Are Residential Brokers Technology Leaders?

There's a stereotype that residential real estate agents are amateurs; that most of them work part time and they have nowhere near the business sophistication or sales skills of commercial brokers. This might be true in some ways, but in one aspect residential brokers are way ahead of their commercial peers: the use of the interactive web to build a network, market themselves and generate more revenue.

I've come to this conclusion by rather unsophisticated means - only web browsing really - but here are some examples of what I have found:

Residential brokers are keen on technology and there is a lot of online support to help them leverage new web tools. Here are three:

• A blog by Loren Nason called Future of Real Estate Technology, focuses on technology for real estate agents. "you will find some technology products are a waste of your time and money, and others are the best investment you can make." Loren will help you tell the difference.
  
• Here is another site that helps agents leverage technology. On My Tech Opinion you can learn about new real estate sites and services. They have tips on social networking and you can find out, amongst other things, how to use web based mapping and how to insert YouTube video into PowerPoint.
  
• Joel Burslem's blog The Future of Real Estate Marketing examines the impact of the Internet on real estate and real estate marketing. He offers lots of information that allows agents to harness web 2.0 technologies.
  

Then there are a whole host of web based services and applications that support residential agents. Here are three:

• Trulia is a real estate search engine that incorporates some interesting web technology. There are map based searches that are built as mash-ups on top of Google Maps. You can take virtual walks in neighbourhoods - using Google Street View. Agents can showcase their expertise by participating in the 'Advice & Opinions' community.


• Home Gain is a service that connects real estate professionals. It also now provides a blogging platform for real estate agents to build their online communities.


• Zolve is a social network for real estate professionals. Agents can chat and share tips and ideas. They can also write blogs and promote themselves in various ways. This site has some nifty interface features.

So why do residential agents seem to be so far ahead in the use of interactive web technology and social networking? I can think of three reasons:

1. First, most of these people work independently. Where do they find help? Most likely, they will turn to a web-search to find tools that they can use. They cannot rely on IT departments and are therefore keen on web based solutions.


2. Second, residential agents do not know who their next customer will be - but they know it someone that knows someone they know. Web based social networking is a natural extension of how a good agent operates anyway: build a network and keep it warm.


3. Third, many large companies with big offices are working hard to control web 2.0 applications. Many IT departments block these tools at the firewall. These sites are seem as a threat to corporate security and control. Perhaps commercial agents, who work in offices, are discouraged, if not prevented, from using the social web for work?

Of course there are exceptions. There are commercial brokers who are using the new tools effectively. Here's a good example. Look at what Hans Hansson is doing on his blog at Starboard TCN.

Hans candidly shares his experience in the business and he offers very good advice to prospective clients. It's surprising that more commercial brokers don't have a web presence like this.

What do you think? Are commercial real estate agents, brokers and landlords missing out on the social web? Or is it not a medium that they would benefit from as much as the residential folk do?

Strategic or not?

Most companies that sell their products and services to other business would like to see themselves as 'strategic partners' of their clients rather than mere 'suppliers'. 'Strategic' confers value and importance - as opposed to the interchangeable commodity nature of a 'supplier'.

But what does strategy really mean? Corporate Strategy deals with the issues around which business a company should be in and how it will best succeed. How can the company achieve a long term sustainable competitive advantage? Strategy issues encompass vertical and horizontal integration as well as divestment options. Where are the edges of the company? What should the corporation do internally and what should it purchase externally?

A strategic partner would have to have relevance in these options and decisions. So can Space Database be considered a strategic partner? I believe that SDI can play a strategic role as an outsourcer. We take care of data management and allow real estate companies to focus on core competencies. We can boost marketing and management effectiveness while reducing costs. In this sense the integration of Space Database services as part of the design of the corporation is a strategic choice.
On the other hand, is the role that Space Database plays big enough to reach the attention of C level executives? In many cases not - we're really not an exciting enough side of the business!

