Raymond Raffety posted on February 18, 2009 19:09
I have been away from the Real Estate industry for the past 11 years. I was raised in the industry (my parents owned a CENTURY 21 franchise), I spent a few years selling houses and Mortgages, and my formative technology years were spent working with CENTURY 21. I was Director of IT for Century 21 of New England and Century 21 of the Southeast. When Cendant acquired Century 21, I was moved up to Parsippany as the Director of Product Development for IT where my team delivered 18 products and systems in 18 months.
When I left in 1997 to open my own company, I was ready to see how the rest of the world used technology and how I could bring value to that world. Since then my company has provided services to Coca-Cola, Invesco Retirement and McKesson Corporation to name a few. But my heart has always remained with the real estate industry.
Real Estate is the profession that helps most people find not only the home in which to raise their family, but also the largest financial investment most people will ever make. It is an extremely honorable profession that has been much maligned.
A friend of mine, Don Martin, and I have known each other for 15+ years now. When he came to me and told me his idea about an opportunity to revolutionize the real estate industry (the American Agent Network) I wasn't too sure about it. I wanted to work with Don again, but I didn’t get the concept at first. As we started to explore the concept, I could clearly see how this was different. In fact the deeper we got into it, the more I could see how this really will revolutionize the Real Estate industry.
The idea is to shift the roles and responsibilities of the traditional brokerage firms. For instance, instead of the brokerage being responsible for recruiting, the agent can assume that role as well and be well compensated for doing it. In fact recruiting for a particular office can be done by anyone within the network and they can be compensated for that no matter which AAN office the agent joins. And that change of roles can only be accomplished through the appropriate use of technology.
In part this revolution is ripe due to the changes in and proliferation of technology. The internet is no longer a curiosity or just for entertainment. It has become an essential part of doing business. Mobile technologies from cell phones to WiFi make Panera Bread Company and StarBucks the Agents office conference room. Their desk is any chair with a flat surface to hold their notebook computer.
Agents and brokers are still, for the most part, right brainers. They are much more comfortable with people than computers. So every effort has to be made to apply the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). The technologies and systems that they require are fairly straight forward, but the KISS part will be the greatest challenge.
I’ll be writing more about the American Agent Network as I get time. You can get a glimpse of what it is by going to http://donmartin.aanweb.com