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So far Kevin Hawkins has created 338 blog entries.

What should we look for at NAR Midyear?

Real estate’s annual May pilgrimage begins in a couple of weeks. Its formal name is “REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo,” but I’ve never met anyone outside of NAR that doesn’t call it NAR Midyear. Even the url for the location on realtor.org labels it “midyear” (http://www.realtor.org/midyear.nsf). For several days – this year May 11-16 – local associations as well as state and regional associations leadership descend on Washington D.C. It’s a time largely filled with policy meetings, committee confabs and a full-court press for face-to-face meetings with legislative reps. Tucked in the middle of all this is a trade [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 23rd, 2015|Our Services|1 Comment
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Size Matters

Bigger is better. At least that's what Apple discovered when it unveiled larger iPhones. The sales numbers stunned everyone: 74.5 million iPhones in the first quarter of release. That’s more than 34,000 phones an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even Tim Cook was taken aback, telling analysts the “Demand for iPhone was staggering,” adding, “This volume is hard to comprehend.” Every major smartphone vendor has discovered that when it comes to consumer preferences, they are turning to larger screens. The bigger story But what is happening here goes beyond record sales numbers for Apple, Samsung, Google, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 23rd, 2015|Main category, Marketing, Our Services, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Size Matters
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Back to Basics

The other day I was on the phone with Mark Z. He’s a leader of one of the top producing Keller Williams Realty teams in the country. The Mark Z. Home Selling Team closed over $59 million in sales transactions, just short of 500 deals, last year. He and his team are on target to eclipse 500 deals in 2015. That means they are closing more than 2 sales every business day this year. With that kind of volume, I was certain Mark Z. must be West Coast, East Coast or Texas based. That’s where most of the hottest housing [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:48-07:00March 26th, 2015|Main category, Our Services|2 Comments
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Do you love what you do?

It’s been a whirlwind past few weeks with Inman Connect and Leading RE and everything in between. And then came Valentine’s Day and I found myself writing and thinking about love: A news release on the love of our homes, a new Valentine’s video from 12-year old Sparkles Lund that captured her love of dancing, and I sat down and wrote a love letter to my wife of 22 years. So ask this question: Why do you love what you do? I asked this of a friend of mine when we both were hitting 40. He said he didn't. I [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:49-07:00February 25th, 2015|Main category, Marketing|1 Comment
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Social Media or mass media?

Social media campaigns seems to be getting the bulk of attention in marketing and communication budgets these days, but I would argue that mass media still packs a far more potent punch when you are trying to build a brand or generate top of mind awareness among a mass audience. Skeptical? Let’s look at some numbers. Super bowl advertisers paid as much as $4.5 million for a 30 second spot this year – a new record – to reach 114 million viewers. That’s just over 4 cents a viewer. In 1993, advertisers paid $850,000 to reach 90 million viewers, just [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:49-07:00February 25th, 2015|Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on Social Media or mass media?
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PR: The most underrated marketing strategy in real estate

In today’s world of real estate marketing, advertising gets all the money, social media gets all the glory, and public relations is often an afterthought. But should it be? Everyone understands advertising: We see it every day, in every medium; we are inundated with its messages, from the time we wake up to the moment we turn off the light for the night. It must work, or why would all these companies be spending gazillions of dollars on it, right? As for social media, it’s omnipresent. And according to the social media gurus, it is a must have because everyone [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:50-07:00January 21st, 2015|Main category|1 Comment
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Part 2: Customer service or lip service?

[Part 2 of 2]   Last month I shared a theory that most real estate technology companies stink at customer service. I asked for people to challenge my theory, but only one person said, “You’re wrong.” Randall Standard, who heads up VoicePad, took strong exception my piece. He made several valid points in taking me to task, among which included my failure to point out that some real estate technology companies are providing good customer service. And he share this observation with me, which I think is spot on: He wrote, “A closer examination of real estate technology firms would [...]

By |2019-09-15T10:06:16-07:00January 21st, 2015|MLS Insights, Our Services|Comments Off on Part 2: Customer service or lip service?
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Your Communications Plan: An Editorial Calendar for 2015

  Real Estate  has a problem when it comes to editorial calendars. We are an industry that often stares at the wall wondering what consumers want to know. It is really not that hard to craft a meaningful story to get pick up in your local newspaper or lead to a local radio or television interview. You just need a roadmap. This list was created by scouring the headlines from leading journalists to see what they were writing about. The best news (pun intended) lay in the data and that data is only an MLS search away.   25 headlines [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:51-07:00December 22nd, 2014|Main category|1 Comment
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Are you delivering customer service or lip service?

[Part 1 of 2] I have a theory: Customer service provided by most technology companies sucks. Ask yourself when was the last time you told someone or posted something on Facebook about a great customer service experience from any technology company with a first letter other than “A” (Apple, Amazon don't count). Better yet: When have you ever posted a rave review about your customer service experience with a real estate technology company? Or a vertical technology company for any industry? My guess is that’s as rare as rain in the Sahara. Yet how many tech firms tout publicly that [...]

By |2019-09-15T10:04:37-07:00December 17th, 2014|Main category, Technology Evaluation|1 Comment
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Losing the Convention of Conventions

It was 1986. Inflation was under 2 percent, the Dow Jones closed under 2,000, a gallon of gas was under a buck, Americans were being held hostage in Iran, and it was the year the US bombed Libya. It was also the year of my first NAR Convention, held in New York City at the then new Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. I had convinced my employer at the time, Great Western Savings of Beverly Hills, to let me scout the event for exhibiting, sponsorship and press opportunities, as the bank was ready to grow its lending model nationally. The [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:55-07:00November 19th, 2014|Main category|Comments Off on Losing the Convention of Conventions
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Millennial Marketing Madness

The fervor about marketing to Millennials peaked for me during the National Association of REALTORS® Convention in New Orleans last week. Surely you’ve seen some of the recent headlines: “Millennials could hold the key to housing recovery,” “Millennials need to be wooed,” “Insights about Millennials’ path to homeownership,” etc. One of the seminars at NAR had this in its title:” “Generating Referrals from Millennial Home Buyers.” Say what? Try this headline: Millennials are broke. Yes, Millennials (a.k.a. Generation Y), those who ages range from about 19 to 38, may comprise the largest segment of the U.S. population at 86 million [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:55-07:00November 14th, 2014|Main category, Marketing|1 Comment
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Real estate leaders share 2015 outlook on housing, economy

Imprev arguably has come to own the real estate “Thought Leader” space with its bi-annual survey now in its third year, largely because it’s not a self-serving exercise. What we get from their latest Thought Leader Survey is a refreshing, unfiltered view from a broad cross-section of the leadership of America’s real estate brokerage and franchise operations, large and small. Collectively, the real estate execs surveyed represent firms and brands that generate about half of all real estate transactions each year. Individually, there’s solid representation among small and large firms: 15% of the respondents have 50 agents or fewer, 18% [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:55-07:00November 6th, 2014|Main category, Reports|Comments Off on Real estate leaders share 2015 outlook on housing, economy
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