REALmatcher update. NAR to speed up break with REALTOR.com. Owner convicted. Jail?

As some of you know Chris Morrell and I have been busy building REALmatcher, a currently offline site, in preparation of taking over the entire multi-list system in North America.

Much of our focus has been trying to hasten the National Association of REALTORs break from REALTOR.com. REALTOR.com has been going the way of Enron and its founder and owner has recently been convicted, along with many other executives, and faces jail time, which has lead to NAR to consider accelerating their move to no longer have REALTOR.com as their official website. This series of events changes and speeds up REALTmatcher’s timeline (and could not have been predicted in strategic planning :wink: ).

Read: http://www.toprealtynews.com/realestatenews/id_22814/

After my Myrtle Beach NACHI Chapter meeting on the 10th I am flying straight to Philadelphia to meet with Chris. I’ll keep everyone posted.

The launch of REALmatcher will all but eliminate non-NACHI member inspectors from the industry in the U.S. and Canada.

Sounds like you’ve had some help.
When did God join NACHI?

I’m looking forward to “Coeur d’Alene” returning a NACHI list of inspectors in FindAnInspector.us, in time for REALmatcher’s release!

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Good Evening Nick…

How will NAR’s website have any impact on the inspection business? I’ve been in business for 21 years, 20 of those with no membership in any inspection organization. My realtor clients will call me no matter what the name of the NAR website or who hosts it. Most the large companies bring the MLS to their clients via there own corporate websites with no visibility from NAR and or Realtor.com… How will this change impact the Zip Realty, Re/MAX, Prudential, Coldwell Banker and or Century 21 websites for example? Isn’t the National Association of Realtors run by realtors? Isn’t it made up of state organizations also run by realtors? I’m guessing several of the realtors use NACHI inspectors, but also may like ASHI and CREIA inspectors as well. It’ll be very interesting to see if the realtors allow their official website to promote a single national inspection association at the cost of excluding all others.

Nick - strategic planning does not predict events. It ensures that adequate resources will be availble so nothing falls through the cracks when you have the opportunity to react to changing circumstances.

Just another indication that you have no concept what a strategic plan really is or does.

I must have missed something or it is not included in the article. Nowhere is there any mention of him “founding” or “owning” Realtor.com.

The company he headed was created to manage and run Reatlor.com according to the article. Sounds like Realtor.com can run without him… I know I still surf it.

Example of Coldwell Banker, Zip, C-21 and Prudentials corporate websites with direct access to the mls. No need to visit realtor.com… More and more of the major real estate companies are providing their own direct mls driven websites. The agents can incorporate the mls search features directly into their own personal websites.

http://www.prudentialcal.com/RECoHomepage.aspx

http://www.coldwellbanker.com/

http://www.ziprealty.com/index.jsp

http://www.century21.com/home.aspx

Will,

REALmatcher catches buyers upstream… long before they even find a REALTOR… we’ll have them. Most of our clients are buyers (a market that is difficult to target, unlike sellers who have signs and ads everyhere). By catching the buyers upstream, when the buyers are only just beginning their online searches of properties for sale, mortgages, etc, we can begin marketing NACHI inspection services to them, all automatically, long before anyone even knows they exist.

Often, by the time a home buyer is told that their offer has been accepted by the seller and that they will need a home inspector… it is too late to market them, and we are at the mercy of the REALTOR’s recommendation.

REALmatcher flips this all upside down and I fully expect that we won’t be seeking leads from REALTORs much longer, the REALTORs will be coming to us for leads.

Tables turned.

Also Will, unlike REALTOR.com and those other 4 links you posted… REALmatcher is not beholden to any one company… in fact it is not beholden to REALTORs at all and permits discount brokers and FSBO’s into the multilist… FSBO’s are the fastest growing segment of the real estate industry. FSBO’s will make up 1/3 of the market in 2007. 1/3!!! That means that 1/3 of the inspections out there, (maybe more because once a person sells his/her home himself, he/she often buys a home w/o an agent) will be agentless.

The only advantage I found REALTOR.com to have was having 1 million visitors a day due to their incestuous relationship with NAR, which the President of NAR mentioned, is coming to an end. This is a punch I don’t have to throw as I thought I would have per our… I hate to say it… strategic plan :smiley: . I can jump right to operations.

Realtor.com was, I believe, purchased a couple of years back by Cendant, which happens to own ERA, Century21, and Coldwell Banker.

This was a major issue, and driving force, as to the development of robust realtor websites over the past year or so. They were all using Realtor.com, and realized that they were literally feedng the competition their advertising dollars.

However, it takes a lot of money to maintain these sites, and many realtors may find themselves looking for an alternative. With competition to Realtor.com now on a national level, they may indeed look to RealMatcher.

