Dear Top Producer,

Change is inevitable.

Change is relentless. It stops for no one.

There is a tsunami of unprecedented changes happening right now that will likely mean the beginning of the end of the traditional real estate industry and the solo agent model as we know it.

The Perfect Storm

There’s a sea of change or paradigm shift that is occurring in residential real estate that even the most successful Realtors shouldn’t ignore if they plan to survive and remain relevant in the years ahead.

Have you read the DANGER Report by the National Association of Realtors?

The forces of change are so powerful and the timing so urgent that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) published the DANGER Report to educate agents and brokers about the top threats facing Realtors today.

The CEO and President of NAR signed a joint message that ended with this statement, “We hope, in reading this report, you are filled with passion and resolve to engage in the debate about the future of our industry. By focusing on these challenges, we will make more opportunities than we ever imagined.”

As good as the DANGER report is, it only addresses a fraction of the emerging new competitive and market forces.

The Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop is the most comprehensive, real estate thought-leadership workshop ever created and will forever change how you look at your business and the future of the real estate industry. Attending this workshop could be the most profitable opportunity of your career.

Below is a partial list of industry challenges/threats with a brief overview of each issue. At the workshop, we’ll break down each industry threat into more detail.

Challenges/Threats to the Future of Realtors

1. 74% of Americans don’t believe real estate agents are worth their commission
   • Market research shows that consumers have a low perceived value of agent buyer/seller value propositions. Consumers rank real estate agents #25 out of #27 in respected professions – just ahead of used car sales people.
   • According to the NAR DANGER Report, “Masses of marginal agents are destroying the reputation of the industry.” The report concludes, “The real estate industry is saddled with a large number of part-time, untrained, and/or incompetent agents. This knowledge gap threatens the credibility of the industry.” NAR DANGER Report, Page 20
   • Nothing is more dangerous to the future of an agent’s income than consumers who have lost trust in the value of agents in a marketplace bursting with new competitors offering deep discounted commissions.
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll reveal powerful solutions on how to rejuvenate and elevate the confidence of buyers and sellers in your professional services.
2. Wall Street is investing billions to take your customers or disintermediate you
   • Wall Street is investing billions to fund at least 7 types of new brokerage and infrastructure models – from deep discount brokers to high tech real estate solutions.
   • All of these new companies have one thing in common – they want your customers/commissions or they want to disintermediate you with technology.
   • In a recent Inman News article, The Real Estate Industry’s Evolve-or-Die Moment, Anthony Hitt, CEO of Engle & Volkers said, “(Wall Street’s) influx of capital means no more false alarms. With the dollars to make it happen, disruption is really coming to the real estate industry, and despite years of speculation and anticipation for this disruption, very few companies are actually prepared.”
   • Example: Wall Street has already disrupted the home search phase of buying a home
   • Once upon a time, Realtors were the exclusive source and gatekeepers for all listings (remember the MLS books?).
   • As proof that change happens and that financial muscle matters, Zillow dominates Internet home search with over 65% market share of all property searches.
   • Now, Wall Street wants to dominate every phase of the brokerage industry – from Internet home search to controlling buyer/seller leads, to back end office technology to brokerage commissions.
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll review new business, marketing and value proposition strategies that agents can use to re-position themselves in the marketplace to win against Wall Street discounters.
3. The decline of the relevancy of agents
   • “The role, function, and perceived value of agents deteriorates as agents fail to properly assess and respond to changing consumer demands and expectations.” — NAR DANGER Report, Page 28
   • “A tech company cracks the code and connects enough of the dots to conduct real estate transactions without the need of an agent.” — NAR DANGER Report, Page 38
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll look deeper into the root causes of changing consumer expectations and how to instantly become more relevant to today’s buyers and sellers.
4. He who controls the buyer/seller leads wins
   • Wall Street has billions to spend on creating powerful consumer advertising and lead generation campaigns across multiple channels — Internet advertising, social media, television, radio and direct mail.
   • Maybe more importantly, they have the lead management infrastructure and technology to control, qualify and cultivate millions of buyer/seller leads.
   • Although word-of-mouth and referrals will always be important, don’t be fooled into thinking that massive advertising campaigns won’t impact your business. Zillow easily beat out traditional brokers for market share in Internet home search and now they also control millions of buyer/seller leads. Believe me. This is just the beginning of the battle to control buyer/seller leads.
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll outline two proven lead generation strategies that even Wall Street can’t compete with you on.
5. The agent centric era ends
   • “The disproportionate power that independent contractors have enjoyed over the past three decades goes out of vogue as capital or economies of scale change the rules and the Wall Street reign begins.” — NAR DANGER Report, Page 30
   • Can you believe the above words are written in the DANGER Report published by the National Association of Realtors? Yet, what they wrote is true. Due to the new dynamics of financial resources, economies of scale, new technology, and changing consumer behavior/demographics, individual agents and traditional brokers must find new ways to compete or they will become less relevant – even obsolete.
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop we’ll discuss why the agent-centric era is not coming back – and also reveal how to double or triple your income by focusing on how to make your differentiated value visible in the new consumer-centric era of real estate.
6. Commissions spiral downward – 50% to 70% lower
   • “A variety of powerful forces exert significant downward pressure on real estate commissions.” — NAR DANGER Report, Page 22
   • Wall Street discounters like Redfin, REX Realty, and Purplebricks are cutting real estate commissions by 50% to 70%. Why? They want to grab quick market share and take advantage of the consumer’s low confidence in full-commission Realtors.
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll discuss what this means for the future of Realtors as well as give proven strategies to win clients at full commission.
7. The lack of highly-differentiated, transparent, consumer-centric value propositions for buyers and sellers has left the door wide open for new competitors
