Last week I was at NAR because NAR came to San Diego. Normally I would be in Las Vegas for PubCon, which is search and online convention that started with some webmasters sharing tricks in a bar. This grew from a few dozen to over a 1000 in 7 years.

At PubCon you have sessions led by pros who are recognized experts on their subjects who have also been able to put into practice what they teach and have results you can point to as testament to what can be done. So when an Aaron Wall talks about SEO, it isnt just theory, but experience that has allowed Aaron to be quite successful. When someone mentions an SM guru, it is someone like Neil Patel who has made major bucks before he was 21 leveraging SM. You may know one of his businesses – CrazyEgg.

These are the guys outside of real estate who NAR should be getting to talk about this stuff. The real pros. By the same token, you will find that some of these folks would tell an audience why certain aspects of SM wont work in some niches. They are not going to sell the silver bullet, but explain how different bullets shot from different guns should be used on different prey (my apologies to the vegans in the crowd).

When I hear of agents spending close to $2k to someone to set up X # of SM profiles and a set of tapes to go with it, Im offended that these guys are so widely endorsed by the other so called experts in the field. Seriously, if you have to pay someone to set up a sm profile, what are the odds you will be successful with that?

I see huge value in learning from others outside my niche. It is where I developed my SEO skills. When you have people who compete and win in online spaces that are far more competitive (and by competitive I mean the level of skill you are going up against) than real estate, then you learn a ton. These guys are the Donald Trump of negotiating, the Warren Buffetts of investing, and the Barbara Corcorans of real estate brokers. I didnt see many of those types – the uber skilled. and successful like a Gregg Neumann – leading these sessions.

Condaleeza Rice is great, but Barbara Corcoran talking about taking $1000 and turning it into a $5 billion empire would have been worth the price of admission. That would have been educational and motivating.

At th end of the day I just want my industry back. I am tired of being told by those who dont do what we do why we are to stupid to see our imminent demise. They should be careful what they wish for as they are mostly just leeches who survive on the life blood of those very agents and brokers they think are clueless.

Awesome feedback. I’m sure Todd and other NAR folks appreciate your candor.

Thought/question: I always find it interesting when people think you can only learn from others with apples-to-apples experience. I hear you on the examples you sited, and that sounds fair. But, what if it was a parallel situation – a service provider in relationship-based selling. Could you garner and nuggets from such a person?

I’m just curious.

I hope I’ve told you I always appreciate your perspective and the time you take to offer your insights!

As far as NAR goes, I agree. You probably wouldn’t get a lot of C-level folks. I believe it differs for an organization like the MBA, or ABA. That said, there are Brokers who, especially as regional owners/partners could fall into the executive category.

Interesting takes on the Bar Camps. Particularly your observation they tend to be technology-centric. It might be interesting as a follow up to the Bar Camps the topics were posted. They very well may do that, I don’t know. And, since it’s put on by volunteers how fair is it to ask them to do more?

On one panel, only one was an agent. What I saw was 3 other vender/consultants talk about how to do stuff. Fine, except they have no IRL experience doing what they suggested in my medium. They had anecdotal evidence and they had their own experience, which doesnt translate.

For instance, the SM gurus are able to insert themselves into the real estate agent community online and use their techniques to sell to the community, then say “Hey, this works. Pay me and i’ll teach you”.

The problem with that is that the same model DOES NOT WORK when it comes to a model for selling homes. There is no twitter community I can invade that is primarily all the homeowners in a given sub-division. It doesn’t translate to a successful biz model, even though there are always enough exceptions for people to sell it as the way to go.

You also had a session where you had outside consultants talking about their opinions on listings. Smart folks, but no IRL experience. There are plenty of people within the industry who are not vendors that would have been far better in those situations, but they were no where to be found.

IMO one reason why the average agent gets far more out of their franchise convention is that they here mostly from those in the trenches doing it at extremely high levels. Its hands on info that can be translated into far more immediate results.

A few blocks away in the Gaslamp on 5th was an agent who has been one of the top agents in the US for the past 25 years who has made bank in every market cycle. I’ll bet if he tweeted he would have been picked to be on a panel, but alas he wasnt – too busy selling real estate.

My suggestion is to go to some of top companies and ask who they have that could add value to a NAR session. Then find some of the top independents in different markets and do the same. That info would be readily available from the local boards. Find the folks who are killing it and get them – not just those who are famous for being famous.

NAR is a trade group – focus on teaching your members the tricks of the trade from the craftsmen and the journeymen, as opposed to the apprentices, or worse, the vendors who only know how to demonstrate their power tools on a block of wood but couldn’t get hired on a real job site.

Here’s my take on REBAR camps – I’ve been to four: They’re fun, they can provide interesting content and the networking is great (and I don’t even drink!). However, they tend to tilt heavily toward technology and people who know best about technology sell it or the services around it. REBAR camps tend to be a bit repetitive. Probably out of necessity. They’re in different locations all the time and they really target real estate professionals who are new to the technology and want to learn it – rarely the “C-level” type.

I agree with your basic premise that pure content, rich and highly usable content, presented in a way that provides authentic and open sharing without the pressure to buy is a wonderful aspiration.

As long as the real estate mainstream continues to promote postcards, refrigerator magnets, and tweeting your listing three times a day it ain’t gonna happen.

You make an excellent point… if the feedback is polite, you don’t have enough info on what’s broken to even consider fixing it. Beyond attendee surveys, I’d probably want to measure # of butts in the seats per session and variance in YOY registration. Beyond that, I’d probably poll realtors and agents that did not attend and ask why, If the answer was relative value, I’d dig a little deeper for specifics.

Thanks.

I’m with you. I always prefer hearing what actual agents have to say over consultants. Our convention department struggles with programming though because they rarely get bad evaluations from those who attend the sessions. I guess it’s good manners or something. If you would like to express in detail which sessions discouraged you, I’ll be happy to share that with the people responsible for developing the program. If you’d rather say it in private, my email is tcar@realtor.org.

I’d like to extend this invitation to anyone else who attended NAR’s annual conference.

Thank you for providing your input, and I’m happy to hear you feel it’s a topic worth discussing. I will look forward to hearing from you following the event.

You raise some interesting points. Sounds like what was important to you was info on how to effectively sell in turbulence. Who better than your peers to hear this from.

I wonder if that, combined with the opportunity to hear from global economic heavyweights that can explain forward-looking trends in the economy, GSEs and others talking about the impact of loan mods and REOs would help you formulate a go-forward strategy to build/maintain a vibrant business?

It is just unfortunate that NAR would rather talk about how to use twitter instead of how to sell, since at the end of the day, that is what we do.

Thanks for chiming in. Sorry to hear you didn’t get much from NAR.

I agree, people want a magic bullet, but there is no such thing and they need to get in touch with that reality.

What you’ve conveyed here drives home my call for rich, relevant content .

I’ve always admired your progressive attitude!

Regarding your AEI event, awesome. Perhaps you can add a session on developing enriching, relevant content?

I am excited to follow the progress of your Unassociated event. I think the challenge will be getting the right mix of higher-ups/industry big wigs to attend an educational event when they don’t realize they need to learn anything.