Meeting Consumer's Expectations

  First, some of my readers may have noticed that I have re-branded my blog to "Live Play - Georgian Bay."  Personally, I feel this new name better reflects what our area is all about.  Whether you are into an active, sports oriented lifestyle or prefer the "arts," the southern Georgian Bay lifestyle is what continues to attract people to this wonderful area.
  I recently attended the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) Conference in Anaheim California.  This four day event drew 18,000 REALTORS® from not only the U.S. and Canada but from other parts of the world as well.  This is an excellent conference with a variety of educational sessions scheduled over four days that apply not only to issues pertaining to real estate Boards and Associations but there is also a broad variety of topics for individual REALTORS® and their respective businesses as well.
 The real estate profession like many other businesses has essentially been transformed via the Internet and the future holds even greater changes still to come.  The NAR conference offered a glimpse into the future of real estate and more importantly the various educational sessions served to educate REALTORS®
 in terms of how we need to adapt and re-invent our businesses so-to-speak, in order to meet the needs and expectations of today's consumer. 
  Humans naturally tend to resist change.  Breaking away from old habits or established ways of doing business can be a hard pill to swallow for many. Very few REALTORS® write blogs for example. It's time consuming, requires a flow of ideas and the ability to communicate via the written word.  I started the process in the fall of 2007.  Coincidentally that was after attending the NAR Conference in Las Vegas during which time blogging and social networking was somewaht in it's infancy.  Four years later and it's virtually become a necessity and or an expectation of consumers.
  I've slipped in my writing in recent weeks partly due to the fact that Google has made some changes to their platform that denied me access to my "Blogger" account.  Google is a great example of a company that continues to evolve, offering more and more services that they "bundle" together in an effort to take business away from their competition.  In future posts I will continue to elaborate on the changes taking place not only in our community but also with respect to real estate market and other issues that affect us as well.  In the meantime I'm building a Facebook Fan Page, I've started to "Tweet" via Twitter and soon you will start to see a stream of videos that I will product over the months ahead to further inform and educate my clients and followers on things that matter.  Stay tuned.....