The Impact of New Technology on Real Estate
Let’s first acknowledge the obvious. Our competition has changed dramatically as a result of the ever-changing and growing technology. Our member's needs and success are largely dependent on technology. With this acknowledgment, it is fair to state that our competitors each year are providing and developing more and more products, benefits, and services for real estate professionals, our members, and the pace seems to be quickening. Knowing this, we all should ask ourselves if we can compete with companies whose business models are strikingly different than our own, especially in the area of decision making.
Our competition, with few exceptions, have business models that are focused on profitability and market share. Our association’s competition isn’t what it once was; our competition has many faces and characteristics and there seem to be several new ones every day. Our competition operates and performs under a business model that is focused on profitability and market share. They are concerned with performing well to meet the expectation of their shareholders or investors. Their leaders speak of return on investment (ROI), dividends, shareholder equity, price per share, market penetration, market share analytics etc. to name a few. They are driven on a different set of business objectives that results in a different set of goals and plans to be successful.
Technology and the Local Association
Contrast this with local associations which are volunteer-based organizations (the degree to which depends on the NAR Model you have chosen for your organization). Their focus is performing as best as possible to attract and retain, members by establishing a strong value proposition, and then providing the best benefits and services to satisfy the members, year after year. Our terminology consists of words like committees, strategic plans, government affairs, education, professional standards and events etc.
Many local associations, in many ways, actually operate like elaborate clubs. Some associations are operated more like a business, yet even those are limited in their ability to create a business model necessary to compete on this level by companies focused on shareholder stock values and investor’s ROI. In a profession such as real estate, which is being defined more and more each day by technological innovations, associations must embrace a business model which will enable them to better position themselves for the competition, so they can better serve their members, again, year after year (good times and bad).
Today, associations are dependent on revenues that are threatened by competition whose business models can spend more and outperform the traditional association’s volunteer-based management model.
