Day 2 Inman Connect New York. Insights on navigating challenges, embracing innovation, and thriving in a shifting market landscape.
One of the most essential things a ballroom dancer learns early in their training is how to get out of trouble – fast. The kind of trouble they’ll encounter if their choreography gets them boxed in a corner or on a collision course with a competitor flying full tilt across the dance floor. Quick thinking and fancy footwork are essential for a successful outcome, and who better to talk about that in the real estate context than Mauricio Umansky? The real estate mogul and reality TV star who competed in Dancing with the Stars demonstrated key moves on stage before discussing valuable lessons learned. Some of them were getting out of his comfort zone, learning something new, being vulnerable in live performance (in front of millions of viewers and umpteen cameras), and being a student (listening instead of lecturing, so to speak).
AREA vs. NAR – Raising the Bar in Real Estate
Umansky is the founder and CEO of The Agency and co-founder of a new national real estate trade group, American Real Estate Association (areausa.org). AREA is a challenger to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which many in the industry believe is no longer cutting it. As with The Agency, AREA is “built for realtors by realtors” to improve the industry by providing “better representation, advocacy, and lobbying. “
Meanwhile, Umansky is pushing forward at The Agency and seeing numbers increase monthly, not hugely, but at least moving in the right direction. Asks Brad Inman: “The market’s tough for everybody. We’re all trying to struggle through it, and you are expanding your business in the middle of this storm. You’re leaning into growth at a time when others are retrenching. What’s the strategy?”
Weathering the Storm
Umansky believes, “When there’s trouble, there’s opportunity. When people retract, you go forward. The Agency’s doing that right now… gaining market share and growing our business. We’re doing it primarily through global partners, which is basically through franchising and servicing them with very strong marketing and technology, and making sure we create a global network that is unified, with a tremendous culture, having fun, disrupting, being innovative, coming up with amazing ideas, and brainstorming.”
Ever the optimist, he highlights rising inventories, dropping interest rates, strengthening consumer confidence, and pent-up demand among those sitting on the sidelines for 12-18 months and not purchasing. “Sellers are starting to reduce their prices to allow buyers to get aggressive about it again. We’re excited about the future,” he says.
Embrace Creativity and Optimism
Inman wants to know what advice he gives his agents for 2024 against that scenario. “Get to work! It’s time to go work, do things, get creative, be innovative, participate, call your clients, be optimistic, sell! That’s what we do. We’re lucky to be in one of the best businesses in the world. We get to sell. We get to have fun. It’s incredible!”
It’s all about attitude. While Umansky might have been dancing through an open house to keep his energy up, Emmy award-winning TV producer Lindsay Shookus of Saturday Night Live shared reframing one’s mindset can spark personal and professional growth and Tarek El Moussa, entrepreneur, real estate expert and investor from TEM Capital, bared his soul talking about the challenges he’s overcome and turning distress into opportunity.
Transformative Impact of Vanilla AI
In the spirit of innovation, Dr. R. David Edelman, an American policymaker and academic who has helped the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations navigate the tech world, revealed insights into how vanilla AI is saving money and saving lives, experiencing breakthroughs like giving voices back to people who have lost the ability to speak and create a revolution in robotics.
He advises real estate agents trying to understand this rapidly developing technology: ” is: Don’t be limited. Don’t be afraid. AI isn’t magic. It’s math and code. We can control it.”
