David Marine, director of products and innovation for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC in Parsipanny, N.J., is coming to the Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, which runs from July 13-15, 2010. He will speak during a "Real Estate Search Tear Down" panel.
A part of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC since 2002, Marine oversees the brand’s social media strategy and also oversees product development for the brand’s marketing division.
He earlier launched Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC’s mobile platform and YouTube channel.
Marine, a self-described "TV aficionado," "Mets lifer," "Web socializer" and "basketball addict," responded to a set of questions posed by Inman News:
1. What is the most important business lesson you learned in the past year?
Video is as powerful as ever. While touch screens, apps and augmented reality have become the alluring elements of the past year, video is poised to be a killer app within the real estate industry.
At Coldwell Banker, we explored this medium with our Coldwell Banker On Location YouTube channel by cultivating the user-generated content from our network and showcasing it in an organized and easily digestible format.
It’s still just the tip of the iceberg. Because more people today are searching on YouTube than Yahoo or Bing, I believe we’ll see video grow exponentially as a real estate marketing vehicle over the course of the next few years.
2. What inspired you to pursue your current career path?
I have always been attracted to the world of advertising and marketing; I was obsessed with TV commercials as a kid. During college I became a tech gadget guy and following graduation went to work for a small ad agency catering to high-tech companies.
I quickly became enamored with the technological side of marketing, and as social media sites started to evolve I found that the technology and social media mixture was the career path I wanted to follow. I love what I’m doing with Coldwell Banker, and I’m always curious to see what innovations will help grow our business.
3. Share a personal experience or anecdote about buying, selling, owning or renting a home.
The first house my wife and I bought was purchased (direct from the owner), and we decided that we didn’t need a real estate agent to help us buy our home. There were so many small, pain-in-the-neck issues that came up over the course of the transaction that we both remarked that we would never buy a home again without the help of an agent.
We may have saved a little bit of money, but in actuality the time, stress and effort that went into doing it ourselves was not worth it. When we bought our second home, I called a local … agent to help us. I’m a true believer in the value of buying and selling a home with the aid of a true professional.
4. What is the coolest technology you’ve discovered this year, and how are you using it?
I’m using it for my online social activities like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging, but it’s also the ultimate video player. Whether it’s a YouTube video, the ABC player or a downloaded movie, the iPad is bar none the best way to watch videos away from your TV.
I’m experimenting with it as a laptop replacement, but I find that it’s better for reviewing content than creating it.
5. What is your advice for real estate industry professionals to thrive in this market?
Don’t stop building relationships. We all know that referrals are the No. 1 source of business for Realtors, and in this economy there’s an even greater need to continue to build relationships and expand your network.
6. What is your favorite non-work-related hobby?
I’m a basketball addict. Love watching it. Love playing it. On any given Saturday morning, you can find me at a local gym playing pickup ball.
7. Who is your hero, and why?
If we were talking superhero, I’d go with Superman hands down, but as far as non-fictional characters, I’d have to choose my Dad (ironically, he has been told on occasion that he looks like Clark Kent).
Anyone who’s met my father will tell you that he’s one of the nicest people on the planet. But what really makes him my hero is his servant-leadership. He’s a vice president of call-center technology who didn’t miss a single Little League game, soccer game or high school basketball game in my entire life.
If I called him right now with a problem, he’d drop everything to help. And he’d not only do this for me but for any friend (and sometimes stranger) who asked. He’s not just a leader at work but at home and church as well. If I could be a husband, father, or businessman like him, I’d be in pretty good shape.
8. What do you view as the biggest problem facing the real estate industry today, and how would you fix it?
I think one of the major issues the real estate industry is facing is the generation gap between today’s average real estate agent and the first-time homebuyer. The buyer’s expectations may be much different from what the agent has done over the course of his career.
From the way he or she communicates to his or her view of the world, today’s agent is a stark contrast to today’s buyer. Real estate companies will need to convince current agents to accommodate today’s buyers in ways they are not used to, and to recruit younger agents.
9. What do you hope to learn at the Real Estate Connect conference?
I’m looking forward to hearing some ideas from speakers who are outside our industry (and) can give a fresh perspective. I find that some of the best concepts to help the real estate business, whether in marketing or operations, come from industries that have nothing to do with real estate.
10. Tell us something we don’t already know about you.
In my spare time, I run a blog about my favorite baseball team, the New York Mets, called MetsLifer.com.
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