THIS is Cooperation!

I look forward to see your ventures.  That kind of publicity can't be bought, only earned.  Kudos to you and the others that thought of it!!!

Thanks Chris, we are only 2 months in to it, but our enthusiasm is very high and I really do think we have some wonderful events coming up.

MF: That Sara is special... and so are you and the areas you serve. 

Does your market have real estate associations?  When I moved to Columbus from Dayton I was shocked I could go to a real estate meeting every day of the week if I wanted to.   There are still real estate association meetings in our market. Monday is Southerh Delaware County if I am not mistaken, Wednesday is the North Columbus (Clintonville area) or the Northwest (UA ) meeting.  Thursday is Worthington and Westerville (?),  Friday I used to always go to the Dublin meeting religiously.  Now I am horrible at attending...the meetings and subsequent tour of the new listings in the area. Hey I think I remember a 2006 New Years Resolution... maybe I did make NY Resolutions as recently as last year.  I think I resolved to go to the Greater Worthington Area REALTORS® Association meetings on Thursday mornings... I probably went to less than 10% of the Worthington meetings this year.

We did not have associations for the different areas, suburbs in Dayton where I first sold real estate.

In Columbus area as things have got more "online" it seems many of us try to skip the area meetings, look at the houses online rather than tour the homes.  

Elaine's entry about doing away with office meetings disturbed me because I see a value in seeing the house and working with others (If I can make myself go to the meeting.....) in our office.  

MM,  No, we don't have association meetings on tour day.  I had never even heard of them.  We just have tour two days each week and office meetings on Wednesdays.  Association meetings sound like a great idea.  Our inventory and membership is so high they might be logistically very difficult.

What kind of attendence do they usually get? 

The attendence is way down from what it was in the early 90's... I would think there were 100+ in attendence back then...We first met at the Moose Lodge for the GWAREA (Worthington) meetings, then we moved it to a big Rax Restaurant (before opening...meetings are usually 8:30 AM) There are agents and affiliates present and I know a few years ago at the Worthington meeting I would count agent noses and there wouild sometimes be less than 20 agents.  The past year or two attendence is up (crowded restaurant)  an I have not been counting which are REALTOR® noses and which are lenders, inspectors, title peoples noses... but it is not like it was before the internet.  

I don't think it is something that you could start in most markets now because we think we know the inventory because of the internet.  

Logistically, just new lisitings get toured. Each association has it's own boundaries. Some do a caravan tour, others aren't caravan.  Meeting is short and sweet, introductions, announcements of new listings, price changes, pass around silent salesmen or flyers on the counter.  Coffee and donuts. Costs a couple of bucks to attend.  

Good market with houses selling quickly less reason to go.... 

When you tour, you wrote : "We just have tour two days each week"  do you have your offices listings or your competitors too?       

Maureen & Dmitry,

Thanks for the post. In this industry, your example represents the pinnacle of cooperation!

What an outstanding idea!   I love reading positive things about working with the competition.  I guess I've just read too much negative and am turning into the Pollyanna of Active Rain.  One thing we do here is a "progressive broker's open" from 12-2 and serve different courses of the meal at each house. Agencies do work together on those. Your idea however, involving the public sends such a postive message to the community!!!  I can't wait to hear what you cook up next!   Kudo's to both you and Sara!

Linda, we do the progressives too. Usually on those we stick with a neighborhood and call up the agents who have listings there to get them involved.  This is a little different because the membership is fixed and we are using a different hook each month.

We have two charities we are going to work with to raise some money for them.  We're doing an "Office Spirit Day" where we will provide a really nice lunch to the office whose agents tour the most of our homes that day, and a bunch of other fun things that we will announce after the first of the year. 

This is a terrific idea, Mo (and Sara!). Talk about combo tasking ideas for the community and real estate and networking. Keep us posted!  And could help sell a few homes too :-)

MM.

We have a huge area the is split in two for board tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Those are the ones that don't have any meeting associated with them and are for all the houses on the market.  My particular core market lies right on the dividing line, so we have houses on both days.  If we were further east or west, most of our tour would be on one day or the other. 

Wednesdays are office tour day just for each office. 

c3,

Sara definitely gets the credit for bringing together the group.  I think it was serendipity that in meeting we decided this could be much more than a one hit wonder.  Yes, you know we would like to sell some homes...

That's just flippin' brilliant. Everyone wins! Brilliant.

Maureen- What a great idea you and Sara came up with. I can't wait to follow your progress and see how it goes. While we occasionally have progressive broker's opens I like your plan better.  I wonder if I can get something similar going here in my area?

We've tried it in our area but just do not seem to be able to get agents to work together for a common cause. It is Realtor Renewal time maybe after the ranks thin out again we can try it again in 2007.

GREAT POST !

Great creative idea. We have broker tours almost everyday. They are very specific "family apartments on Central Park West, or 1 bedrooms with outdoor space in the west 80's. Lofts in Chelsea. etec. It is always the same - 1 broker serves lunch and 1 serves dessert. I like the boutique vendor idea.

Awesome idea! Do you mind copycats?

