I just came back from the Nest Realty Lead Broker Conference in Charlottesville.
Almost all we talked about was how to continue to improve customer experience in the real estate transaction. The critical questions: How do we make the process a little less painful for buyers and sellers?
And then, Rob Hahn, the Notorious RO.B., a very wonky real estate industry blogger that I really enjoy, comes out with this blog post yesterday. The basic premise: Everyone in the real estate industry is getting it WRONG. Big time players, including Gary Keller, the founder of Keller Williams, are focusing on building better technology. But R.O.B. insists the focus should not be on building better technology platforms to empower agents. The focus should be on making the experience of buying and selling real estate better for the CONSUMER. Remember them? Oh yeah. The buyer and seller.
According to R.O.B., it's not just about building better tech tools for the real estate AGENT. Sure, those tech tools might make the agent more efficient and productive, and that can be better for the consumer trying to buy and sell real estate.
But why aren't more brokerages focused on making the customer experience better for those consumers?
Why isn't there laser focus on making the real estate transaction better for the people that really matter, the clients buying and selling real estate?
Reading the blog post made me feel a bit smug, I have to admit.
Why?
Because Nest Realty GETS IT. They are - and have been since their founding in 2008 - focused on making the transactional experience of buying and selling a home better for the clients. Not the agents. Sure, that's happening too. But the real focus is on what can we do to try to make the process more fun, simpler, less confusing to our clients. How do we give clients more tools, more information, more power? And how do we make sure our agents are the best, the most informed, the most ethical, the most professional?
The focus is *not* just on making tools for agents. It's on creating a client experience that makes people not hate the "suckitude" - Rob's term, not mine, although I am happy to steal it - of the typical real estate transaction.
And it's definitely not on just creating better technology. No matter what you think of them, no real estate brokerage, not even one as big as Keller Williams, is going to beat those real estate tech companies - "they who shall not be named" (**cough** Zillow) - at their own game.
Everything I read in Notorious R.O.B.'s post about how these brokerages were getting it wrong, made me more confident that Nest Realty is getting it right. And they keep working, and improving.
I am happy to be a part of it.
