I didn’t know very much about Inman News when we started Hawaii Life in 2008. I knew that Joel Burslem had named hawaiilife.com as one of the Top 10 Kickass real estate websites and I started to follow some of Inman’s content online. I knew even less about Inman Connect.

I’m a cynic. When a news publication features me on a list, my first thought is that they just want to sell me subscription. So, when Inman Connect invited my partner, Justin Britt, to speak in San Francisco, I assumed it was just another self-congratulatory real estate conference.

Connect asked Justin to present for Hawaii Life in a session called “Search Engine Dominance and Great Design: How Two Brokers Did Both”. Great title. The other presenter was Garron Selliken from M Realty in Portland, a very cool guy who is building a very cool company.

The presentation was great, even though Justin alienated a few vendors by telling a room of 200 people that a lot of website templates are “all just crap”. His point was that real estate brokers should try to add technology and design services in-house, a formula that Hawaii Life and M Realty both benefit from.

Meeting Garron Selliken provided a lot for us. Here was a guy that was figuring it out on his own, and who was willing to share the results of his own trial and error. We talked about fielding online leads. At the time, similar to today, Hawaii Life had more leads than we knew what to do with, but we weren’t converting them very well. I remember we were coaching our salespeople to use this canned response that was recommended by CRS. It was something like,

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“Hi, my name is Matt, I’ve been in real estate sales for 10+ years, I really know the neighborhood. I know you may not be willing to ‘open up’ about your personal details and may want to remain anonymous. Please know that I’m available to answer your real estate questions… blah, blah, blah.”

In hindsight, we now know much it sucked. We didn’t know it then. We were basically writing novels, all about us and why we’re great. Garron shared how his wife, Alicia, an agent with M Realty, always seemed to quickly weave in something personal when she was replying to online inquiries. Her response always included a question or a call to action, and it was usually pretty brief.

We were starting to get on to something.

Later on in the conference we met Jonathan Washburn and Ben Kinney during one of the networking sessions. (I had no idea who I was talking to, but) I quickly realized that this conversation was going to change my business forever.

Over a couple of fine micro-brewed ales, we talked about a lot of the content that year at Connect: the MIT study on lead response time; the power of real estate teams; reverse-engineering content based on inquiries to target more leads; how to hire right; and how to not to sell out. That conversation with Ben and Jon alone was worth the flight from Hawaii.

When we got home, we immediately instituted a new lead management program. We created a chat room where salespeople had to commit to being online and available before receiving a lead. We cut our response time WAY down. And we stopped writing novels. Our conversion went way up. Sales from our website went from $11m in 2009 to over $50m in 2010.

ICSF, 2010

In 2010 Inman nominated Justin for their Real Estate’s 100 Most Influential Leaders List. I still had a little cynicism, but by then, we were already hooked. We were going to Connect, with or without a nomination, and with or without being invited to speak.

2010 was a wild year for us already, and we knew Connect was going to be another springboard. That year was all about content. We were delivering a pretty incredible search product, but Connect was a buzz about specific, local content, and we were soaking it up.

That year, we showed up to Connect with a strategy, too. (I strongly recommend it.) We split up, intentionally. We picked our sessions in advance, and we all made notes and posted photos using Backpack (from 37 signals). We learned about WordPress plugins, content strategies, HTML 5, and more.

We also brought our Broker-In-Charge from the Big Island of Hawaii, Katie Minkus, with us. If Hawaii Life had a Chief Evangelist, a la Chris Smith, it’s Katie Minkus. For her to hear the power of content and to bring it home to our crew was a massive bonus for us. We redesigned our blog, and began training brokers and salespeople to write.

Katie’s default answer to agents’ questions about how to grow their business became “Blog, blog, blog”.

Today, Hawaii Life’s blog features almost 3,000 articles and gets a ton of traffic. And, even better, customers who inquire from one of our blog posts already feel like they have rapport with us, probably because they came in on a very specific long-tail search and found exactly what they were looking for.

ICSF, 2011

That year, I was invited to be on a panel called “Rethinking the Brokerage: New Models and Opportunities” with Glenn Sanford of EXP Realty and John Skrabec of Live Urban Real Estate.

I’m a chronic procrastinator. It actually never occurred to me to look and see where this panel was being held, so when I found out it was on the main stage, I was a little surprised. I don’t get stage fright, but this particular spotlight did give me a few butterflies. 

The best part about that opportunity was the green room. It was like a who’s who of the national real estate speaking tour. Kristina Wise gave a talk about Customer Service before our panel, so I met her for the first time there. Matthew Shadbolt had been on stage earlier, so he was there. It’s also where I first met Sherry Chris. The ambition and enthusiasm in the green room was palpable. It was a scene.