I don't mind copycats at all.  In fact, I would love to see where others take this idea.  Imagine what we could learn from each other that way.

I really like the boutique vendor idea - shopping always makes everything so much more pleasurable.

Very cool idea. Will be interested to see how things go and hear more about the events themselves. Great work!!

I'd love to read more as you hash out the logistics and such.  We've tried creating local 'mastermind' groups in the past but there's a lot of walls between top-producing agents.  I'm hoping that we see a shift as our market grows stronger.

We used to have MLS caravan every Tuesday...then the market got too hot, agents too busy and co-brokers didn't need each other anymore... so it stopped.  This past year we've done a ton of broker opens...some with other brokers who have listings in the same neighborhood. Suddenly the as the market shifts and turns we seem to need each other again... The old saying Co-Broke or Go-Broke is alive and well.

Great topic about co-operation Maureen! 

I never heard that saying before, Monika.  But it sure does seem to be true!

Great Post!

We do a good job of organizer brokers opens, but not to that level.

Great ideas, Maureen.  I agree, that level of cooperation in SE Michigan is unheard of.  Good luck, I hope it is a prosperous venture.

One thing we have done is a theme tour. If we want a lot of agents to see our homes on tour, we will organize a tour in a certain neighborhood, or even just a few streets. We call agents from other brokerages and get them involved too; everyone serves food and we have maps of each place on the tour at each stop. These have been very successful.

MF ~ It is so nice when local competitors can get together to share their strengths and make something happen!  Kudos to Sara for organizing this.

kk

That's a great idea, and it's impressive that you are making it work, there is so much more power in numbers.

 In our area it generally takes money ($) to get agents to come out on tour. Time seems to be a real issue.

Prizes don't seem to work, we'll get all of the agents in a area together offer a couple of prizes ($100 each) and get 6 people. However, if I offer $10 to every agent that visits... we'll get 30 people. *shrug*

After the frustration of scantilly attended (expensive food, promos & prizes) broker opens, Overstreet Builders offered $20 to every agent that would attend the open house... we got 105 agents that day. So, it was a success except that most of the agents really need the money... which ought to tell us something.

Great cooperation.  Something very uncommon to our business.  I also like the concept.  Sort of like a parade of homes (taking the top of the line from each competitor).  Presenting it to potential clients.  That should have a terrific draw.  Looking forward to seeing more on this subject.

Ken

Bah Humbug.......  lol   <TEASING>   Maureen F......  this is awesome and I am jealous. Sure, so many of us are so competitive...want to make money, etc etc.  But as you said, it's very cool to see others that you compete against to come together. It would be nice to see more things like this take place. And not just around the holidays.

Please keep me posted on future events and let me know how it works out. Thanks for sharing.....

Our area often has progressive Brokers Opens tours in a neighborhood, but that doesn't result in the exchange you're talking about. It's always beneficial to get a group of agents with goals in common to have a roundtable discussion. Once a month seems a good frequency.

What a fantastic idea!  It sure beats the heck out of our progressive broker opens. The exchange part is quite novel, too.  Wishing you much success.

Co-operation is a good thing, I see it as a win win situation.  Best wishes.

Now THIS is not only cooperation it is professionalism! Fantastic idea, thanks for sharing.

What a great idea.  You might even get a home sold to one of the vendors, or at te least pick up a few of them as future clients or advertisements!

Kudos to your whole group!  Getting the vendors involved is a great idea around the holiday!

Here's a variation that I've seen work really well:  agents conducting the broker's open commit to collectively donate $1 per agent that attends to a local charity and $50 or so goes into a cash drawing for the attendees. 

Recently I've also seen drawings for pre-paid gas cards rather than cash due to the rise in gas prices.

As far as the tours:  we experienced the same thing - agents too busy, homes too scattered to physically tour.  We now have a "virtual" tour following our weekly team meetings.  Listing agents take 3-5 minutes to talk about a listing as it is displayed on a projection screen.

Great idea!  Kudos to Sara.  I wish I would have 'met' her.........
I'm putting this in my memory banks to woo realtors with

M & D,

I believe that everyone connected to the Real Estate market can state..... yes there is adversity right now and in many different aspects of our market....however....one's mindset  should be that this adversity is just the same as necessity. And if you agree that necessity is the "the mother  of invention" then take adversity and analize it and look  for advantages while everyone else is still crying in their beer. This is what truly separates  the professionals from the wannabees!  Go you guys..."Success is the product of opportunity factored by effort."

Very cool idea. I am not above stealing it!!! I especially like the vendor idea. What a great way to showcase local vendors so people have an even better idea of what is available in the neighborhood. Good Job! Cooperation is always a good thing.

This is perfection Maureen!  I still belive that you have brought me to the internet and I will bring you to agent to agent networking.  I think you had a MUCH longer road to lead me down!  LOL.  Many thanks for the recognition on this.  I think that the BBRN will be a much bigger deal than you or I ever thought it could be!  Can't wait to see where this journey takes us.  Excellent post if I do say so myself.

Honey, you and Sara are really going to get a lot out of this.  I'm looking forward to the events.