Inman Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2008: Crib Notes

For those of you who missed Inman News’ Real Estate Connect, held July 23-25, 2008 in San Francisco, here are some of my crib notes (no, they’re not there):

there are 5 million real estate listings in the US and Realtor.com claims to have 4.7 million of them — still, folks visit 7 different websites, on average (seems to me like poor marketing by Realtor.com– or maybe it’s their search experience)
California will have a statewide MLS. As soon as standards are established, there will be a national MLS (so maybe your grandkids will get to use it)
the next wave of real estate consumers are millennials (aka Gen Y, aka Echo Boomers aka my son), those born between 1980-1995 (more or less). They are the largest generation (79 million)– all grew up with computers. Learn about them.
the internet is a visual medium (duh) and visuals DO communicate
there is a decline in long form reading (double duh)– 50% drop off with each click to a new page (so get rid of those “read more” links)
the internet is social— but you can’t be at every party
the internet is going mobile — big time (if you don’t have a mobile application, get one, with GPS and Geolocation)
smartphones are laptop replacements
WiMax is low cost high speed you may want to put your money on
millennials are heavy consumers of all media (and you’re just giving them text?)
print is NOT quite dead– 1/3 of the millies still read newspapers and magazines
Millenials have a form of ADD called CPA– continuous partial attention (and I have B.A.D.D.)
50% of John L. Scott’s business is referrals
real estate is part commodity, part lifestyle– integrate them
want to be successful? ask your successful peers
Remember the Milk
find out where your buyers come from and market there (you may have to speak their language too)
the global elite want a lifestyle
listing sites may not be the best place to market property– behavior and geography targeting suggests otherwise. A Chicago developer went on an international road show to get customers (gotta love that)
many folks don’t know the big real estate brands, especially foreigners — something to think about if your market gets a lot of foreign buyers
connect with people in social spaces– don’t sell them homes
brokers are using lead generation companies to become rainmakers for agents
the lead generation companies are now in the blog and social media pools
there are 11 months of unsold inventory nationwide, according to NAR’s June 2008 study
Five real estate agent tips: