told a story about a big west coast broker who admitted to a group that “only 30-40% of my agents are really in the game and doing right by consumers.”

• Small things mean almost as much as the big things in brand interactions. The room was small, but the doorman walked me from the curb to the second floor reception desk; the chicken cacciatora was just OK, but the waitress called me “sweetie.” You get the idea.

• Silence is very effective in meetings.

• How could a broker fail to fire an agent immediately for not removing a listing from the web when it sells?

• I have been inspired by a lot of our clients, but the brains, work ethic and sustained excellence shown by Sean O’Toole and his team at ForeclosureRadar never cease to revive my faith that the cream can still float to the top once in a while.

• The recent mobile photo sharing craze only reinforces my feeling that there is a killer real estate app or two to be found around the billions of property photos amassed by real estate practitioners (whoops! See #1 …)

• I struggle with the fact that emailing people coupons for crap they don’t need, and probably don’t even really want, is a.) Apparently worth $6 billion, and b.) Held up by smart people as “the future of commerce.”

• Referall fees – whether they’re for sending some business to a vendor or sending a homebuyer to an agent across the country – almost always produce suboptimal results for the referred party.

• I am glad to be home.