My red-eye left Honolulu last night.11:00pm.
Touched down this morning. 7:00am. LA time.
I waited 20 years to take a full week’s vacation, I promise I won’t wait 20 more.
For the most part, I detached from all things real estate. A friend suggested I call an agent friend of his who lives in Waikiki. Said she would love to show me around. I opted out. Those favors are never one-sided and I needed to really not discuss work for the week.
I did however, drive around the entire island courtesy of family who live up in the rain forest (Tantalus) above Honolulu. We went all around the Island. The North Shore blew me away.
Big waves.
Amazing shaved ice stands.
The set of Lost.
I snorkeled at Sharks Cove. But unlike the rest of the folks there, I ventured out beyond the reef. Out into the deep blue. Wish I had an underwater camera.
I saw for sale signs everywhere. Especially before and after Diamond Head along the stretch of coastal highway. Big, fancy, expensive homes. I tried hard to grasp the the fleeting ocean views between but the real estate itself kept pulling me in.
I made one, brief mental note. Many opposing real estate brands stood side by side representing. C21, Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s, KW, Realty Executives, Prudential… but no one individual brand seemed to own the marketplace. At least that was my observation. I also didn’t see any local brands although I’m sure there must be an Aloha Real Estate company or something to that effect in Hawaii but I saw no sign of them anywhere.
The brands all seemed to be intertwined based on my observation of so many million dollar homes listed side by side by all brands. Maybe Hawaiians aren’t picky. Or maybe every brand does the same great, medium or lousy job. Who knows. I never once stopped to ask anyone. Or maybe, in the hukahula world of real estate, it’s not about the brand at all but about the agents themselves. Who they are, who they know – their personal brand etc.
I did notice and feel an overwhelming absence of online technology. Most of the yard signs I saw failed to promote URL’s or point to anything
web based for online viewing which, as it turned out, mattered little to
those in the car with me. I suppose I was the only person wondering if the local C21 "Internet Listing Gurus" hadn’t quite gotten the missive yet. Seems there are yet so many ntapped opportunities here for someone to differentiate themselves if only they tried a little.
Or for that matter, cared.
But I was on vacation. And I needed to cease trying to turn my observations into an article. Or an agenda. I was there to relax.
It’s good to go away.
It’s great to come back.
And view real estate with a fresh perspective.
But then there was the matter of selling my investment home on the mainland which ultimately invaded my quiet time. But that’s a story left for another post.
- Davison
Local, Mobile, Social and the future of real estate
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Glad to know that you will be up in Quebec City in November with us as well. Save some time and I will be happy to give you a tour and Dinner. Regards from Toronto!!
Glad you enjoyed Oahu. The brokerage market here is spread out. Prudential Locations is the largest locally owned and operated real estate company in Hawaii with about 250 agents. Our founder is former NAR president, Bill Chee.
We have an excellent website at prudentiallocations.com, but focus a lot of our efforts on the back office technology with our CRM database.
Basically we have integrated customer activity with an ownership database for each of our agent's sphere of influence. This allows our agents to stay "in front" of a larger group of clients. We also have a team of about 25 agents who handle our online leads.
We lead the market with our research and reporting so check out the latest post at http://www.hawaiibrokerblog.com for a summary of data broken out by neighborhood.
Let us know about your next trip!
Glad you enjoyed Oahu. The brokerage market here is spread out. Prudential Locations is the largest locally owned and operated real estate company in Hawaii with about 250 agents. Our founder is former NAR president, Bill Chee.
We have an excellent website at prudentiallocations.com, but focus a lot of our efforts on the back office technology with our CRM database.
Basically we have integrated customer activity with an ownership database for each of our agent's sphere of influence. This allows our agents to stay "in front" of a larger group of clients. We also have a team of about 25 agents who handle our online leads.
We lead the market with our research and reporting so check out the latest post at http://www.hawaiibrokerblog.com for a summary of data broken out by neighborhood.
Let us know about your next trip!
Hi, HI Broker
I'm familiar with your site and just spent a few minutes there trying to search. No avail.
Since you volunteered the pitch on the site, I feel obliged to try it and document my unbiased experience.
I urge others to try the site and offer their experience.
First thing I did is run Search. I chose an Island and that was it since there was no indication that any of the fields are required.
I searched for the Search button, did not find one so chose one of the 4 other options – list. Not sure if that meant search but here goes.
Here was my result.
ADODB.Field error '800a0bcd'
Either BOF or EOF is True, or the current record has been deleted. Requested operation requires a current record.
/search_string.asp, line 404
I am pretty sure I know how to search for homes having just ran 800 searches for a report I'm preparing for Real Trends on the state of broker sites in America.
I also sure that if I spent more time, I could probably figure out why I can't call up results but I, like most users, will try a site a few times – 1 or 2 to make sure it's not user error, 3 or 4 to give the site the benefit of the doubt – and then bail.
This search is confusing. With each error page that rendered, I attempted to hit back space on my browser and found I cannot click back. When I attempted to click back I got this drop down diddy that reads… To display this page, Firefox must send information that will repeat any action (such as a search or order confirmation) that was performed earlier.
I try again.
I click Island.
I don't click region because I have no idea what region to click.
I choose a price min
I choose price max
I look for a submit or search button thinking that's the problem.
There's neither. Yes there is a GO button down yonder but that is confusing too. Considering the choices, List, Map or Go I stumble. Then there there the other option, …Save Search. But I think… who saves a search? What does that mean anyway? Especially since no search has been called up yet. What would I actually be saving?
See what I mean?
So I deliberate and choose Go. And there I went. To the error page again.
Now maybe, I sign up to complete my query. I'm not sure where since there is no real clear call to action nor is there any real clear sense of what's in it for me if I do sign up other than maybe listings which i can get for free by going to another site.
Again I am not sure since the messaging on the site is confusing.
I tried one last time. 5 times.
I then gave up.
I have a ton of respect for Bil Chee. No doubt. And you guys have a great reputation. But this website… not great.
Or maybe it just doesn't like iMac's.
That's my call.
Marc,
Wow, good call thank you for the feedback. The site is going through a transition right now into .Net to help with some of the design issues. Nevertheless our team will take a look at the issues. The homepage is going to be revamped as well. Your feedback is valuable and worthy of a few free shave ices. Looking forward to your feedback when we launch the updates.
aloha, andrew
No problem Andrew. This is simply a taste of what my firm does – analyze sites for UI purposes as well as challenge status quo in an effort to improve usability.
Your team might find some advantages in plugging us in.
Marc
Aloha Marc,
There is one local real estate brand that you will be hearing a lot about if you live in Hawaii. That’s Hawaii Life Real Estate Services. We are the fastest growing brokerage in Hawaii securing close to $100 million in listings since the brokerage opened just 8 months ago.
I would love to hear a critique on our search! The shave ice is good isn’t it? I like lime with macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom!