I spent last weekend working with one of my favorite clients creating the perfect strategic brokerage business plan. She has been a franchised broker for over 20 years. She has a franchise agreement coming up for renewal in a few months. She was especially concerned that she might not have a sufficient understanding regarding the unusual forces and trends currently impacting the marketplace.
We started our process by exploring the various scenarios that are currently playing out in our industry and marketplace. It turned out to be an amazingly wonderful experience.
First Stop: CFPB
Our first stop was in Washington at the old, gray, concrete box that currently serves as the command center for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). This is a new breed of regulatory agency started in mid 2011. The CFPB is using excited and engaged people along with technology and modern marketing techniques to create a new, more personal and highly efficient kind of government regulation and oversight (!).
This agency is actually going to use social media tools and techniques in a regulatory context. Believe it or not, two of its role models are Google and Apple. My client asked, “What does this have to do with my real estate brokerage?”
Good question. Among the things that the Bureau has learned over the last two years is that many of the families who lost their homes to the anguish of foreclosure had a mortgage broker and often a real estate agent who were acting in the role of “trusted advisors.” Some experts suggest that these trusted advisors not only gave advice regarding affordability (thus possibly making them financial advisors). In addition, they may have been offering that advice at a time when there was little training, supervision or oversight. Some believe that our industry is very close to getting special attention from the CFPB for this and other reasons. Is a real estate brokerage a
consumer financial service or isn’t it? That is a big question. Oh, one other thing—the CFPB is also just days away from unleashing a whole new regulatory scheme onto the residential mortgage industry. Starting January 14, this action will be felt by almost every individual involved in a real estate transaction. [Click here for access to the entire article on page 6]
An excerpt from the latest RealTRENDS Magazine by Jeremy Conaway, contributing editor
