Is There Real Strategy in Your Strategic Planning? It May be Time for Another Tough Love Look Inside Your Organization

If you’ve done quality time in politics or at a publicly traded company, you know that strategic thinking is embedded into leadership roles and into the roles of those who support leadership. But the looming question is, how do some of them get it right and others get it terribly wrong? Let us also ask: is this process going deep enough within the institutional thinking of organized real estate?

By |2021-05-05T15:27:54-07:00May 6th, 2021|Strategic Planning, Thought Leadership|2 Comments

Is your MLS prepared for what it takes to survive and thrive? Find out the biggest threats for the future

Here’s what can happen when organizations fall out of touch: decisions seem difficult or controversial, causing delays for the organization and leaving it to fall behind or lose their competitive advantage.

By |2019-07-11T07:40:17-07:00July 10th, 2019|Our Services, WAVes of Change|0 Comments

Associations Rethink Forms Licensing Policy

If you were in the real estate business before the days of email, you may recall the experience of driving to the local Board of REALTORS® to pick up a forms packet for a transaction. Alternatively, your brokerage may have had a forms file with every type of printed form that you might need. Simply stated, forms were printed until pioneering State Associations of REALTORS® learned to share them electronically. Today, electronic forms management is a member benefit for all Realtors® as a member benefit of The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). When Realtor Associations learned about this policy and [...]

By |2017-11-29T20:02:42-08:00November 29th, 2017|Main category|1 Comment

It’s time to replace Core Standards with the Gold Standard

NAR announced its Core Standard program for local Associations just over a year ago.   In essence it is designed to help every association ensure that they are delivering a minimum standard of code of ethics enforcement communication, advocacy, consumer outreach and fundraising to its members. The program is a good start.   At last count it had led to at least 90 mergers, likely with smaller associations who simply did not have the resources to meet the minimum standard. The number will probably be higher than that after the deadline of June 30th has been reached.   I applaud the effort to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:40-07:00June 25th, 2015|Main category|3 Comments

We’re Losing the Race for Relevance – How to Stem the Tide

Idea #1 - How to Take Credit for the Industry’s Service Quality Every real estate association I have the pleasure of working with is struggling with how to re-invent themselves. Everybody knows it’s a problem at some level, but yet there has been no fundamental change in the focus, governance or scope of associations in several years. Are we just going to sit by and watch the association business go away?  Should it go away?  Has the value of an association run its course? My fundamental belief is that Associations CAN and DO play an important role in the industry, [...]

Looking for ways to make your Association more valuable? Take credit for your MLS

Many times when I speak with Association Executives they tell me how they wish they could play a more vital role in solving the technology needs of its members. Here’s a simple idea to consider…..why not take advantage of all of the great services and technologies and training classes your regional MLS offers?  Many MLSs offer terrific consumer-facing websites, for example.  For example, few association sites I visit feature the MLS Consumer facing website on their websites.  Property search has been proven to to be the best way to generate consumer traffic yet few Associations are taking advantage of framing [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:42-07:00April 26th, 2011|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments

Looking to make your MLS more profitable? How about improving the earth along the way too?

Are you as worried about our planet as I am?  We continue to destroy it without considering the consquences. As a mother of a young child, I would really like to find ways I can create a positive impact on the planet she will be living on in the future. While I don’t believe I can come up with a way to reduce the amount of oil used in auto engines or eliminate jet fuel from our air supply, I do believe I can help influence our own businesses.  The technology exists. We just need to embrace it and make [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:43-07:00April 25th, 2011|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments