by Lillian Dickerson | Aug 28, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Reimagine sales, marketing and instruction by using digital avatars to bring the human touch to content without the cost, land investment specialist Curtis Williams writes.
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
It has long been clear that digital, sci-fi-esque renderings of human beings are no longer the stuff of fantasy. But, as with any technology, digital avatars needed to pass through an awkward — or uncanny, in this case — realm of being almost but not quite advanced enough to be useful.
That has now changed. Digitally rendered avatars that are genuinely lifelike are available on the open market for the first time, and real estate brokerages may just be among the beneficiaries.
TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY FOR AUGUST
How so? Digital avatars are one more means of communication — and an effective one, at that. Brokerages can simultaneously enjoy the heightened engagement of human or human-like communication and the practical convenience of digital platforms. Such communication can have manifold applications, of course, but here are four of the most glaring opportunities digital avatars present to real estate brokerages.
Customer service representatives
Online customer service portals can be quite lifeless — and with good reason. The vast majority of customer issues are resolvable via answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), and cannot justify the full-time attention of an employee. Still, navigating issues with the selling or buying process can be frustrating for clients, and can lead to business losses if the process is not seamless.
With digital avatars, customer service can be made personal without the time and energy costs of employing a representative. With tools like D-ID, brokerages can develop virtual agents for their customer service portal. These avatars can then be empowered with generative artificial intelligence (AI) to provide preset or customized answers to written questions from the customer. These virtual agents have the added benefit of being on call 24 hours a day, even when the office may be closed.
Presenters
Presentations are another case where a labor-intensive process—agents physically presenting or filming ahead of time — can only be avoided by sacrificing the engaging human element. Mere on-screen text or voiceover cannot compete with a face when it comes to the emotional impact a good presentation is meant to have on the audience.
This is why presentation platforms like PowerPoint and Canva are already accommodating virtual presenters that offer natural-looking personability with the convenience and transmissibility of an email attachment. These avatars can be equipped with stock voices — available also from D-ID — or even with custom audio.
Companies like ElevanLabs have developed realistic large language model voices that can perform text-to-voice transcriptions. Agents can even clone their own voices, allowing the avatar to quite literally speak on their behalf.
Instructors
Learning without an instructor is generally a dreadful process, as many real estate agents who have been digitally onboarded will be able to attest. Long, unengaging documents followed by faceless examinations are not exactly conducive to the emotionally driven human learning process. Once again, however, employing staff to consume and reissue information in a palatable and case-specific manner is very costly indeed.
An avatar instructor solves this problem by delivering content the same way a human would, without requiring preparation or compensation. Brokerages can use this sort of avatar for onboarding new agents to the firm, for instance, by converting written policy into video. Such instructors would be duplicable and could accommodate a diverse range of language options at the push of a button to reduce the cost of instructional content creation.
Social media personalities
In today’s digital marketplace, it is difficult to effectively market without making use of social media. In order for social media marketing to work, though, quality content must be produced and posted prolifically. This poses a significant challenge for real estate professionals, who rarely have time to film marketing content daily or even weekly.
By utilizing a digital avatar clone, agents can eliminate the bulk of time and effort required for content creation. Softwares like HeyGen allow agents to carefully construct an avatar that closely resembles themselves both visually and audibly. When this one-time design is finished, they can begin to upload scripts, sit back, and watch the software generate content for their social media platforms.
Until recently, digital avatars were a promising work in progress that might one day be of real use. Now that day has come, and those who ignore the opportunities that technology can provide do so at their peril. Real estate brokerages have a chance to reimagine their sales, marketing and instructional processes, bringing the human touch to their content without the costs it would usually require.
The firms and agents who can harness this vision may just find themselves — or their avatars — at the forefront of tomorrow’s market.
Curtis Williams is a land investment professional with National Land Realty, the nation’s fastest-growing real estate land brokerage. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
by Lillian Dickerson | Aug 23, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
This report was originally published on July 29, 2024, exclusively for subscribers of Intel, the data and research arm of Inman. Subscribe to Inman Intel for a deeper analysis of the business of real estate.
More U.S. adults have become open to buying a home in the coming months, and the factors driving active shoppers amid this depressed market are more varied than is often assumed, a new Intel survey finds.
- The share of working U.S. adults who said they were at least somewhat likely to buy a home in the next 12 months inched up by 3 percentage points from April to July, according to the Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey.
