Marketing & PR Advice Wanted
By Anthony Longo 15 11 2008I had a great call last night with longtime friend and peer Joe Ferrara - and as always, he got my wheels turning.
I am putting this out on the wire (blog-o-sphere) and hope for any and all ideas & suggestions on proven marketing & PR advice for our new message.
Let’s put all the B.S. aside, all the disgruntled comments from the traditional real estate folks and let’s just talk basics.
At CondoDomain.com we have a pretty unbelievable story to tell. No we are not curing cancer or saving the planet (I wish I was…but unfortunately I am smack-dab in the middle of the real estate world right now), but the point being is that we are offering a surreal “Too good to be true” kind of product & service.
The Basics:
1. CondoDomain is a real estate broker, just like RE/MAX, Century 21, Coldwell Banker or any other real estate brand out there. We all claim to be better than one another or have more market share, etc, but bottom line is that we are no different than then mega-brands. The point here is that any agent that works for one of these firms is just a “person” and that “person” is whom creates the value in the transaction. So no matter if you are working with RE/MAX or CondoDomain - the better agent will create more value for you - and therefore provide a better service and get you a better deal. Agree?
2. Niche: As a firm we specialize in 1 vertical. We ONLY work with buyers and we concentrate on urban living which mainly consists of condominiums. Buying a condominium is different than buying a single family home, that being said, we feel we have an advantage as our ‘agents’ deal with this all day long. Also, ONLY working with BUYERS allows our “agents” to concentrate on solely that. Most traditional real estate agents spend the majority of their time marketing themselves to drum up clients/business. After they get a new client (buyer or a seller) they need to adjust their perspective on how they are going to help them (i.e. market a new listing or help them find a new home). At CondoDomain we just work with buyers, 100% of the time, so all we do is tour properties all week long and see up to 10X more listing than the average “top real agent”. I would put this way up on the list as a major advantage for CondoDomain to serve you as a buyer’s agent, no?
3. Business model: Without drilling into details or boring you with how our internal systems work, our business model ‘affords’ our team members/agent to work with buyers for a set flat fee. When we started this business it did not make sense to us that if we helped a buyer buy a home and they spent more money, we got paid more? Actually, our exact opinion was this is “ass backwards”. As a buyer’s agent aren’t we supposed to try and help our buyers get the new home or condo for the lowest price possible? Therefore we implemented the “flat fee”.
Because of how the traditional real estate model is set up & for still operating, we are still compensated a commission based on the percentage of the sales price. So we simple accept the commission at the closing, subtract our fee due to the firm (which is the exact same for every transaction) and then cut the remainder of the commission back to our client. Sound fair?
Summary:
To date we have had VERY FEW thought-out rebuttals to our business model. Most traditionalists classify us as a “discounter” and just write hateful things to us about the model - whatever! Does anyone out there who does not agree with our model have a “thought out” response to a flat fee based buyers agency?
Our goal as a company, beyond the obvious of helping buyers, is NOT to ruin the real estate industry, but rather provide a very sensible and viable option to consumers.
So…
We are operating a company called CondoDomain that provides a dominant web-based information portal that includes more ‘local’ RE data on one site than any other single source. We have local real estate agents whom we believe are some of the very best in the industry for calculated reasons. And we work with every single one of our clients for the exact same set fee and REFUND them back any remainder of the commission.
My guess is that if we were lucky enough to tell every buyer in our market about our business model, 8 out of 10 people would choose us. So….HOW DO WE TELL OUR AWESOME STORY?
More information visit our website @ www.CondoDomain.com
Tony-
I hear your question, loud & clear. I don’t pretend to have the answer, but, through continued discussion and brainstorming (Joe is great at both), perhaps we will get some clarity.
I have just started my own buyers agency, here in the Hamptons, and I find that many people get really excited and congratulatory when I tell them, then just look at me with a blank stare when I go into the difference between buyer agency and traditional real estate. Only about 10% “get it”, the rest are all concerned with “who pays the commission” and “won’t that cost me more” and “won’t I miss out on something if I don’t go directly to the listing agent”.
It’s SOOO odd to me, that the counter-intuitive model of real estate practice is the one that people most understand! So, I think that we, as buyer brokers, tend to OVER -explain the difference and, at other times don’t explain it enough. Where’s that momma bear’s porridge when you need it?!?
I also find that many people are fatigued by the presentation and slick promises of “alternative models” in the real estate industry and those people tend to shut down, in somewhat of a resigned fashion when we try to talk about it. Look at all the “alternative models” that have (or are about to) gone out of business.
So, as I said, I don’t have an answer, but I do see the challenges we face, like you do.
I’ve also found NO-ZERO-ZILCH good examples of a Buyer Brokerage expressed in marketing literature andwhere on the web. It’s all these ole’timer Lone Rangers that were either mavericks (I used to love that word) or just couldn’t play well with others. All the existing buyers agents have pages and pages of “reasons” as to why to use a buyers broker, almost in a MLM or info-mecial fashion. Most of the buyer agencies have outdated and unattractive websites, etc, etc, etc.
Perhaps we need to form a new group of Buyer Brokers 2010 to establish the new paradigm. I’d be happy to host a two day discussion group here in the Hamptons or come to Boston to take part in a forum, or perhaps we can convene in NY a day early as a pre-conference group before Inman Connect?
We ARE the new generation of buyer brokerage. It’s now OUR time! Let’s bring about CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN! Let’s chat and see what we can come up with.
Thanks for bringing it up!
Mike Daly
True North Realty Associates
631 725 0554
http://www.beachamptons.com
MIke -
How does it go? You just hit me right in the middle of my forehead tonight on a Saturday night. I have lots of ideas and am writing them down now. Will discuss more as i formulate all my thoughts but love the idea of a pre-conference group on this….timing could not be perfect and I think getting together similar minded individuals we may be able to tackle these obstacles.
Stand by…