The Real Estate Industry: What if it were created today in 2017!?

In the last ten years, the rules for many industries have been rewritten and are playing out right before our eyes. NEW MEGA-COMPANIES like Airbnb, Amazon, and Uber have totally created a new trend of doing business. That trend, disrupt and dominate an industry without owning one hotel, retail store, or car! In essence, technology is still at its infancy as innovators are creating brilliant tools that are stretching our imaginations everyday with game changing ideas that are totally evolving the world as we see it. Finding new ways to execute the basic fundamentals of an industry, these pioneers dedicate every fiber of their bodies to create these massive socio-economic ecosystems that are becoming collaborative commerce’s for consumers to engage, distribute, share, and transact products and services with infinite potential that reaches beyond our United States. These ideas are changing the world.

But, what if Real Estate Agents were in the movie “The Men-In-Black” and Will Smith flashed them with the memory loss gadget and they forgot everything they knew about the real estate industry? Then, like the movie “Social Network” about the creation of Facebook via Mark Zuckerberg, Real Estate Agents had to create from scratch a new real estate industry that took modern technology and the way people are today into consideration. What would the real estate industry look like if it were created in 2017?

Lets talk facts! The real estate industry as we know it today hasn’t systematically changed since conception in the early 1900’s. California’s Legislature passed the nation’s first real estate licensing law in 1917. California then adopted the Real Estate Act of 1919, which the State Supreme Court upheld as a reasonable exercise of the power of the state to regulate the conduct of its citizens in the interest of the common good. So, I believe it’s safe to say that the real estate industry has historically been the same for over 100 years. In spite of the technological advancements since the internet was commercialized in 1994/1995, the real estate industry has collectively and strategically ignored consumer characteristics and habits via technology in the 21st Century.

Do consumers need Real Estate Agents? YES! However, they don’t need them like they use too! With that being said, in a BIG DATA ERA, what does the data say about BUYERS & SELLERS?:

• 90% of home buyers searched online during their home buying process
• Most “Gen X” and “Gen Y” home buyers are using mobile devices when they search for homes
• Of the Gen X and Gen Y home buyers who used a mobile site or app to search for a home, 22 percent and 26 percent, respectively, found their home with a mobile app
• Real estate related searches on Google.com have grown 253% over the past 4 years
• 43% of home buyers, the first step in the home-buying process was looking online for properties and 12 percent of home buyers first looked online for information about the home buying process
• The typical home buyer searched for 10 weeks and viewed 10 homes
• For more than half of buyers finding the right home was the most difficult step in the home buying process
• The typical home purchased was 1,870 square feet in size, was built in 1993, and had three bedrooms and two bathrooms
• 79% of home buyers purchased a detached single-family home
• 65% of recent home buyers were married couples
• The typical first-time buyer was 31-years-old, while the typical repeat buyer was 53
• 24% of buyers, the primary reason for the recent home purchase was a desire to own a home, while nine percent purchased due to a job-related relocation or move, and eight percent bought for the desire to be in a better area or a change in family situation
• The United States Department of Justice states that giving a BUYER REBATE makes purchasing a home less expensive

IMAGINE: With this information you have unlimited resources (money), the best TEAM money could buy, and the perfect MARKET CONDITIONS to sustain your business model. What would your real estate company look like? If you were given the ultimate and unlimited access to create a NEW real estate industry, what would it look like in your eyes? Knowing what technology is today and what consumers need and want, how would you design the real estate industry to capitalize on the Airbnb, Amazon, and Uber way of doing things?

In conclusion, it’s easy to critique the other guy that’s bold enough or stupid enough to try. However, I’ve asked this question more than once in front of audiences with over 700 people. I will sincerely tell you, I’ve never collectively seen as many perplexed faces in one setting at one time in my life following a thought provoking question. WHY? The below average, average, and the majority of above average real estate professionals have NEVER thought about this question: If the Real Estate Industry was created today, what would it look like to you!? However, cognitively inept, these same Real Estate Agents are quick to belittle and negatively critique anything outside the scope of their dated methods to practicing real estate.