Skip to main content

Leadership Lens: Recognize that change is inevitable

Inman is exploring what the future of real estate leadership should look like through a series of articles, Q&As with industry pros, and an upcoming 5-part series called Leadership Week. Please send your feedback to leadership@inman.com. If you’re a leader who wants to join us for our exclusive Disconnect in The Desert event on March 26-28, or want to recommend a colleague, send a note to brad@inman.com explaining why.

Lisa Fettner is the vice president of marketing at ReferralExchange, where she leads all strategic and brand marketing efforts, and associated websites/services (TopAgentsRanked.com, Referralexchange.com). Her responsibilities include brand development/management, social media, website, email, events, public relations, evangelism, sales support and business/partnership development.

We recently had the chance to chat with Lisa about the current state of real estate leadership, and her thoughts on what’s ahead for 2018.

As a leader, what keeps you up at night?

Technology is evolving so quickly and new applications seem to be appearing daily. Keeping our service relevant and meaningful for our constituency in the midst of so much hype is definitely a challenge. The accelerated change and capital we are seeing come into the market is unprecedented.

Lisa Fettner

If you could change one thing in real estate, what would it be?

The glamorization of real estate sometimes overshadows the time, expertise and effort involved in every deal. I’d like to see these popular shows highlight the hard work and professionalism that exists in every deal. They can do a disservice to people who are thinking about becoming real estate professionals and lull them into thinking it’s going to be easy. That being said, these shows are good for keeping the next generation of buyers and sellers interested in real estate.

The ultimate real estate agent home inspection checklist

3 steps to help best prepare your sellers for their inspection READ MORE

How have your expectations of your management team changed over the past two years?

ReferralExchange has doubled in size over the past two years, and our volume has grown even more. We’ve had to learn how to transition from a startup to a midsize company and scale/adapt accordingly.

How do you keep your team competitive?

We stay focused and try not to get distracted by shiny objects. We’re constantly thinking about how we can continuously improve our service to help our agents achieve their goals.

With so much disruption in real estate, what’s your best advice for managing change?

Recognize that change is inevitable. What was cutting-edge five years ago is now ancient history. We don’t all have to be “early adopters,” but we definitely need to embrace change strategically and figure out how to make it work for us.

Want to connect with Lisa? You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Email Matthew Shadbolt


Leadership Lens: Recognize that change is inevitable curated from Inman

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vacation rental company Vacasa buys Sterling Resorts

Vacation rental management tech startup  Vacasa  isn’t slowing down its ambitions to conquer the market: this week, it announced that it has purchased Sterling Resorts, a vacation management company on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Sterling has changed hands before: it was  bought by Pacifica Companies in 2015 and currently manages 450 homes. Now it will become a part of Vacasa’s effort to expand its presence in vacation destinations such as northern Florida, where Sterling is based. At the time of this latest purchase, Sterling’s home inventory was  down from 585 properties in 2015. Vacasa has raised more than $200 million since its launch ten years ago. Founder Eric Breon said he was motivated to start the company after struggling to find a satisfactory management solution for a cabin belonging to his wife’s family on the Washington coast. Now Vacasa seeks to provide rental property owners with “a seamless experience…through innovative technology and local staf...
Post a Comment
Read more

In An Era Of WeWork, Co-Working Space NeueHouse Sits Above The Fray

NeueHouse CEO Josh Wyatt Seuss Moments In today’s cluttered co-working landscape, it can be hard for companies to makes themselves heard over the din. Elevated co-working space  NeueHouse  wants to create an unparalleled experience for creatives through elevated programming and outstanding design. NeueHouse describes itself as “ a private cultural and collaborative space for prominent creatives, artists and entrepreneurs,” with current locations in Los Angeles and New York. In November, following an announcement of $30 million in funding , the company announced Josh Wyatt as its new CEO. Wyatt is a veteran of the hospitality industry, having co-founded Generator  in 2007, a chain of culture-focused hostels targeted at millennials, before moving on to Equinox to head the fitness brand’s hotel developments in New York City. Forbes interviewed Wyatt to talk about creativity, design, the gun threat incident at NeueHouse New York, and why he i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Could Ken Griffin's Penthouse Purchase Cost NYC Real Estate Buyers Millions?

'The Billionaire's Bunker' at 220 Central Park South is pictured on January 24, 2019, in New York - Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin has completed the purchase of a four-story penthouse in the building for $238 millionm- the most ever paid for a home in the US. The building is a residential skyscraper that is currently under construction. (Photo credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Getty A 2014 bill that aims to impose an additional tax on part-time New York residents—dubbed the “pied-a-terre tax”—has risen from the dead, largely in thanks to the recent record-breaking Central Park penthouse purchase by billionaire Ken Griffin. Griffin, worth an estimated $11.7 billion and No. 45 on the Forbes 400 , reportedly bought the $238 million-dollar apartment “as a place to stay when he’s in town,” according to his representatives. The purchase drew widespread attention to the financial losses that part-time and foreign property owners can cause the city. Bec...
Post a Comment
Read more