I mentioned the idea of a Broker Blogger this weekend with my Q&A with Kevin Boer. However, I wanted to dig a little deeper on the subject, so I decided to do a Q&A with yet another Broker Blogger. This time, it’s Ardell DellLoggia — certainly no stranger to the blogging world — who is now the designated broker for Brio Realty. Unlike Kevin, Ardell did not turn her blog’s brand into a brokerage. But like Kevin, she has built her online brand via blogging and her success doing so is likely the largest reason for her new position as the Broker Blogger for Brio Realty. So, who better to articulate the thoughts of a “Broker Blogger” than Ardell, the queen of stream of consciousness blogging? Without further adieu, here are her stream of conscious thoughts on the subject of being a Broker Blogger:

Q: What convinced you to be a Broker Blogger for Brio?

A: Blogging in the manner that I do, is like chalk on a black board to most traditional agents and companies.

The industry has been so full of unfulfilled promise for the last fifteen years or so, from my perspective. Buyers and Sellers do not seem to have much more than canned schpiels. Buyer Agency seems to be more of a Title, than a full-fledged effort toward buyer advocacy. Traditional real estate has just not stepped up to the plate in a big enough way, to suit me, since buyers were first given the appearance of gaining rights in the real estate transaction fifteen or so years ago. So Traditional Companies and that general mindset, while full of everything we need and have historically needed, is just not keeping up with the times.

On the other hand you have the “Future of Real Estate”, which is seeded by everything that Blogging brings with it to the real estate industry. The hope that buyers and sellers will gain the empowerment that more information provides. The hope that commission structures will become more and varied, to suit the differing needs of all buyers and sellers, without trying to lump them all into one package that always needs either the highest or lowest cost alternative. We all know that’s not true, and that the ones who pay too much are subsidizing the ones who pay not enough, in most traditional structures.

So why ARDELL + BRIO? Because I have the answer, or at least the part of that answer that comes from being steeped in the traditional side. BRIO on the other hand has the other half of the equation, the part that understands that Technology and a Lead Generating Website should equal more sales for agents, and more flexible commissions for buyers and sellers. No one can have the whole answer as the prototype for Brokerages of the Future, without these two components getting together and experimenting with the possibilities. I have experimented with different commission plans from a traditional mindset for the last 20 months, and they have the integration of lead generating technology, perfected over the last 3 years. Together we have unparalleled experience with regard to blogging, and all that blogging can bring to the industry, to serve both professionals and buyers and sellers of real estate.

So this marriage is yes, to BRIO’s benefit. But from my standpoint, my hope is to propel the industry in a way it needs to go, not just a single Company. Someone has to prove that flexible commissions and truly “negotiated” commissions are possible from a broader perspective than simply “discount vs. full service”. It has to be perfected in a way that people pay only for what the job warrants, and not more or less overall, and not all the same regardless of the work at hand. There has to be options for those who are adept at doing more of the process on the own due to technological advances, and there needs to be options for people who aren’t. And they should be contained under one roof. It’s a lofty goal. But with the right mix of people working on it, without traditional fighting with the visionaries…all things are possible.

Q: Has your mindset changed as a result of acting as a broker rather than an agent?

A: Yes. Very much so. But that happened back in 2005 for me, and not as Broker of BRIO. I had already integrated the Broker/Owner mindset with the Agent mindset back before I started blogging. So there was no learning curve from that standpoint.

Q: As a Broker Blogger for Brio, what is the strategy to build Brio’s brand via online marketing & helping train better agents through education?

A: Well you know blogging will have a LOT to do with that. It will be a combination of three or more blogging efforts that involves Active Rain to some degree, our website plus individual blogs for the agents separately. We should be ready to unveil the basic plan in 10 days to two weeks when our new site is ready.

I’ve integrated “Friday Field Trips” where I as the Broker and one of the agents goes out for hands on training to their listings or newest or next project. I hope to podcast these into the site after we experiment a bit with whether this training method is best done one on one, or in small groups. Probably a bit of both. I just finished a Friday Field Trip in Woodinvlle. Last week it was Lakemont in Bellevue. The week before it was townhomes in Bothell. Next week it will be a home expansion in South Seattle.

