Assignment 4A Opportunity Belief

Assignment 4A Opportunity Belief

 My beginning point:

The current real estate transaction system leaves customers vulnerable with uncertainty. I believe there is a market for a real estate exchange where homes can be quickly sold and purchased at market prices. Real estate companies would own their inventories much like a car dealership.


My Belief:

The unmet need is for people who want to sell their home or buy a home quickly and predictably. The need is for people who want to sell or buy a property. The need has always existed. The current market is unpredictable. Currently people list their home through a realtor and put an estimated price on the home and wait for people to offer more or less for the property with an unknown timeframe for whether the home will sell or not. If the seller is also wanting to purchase a home, it places them in a bind to purchase a new property not knowing when and how much their home will sell for. Sometimes the home sells but can’t be paid for because the lender is unsure of the true market value of the home. I am 100% sure that this opportunity exists to make this industry more efficient.

 Prototypical customer:

 The prototypical customer can be any person at a time that is wanting to buy or sell a home or real estate.

First Discussion: The first customer recognized the level of uncertainty in transacting real estate from his own experiences. A person typically doesn’t recognize the need until they face the reality of possibly being in the position of holding two homes at the same time. His solution is that you make an offer on the home that you want contingent on the sale of your own home. He has not personally used this approach but felt it may be an alternative to not being hurt financially. In our discussion we agreed that a seller would rather accept an offer other than yours that didn’t have the possibility that they sit on their home for an extended period and lose potential buyers.

 Second discussion: The second discussion was with a couple that currently feels the frustration of not wanting to make the move to a larger home. They recognized that the current system was flawed when they started wanting a different home. They don’t feel confident in selling their home because they are unsure exactly how much it will sell for and how long it may take to sell. They don’t feel that they can commit to buying another home until they sell the one they are in. Their solution is to sell their home and rent a home until they find a home to buy. They are not wanting to move twice either so at this point they are doing nothing.

Third discussion: The third discussion was with a couple that are in the real estate business. They recognize that things would be better if they were more efficient (faster) and more predictable. Currently because there is no alternative system available they use the current unpredictable way of selling and buying real estate. Their biggest questions were the level of fees for transacting real estate into the Brokers portfolio and how much training and intelligence a person would need to be able to work in the real estate marketplace. I figured it would be more like a stock broker and most of the workings would be dependent on technology.


Reflection:

The most surprising thing I learned about my opportunity was how eager people were to talk about how the market would work. The third discussion after my interview said I would like to come back and talk to you more about your idea. I was surprised people seemed so interested.

 Summary:

My belief changed slightly because I noticed that the people felt the idea was very complicated and would be very complex to design and implement. It would immediately change many of the players in the industry based on capital to purchase and exchange properties. 

The opportunity is still there to eliminate the fear and anxiety out of transacting real estate. I still believe it is as accurate as when I started.

 I think there needs to be a balance between adapting to feedback and staying firm. Many people you pitch a new idea to are trying to give you reasons your idea will fail instead of ways to make it succeed. The vision of adapting a new industry or existing product may be difficult for others to grasp.