Denny Crane says
'Who wants to be a Travel Agent?'
Welcome to my metaphor. Inspired by nearly a week of reading my new favorite blogger, Rich From Copywrite, Inc. (linked on the left side of the page), this piece is motivated by change. For my purposes, I'm speaking to the change in doing business or owning real estate. The manner of conducting a real estate sale is about to be swept away into an entirely new paradigm like a number of businesses have been in the recent past.
On ABC's Boston Legal, William Shatner, aka Denny Crane, constantly pops into scenes tossing out the painfully embarrassing, yet somewhat obvious line. In the real estate business, Denny would again be loudly asking the obvious of those of us helping to orchestrate real estate transactions and those who own real estate as an investment.
"C'mon.....who wants to be a travel agent?"
Why? Because those who conduct the business of Real Estate and those who own real estate are in the midst of a titanic shift in the process, much like the travel industry saw several years ago. For my skewed context here, there is no irony lost on the character of Crane, played by Shatner in his commercial endorsement role to PRICELINE.com . 10 years ago, the travel industry was respected, successful and storming ahead with it's service to people in every form of travel based need. America was increasingly affluent, mobile and loved to be on the move. That year, 1997, Priceline.com introduced itself to the traveling public in the form of William Shatner through a stream of wacky commercials that pushed us to point and click to find the cheapest air fares (and later in classic brand extension hotel rooms and rental cars). A decade later the travel industry has laid off thousands of workers. Essentially it's become a shadow of it's former self. Many other service industries are experiencing that as well along with the products they represent, like real estate.
Old school agencies who broker travel have basically been redefined to an Internet based business that fills a niche of customer service. The difference is there is no need to have legions of people seated at a desk to actually place the orders. There are some direct service agencies, but they are a small minority serving certain business and other pigeonhole clientele. To be fair, the change wasn't necessarily any fault of the travel industry and the huge numbers of it's successful representatives other than they never saw it coming. Who did? Can any of say we knew how the Internet was going to absolutely flatten so many businesses by the immediate accessibility it provides?
Well it's coming again to the business of real estate...this time precipitated by the current down turn in the Real Estate market. Anthony Robbins, motivational speaker and infomercial guru has written that 'things don't change when conditions are comfortable....change occurs when pain is present.' If that's the case, change is a full blown tidal wave heading directly for us. Dropping values due to foreclosures, excessive new homes supply, a sub prime mortgage fallout and other secondary factors are the norm today and it will affect most all of us. Falling equity in homes has driven the discount service brokerage movement in the past year and they will continue to gain strength (much to the chagrin of many of my colleagues). They will not, however, replace the affect of the most successful brokers but rather will feed upon those individuals who continue to try and charge a premium fee for less than top shelf service. It's the classic Wal Mart - Nordstrom example. The middle is disappearing to be replaced by the most cost effective (discount) and the very high end.
Real Estate brokers and their companies must learn to do things differently. The effect of the current market downturn will demand that. Watch the numbers in the winter of '07-'08. The quantity of Realtors in this country is going to take a major nose dive (not all would think that's bad, I know). Likewise, the manner in which we all make investment decisions about real estate is also going to change. Dwindling demand for 'vinyl village' types of homes and increasing demands for prime locations will be highlighted. In our area, lots and neighborhoods with character (water front, heavily wooded, golf course) will be the most coveted for more than aesthetic reasons. At this moment they are the only locations selling at a premium and as the public becomes more and more aware of this as a business issue, their demand will rise even faster. The days of buying something slick, shiny and new just for those reasons will soon be a secondary decision. Consumers will be forced to look at the investment first which is not how many decisions have been made in the past. Consumers who blindly buy property for any reasons other than investment first will quickly become the 'travel agents' of the real estate marketplace. I can almost hear Denny Crane's thoughts on that......as painful as they may be.......