For the most part I am trying to integrate all aspects of the Company being on a blog platform. Kind of an office with glass walls that everyone can see into as we do and discuss the real work at hand of a real estate company. People have been complaining for years that they can’t SEE what agents really DO. So the “Real World” aspect of an office and all that an agent’s day entails should be entertaining. The BRIO brand will equal the transparency that is more than just the buzzword of this decade. Transparency is the request, and we aim to deliver it in a way that no one else dares to do. It’s a bit over the top for sure. But we’re the ones ready to throw caution to the wind a bit to see where the road takes us. Kind of springboarding off Redfin into a new direction. Glenn was right when he said the industry was broken. It will take more and many to devise the means to fix it. We want to be on that side of the fence. The side that agrees that it is broken, and helps inch it a step further into a new direction.

Q: Do you think bloggers who have built online brands for themselves, such as Kevin Boer, will continue to start their own brokerages?

A: I’d have to speak with Kevin regarding his objective and motivation. But the truth is, you can’t take the big steps forward and work for most brokerages simultaneously. Blogging inspires you to new heights and big traditional brokerages keep trying to push you back into risk reducing same old, same old. You can’t run with the ball unless you have some autonomy. You can’t blog in a way that influences change on a grand scale, if you need to pass every word through the PR department. You have to take some risks to blog effectively and to promote change, and most companies are not moving in that direction. Nor do they see the value in moving in that direction.

Every agent should Blog. Every Broker should Blog. Mostly because people are tired of having agents come into their living room to show them a power point presentation that WOWs them, only to find that the agent and the presentation had nothing to do with one another Buyers and Sellers want to see the real thing. Agents in action. How agents think and how their Brokers allow them to act on the client’s behalf. It’s an idea whose time has come and we’re willing to take the giant steps and the risks that go with change.

The owners and leaders of BRIO are all on Board. I have carte blanche. The agents are excited and those who aren’t willing to reveal who they truly are, may not survive in the new age of real estate. It’s a new idea. We don’t have to pretend we are all equally “The Best!” at everything. We can let everyone peek behind the curtain and see our properties for what they really are and our agents as well.

Clearly Seattle must lead the way, and we’re not trying to be the only one. In fact we hope all companies move in the right direction toward more options for consumers, more transparency and NO hard selling. Change doesn’t come easy for anyone. An industry with 100 years of pretty much one way, doesn’t move from that easily. I can only hope that there are enough agents out there who want change as badly as I do, and aren’t afraid of being different.

Blogging doesn’t only show people how we think…it CHANGES how we think. Until the Brokers think differently, and not only the agents, change will not happen in a big way. So the time for Blogging Brokers has come and I hope many more come on board.

Thanks to Ardell for her very thought-out answers. Two concepts Ardell mentioned really caught my attention:

1) A completely transparent real estate brokerage –

People have been complaining for years that they can’t SEE what agents really DO. So the “Real World” aspect of an office and all that an agent’s day entails should be entertaining. The BRIO brand will equal the transparency that is more than just the buzzword of this decade.

2) The concept of a Brokerage that serves all commission levels –

The hope that commission structures will become more and varied, to suit the differing needs of all buyers and sellers, without trying to lump them all into one package that always needs either the highest or lowest cost alternative.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see the new Brio Realty website & concept when it is launched (I think soon).

This isn’t specific to real estate, but I certainly agree with Ardell’s sentence in her last response when she said, “Blogging doesn’t only show people how we think…it CHANGES how we think.” I’ve been blogging for over a year, both personally and as part of my job, and it’s safe to say that statement is correct — at least in my case. As a result of having access to perspectives from bloggers around the world that I wouldn’t otherwise have been exposed to (unless I visited people all over the world), blogging makes me analyze issues from all sides before forming my opinion, then explain my viewpoint in an understandable & succinct way. My advice here is to make sure you fully understand an issue before forming your opinion.