In this edition of the RealTrending podcast, OB Jacobi, president of family-owned Windermere Real Estate in Seattle shares his thoughts on generational succession planning. The lessons he and his family learned from the second generation are being put into play as the third generation of Windermere family members enter the business.
Jacobi, who worked to create MoxiWorks, before spinning it off into a separate company discusses brokerage technology collaboration, what the next iteration of innovation might look like, mistakes brokers make when building or implementing a tech platform and more.
Here is a small preview of today’s interview with OB. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:
Tracey Velt: The industry has evolved from needing a tech platform that can do everything for the agent to realizing that agents aren’t adopting that. If it’s too complicated, they want nothing to do with it. By simplifying and giving them just a few things that you could do really, really well that they could use, you’ll probably increase your adoption. So let’s talk about adoption because that is so difficult to get, especially if you’re a company that is hiring experienced agents.
OB Jacobi: You have to be everything in your business, you got to do it all. Not only that, you need certain tools at different times of your business. There are easy things that are always gonna get adopted, like email, because it’s really, really good. If you can say I have a platform, but I gotta go to my MLS, I gotta go to my CRM, and I gotta leave the platform, well, then you’re gonna struggle with adoption. Agents need different things at their fingertips for all the different kinds of transactions that they do. If we can keep it on one page, we can simplify it. I’m not saying we’ve solved the adoption problem because that’s just never going away. But it certainly helps, I think, to not have to leave your platform.
The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.
