#RETT: 10 Reasons RETT Works. Or WILL Work.

Last week was kind of fun. There were a handful of people who simply decided to organize something that was community based and community driven around the general idea of Real Estate Professionals who happen to like technology.

And somehow it became known as #RETT on Twitter.  And Real Estate Tech Tank on Facebook. And a placeholder site is now up with a local web development firm donating their professional services for an upgraded one coming soon.

And people are starting to talk about it.

And show up in the new location.

And we are touring a new possible (top secret) location this week.

But will it really work?  Will creating a co-working space that is community based actually “work”?

At least one person has asked this question. Even suggesting that it is possible that the emperor has no clothes.

Will it work?

Yes.

Or at least I think it will.

Photo Credit: PhoenixREGuy

And here are the top ten reasons why #RETT will work:

There are enough people who “get it” that are involved. I would estimate that there are at least 10 people (heck, maybe 100 or so by now) who you might consider the nucleus of this particular community and each one understands what a community based shared co-working space involves. Any time there are that many people who “get it”, it increases the chance of success.

There is a successful model to model after. The kids at Gangplank have set the bar for what a community based open co-working organization looks like. And works like. And does and doesn’t do.

SEO Tuesdays. Do you have any idea how many people (particularly Realtors) pay people like me to work on SEO stuff for their site because they don’t know how to do it themselves? Now every Tuesday at 10 am, they can get free SEO training. From some of the best SEO people in the business. Quit paying your SEO guy – show up for an hour and learn enough to be deadly.

Brown Bag Wednesdays. At Gangplank, every Wednesday there is someone from the community who comes and speaks about their business or something that they are an expert in. This is one of my favorite things about Gangplank – that it attracts some of the top thought leaders in the nation when they are in town – and sometimes they  even take an hour of their time and speak about what they want to — to a crowd of mostly technology nerds sprinkled with other less nerdy types.

Video Thursdays. As the process of buying a home evolves to the point where many people search for a home on the web, may people want to be able to not only see pictures of houses, but videos of them. And some bloggers have turned into vloggers as a personal preference. And there is a whole wave of Realtors who want to learn more about video.

Video editing, video production, video tips and tricks, pretty much everything that people might be interested in learning about video from real-life video experts.  Want to learn more about video? Be sure to show up on Thursdays at 10 where an expert shows up to teach about everything-video.

Want to learn how to give your customers what they really want? Show up every Thursday and learn enough about video that you will no longer be embarrassed to admit that you don’t know how to operate a flip cam.

The watercooler effect. Not everyone currently has an office. Many people in the real estate business have decided to go virtual – which is really a sexy way of saying they don’t actually have an office. While I know that not everyone actually needs a water cooler environment where they can mingle with others, I also know that others do.  Lucky for the Phoenix area, one of the most tech-savvy brokerages in town is also virtual. And I know for a fact that many of the agents there like to chat by the water cooler at least some of the time… I bet there will be regular attendance and contribution from them and people who are just like them.

Going one step further, I bet that many real estate types who have an office will actually spend less time in their office where they don’t learn much from their co workers and more time at #RETT where they have the complete knowledge of the community surrounding them.

The snowball effect. I remember going to the first Real Estate Bar Camp in San Fransisco – and then I remember the first time that someone said “this is cool, I am going to take this back to Houston!” and then it went crazy. Now there are Real Estate Bar Camps all over the US (maybe even the world at this point, I don’t know for sure). One of the funniest things I listen to from time to time is people who attempt to define what REBarCamps are or should be. Or what is wrong with them. Or who wants them to fail. Or whatever.

While I am no expert at what REBarCamps are or are not – I can tell you that generally speaking, the community has spoken and it will continue on.  So having seen some of the grassroots efforts of REBarCamp turn into what it is now… I think I can safely say that I see many of those same possibilities with #RETT.

It doesn’t have to work for everybody in order to work. #RETT is going to be different things to different people. If you ask 10 people what #RETT is today, chances are that you will get 10 different answers that may or may not sound similar. If you ask 10 people in 2 years what #RETT is, I bet you get the same thing — different answers from different people.

Big business loves to be associated with thought leaders. In my experience, many thought leaders in communities are entrepreneurs. Whether or not they want to admit it, many people who are stuck in a suit at a big company yearn for something different. They wish they could have a backpack and a laptop and figure out how to make a living.  Deep inside of their suit, stuck in places they don’t like to talk about, they are actually jealous of the entrepreneur. They silently worship the entrepreneur.

And so when they see a band of half-crazy entrepreneurs all doing something that looks fun/productive/worthwhile, they want to be associated with them – and since they aren’t officially one of them, the primary way they feel that they can contribute to the community is to bring the power of the dollar from their big corporate position with them.

And thus, you get the sponsors.

And sponsors mean dollars.

And dollars generally mean that something is going to continue.

It really hasn’t been completely defined yet. #RETT is new enough that if you get involved, you can be one of the contributors who can help define what it actually is. In my experience, anytime that someone feels like they can leave their personal mark on something or that they can have influence on something – they are more likely to get involved. And the more people that get involved, the more chance for success. The magnet that attracts others is giving them a chance to participate. To contribute to the community. That is really what is at the heart of any successful grassroots organization.

#RETT will work because I want it to. Ok, maybe not just me. Me and about 10,000 of our friends who work in the Real Estate field in some way want it to work. And for the 9,993 people who may not have heard of it yet, there is me and about 6 of my friends who are going to make it work.

Because if making it work means showing up somewhere that 7 of us can do the other 9 things on this list, then it has been a success.

But everyone is welcome to join us — bring your best ideas with you.

See you soon.

Tagged as: #RETT, Real Estate Tech Tank