Seven Gables CEO Mike Hickman was recently featured in Inman News, a leading real estate news source for industry leaders. The article focuses on the ways leading independent brokerages are carving out niches in the industry to hold their own against bigger, brand name brokerages.
When asked how Seven Gables has endured the test of time, maintaining its market stronghold for over 40 years, Hickman emphasizes the company’s commitment to innovation and technology.
Below is Hickman’s quote as seen in Inman News “How Indie Brokerages are Using Technology to Survive”:
Hickman serves as the president and CEO of Seven Gables, a brokerage with more than 400 agents in Southern California. It’s a different size, scope and market, than what Serifovic is doing, but Hickman said that in his case, too, technology has been key to thriving in an industry increasingly dominated by massive companies.
“We’re being assailed by fantastic companies,” Hickman told Inman. “But we don’t have that kind of money so it takes ingenuity to make our firm work.”
Seven Gables has built several different tech tools. One of those tools, dubbed Perfect Buyer, pours through data to make demographic predictions about the kind of person who might ultimately purchase a property. The brokerage then uses that data to guide decisions related to things like staging or online marketing.
Seven Gables also built a tool called Velocity Marketing, which Hickman said “shows you on a demographic basis where buyers are buying and sellers are selling.” The company’s agents use both Velocity and Perfect Buyer to educate sellers about the market, which Hickman said has helped them repeatedly win listings — even when competing against bigger companies.
We don’t have to say, ‘Well, the market’s not as good,’ we say, ‘Here’s the data,’” Hickman said. “When you can sit down with a seller, they’re really taken aback.”
Thanks in large part to their size and focus, Hickman and Serifovic have taken different approaches to technology. At Seven Gables, a small group of IT staffers built the company’s software, which is only available to Seven Gables agents. Hickman described that IT team and its work as “absolutely without a doubt the key” to Seven Gables’ success.
Originally published by Inman News. Read The Full Article (Requires Subscription).
