ICNY2020 notes

 

Here is a collection of Chris’ notes and random thoughts while attending Inman Connect 2020 in New York.

Brad Inman-

• Never been more excited about where real estate is as an industry
• Economy is fantastic
• People’s net worth climbing
• Savings rate 8x what it was 10 years ago
• Wages are going up
• It is our time to “own” the business
• Record levels of sales in 2020
• Lowest delinquency rates
• More entry level and affordable housing being built
• Tech is moving from agent centric productivity to consumer centric ibuying, ifunding and iclosing
• Opportunistic real estate agents are pushing engagement
• This moment belongs to you

Mike Delprete –

 

• The industry is moving very slowly but it has never moved this fast.
• Proven vs unproven
• Redfin and Compass grew from 1.5 to 3% from 2016 to 2019.  1% increase expected for 2020
• Ibuyers doubles last year from .25% to .5% (8.5 billion)
• Average ibuyer transaction 150-300k
• Purchase price to AVM – 98.6%
• Zillow and Opendoor driving trends
• 70% of growth is in new markets
• Tech enabled brokerages (discount or flat fee) Redfin like companies.  Still very small and regionally based.
• Hybrid ibuyer models. Brokerages helping sellers buy home before selling
• Zillow lost 300 million in 2019
• Big bets on future profitability
• Perception is, and should be, that buying or selling a house is hard.

Kirstie Ennis –

 

• It’s the six inches between our ears that dictate what we are capable of.
• Learn how to suffer well.  Life is hard.
• Pain gives you a new perspective.
• Remember your “why”
• If you can’t find a role model, go be one.
• Rest less and endure more

 

Ron Peltier-

 

• We need to focus on what the consumer wants and what works.
• Real estate is really home ownership services
• Create a superior customer experiences
• They want a simplified, experientially positive transaction
• Integrated services are key
• Everything old is new again
• Prefer to be judged by what you are doing vs what you are saying
• We need to expand our value proposition beyond the transaction
• Have a system to extract data and use it to provide value back to the consumer
• Be value added post closing
• We can’t charge more and give less
• The future is in the blending of housing and personal data
• Real estate is still a people business.
•   

Ryan Seahant –

 

• Selling is helping a person make a decision that is in their best interest.
• Be trustworthy.
• Trust is the core of the sales process
• Client advocacy is the skeletal structure of his business
• Social media is a gift to sales people.
• You can build trust via social
• Those that listen are the best in any relationship
• The way people buy and sell hasn’t ever changed
• New media is changing the brokerage model
• All publicity is good publicity

 

Ten Tech Trends

 

• Super apps (we chat)
• Platform model (Uber, intuit, air bnb)
• Voice type and search
• Semi-mation (managed automation.  30% growth in VA’s in real estate the next 2 years)
• Text
• Broker tech (adoption challenge and push 3rd party costs down)
• Life as a service (we are sharing and renting everything)
• Bridging the gap (between buying and selling legs)
• The questionable future of online leads (who’s capturing and nurturing leads)
• UX – Digital meets physical (AI, lock boxes, virtual staging)

 

Other Misc.  Notes

 

• Consumers are going to be demanding more
• Broker paid House fixing, staging, ibuyer all now “normal”
• 10 year prediction is less agents in industry with fewer doing far more.
• 10 plus years left before true end to end platform exists.
• Struggle is narrow and deep or wide and shallow application focus
• Lot of focus on tech between agent and client
• Question: build, buy or integrate
• Bi-directional integration is key
• Ask: does it save you time or make you money?
• Whatever is best today won’t be best tomorrow in tech
• Platforms that transform encompass multiple aspects of tech
• As AI gets better, people will start pushing back on privacy issues
• The most important tech “disappears” into the fabric of our lives
• On leads: speed to lead, follow up systems and long term nurturing are key kpi’s
• The lead process has to have more consistency and value
• Competitors are pushing farther upstream
• Leads are up and conversion is down
• The end user is typically in several funnels at the same time.
• They will go with the person that provides value and makes them feel valued
• Agents are super apathetic when it comes to leads
• Use video in business – add closed caption
• 85% watch video without the sound on
• Track ROI as well as ROT
• 74% of those listening to podcasts do so to learn
• It’s all about the customer experience
• We have to evolve past the transactional to the relational.
• If you don’t keep up with what is going on, you become obsolete
• The impact of autonomous driving and ride sharing are dramatically changing cities
• Individual car ownership will peak in 2020 then start to decline.
• By 2050 – 75% of the worlds population will live in cities
• The average car is only used 5% of the time.  Impacting parking and storage
• By 2030, 75% of the population will use ride sharing as primary transportation
• 60% of all the trips in the US are less than 5 miles
• Developments are changing
• Parking ratios will change, so will garage space
• More green space, reclaiming hard top ground areas
• Streets will be turned into parks
• Parking will be reduced 25-85% depending on the area.
• Automated parking stacking.
• Autonomous cars can park inches away from one another
• By 2030 – 95% of us passenger miles will be done by some form of ride share
• More mixed use
• Drone and autonomous helicopter taxi service is coming in 2023
• You can tell a lot about a person by how the celebrate their wins.
• No one succeeds by themselves
• Find you lane and get really good at it
• We need to get way better at understanding consumer expectations and how they are evolving
• You can’t be good if you aren’t self aware
• Digital and personal transparency is so important in today’s world
• Take risks, leadership shows up in crisis, have a personal development plan
• Reserve the right to pitch vs starting with the pitch –
• First meeting is to experience a difference so they are receptive and curious and want to know more about you (question driven)
• Budgets are like diets.  They don’t work.  There has to be a belief system and process that supports that
• Don’t seek a balanced life, seek a harmonized life
• VC’s are investing 5x more in prop tech than any other technology
• Innovation will accelerate our industry
• Be the App Store not the app
• Historically agents have been search, home valuation, listing homes
• Future must haves – home financing that is certain and is guaranteed, creative down payment assistance, ibuyer offers, home trade in options, liquidity without having to move
• Last ten years innovation was around search.  Next ten will be about the transaction itself.
• Younger generations value experiences and are trading square footage for more cash flow