There was a controversy when David Gibbons of Zillow said on twitter the other night that Blogging is so 2008. It started a discussion on active rain that perhaps real estate brokers are all wasting their time. David responded with this video.

Excellent video!

I want to thank David for being so detailed in his explanation. Blogging is something every real estate broker should be doing, we have been preaching it for years. But what is around the corner?

Lets look to the future of real estate.

What everyone has to do now is look ahead and I think that is exactly what David is expressing in his video response.

We assume that every single broker is blogging and now its time to kick it into another gear. Brokers have to start utilizing all the other opportunities in front of them. Social Media is huge all on its own, but those that learn to effectively use it to drive traffic to their blogs, even better. But wait, we assumed brokers are blogging… bad assumption!!

Whats wrong with the traditional broker?

The problem is that there is a huge percentage of brokers that are still struggling with reading their email on their phones, or learning how to text message! They don’t even want to think about starting a blog. Yes blogging is quickly becoming saturated, but how many are actually blogging for business?

Automatic blogs scraping content from RISMedia dosnt count! Blogging is a simple tool to help each real estate professional build their credibility online, to share their market expertise with potential customers. There is no smoke and mirrors here folks, this is self marketing and branding at its simplest form!

There is a new generation of brokers on the horizon. Never has there been such a grand opportunity for people who embrace and use technology as part of their lives to grasp a hold of the market.

Age is nothing but a number!

It has nothing to do with age, I have 50-60 year old brokers who will turn circles around the kids on Twitter. It is simply those who are willing to learn how to use something new. It has to do with those that are willing to reinvent themselves and their business. Michael Umphrey, a good friend of mine at Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate, once told me that “those who are unwilling to reinvent themselves every 5 years will become obsolete!“

So when was the last time you did something to redefine who you are and how you do business?

Bring on the future.

Enough of the days of real estate brokers who don’t answer their phones, don’t respond to emails, don’t know how to text message and refuse to share their years of real estate knowledge with people online.

Customers demand a new level of customer service, they are spending hours searching for those brokers that embrace technology and use it to position themselves to be found. They are educating themselves with information those brokers are leaving for them to find on their web sites. And when these customers are ready to make a purchase, they are armed to the teeth with local knowledge and will call that broker to work a deal.

At Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate, we demand this new level of customer service from our brokers. And those that come to use without the skills necessary to survive in today’s market,  we train them to meet our expectations.

I look at the future of real estate as a breathe of fresh air.