- The share of adults who said they were actively shopping for homes also rose over the past three months — although this likely reflects seasonal activity in the heat of the summer market, when housing demand is near its peak.
The Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey ran in early July and received responses from 3,000 adults with full-time or part-time jobs. Its results shed light on how potential real estate clients — both in the present and near-future — are thinking about the home market.
The survey also produced a host of detailed insights into consumer attitudes, including:
- What drove today’s active homebuyers to the market
- What non-buyers say will pull them into the market in the months ahead
- How renters and homeowners are viewing the landscape in their own unique ways
Read the full findings in the report below.
More than just ‘forced to move’
Even in times of poor affordability, major life changes help prop up home transactions: events like job change, marriage, having kids, death or divorce.
And that’s part of the picture for sure.
But real estate professionals — and now, homebuyers themselves — will also tell you it’s more complex than that.
Active homebuyers tell the Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey that they are motivated by a host of factors — including, surprisingly, the desire to find a larger or nicer home even in this high-rate environment.
Share of active homebuyers in early July who said their decision to buy is motivated in part by…
- 32% — Seeking larger or nicer house
- 31% — Job-related relocation
- 29% — Financial benefits of homeownership
- 25% — Moving closer to family
- 17% — Getting married
- 17% — Planning to retire
- 15% — Having a child
- 15% — Seeking second home or investment property
- 15% — Seeking smaller or more affordable house
- 11% — Seeking better school district
- 8% — Getting divorced
- 7% — Children moving out of the home
The desire to upgrade one’s home often goes underdiscussed in real estate circles these days, but this survey demonstrates that it remains one of the top factors driving consumers to the home market.
That share of consumers may still be lower today than it was when mortgages were cheaper and homes more affordable. But because July was the first time the survey asked this question, Intel is not in a position say how that share had changed over time.
That said, the active buyers who said they were seeking a larger or nicer house did give some clues as to their thinking. Buyers seeking a home upgrade were less likely to say they were moving for family-related reasons, and more likely to say that a job change, a better school district or plans to retire were driving their decision to buy now.
Intel also identified that significantly different factors are driving homeowners and buyers to the market.
Today’s homeowners actively shopping for homes are more likely than renters to be driven by:
- Job-related relocation — 36%
- Seeking second home or investment property — 22%
- Moving closer to family — 29%
- Planning to retire — 19%
Today’s renters actively shopping for homes are more likely than homeowners to be driven by:
- Getting married — 22%
- Seeking a better school district — 15%
- Seeking a larger or nicer home — 35%
- Financial benefits of homeownership — 31%
These results represent the current pool of buyers that real estate agents were working with day-in and day-out in early July.
But Intel also sought the opinions of buyers who are not yet on the market, but expect to enter it sometime soon.
The next wave of buyers
The next 12 months are likely to bring more buyers into the fold — but they’re likely to be even more sensitive to affordability than the clients of today have been.
They’re also less likely to be investors, and less likely to expect to have to move as a result of a change in their employment.
- Only 20 percent of near-term future buyers say that they expect they’ll be driven by a job-related relocation. That’s compared to 31 percent of today’s buyers who say a job change is driving them to move. This may be largely driven by the fact that job changes can be difficult to predict in advance.
- A mere 9 percent of future buyers say they’ll be seeking a second home or investment property, compared to 15 percent of today’s buyers who say the same.
Instead, the next wave of homebuyers are especially likely to say they’ll be motivated by a desire to downsize.
- 19 percent of near-future buyers say they’ll look at downsizing or lowering their monthly housing costs when they hit the market, compared to 15 percent of buyers today.
- 11 percent of future buyers say that they’re planning to move because children are moving out of the home, compared to 7 percent of active buyers.
Certain tendencies also stood out among homeowners and renters who were likely to buy a home in the next 12 months.
Today’s homeowners who are not actively shopping, but expect to buy in the coming year, are more likely to be driven by:
- Planning to retire — 21%
- Getting divorced — 11%
- Children moving out of the home — 12%
Today’s renters who are not actively shopping, but expect to buy in the coming year, are more likely to be driven by:
- Financial benefits of homeownership — 36%
- Seeking a larger or nicer home — 38%
- Seeking a smaller or more affordable home — 20%
It’s notable that renters can be driven one of two ways, depending on their situation: Many are seeking a larger or nicer place than their current rental unit, as expected.
