At least 50% of proptech companies have messaging that calls for the disintermediation of the Real Estate Agent. The haloed “6%” (commission) is an economic goldmine that PropTech entrepreneurs have been looking to prospect for a decade at least. What has come to pass, broadly, is that all notions of removing the “agent” from the transaction have fallen flat. Perhaps we need to go back to the basics; perhaps the future needs to look a bit more like the past.
The antipathy and dismissive attitude shown to real estate agents is curious.
People from fields like consulting, investment banking, and financial advisory ask openly why a consumer would need an intermediary for a transaction they should be able to handle on their own.
The irony is delicious — people who themselves are intermediaries who claim special access or special knowledge suddenly believe that others who do the same, though in real estate, are irrelevant and ripe for “disruption.” Pot. Kettle.
Now, certainly, of the approximately 1.6 million licensed agents in the U.S. — some are not particularly productive or good at their jobs — but to suggest that either the profession as a whole is baroque or to judge an entire ocean by the character of the bottom-feeders is illogical to say the least.
Wisdom is local
In this and other very real ways, proptech marketing bucks what many people believe to be the trends in the larger profession of marketing. Put simply, the past has a lot to teach us and might in fact describe the future. “New” tools and fads just might not apply well to this sector.
To suggest this is to resort to clichés but then clichés exist because they have resonance. We know that great real estate knowledge and great real estate transactions are local. Wisdom is local. We also know that real estate is a relationship-business. The industry doesn’t follow a set of cold, analytical, and rational principles; indeed, personal taste, emotions, and human connection play an outsized role in real estate. It’s a lot messier than Microsoft Excel sheets and neat project plans.
Not everything can be virtual
If an industry’s life runs on one sort of rhythm then good marketing should also resonate with that rhythm — hewing to the principle is wise. Take, for instance, the notion of “events” in the real estate industry. Pundits and naysayers both called for the demise of the physical event years ago. Their argument was that content can be imbibed over the Internet and that physical events were therefore vestiges of a bygone era.
In real estate, nothing could be further from the truth. As we expand our notion of event impact into the ideas of “Community, Content, and Commerce” then we understand why physically showing up is good business.
We’d average that PropTech startups can sensibly spend up to 40% of their marketing budgets on events and all the preparation (including travel) that goes into making them successful. Digital channels are important but they are not disrupting events.
Incentivize agents to become advocates
With regard to the central role of the real estate agent, it appears to be good business to inspire and incentivize 1.6 million people to be advocates instead of alienating them by positing their irrelevance. Many advanced industries have distributors, channel partners, value-added resellers, and evangelism partners on which they rely.
Why not in proptech? Running against that castle is a fool’s errand though the greedier among proptech entrepreneurs have their eyes on the 6% and can’t see the forest.
A general rule of thumb is that the more a company claims it “disrupts,” the more its claims are hyperbole and the more enemies it makes. Perhaps partnership and enhancement versus disruption is the order of the day in Real Estate marketing. That sure smells like the logic of the past and it sure would be good to mimic that in the future.
There are so many other areas in which the hubris of technocratic thinking runs headlong into the reality of real estate. Technologists should be comfortable in enhancing, bettering, and helping existing business models, not always looking to disrupt and thereby insult.
PropTech marketers need to do the same. It’s back to the future.
Romi Mahajan is president of Pepper and an advisor to Rook Capital and Quantarium, an AI company in the real estate space.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of RealTrends’ editorial department and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Romi Mahajan at romi@thekkmgroup.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tracey Velt at tracey@hwmedia.com