   • Failure to innovate equals failure to differentiate and failure to differentiate equals one step away from becoming irrelevant and obsolete.
   • Frankly, Wall Street is the “wolf at the door” of traditional Realtors only because of the perceived commoditization of licensed agents. Most consumers find it difficult to see any meaningful professional differentiation between agents and the buyer/seller value propositions they offer.
   • When any product or service becomes commoditized, pricing power (in this case commissions) weakens and price wars become a way to grab market share.
   • Buyers and sellers hire agents because they believe they are hiring an expert to professionally represent their highest and best interests. The truth is the most agents have not clearly defined what expert value looks like from the consumer’s viewpoint. The lack of clearly defined deliverables is an issue for both the client and the agent.
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll reveal powerful strategies to help you more clearly define your differentiated buyer and seller value propositions and how to avoid the devastating trap of discounting commissions.
8. Agents don’t have the financial, marketing, business management resources or technology/operational infrastructure to compete with Wall Street
   • This comparison may seem obvious but its effects could make or break the future of the traditional real estate model and over 1,300,000 independent agents.
   • Individual agents and even large traditional brokers cannot match Wall Street’s resources and therefore are vulnerable to new well funded competitors backed by teams of specialists, state-of-the-art systems and technology.
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll reveal new breakthrough strategies on how Realtors could harness the power of marketing and operational infrastructure resources hundreds of times larger than their own, yet still remain independent.
9. The traditional brokerage/agent head count model is in a death spiral
   • Almost 50 years ago, Re/Max made the 100% agent split popular. Although today, the model has changed slightly, the shift of power (and commission splits) moved from the broker to the agent.
   • However, the agent-centric era is quickly being replaced by a new, unstoppable paradigm shift driven by seven irreversible forces (that you’ll learn at the workshop).
   • The traditional broker/agent head count model based on the old agent-centric era compensation splits and business practices is doomed to fail because it is not aligned with the new market fundamentals and business infrastructure required to thrive in the new consumer-centric era.
   • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll take a deep dive into this disruptive paradigm shift and what options you should consider to adapt to these revolutionary changes.
10. The jack-of-all-trades solo agent model is obsolete
    • The solo agent business model no longer best serves the highest interests of buyers/sellers or the real estate agent and restricts the agent’s ability to leverage their time, income and quality of life.
    • If an agent wants to earn $1 million a year but work only 40 hours a week, they would need to earn about $500 per hour. Question: How do you make $500 per hour doing $30 per hour work? Answer: You don’t.
    • In fact, every time you complete a $20 to $50 per hour task that you could have delegated to someone else, you’re costing yourself about $475 per hour in income. How? By not performing more $500 per hour tasks — such generating more leads, winning more listings or building lifetime relationship with clients you incur a large “opportunity cost.”
    • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, you’ll learn about new business models that allow varying degrees of access to specialized teams, systems, technology and infrastructure to leverage your time, income and improve the quality of your life.
11. Agents and brokers are not getting real about how they plan to compete against disruptive competitors and who is going to pay for developing new innovative buyer/seller value propositions and the infrastructure needed to deliver them
    • The National Association of Realtors (NAR) published the DANGER Report in 2015. NAR leadership showed great vision and courage to publish a report that warned agents and brokers about issues that threaten the very existence of the traditional real estate model.
    • It’s more than three years later. There’s been lots of talk but very little action. Wall Street has invested tens of billions and new competitors are beginning to take market share, yet most traditional brokers and agents have few innovations to talk about.
    • The main reason traditional brokers and agents have made minimal progress is they’re not getting real about what the changes should be or who is going to pay for them.
    • At the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, we’ll discuss the urgent need for innovation and realistic options for new agent compensation models where everyone wins – the agent, the broker and buyers/sellers. As Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Ignoring change is not a smart option.
12. There is an over-supply of licensed real estate agents – in the future, it’s possible that up to 90% of agents will be displaced (go out of business)
    • Let’s do the math. There are just over 1.3 million Realtors and another 700,000 licensed agents who are not members of the National Association of Realtors. That’s a total of about 2 million licensed agents.
    • In the coming new world order of real estate, huge investments are being made to create massive lead generation machines that generate, qualify and cultivate leads. In addition, new back office technology will make it possible for support teams to execute much of the coordination and documentation work that traditional agents currently do.
    • Well-funded new brokerage firms will redefine the role of agents so they can leverage their productivity with support teams.
    • The new organized business paradigm will create dramatic increases in operational and marketing efficiencies with expert infrastructure, technology and specialized teams. The result: Good agents will easily be able to do 50+ transactions annually – working less hours than most agents who currently sell less than 20 homes. Top agents will do more than 100 transactions annually. I’ve already witnessed agents selling more than 160 homes annually with the right support systems.
    • However, when you do the math, this could ultimately mean that a mix of part time, full time and/or agents not willing to adjust to the new model will have to find new employment.
    • In 2017, residential unit sales were about 5.7 million units. If each sale has 2 sides (buy/sell) this equals 11.4 million sides.
    • In the “organized business model” even if agents only do 50 transactions a year, there would only be a need for just over 200,000 full time agents. Based on current numbers, this means about 1.8 million licensed agents would not have a job.
    • This painful reality has happened to many other professions – from full commission stock brokers to travel agents. The best solution is to proactively prepare for change.
    • Attend the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop and learn what it will take to be one of the agents selling 50 to 150 homes each year, earning exponentially more income and taking 3 months off annual vacation. Sound impossible – it’s not. Come and learn how!

