Over on Inman, I ran across an article I couldn't help but read. It really made me think. It's from Darryl Davis, a longtime coach who still publishes a paper magazine but also has an AI coach named Digital Darryl. So he's not completely unaware of the disruptive tech shift happening.
If his article were about how agents can be more productive, get more listings, get more buyers, I would have nothing to say. I'd just listen, since I don't have any kind of background on that. But his article was about what brokerages ought to be doing in light of the massive consolidations in the industry. It began thus:
This is not a brokerage story anymore. It is a platform story. Real estate is starting to look like the airline industry. A handful of giants control distribution, the rest of the field competes on differentiation, and there is no middle ground for drift.
Go ahead and read the whole thing. I think it's worth your time, if only to understand what comes next here. If we're talking brokerage strategy in light of disruption, that does happen to be in my wheelhouse. Reading the rest of the article made me realize that either Darryl Davis is telling an eternal truth about real estate, or engaging in massive copium.
It also means that the way I understand the industry needs to be challenged, because maybe I'm not putting enough of an emphasis on "the human element" that coaches and agents and brokers value so much.
My biases are, I hope, clear. There is just a bit too much in what Davis writes, which echoes so much of what other influencers and coaches and brokers say, that is entirely too comforting. I don't think society-shifting disruptions are ever that comforting for anybody.
So let's get into it, shall we? Truth or copium – that is the question.