But we also see signs that renters care more about affordability than other groups. As such, some consumers renting a house may be looking to move into a smaller place when they purchase.
The renters who plan to buy in the next 12 months are more likely to say they’re driven by the financial benefits of homeownership than renters who are shopping for homes today. In today’s challenging affordability environment, it’s possible that active shoppers are a bit less enthusiastic that their home purchase will be a sound financial investment.
About the Inman-Dig Insights Consumer Survey
The Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey was conducted from July 5 through July 7 to gauge the opinions and behaviors of Americans related to homebuying.
The survey sampled a diverse group of 3,000 American adults, ranging in age from 24 to 65 and employed either full-time or part-time. The participants were selected to produce a broadly representative breakdown by age, gender and region.
Statistical rigor was maintained throughout the study, and the results should be largely representative of attitudes held by U.S. adults with full- or part-time jobs. Both Inman and Dig Insights are majority-owned by Toronto-based Beringer Capital.
Email Daniel Houston
by Lillian Dickerson | Aug 22, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Seattle-based brokerage and portal Redfin laid off almost 100 Redfin Concierge support and sales managers on Thursday. The company said agents will now take the lead on Concierge services.
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
Redfin laid off about 100 employees on Thursday, according to a report from GeekWire.
The layoffs impacted support and sales managers with Redfin Concierge, the company’s pre-listing home improvement service. A Redfin spokesperson said the layoffs were spurred by an increasing focus on Redfin Next, the company’s hybrid compensation plan that enables agents to keep full-scale benefits while earning competitive commission splits.
TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY FOR AUGUST
“This morning Redfin had a targeted layoff of fewer than 100 people, primarily in our Concierge service and support and sales managers within the real estate brokerage,” a spokesperson told Inman. “No agents are being laid off. In fact, some of the impacted employees are being offered jobs as agents.”
As for Concierge operations, agents will take the lead.
“As we hire more Redfin Next agents and our current agents become more entrepreneurial and self-sufficient, Redfin needs less support and managerial staff,” they added. “Additionally, Redfin is decentralizing operations for our Concierge service. Redfin will continue to offer Concierge service for sellers but in a more decentralized form with local agents taking the lead.”
The layoffs come on the heels of a stock market rally for the Seattle-based brokerage.
Redfin’s stocks have risen 30 percent over the past month due to improving existing sales and mortgage rates, according to a MarketWatch analysis on Monday. The Aug. 17 change in cooperative compensation rules also contributed, as Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman predicted more consumers will embrace the brokerage’s pricing structure in the face of a more complicated commission landscape.
“We’ve tried in the past to recruit buyers by offering them a better deal, and mostly they’ve been confused by that because they haven’t been the ones paying their agent. (Now) we think we can use price as a weapon to gain share,” Kelman said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
The layoffs haven’t seemed to impact Redfin stock (NASDAQ: RDFN), which rose 3.10 percent to $9.32 per share by market closing. The company’s stock is still rising in after-hours trading, rising 0.75 percent to $9.39 per share.
Email Marian McPherson
by Lillian Dickerson | Aug 22, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
Times of disruption provide a unique opportunity for agents to create life-altering change for their businesses. Most people understand that a few bad decisions and careless actions today can negatively impact their future. But they often forget that the reverse is true as well. Good decisions and purposeful actions today can positively alter their future as well.
However, there is a process, and this article breaks down the SIMPLE steps you can take to build the business of your dreams.
S: Sick and tired of being sick and tired
There are two emotions that lead to change. The first can happen when you get sick and tired of the way your business and life are going. Maybe your business has stalled or even been declining. You might be burnt out and not sure if you even want to continue in this business.
This is the emotion that leads to agents either leaving the business or coming to the realization that to get different results they must do different things. If you decide to push through and make a change, the first step is to choose your pain. Will the pain of regret, or not doing what needs to be done to regain your momentum, be worse than the pain you are currently facing by being sick and tired of your current situation?
This change starts by identifying the actions in your business that you know need to be done, but that you have been avoiding. These could include making more phone calls, investing in marketing, shooting video content or any number of activities agents avoid doing despite knowing they will help their business. Whatever it might be for you, coming to a place where you will fight through the short-term uncomfortableness to change your business and life is one of two ways your mindset can change and lead to success.