The panel wasn’t particularly remarkable (I’m a harsh critic), but one of the interesting things about participating in any capacity at Inman Connect is that it’s an instant icebreaker for anyone else at the conference to introduce themselves and start sharing with you throughout the rest of the event (a fact that Chris Smith was quick to remind me of in the green room). I’ve made some lasting and profitable connections at ICSF over the years.

(Totally unrelated to me speaking on the panel,) ICSF in 2011 probably had the most profound impact on Hawaii Life than any event in our history. The reason is that, after years of exhaustive vetting, we finally found a CRM that could handle the challenges we have (and a bunch that we didn’t know we had): PropertyBase. (Plug intended.) Granted, we had a bit of a head start. By 2011, our brokers and agents were very well accustomed to working from the same database, but we were still subject to such a wide variety of mediocre, off-the-shelf software for lead management, transaction files, and reporting. Thanks to Vendor Alley at Connect, we’re as sophisticated behind-the-scenes, with PropertyBase, as we are on www.hawaiilife.com.

ICNY, 2012

You know you’re drinking the Connect Kool-Aid when you’re willing to fly from Hawaii to New York, in January, for a real estate conference. Being included on the Top 100 Most Influential Leaders in Real Estate list was enough to kill my cynicism for good. It’s a huge honor. There are some serious names on that list.

New York was great. A lot of the conversation was about the new Cottage Industry and peer-to-peer transactions. Chris Smith gave a great talk about what top-producing agents value and why they leave one brokerage for another. It shifted our focus to relating (more) to the agents in our firm as partners, and wanting to develop tools and provide value for them.

I gave a small talk about integrating social media into real estate search with a Facebook plugin, and we continued to soak up the scene. We had a box of fresh orchid leis sent out to share with the Connect crew, which made their way to the Top 100 cocktail party on Times Square.

New York was a blast. We had just come off a record year of sales ($344m) and also found out that we’ll be shooting a 13-episode documentary about our company for HGTV. Exciting Stuff.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that the content at Inman Connect is invaluable. It actually occurs to us as though we can’t afford not to go. I’m sure other brokers and agents have learned totally different things from Connect, since there’s so much information available. For Hawaii Life, though, the list of takeaways is almost innumerable.

Home prices nationwide increased by 2.0 percent in May 2012 compared to May 2011 and on a month-to-month basis increased by 1.8 percent in May 2012 compared to April 2012, according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index. The May 2012 figures mark the third consecutive increase in home prices nationwide on both a year-over-year and month-over-month basis.

The CoreLogic Pending HPI indicates that house prices will rise by at least another 1.4 percent from May 2012 to June 2012.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationwide increased on a year-over-year basis by 2.7 percent in May 2012 compared to May 2011. On a month-over-month basis, excluding distressed sales, the indicates home prices increased 2.3 percent in May 2012 compared to April 2012, the fourth month-over-month increase in a row. Excluding distressed sales, house prices are poised to rise by 2.0 percent during from May to June. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

“The recent upward trend in U.S. home prices is an encouraging signal that we may be seeing a bottoming of the housing down cycle,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and chief executive officer of CoreLogic. “Tighter inventory is contributing to broad, but modest, price gains nationwide and more significant gains in the harder-hit markets, like Phoenix.”

“Home price appreciation in the lower-priced segment of the market is rebounding more quickly than in the upper end,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Home prices below 75 percent of the national median increased 5.7 percent from a year ago, compared to only a 1.8 percent increase for prices 125 percent or more of the median.”

Highlights as of May 2012

• Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: Arizona (+12.0 percent), Idaho (+9.2 percent), South Dakota (+8.7 percent), Montana (+8.2 percent) and Michigan (+7.9 percent).
• Including distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Delaware (-9.0 percent), Rhode Island (-4.4 percent), Illinois (-4.2 percent), Alabama (-4.1 percent) and Georgia (-4.0 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: Montana (+9.1 percent), South Dakota (+8.5 percent), Arizona (+7.3 percent), Idaho (+6.6 percent) and Wyoming (+6.6 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Delaware (-7.8 percent), Rhode Island (-3.8 percent), Alabama (-2.8 percent), Connecticut (-2.2 percent) and Kentucky (-1.2 percent).
• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to May 2012) was -30.1 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -22.2 percent.
• The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines including distressed transactions are Nevada (-57.7 percent), Florida (-45.6 percent), Arizona (-45.0 percent), Michigan (-40.5 percent) and California (-39.7 percent).
• Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 29 are showing year-over-year declines in May, 12 fewer than in April.

Though listing prices have risen modestly in four of the past five months, rent hikes are still outperforming home price increases in the majority of major rental markets.