Marketing and timing will be key. The fact that Nick began this project around the same time that Realtor.com was purchased by Cendant is strategic planning at its best. Now, the marketing starts. And we all know how Nick does when it comes to marketing a product…

Joe M is once agan incorrect in equating strategic planning many other types of planning; like the impact of marketing and (sometimes) dumb luck. He may argue that marketng is part of strategic planning. Strategy does goes into a marketing plan, though strategic planning and a marketing plan may be mutually exclusive. The overall plan needs to be thought, developed, and executed. This has been in the works for a very long time. Product roll-out is next, along with the marketng plan. Of course, the next argument may be that everything requires strategic planning. Whatever…

First, some folks bitched about a lack of a strategic organizational plan. Now they try and tie a product annoncement into strategic planning… Wow. Do the words “broken record” come to mind? I gues old Nick cant plan his way out of a paper bag. The association is in shambles. It will never grow. No one will ever listen to it, ot its members. Its members will be shunned. No member will ever qualify for licensure. They will be laughed at once they reach the State level. Legislators will ignore them. Yeah… I’ve heard it all over the past 3 years. But, just because someone says its so, doesnt mean its true.

In reality, sometimes all the strategic planning in the world, done by the most brilliant people, cant save a project or product. Sony and the BetaMax is a prime example of this…

So goes the best made plans of mice and men.

As to RealMatcher, let’s not discount Nick’s long reaching ties into some large real estate corporations, and his years as a real estate inductry veteran. All I can say, Nick, is GO GIT 'EM !!!

I’ve said, time and again, things are not always what they appear to be on the surface with Nick.

If Gromicko is pushing for some concept or cause, it’s a good bandwagon to hop onto, even if it is not readily apparent at the time.

I’ve seen him in action; time is too precious to him to waste it on inefficient or ineffective causes and concepts.

I’ve given up trying to convince naysayers otherwise. I just let time bear out the fruits of the venture, and am always happy I jumped from the dock into the boat - on trust.

I agree, it may appear, at times, that planning is lacking. If this was a Board of Directors type of org, it would look and be run completely different.

NACHI-run websites are referred to as being classified as overt and covert. Can anyone see a hint here?

But it’s not a BOD org. It is what it is, and those who have been around the Ops Center realize it and take advantage of it.

JOe F.

Nick is the one that introduced the topic of strategic planning as it relates to this topic - try actually reading the posts first.

Its clear from your comments that neither you nor Nick have ever participated in the development of a true strategic organizational plan, or - if you have - that you failed to understand the point of it.

If you will read the posts I have made regarding the subject you will see that I never indicated that NCAHI would not grow or any of the other silly statements you suggest.

Instead, I recognize the growth and urged a plan be developed so that the growth is consistent and manageable. So that resources are not stretched too thin to react when opportunities arise. So that projects are not annouced and dropped into oblivion. So that NACHI will survive if Nick steps in front of a bus tomorrow.

None of that needs to happen - an effective plan allows for flexibility and would ensure stability at the same time. I see NACHI growth and development, but I am impartial enough not to be blinded by pom poms and I can also recognize issues/problems related to a lack of a formal plan.

Even a one man show can benefit from a plan. “Covert” or whatever insider ideas you want to hold close to the vest are always a part of a plan - you simply allow flexibility for them and allocate resources accordingly.

Joe Farsetta:

You are correct about Cendant, which is another reason for the drift between the two. The NAR President who started the parting of ways is a RE/MAX agent Cendant is RE/MAX’s biggest competitor). And that combined with the fact that every real estate company has formed their own little REALTOR.com (see Will’s links above). And that combined with the recent criminal convictions (see my link above). And now REALmatcher.

Hey Nick,

I kind of got the idea from your original post and other comments that your new venture was going to actually take over or replace the existing NAR/Realtor.com website. My mistake. I’m wondering if you think the 33% FSBO number will hold true in California by 07’ as well. I just don’t find the FSBO factor to be substantial in Southern California. As our market cools, the trend for FSBO’s drops even further as homeowners realize most of the buyers’ are with the real estate agents. I hope your correct in that, in the very near future we as inspectors will not have to deal with realtors to obtain large portions of our inspection revenues. I must confess however, I don’t see that happening any time soon. Billion dollar corporations like “Cendant” will be fighting tooth and nail to the death.

Thanks as always for your efforts…

Joe M,

Unfortunately, I have read every single one of your posts. You harp on all this strategic planning experience you purport to have. I submit that, unless you operated at an upper level of the corporate playing field, you are blowing smoke up most of our collective asses. On the other hand, you know little of my actual corporate experience, which is perfectly fine with me. I am not trying to iimpress you, just point out that there is more than one correct pouint of view. From where most members stand, NACHI and Nick have developed and executed a strategic plan flawlessly. You cant see it, because you cant understand it. Your ego refuses to allow it.

When you look at the NACHI operation, and what it has developed from, and developed with, it is clear that there has ALWAYS been a strategic plan, including an organizational structure, duties, etc. So, dont confuse a disagreement on your part as to how you believe NACHI should function, with the success the organization has enjoyed absent of your brilliant insight.

I seriously doubt that you could have done it any better, any faster, or any more strategically, if you planned it til the cows came home. NACHI operates with a handful of people. NACHI’s ventures operate with that same handful of people. Its runs lean and mean.

Develop a strategic organizational plan for the InterNACHI folks, if you need to volunteer for something.

Joe F - I have operated at upper levels of several fields - non profit, educational, public, and political. What you have up your *** is not my smoke.