I: Inspiration
The second factor that can lead to change is when you are inspired by an outside force to strive for something better. This can come through a speaker, a video or by spending time with someone who is truly inspirational. This rarely is a one-time event.
Inspiration must be consistent and sustainable to create true change, but it is one of the most powerful emotions for those desiring more.
Once you realize you need to change, whether through being sick and tired or through inspiration, the next step is to move into the practical activities and specific actions you can focus on to regain the momentum you desire.
M: Create a movement
People want to be a part of something that is bigger than themselves. If you’re a broker or manager this means creating a movement that agents want to be a part of.
By creating an aspirational culture, you will attract the agents you’re looking to build your business with. If you’re an agent, create a movement where buyers and sellers desire to work with you.
Whether you are a broker, manager or an agent, a movement in your business can be created by following my three C’s of movement creation.
Create community
People are drawn to community. This can be done in a company via a collaborative culture or developing a culture where the agents are proud to be associated with the company.
Agents can do this through client appreciation events, by donating to local charities in honor of their clients or any number of additional community activities that bring the agent’s clients together. The key is to create a community people are proud to be associated with.
Be the connector
Whether it be connecting your buyers with local business owners, homeowners with handymen, landscapers or any other needed services, your ability to be the resource and connector is invaluable. If you are the person who connects your agents or clients with the people they need, others will naturally be drawn to you and your business.
Captivate your ideal client
The best way to captivate your ideal client is to provide them with information and guidance in a unique way that attracts them to you. Be specific in your marketing by calling out your ideal client.
Here are a few examples:
- If you’re a first-time homebuyer wondering about what price home you can qualify to buy, this video is for you.
- If you’re thinking about selling your home, this video shares the three biggest mistakes most homeowners make and how to avoid them.
- If you’re an investor who has been looking for the best income-producing property in [your city], this video is for you.
When you create content that educates and entertains your ideal client, they will find you.
P: Focus on people and your purpose
To change your life, you must be focused on other people and be anchored in a higher purpose. Let me start with the focus on the people portion. Dreams come true through the assistance of or in service to other people and, in most cases, both.
I touched on captivating your ideal client in the previous section, but understanding who your ideal client is leads to clarity in your messaging. It provides an understanding of what your marketing should be focused on and where it should be distributed. Become obsessed with servicing your ideal clients, and you will never lack for business.
The second group of people to focus on are the employees and service provider partners that can assist you in providing world-class service to your ideal clients. Building a mutually beneficial lender relationship, inspector and insurance provider is a great way to build a trusted group of people you can grow alongside.
From an employee standpoint, transaction coordinators, personal assistants or client care coordinators provide leverage for you to be able to serve more people at an even higher level.
The reason focusing on your purpose is so important is that this business will test you. There will be disappointments and difficult transactions.
The key is to focus on the true reason you are in this business. Maybe it’s a better lifestyle for your family, to make more money or even, in some cases, to prove someone wrong that doubted you in the past. Whatever it is for you, your ability to stay focused on your purpose will enable you to overcome any obstacles this business throws at you.
L: Learn continuously
When you decide to become the most consistent student in your market, it’s only a matter of time before your business grows. Learning how to become a better negotiator, marketer or communicator increases your value to clients and, in turn, will lead to more business.
E: Execution
Execution is the key to everything. You can learn everything you want to learn, and you can focus on your purpose as much as possible, but until you execute, nothing happens. For things to change, there will have to be a season of hard work. To create momentum and change in your life, there will be a season of struggle. But it will be worth it.
This is the time and opportunity for you to change your future. Whether your change is being initiated via pain or inspiration, this is the season for you to move from the level you are currently on to the level you were destined to reach. Make decisions, and take action now in a way that your future self will thank you.
Jimmy Burgess is the CEO for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida in Northwest Florida. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
by Lillian Dickerson | Aug 12, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Inman Connect is moving from Las Vegas to San Diego in 2025 and it’ll be bigger, better, and bolder than ever before. Join us for Inman Connect San Diego on July 30-Aug. 1, 2025 with the brightest minds in real estate to shape the future of the industry. Reserve your spot today for an exclusive discount.
Real estate franchising giant RE/MAX reports that the number of open Motto Mortgage offices is shrinking for the first time ever as franchise sales slow and some existing franchisees cancel their agreements.
Launched in October 2016, Motto Mortgage doesn’t make loans itself but provides technology, training and marketing tools for mortgage brokers who work with wholesale lenders like UWM, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender.