With the exception of nearly flat prices in May, asking prices rose in four of the past five months. Asking prices in June rose nationally 0.8 percent quarter over quarter, seasonally adjusted. Year-over-year asking prices rose by 0.3 percent; excluding foreclosures, asking prices rose by 1.7 percent. Nationally, 44 out of the 100 largest metros had Y-o-Y price increases, and 84 out of the 100 largest metros had price increases, seasonally adjusted, according to Trulia.

However, the modest asking price gains trailed rent increases. Nationally, rents were 5.4 percent higher in June than they were a year ago, and rents increased Y-o-Y in 24 of the 25 largest rental markets – all except Las Vegas. Rent increases outpaced price increases in 22 of the 25 largest rental markets.. Furthermore, rent increases accelerated between March and June in most rental markets, with rents in San Francisco rising 14.7 percent Y-o-Y in June from 10.9 percent in March.

“We saw asking prices start to rise in February and predicted that other home price indexes would report sales price increases this summer for those homes – and they have,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist. “Since February, asking prices showed solid gains in four out of five months, including in June, so I expect to see the sales-price indexes show further increases in the months to come

Record tight inventories are making it increasingly difficult for growing numbers of buyers, who are creating multiple bid environments in markets that haven’t seen buyers battle over homes in six years.

Buyers are back but sellers aren’t, especially in Western markets recovering from large volumes of foreclosures. The result is that inventories are still tightening as the spring buying season ends. Buyers are fighting over what’s available, often to the benefit of those sellers who took a risk in this year’s evolving marketplace.

Prices are reported to be on the uptrend with 62 percent of Realtors reporting constant or increasing prices compared to the same time a year ago in the National Association of Realtors’ Realtor Confidence Index for May29 -June 8, 2012 that was released yesterday.

Buyer demand is reported to be growing faster than supply, and many Realtors are reporting multiple offers. However, buyer foot traffic slowed in May compared to last year, perhaps as buyers grew discouraged by slim pickings.

However, buyer traffic is still well above the moderate level, but seller traffic is flat, according to the NAR survey. First time home buyers accounted for 34 percent of total buyers. Normally first-time buyers are in the neighborhood of 40 percent of total residential sales, according to NAR’s Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

A majority of the 145 markets monitored by NAR Research experienced slower foot traffic in May of this year relative to the same time in 2011. The data, provided by SentriLock, LLC., is based on the total number of visits to properties as recorded on electronic clock boxes. Foot traffic was lower over the 12 months ending in May in 60 percent of the markets, while 35 percent expanded and 5 percent were unchanged. This moderating pattern suggests a broad based decline in the late spring following an equally broad-based expansion in the last spring/summer of 2011 and early spring of this year

Multiple bids are changing the playing field in a number of markets this spring and summer. Many agents new to the business who have little experience with them are dealing with a sudden and unexpected competition for homes brought about by inventors more than 20 percent below those of a year ago.

“Remember the “Roaring 90’s”….. Those days when you could list your house on Friday and on Saturday people would be parked in your driveway writing offers and good faith checks on the hood of their cars? Multiple offers were the norm and offered sellers a generous selection of offers from which to choose. Believe it or not we are experiencing a trend toward multiple offers even in this still difficult market and there is evidence that this trend will continue as buyers compete in a market with limited inventory,” reported Realtor Noel Crider of Auburn, CA on the Active Rain blog.

“The Phoenix Metro Area Housing Market faces multiple offers even in the higher end and luxury market as buyers try to snag homes before the market rises further. We have seen multiple offers for quite some time in the lower price ranges, but now as the market is returning, and returning strong, we are seeing multiple offers in the higher price ranges. We are now seeing multiple offers on homes in the move up and luxury home market. We are seeing offers that are $50,000 over asking that are not the winning bid. This is causing quite a bit of frustration as buyers are trying to get into a home before the market prices go up further,” reported Brenda & Ron Cunningham of Phoenix Metro Homes for Sale.

In Seattle, multiple offers on beginner houses in Seattle are common again reports Phil Leng of Kirkland, WA and in Austin, broker Gwynn Teal Carpenter reports, “It’s happened again! We are in one of those real estate markets where we are seeing homes with multiple offers. In Austin Texas, the market is so sizzling hot that it isn’t unusual to have more than 2 offers on a fantastic priced and conditioned home.

Even in Tulsa, a market that experienced neither the housing boom nor the bust, buyers are “scratching their heads because a Tulsa home for sale with which they fell in love wound up in a multiple offer situation – while we are in a Buyer’s market!!! How could this happen?? Any area with more than a six month inventory of homes for sale is considered to be a buyer’s market. But, just as the prettier girls get asked to dance before the less attractive gals, the same goes with Tulsa homes for sale. The more attractive and updated homes will receive offers quickly, while the less attractive homes will remain on the market,” said Lori Cain or Midtown Tulsa Real Estate.