No Industry, Company or Individual is Immune from Change

Think about it. Almost every major industry goes through major changes at some point.

Here are a few examples where innovation or a better business model dramatically changed the fortunes of major industries and millions of workers:

• Local hardware stores used to dominate –not anymore—it’s Home Depot and Lowes
• Local coffee shops — now it’s Starbucks
• Local office supply stores? Now it’s Office Max and Office Depot
• Local full commission stockbrokers? This profession had been eliminated and replaced with online trading for as low as $4.95 per trade, or salaried/low-fee money managers.
• Local Travel Agents made a commission on your ticket? Seen one lately? 95% obsolete!
• LP records? 8-Track Tapes? Cassettes tapes? Sony CD Walkman? iPods? All gone. (Now, MP3 players are integrated into your phone and tens of millions of people subscribe to streaming music services like Spotify.)
• For decades local taxi companies had a monopoly. Not now! Can you say Uber or Lyft?
• Kodak? (This 108-year-old company changed their strategy too late and were put out of business by the digital photography paradigm-shift.)

Get the idea?

Change or die.

Make 2019 Your Best Year Ever

It might take you months, even years, to do the same market research that you could learn from this one-day thought leadership discussion on the future of real estate.

There is a wise business saying: “Sometimes you need to work on your business, not just in your business.”

Successful Realtors are busy people and rightly value their time. However, sometimes, the smartest action you can take is to take a step back from your business and look at what’s happening in the marketplace so you can strategically navigate new market realities.

Take Charge of Your Future – Invest in the Power of Knowledge

I guarantee that this Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop will forever change how you look at your business and the future of the real estate industry.

Would you trade one-day of your career to attend this workshop if it could earn you an additional $4 to $10 million in lifetime commissions?

Seating is by invitation-only and is limited to only 30 forward-thinking top agents.

I look forward to meeting you at the workshop.

All the best,

Harold Ware, CEO & Founder, Maxavenue

P.S. If you attend the Wake-Up Call for Realtors workshop, I promise world-class content. There is no obligation – just an amazing day of taking a look into the future of real estate.