Elevated mortgage rates have made it a tough time to be in the mortgage business. Motto Franchising LLC sold 27 franchise licenses in 2023, down from 64 in 2021, finishing the year with 246 open offices.
This year the number of open offices is in decline for the first time in the company’s history. Motto Franchising sold only nine franchise licenses in the first half of 2024, down 50 percent from 18 at the same point a year ago.
Motto Mortgage office count peaks
Open Motto Mortgage offices peaked at 246 in Q4 2023 and has declined to 239 as of July 31, 2024. Source: Inman analysis of RE/MAX Holdings Inc. earnings reports.
But the number of open Motto Mortgage offices has been shrinking this year, as some franchisees have terminated their licenses while new licensees require time to get up and running.
The number of open Motto Mortgage offices dropped to 243 at the end of the first quarter, to 241 as of June 30, and to 239 as of July 31, RE/MAX said in reporting second quarter earnings.
Motto Franchising President Ward Morrison said that even as Motto continues to sell new franchise agreements, there has been an increase in terminations, “for many different factors.”
Ward Morrison
“Obviously, as the volume of loans decreased within the market due to the macro economy, it’s tougher for offices to get some of those” loans, Morrison said on an Aug. 9 call with investment analysts. “They have to go out there and scrap on a daily basis to try and get refis in the market, try and get purchase in the market.”
A few Motto Mortgage franchisees have lacked the “wherewithal” to stay open in that environment, Morrison said, due to “their financial position, a lack of deals, [or] maybe they are not connected to real estate.”
While Motto has “seen some of those terminations increase during this past year, we feel like when the macro economy changes, we’ll be able to start regrowing that open office count and continue on the trend that we had prior to the macro.”
Another headwind for sustaining past growth in office count is that franchisees sign seven-year agreements with Motto Franchising, and 2024 is the first full year Motto has had offices come up for renewal.
In April, Motto Mortgage announced two original Motto franchise owners — Motto Mortgage Prosperity and Motto Mortgage Supreme — had renewed their licenses.
Since then, Motto has announced the opening of Motto Mortgage Royal and Motto Mortage INVICTUS in Florida; Motto Mortgage Sail Home in New Hampshire; and Motto Mortgage Premier Pros in North Dakota.
“While not all Motto franchises succeed, over the first six years of their existence, Motto franchisees have had a higher success rate than the comparable average small business operating in the financial services industry,” RE/MAX disclosed in its most recent annual report to investors.
The average fee revenue each office generates for RE/MAX has climbed steadily over the years, from an average of $3,000 per month in 2019 to $3,700 a month last year. RE/MAX also provides third-party loan processing services to mortgage brokers through another subsidiary, wemlo, which recently processed its 6,000th loan “clear to close,” RE/MAX CEO Erik Carlson said.
Erik Carlson
“Reaching this milestone is exciting for the wemlo brand because growth like this validates the benefits to mortgage brokers (of) providing our third-party processing services,” Carlson said.
New offices pay no monthly fees to Motto Franchising for six months after purchasing a franchise license. After that, fees are ramped up through escalating tiers that top out at $4,650 a month after 13 months. More than 9 in 10 offices (91 percent) were in the highest monthly fee tier at the end of last year, RE/MAX reported.
RE/MAX grows mortgage revenue and losses
RE/MAX’s Motto Franchising and wemlo businesses generated more than five times as much revenue last year ($14 million) as they did in 2018 ($2.5 million). But after inching toward profitability since launching in 2016, the mortgage segment’s adjusted EBITDA loss has been growing larger for the last three years, growing to $6.9 million in 2023.
At $3.68 million, Q2 2024 revenue from the mortgage segment was up 2 percent from the same quarter a year ago. But RE/MAX’s mortgage segment posted a $1.68 million adjusted EBITDA loss (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for Q2, up 15 percent from the same quarter a year ago.
For the first six months of the year, mortgage revenue was up 7 percent to $7.3 million, and the $2.8 million adjusted EBITDA loss for H1 2024 was 30 percent less than the $4 million adjusted loss at the same point in 2023.
Morrison said Motto does “pick up some money” when franchisees terminate their licenses, “so that does sort of have a put and take.”
Get Inman’s Mortgage Brief Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. A weekly roundup of all the biggest news in the world of mortgages and closings delivered every Wednesday. Click here to subscribe.
Email Matt Carter
