Let’s take a look at disruptive innovation in real estate.
Featuring:
Bob Nelson, Eugene real estate investment broker
Marcia Edwards, Eugene residential real estate broker
Marcia Edwards: We want to talk today about disruptive innovation in industry. An example of what that concept would be is what Netflix did to Blockbuster.
So blockbuster was providing a service and consumers started to get frustrated on a couple points. One, the fees when it was late was too high, and the other was they didn’t always have the movie you wanted in with enough copies to actually support the demand. So the consumers were missing something. Netflix comes in with a crazy idea of only a dollar a day, if you’re late on a movie, and then to have a promise that you’d get all the movie that you wanted and never run out. So that concept shifted and no, there was no way for Blockbuster to move quickly to the direction they needed to, to adjust to that new service model. So they found a resentment from the consumers. They met that need, and now Netflix is infilling their service model to be much more robust and meet all their interests.
Bob Nelson: It’s interesting and that they’re not the only ones. You got who Hulu. You got all kinds of stuff. Everybody’s jumping on a model that works better and it’s interesting because the real estate profession, real estate brokers, have been pretty much the deliverer of services that was needed to get the job done. The professional services needed. Now commercial real estate, that’s interesting. I am a guru of taxation, exchanging, market trends, all kinds of things. Good luck on following a computer that would have that analog and be able to deliver it and keep you in a safe position. But residential realtors are kind of hanging out there as I see it.
Marcia Edwards: Well, who is hanging out there? Someone that doesn’t have a depth of knowledge because what’s going on right now is there’s a database and we’ve stood between the consumer and the database and the consumers are frustrated. So Zillow comes along and gently provides a similar database. Now we’ve got an opportunity for consumers to do a work around. Is that the role of the realtor? If your platform has been, I’ve got the key and you have to go through me to get to my house that I have listed for sale, you’re in jeopardy. Any part-time realtors, anyone that does not know real estate as an industry, much like a CPA, understands the edges of taxation; you’re not going to be a benefit to the consumer. So you’re looking for depth and knowledge from the realtor you work with today.
Bob Nelson: And quickness of service, savvy, the ability to avoid mistakes. The house that you buy is one of your largest single investments. Don’t screw it up.
Marcia Edwards: Don’t screw it up. We’ll leave it on that note.
Join Eugene, Oregon, real estate experts: Bob Nelson, Real Estate Investment Broker with Pacwest Real Estate Investments, and Marcia Edwards, Residential Real Estate Broker with Windermere Real Estate, daily at 5:30 on KPNW for the “Real Estate Today” radio show.
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