I think we may be a lot like UPS. United Parcel Service is a stodgy old company that delivers parcels - how boring is that? less well known is UPS supply chain management business. Modern manufacturing and retail businesses are, at their core, closely integrated supply chains. Just In Time manufacturing concepts demand that slack and inventory be driven out of these systems. Competitive advantage no longer exists within the factory or the store walls but is embodied in the effectiveness of the supply chain. And UPS knows how to get millions of items to millions of destinations in the most efficient manner possible. Many companies have outsourced this key element to UPS: http://www.ups-scs.com/consulting/strategy.html - but it would still be embarrassing to call UPS your strategic partner!

Space Database also manages a supply chain - a supply chain of information. The flow of accurate and timely information to, through, and from a real estate company has become a critical aspect of competitive performance. We should be like the humble UPS - toil away at our simple service and never let on how essential we really are.

After all, using Space Database should not a 'strategic choice' - it's only common sense!

UrbanDB

We've found this to be a great resource for getting basic building information before we start work on a job. It's a website with a detailed database of buildings. It's especially well documented and detailed in the Toronto area. You can find it at www.urbandb.com .

To price and plan a survey job properly we need to know what kind of building we are dealing with. This site gives us the year the building was built, the number of floors and a picture of the building.

The site has details on 3,949 buildings in Toronto. If you search on a Toronto address in Google, chances are urbandb will be somewhere at the top of the list. So is this a large company with a dedicated team of researchers to maintain the site and enter all of these details?- No!In fact it is the part time 'hobby project'of one guy.

Taylor is his name and he has built this site using open source technology. He has opened up the site to anyone who wants to help out by contributing information. He has succeeded in building his own Wikipedia of buildings!

Rod is modest about the success of his site "it takes a large number of volunteers to keep things running. Every little piece of information helps."

UrbanDB illustrates three important points. The first is the power and sophistication of open source technology that exists today. The tools that are now available enabled one person (although technically skilled) to put together an incredibly sophisticated site in their spare time. Secondly, web collaboration - getting users to contribute the content - is a great way to gather data. This site is populated by the work of volunteers that just happen to be interested in buildings. Finally, this project demonstrates how 'flat' the internet is. This site is more popular and probably has more traffic than dedicated commercial broker and building owner sites could ever hope for.

Strategy and Our Website

Over the last year, a great deal of thought has gone into what the direction of our business should be. The results are reflected in our new website. Besides updating the design and the graphics we have also refined our positioning. There are two key points. The first is that we do not just produce data - rather we turn data into valuable 'strategic assets'. The second point is that we provide integrated solutions that support and leverage the work that our clients are engaged in.The most important message on the site is the value proposition is 'turn your building drawings and related data into strategic assets'. We then invite people to see how we do this for their specific roles: 'find a solution designed for you:'
We then have a series of pages that focus on the needs of each type of customer we have and the ways in which our products support them. Every product is not for everyone - and certain combinations are more valuable as integrated solutions than they are as stand-alone services. Here is the 'grid' of solutions:

In addition to presenting our products as part of a bundled solution, we have retained the left hand navigation which has become somewhat of an internet standard. You can get to each product through this navigation tree also.

Whenever a visitor drills down to one of these topics from anywhere, the left-hand menu is highlighted, so you always know where you are in this grid.
The goal here is to illustrate the value that our products bring to our prospective clients and to deliver the message in a way that is clear, memorable and compelling!

B!CRM

B!CRM stands for Building and Client Relationship Management. This is a new strategic tool that we are developing at Space Database to give Arcade a competitive advantage in business development and customer service. This software will give us a clear understanding of our dealings with our clients. It will give us new insights by helping us map and understand the relationships between people and buildings. With our new 'B'CRM system we will be able to associate our clients with the physical assets that they manage.

 Contact Management

We all have contact lists of people we deal with frequently. Whether they be in Outlook, Act or in a paper address book. One of our goals is to consolidate these lists so that we have a single source of accurate and up to date data that we can all share. This will save time in that only one list has to be maintained. As a shared list, we can put more energy into keeping it complete and up to date.

 Relationship Management

Once we have more than one person dealing with the same list of contacts, managing the relationship between our clients and prospects and our organization becomes more difficult. How do we know we are communicating information to clients that is relevant to their roles? How do we ensure that three people are not trying to sell them the same thing? How do we make sure we don't forget about some people all together? The situation starts to become more complex now that we are providing many different products and solutions.

As we try to coordinate our services and sales efforts across disciplines we need a system to track all of the communications we have had with a client. We need to be able to see and share all the points of contact that our clients have with us. This is the role of the client relationship management part of the system. An online CRM system will let us see all of the significant contact we have had on every level whether it is by phone, a mail out, a meeting or even a complaint. When we are speaking with anyone of our clients we will know what their history and experience has been with us and our colleagues.

 Building Relationships

What is unique about our business - what sets it apart from other sectors is that we have ongoing relationships with physical assets as well as with people. We need to track what we do with buildings in addition to what we do with people. When we looked at commercial contact management and CRM products, it was the inability to track relationships to buildings that was the biggest impediment. Using off-the-shelf software would in all cases require quite expensive customization or work-arounds. The cost of this combined with the licensing fees drove the pricing up for commercial software to be greater than the cost of developing our own solution.

In our 'Building' & Client Relationship Management system, we can track the relationship between our clients and the roles that they play for the buildings they are involved with. For each building we can track the people that are related to it. We can see what projects different people in Arcade have participated in for each building. We can also see what information exists in Space Database that we can leverage for our projects.

 Integration

A system like this will be useless unless it is used by everyone and maintained over time. Ease of use is not just a convenience but a critical success factor. If people do not use this system on a routine daily basis, it will not provide any benefits. It is essential that we make the system very accessible and easy to use. Our strategy will be to put the information in front of people in more than one place. We will integrate the front end of the application into our company portals, offer it as a stand alone web site and display information from within Outlook. In the next version we will also provide a mobile interface for use on Blackberrys and cell phones.

 Here are some examples of how the data will be displayed:

In the Space Database portal

In the Frankland & Associates Portal

In Outlook as a tab under each contact

 Goals

The development and use of this system will allow us to achieve three things. First it will help us communicate better with our clients. Having up to date contact information that is easily accessible and that includes histories of our interactions will make it easier to stay in touch with our clients. Second, more effective communication and better intelligence about people and buildings will support our sales efforts and help generate more growth. Finally a deeper understanding of our clients and a holistic view of our communication with them will allow us understand our clients better and enable us to deliver superior service.

 

What is Indexio?

Indexio is a new service and software offering that has great strategic value for both Space Database and Arcade. Indexio supports our goal of creating value through the effective management of building information. The solution allows building owners to store and easily retrieve CAD files, scanned drawings and other documents that relate to their buildings. Access to this information will make ongoing maintenance and periodic updates much more efficient.

The service aspect of Indexio will involve an initial assessment of the existing data on the building. Space Database staff will review the available information and determine what is most current and relevant. Electronic files from all sources will be consolidated. Paper documents will be inspected and the useful information will be scanned. Once we have determined what is available it will be organized and uploaded to a new web application. For each file around ten database fields are filled in to facilitate searching and retrieval of the information.

The software side of Indexio will be a parallel system to the leasing support application that currently constitutes the Space Database drawing management application. Users of Indexio will login through the same portal and will drill down through the same portfolio tree as our current leasing application users. At the building level there are top level tabs that provide access to the two applications as well as general information on the building.

Tabs at the top of the page allow access to three sections: Overview, The Space Database leasing support application and the Indexio operations support application.

Unlike the current Space Database application, information in Indexio is not organized only by floor and drawing type. There are many pieces of information attached to each file (this is sometimes called metadata). Drawings and documents can be retrieved by searching. You can fill in any amount of information in the search fields to find information that meets your criteria. Enter more detail to narrow your search results or use less data to widen your search.

