Throwback Thursday #1

It’s Throwback Thursday Numero Uno! Back in 2006, I penned a blog about the future of real estate technology and marketing. It had a catchy title (not), Mike’s Corner. I recently took a ride in the Internet Wayback Machine to find some content that I wanted to reference in some new writing. It turned out to be an afternoon akin to Bill and Ted’s ride in the phone booth. It was a most bodacious and excellent experience. It occurred to me that both of the people that follow me closely on LinkedIn might want to spend a little time on Thursday afternoons by taking a ride in the booth to see some prolific prognostications, not just from me, but from many other bloggers that were part the “Re.net”

We’re going to start with a commentary article I wrote about the transition of real estate to what everyone was calling Real Estate 2.0. It was a co-opt of Web 2.0, a topic that I and many others pontificated effusively. Below is an excerpt:

Here's list of things you should have been doing after the first party.

1. Learning how to brand your business. (Not just yourself)

2. Learning how and why people REALLY use the web and technology for the entire life cycle of a transaction and building a strategy around it.

3. Developing business models that speak to different levels of consumer demand and consumer needs. (If you're only prepared to sell one size, forget it, it won't fit everyone. You might even need to build different brands within your own operation)

4. Preparing for the day when some clients will be willing to pay you more than you've ever charged before for your service because you adopted early and innovated often.

5. Learning how to respond to market conditions and deliver your services based upon consumer demand.

I will leave it to the reader to discern their takeaways from this 15-year retrospective. I would love to hear your thoughts about where we have been and where you see the industry going in the next 15 years. I'll leave my thoughts in the comment section.

“Gentleman, we’re history.” -Rufus