A broad range of real estate industry professionals attended the event including executives from The Professionals, Ray White, Laing & Simmons, RP Data, Fairfax, RE Uncut, real estate portals, software companies, mortgage brokers, real estate trainers and agents from across Australia and New Zealand. To help launch the event Jeff Turner a very popular real estate and social media presenters in the US and a seasoned American RE BarCamp contributor attended the event.

The day started with the attendees getting together and deciding what would be the topics for the morning’s 8 breakout groups. Moderators were then decided and 4 groups ran for 1 hour followed by the next 4 topics for another hour. After lunch the afternoon group topics were set, moderators allocated and the groups ran again for 1 hour each.

Some popular real estate topics included:

• CRM Systems
• Mobile phone technology
• WordPress
• Real estate portals
• Sold data sharing
• Social Media
• Lead Generation
• SEO
• Online marketing

I discussed the event with numerous attendees and the feedback was amazing, most commenting the event was relaxed, informative and they couldn’t wait for the next BarCamp. At this stage the organises are thinking (but are open to any suggestions) it will be a bi-annual event and are hoping to expand it to other Australian cities later in the year. Special thanks is needed to those who put the event together and include:

• Peter Brewer
• Lara Scott
• Tatiana Mijalica
• Peter Fletcher
• Ben Stockdale
• Greg Vincent

What’s important about these BarCamps is that they’re not for profit and community run, meaning anyone is welcome to be involved and help with planing and running BarCamps. If you’d like to help with the next Sydney event or bring RE BarCamp to your city then feel free to contact any of the guys and get involved.

Well done to all and I look forward to the next RE BarCamp!

Just a quick note to realestate.com.au’s marketing “gurus” if you build up something so much, and you know it isn’t that good, be prepared for a little ridicule and for your marketing to fall very flat. After all, revolutions are usually powered by the masses, not the few!

That is not to say the new website is good, or an improvement – it is, it just isn’t that special and it really hasn’t done any I have not seen done on other sites.

So now that the launch has now settled down in terms of sensationalism, frustration and despair, I think it is time to have a look at what is the bigger play here for Realestate.com.au and to a lesser extent domain.com.au

Both portals realise that the years of increasing basic monthly fees to agents at a good pace is slowly coming to an end, so they are now looking at new ways to get squeeze your marketing budgets (possibly only at their newspaper divisions expense) .

They also know you guys and gals are infatuated with your immediate competition and will look to leverage millions of dollars a year more from this very fact. Real estate agents needs to wise up or you will find most of your marketing being spent on campaigns that do little to benefit your brand or your vendors.

Historically speaking

When I started this blog in 2002, I did it after listening to an executive of a certain real estate portal expound a whole bunch of $#%#%@ on an eager audience at a real estate institute endorsed gathering.

Basically the whole speech was about spending even more of your money on rubbish like banner ads to bring you untold riches. Over the following years these events were held all over the country and real estate institutes were sponsored by the companies giving these speeches.

I was so annoyed at this that my initial speech (which I changed at the last minute) was all about why you shouldn’t do most things the previous speaker was endorsing and to push more of your money into your own future – your website. Suffice to say I was never welcome back again.

Why you need portals

You need the likes of realestate.com.au and domain.com.au, at the basic level they are great value for money, they are popular across the country and they do provide you with a valued service.

Why you don’t need premium, platinum, super platinum and super duper platinum listings

Sure, if the client is paying go for it, but think about this, there is no statistical evidence that these listings sell quicker or for more, nada, none, zero!

Marketers will tell you that premium listings get more visitors and therefore your brand gets more recognition, however don’t you make money when you sell the darn thing, not when anyone clicks on it? So do the math, think about where else you could spend that branding money more effectively.

Why you must be on Google Real Estate

Google real estate will be a slow burn, they will build their systems and you will find more and more people using this service each month, it will almost certainly always be free* and will soon be integrated into Android Mobile Phones.

Supporting this website with your listings will also push visitors back to your current site and also make this offering stronger. The stronger Google is, the less likely you will see large increases in fees in the future from the major portals, in fact at current rates I think within 5 years basic fees on these portals will definitely come down, mainly from pressure from Google and other similar free services.