Search results are displayed under the search form.

Having quick and easy access to technical data will make subsequent projects much more efficient. The archive of information will be kept up to date by uploading and indexing all new information that is generated from these new projects. Once Indexio is set up for a building, the use and reuse of CAD drawings becomes a smooth and efficient process. As landlords, our clients become better building managers. As designers we are able to focus more on value creation than on data creation. We can spend more time developing client solutions and less time drafting.

 

The Arcade Advantage

Arcade is a different kind of design company . It is a business that has been designed to meet the challenges of a changing environment. Even if they can't put there finger on it, I am sure that every designer feels the changes that are affecting the industry. Designers are losing control of projects to contractors and suppliers. Designers incomes have declined. Architects were among the highest paid professionals forty years ago, and that is certainly not the case now. If anything indicates the value society places on the profession, income would probably be the best measure.

Why is this happening? The world around us has changed and is continuing to change. Technology is an obvious development, but why it should have a negative impact on designers is less obvious. The real estate industry itself has changed in a dramatic way. The old traditional world of development and ownership was more or less wiped out in the years 1990-92. It's hard to imagine but the dominant form of ownership of real estate today - REITS - is a financial product not much more than ten years old. Pension funds - seeking cash flow - have moved into real estate in a big way. Today's owners are large, often international investors. They are sophisticated financial mangers and they have high demands and expectations for cash flow and return on investment.

The world has changed but designers and consultants have not adapted. Small local firms with highly specialized and narrowly focused skills are ill suited to serve the needs of this evolving industry. Small, undercapitalized and unprofitable, these firms do not have the resources to adapt even if they knew what had to be done. Unable to run and control projects, these companies services have become commodities. Designers now have to competitively bid for the design work often as a sub-contractor to a builder or a furniture manufacturer.

Designers are in a weak situation. Their fees - which reflect society's valuation - have fallen. They are losing control of the construction process. They are becoming marginalized. What can we do?

 

Arcade will reestablish the relevance of designers by increasing the value of what we deliver. We will accomplish this in three ways:

1. Support a building through its entire life cycle rather than pursuing discreet projects.
   
2. Build integrated, multidisciplinary teams of consultants .
   
3. Leverage technology to increase the value of our creativity.
   

Building Life Cycle Management

Traditionally, design consultants have built their practices around the pursuit and execution of projects. An architect is heavily involved with the design and construction of a building but then has little further involvement. A designer will build out an office space and then move on to a new job once it is complete. Work is sporadic. There is a feast and then a famine. Enormous energy is expended in pursuit of the next big job. At Arcade we have a different approach.

Arcade will have the skills to help develop and build a property. We will then stay involved and assist the owner in maximizing value through leasing, tenant and building improvement as well as supporting the technical systems. Arcade will increase value by managing and reusing technical data. When the time comes to redevelop the asset, Arcade will be there to help too.

 

Integrated teams

The design industry today is highly fragmented. Small firms are segregated by profession but are unable to manage the complete scope of a project without collaborating with other small firms in other disciplines. This collaborative process is highly inefficient with enormous amounts of time is spent on non-value creating 'coordination'.

At Arcade, designers and consultants will work together as integrated teams on buildings that they know well. Each consultant will be able to add value and influence the design process towards optimal solutions. An additional benefit will be that Arcade will be reusing accurate and reliable drawing and CAD models.

Arcade will benefit from the drawing management services of Space Database. Once a project is complete, it is archived in the database to support the work of the next team that needs the information in the future.

Technology

Technology has the potential to free designers from the mundane work that consumes much of their time. Unfortunately, most small firms do not have the resources or the skill to implement new technology.

Arcade centralizes services and reduces the cost of back-office management systems. Arcade will also facilitate the implementation of new methodologies and processes such as BIM.

Strategic technologies will not only make us more efficient but it will free designers to focus their time on solving clients real problems and creating more value for them.