Nobu Hata

By Nobu Hata

I’ve been lucky enough to be a Realtors Property Resource™ beta tester for the last couple months, and MLS controversy aside, it’s an elegant site that belies a very powerful information resource, packed with potential, underneath it all.  I’ve devised its place in my marketing plan (as a monthly client touchpoint) once live, but I’d never had the opportunity to talk about it with a consumer… until today, with the last set of clients I’d ever think of chatting about it with.

I’m working with a couple – a retired teacher and a very non-retired medical researcher – who are an absolute dream client.  They don’t care about my website/Facebook Like-Page/Twitter stream, they don’t want MLS auto-emails, and they trust my judgment that the homes I’m emailing them for showings match their needs.  They’re old school, and I love it.

Their home search has narrowed to two upscale condo developments in two very different parts of the Minneapolis market; one in a very established and stable neighborhood, the other in an area smacked upside the head by the overdevelopment/distressed property crow bar.  Naturally, they love the latter.

Today, we had a showing at what ended up being a dud property, but it gave us an opportunity to talk about the “research” hubby had been doing on the condo building he and his wife love.  Out flies the (circa 1990) MacBook and a spreadsheet that featured complete owner, tax record, previous sold dollar amount, city assessment, and price per-square-foot numbers for the whole building, to go along with average utility costs for the city, linked to very snazzy bar charts.

No joke, it was RPR – if my OCD grandpa had developed it.  An hour of conversation followed:

“Would you like to see this data AND active listings plus recently sold homes to get a complete picture of the condo market?” Yes.

“How about demographic and economic numbers along with it in a monthly snapshot?  I think we both know that a downward shift in these numbers are often a precursor to future housing issues.” Definitely!

“That’s good, because you’re gonna get this report monthly, followed by a year-in-review on whatever it is we end up buying.  I’m not much of a recipe of the month kinda guy.”  You don’t strike me as a cook anyways.  (Ouch!)

“Why in the h*ll did you do this?  I could’ve gotten something like this to you.” Meh, because I could, and it was fun!

The conversation was proof positive that even the most unassuming consumer is empowered by data.  It’s our analysis and insight from it and how it pertains to the individual home/neighborhood/city, is what will set us apart from the random websites on the Web.  And RPR will help us do just that.

So get used to it.  Educate yourself.  Read the blog (http://blog.narrpr.com). Pay attention when @ohanrpr hits your association meeting.  Hit up @reggierpr or @kristencarr on Twitter.  And make RPR yours when it goes live!

Nobu Hata is a sales associate for Edina Realty in Minneapolis,  and a founding member of the Minneapolis YPN group, the YoPros.  Visit his Web site at www.nobuhata.com.