* Google has built the trust of developers worldwide because they are open, developers in return have made Google what they are today, it would be the beginning of the end for Google to change the game. Incidentally they also make about 8 billion year from this philosophy.

Start your own Groups

I want you to start your own groups on MeetUp, get all of your immediate competitors to meet once per month for lunch at a different location. Maybe invite someone to speak at these events, but generally just open discussion on as many subjects as you please, maybe you can form a local buying group.

Yes, you need to compete and yes their will be a little espionage, but I guarantee it will be of benefit to you in the long run. You never know, it could be great fun as well.

I love a tough market in the Real Estate game. This might sound harsh and insensitive but let me tell you why I feel this way. A tough market sweeps through the industry like a giant broom sweeping away the deadwood agents who give the good agents a bad name.

The reason for this is simple, in a good market there is a shortage of stock and an abundance of home buyers. That scarcity certainly means that agents will compete more strongly for listings in a good market, however, when the going’s good most listings sell within a single listing period.

In a good market, home buyers are frightened of missing out so they follow up the agents and diligently comb the paper and internet in an effort to “find” the right property. When they find the right property they pounce. This is basic psychology “fear of loss and desire of gain”. They fear the thought of “loosing” the right property and, they feel if they miss out they will not “gain” a good foothold in a rising market.

In a good market, agents don’t have to be GREAT at follow up, they don’t have to be EXPERTS at effective pricing and marketing strategies, as the nature of the market takes care of these elements for them. Don’t get me wrong here, it certainly helps to have these skill sets, no matter what the market is. It’s just more that in a good market these skills are an added advantage, in tough market they’re essential for an agent’s survival.

In a tough market homes often take 90 to 120 days to sell – often times being sold by a secondary agent not the original listing agent. Why does this happen? Why do home sellers often fire their original agent only to hire another and sell for a price the original agent may have quoted them? Simple, in today’s tough market, agents need to see themselves as educators, they need to provide service and value, they need to become GREAT at follow up, they need to master the art of persuasion and they have to become experts in conveying the benefits of setting a realistic and achievable market price.

The problem is a lot of agents who have only worked in a good market don’t change their game plan when the going gets tough. The skill sets I refer to above aren’t taught at all (or if they are, not in any great detail) in the various Real Estate licensing courses these same agents attended when studying to become a salesperson.

If you are an agent in today’s tough market – ask yourself this question? Am I prepared to put in the effort to study and train until I am a MASTER of real estate sales? Become a Master in your chosen field and then combine that mastery with MASSIVE ACTION and you will create a recession proof income – especially in a tough market! As the world renowned author, speaker and success mentor Brian Tracy says:

”If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”

So you’ve decided to become recession proof. What’s the next step? The next step is your commitment to you – a commitment to become a lifelong student of success and a commitment to mastering the skills necessary to succeed in Real Estate.

I would recommend you start with reading some books by the Masters in your chosen field. In fact, to quote Brian Tracy again:

”Learn from the experts you’ll never live long enough to learn it all by yourself.”

The library is full of books and there is a wealth of information available on the internet. Look for books by authors such as: Napoleon Hill, Zig Ziglar, Frank Rambuskas, Ivan Misner, Brian Tracy, Tom Ferry, Debbie Allen, Tony Allesandra, and Kevin Carroll (notice I didn’t name the books just the authors – that’s because these authors have written multiple books and I want to inspire you to begin along the road of lifelong learning). In other words I want you to be inspired enough to do a little homework.

Many of the world’s top trainers and motivators offer free gifts and products simply for joining their e-newsletters. A good example of this would be both the Tom and the Mike Ferry organisations, both of which have loads of free downloads available for real estate professionals. You can visit their sites here: www.yourcoach.com or here: www.mikeferry.com.

I sincerely hope that if you’re a real estate agent and you’re reading this article, you’ll make a commitment today to become all you can be by beginning (or continuing) upon a quest to become a Master of Real Estate. In so doing, you will gain immense personal satisfaction and fulfilment. What’s more you will offer genuine value that comes from a space of authenticity and integrity to your clients.

Kylie Baumann