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Business & Tech

RoboRealtor vs. the Human Touch

As the Redfin era unfolds, what's a real estate agent to do?

Since the first time a Visigoth handed over the keys to his castle, the formula for success in real estate has been simple: he who has the most information wins. Then came the internet.

The tech revolution has dinged the real estate industry more profoundly than years of litigation has altered R.J. Reynolds. Add to that two years of a catastrophically down market and what do you get? Some realtors are grasping at straws – or disappearing completely from the scene – while others are finding creative ways to make themselves more valuable than a website.

Inman News, where “real estate and technology connect,” holds an annual conference that attempts to address the changes head-on. Its solution is to meet technology with more technology. Two years ago, I sat through 90 minutes of a guy trying to teach a room full of realtors how social networking could change their lives. His message was as simple – “get a Facebook page” – as it was incomplete.

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The problem, as I saw it, was that while Inman was forging forward, tech-wise, it was sticking to the old paradigm: he with the most information wins.

This dates back to a time when prehistoric realtors lugged heavy listings books around, carefully guarding their secret contents. There was no online MLS and no open houses. Buyers and sellers were forced to sit at the feet of sage-like agents, who could then decide whether or not to show them The Perfect Home. The internet--while it saved the backs of many a muscle-strained agent--has balanced the relationship between agent and client. Nobody needs an agent with a lockbox key anymore.

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What’s a realtor to do?

One of the more creative solutions I’ve seen comes from Raziel Ungar of in Burlingame. His plan isn’t revolutionary – make yourself a visible member of your community. It’s his execution that has heads turning. The (and UCLA) graduate has found a way to feed a personal passion and create something of value for his hometown, while putting his name in people’s heads without being pushy.

In 2010, Ungar, having already exhausted the traditional (holding homebuyer workshops, building houses for Habitat for Humanity) and the less-traditional (organizing My Monet, a children’s art show during Burlingame’s 2009 Art in the Park exhibition) profile-enhancers, decided to begin a series of short documentary films focusing on Burlingame. He calls the series Burlingame Buzz (www.burlingamebuzz.com). In the past year, along with videographer Mark Bracamonte, he’s produced films with topics ranging from schools to restaurants, youth sports to the Burlingame Mothers' Club. Last May, he debuted his first film at the Burlingame Library. 130 people showed up to watch.

What makes this more than an exercise in vanity or a sales pitch is Ungar himself. It is not difficult to see how making hometown videos might benefit his business. The next time a prospective client asks about local schools, he can do more than recite API scores. He’s got a whole documentary – starring him – to share. His answer to, “Hey, are there any good restaurants around here?” is three minutes of Raziel Ungar talking to the owner of the .

Ungar’s casual, eager on-air presence makes the videos Burlingame Buzz rather than a sales tool – while slyly being a great sales tool. He truly loves and cares about Burlingame. As he told host Dani Gaspari during a recent airing of PenTV’s One on One, “I wanted people to see a different side (of Burlingame).”

The secret to selling real estate, 21st-century-style, is to find a way to demonstrate to clients how you are worth more to them than a website. By creating a series of interesting hometown videos, Raziel Ungar has created his own niche, and put his name into potential clients’ heads without having to use the word “realtor.” He says he thinks Burlingame Buzz is the first of its kind in the country.

I’d be surprised if it turns out to be the last.

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