Earlier this year I had the opportunity to do some prospecting, along with personal presence enhancement, in New York City. Although I was born in the City, and raised on Long Island – with the brief exception of a corporate job I strongly disliked, I stopped living in New York once I left for college.
Although attendance was sparse (for New York standards), I found the presentations insightful. It’s my understanding you will soon be able to view these recorded presentations on cre.tech’s website.
Presenters included the CEOs from RealMassive, Commission Trac, Digsy, Apto, RealConnex and Buildout – to name a few. In addition, there were panelists that shared how transactions were being supported with technology. I wanted to share some of the key highlights I found to be most applicable to your brokerage practice today.
Commission Trac’s Turner Levison discussed the technology stack available to the commercial real estate industry. He did an excellent job outlining the tools available today, and is one recording I highly recommend you view when available.
RealMassive’s Patrick Lashinsky shared the best practices for getting better traction with your listings online. He suggests: including several high-quality property photos (up to 25), ensuring you have a personal and highly attractive profile pic, including detailed floor plans, and integrating location intelligence, videos and drones. Patrick explained that their analytics show listings with these factors receive a far greater number of visits, inquiries, offers, and even close faster.
Buildout’s Vishu Ramanathan explored how technology will continue to mold commercial real estate brokerage. He identified Loopnet as the first great disruptor in our industry. For those that were around when Loopnet was launched, we would agree this platform was a paradigm shift in how we did business. Vishu shared his insights on the much promoted blockchain technology, and its impact on brokerage. While blockchain technology will certainly help complexities in the transaction process (such as title issues), it will likely have less impact on originating brokers (those that find new business opportunities).
All of the presenters shared highly valuable information. I recognize most brokers will say they prefer to work in their business (doing transactions), rather than take the time to learn about new technology. Then again, most brokers are average producers and live transaction to transaction.
Just remember, if your competition attends/views and implements some of these technologies and you decide not to – you may just have given them the competitive advantage.
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