Meet Laurie Weston Davis
Laurie Weston Davis is Undisruptable
“This business is all about relationships, and without your reputation in good order, you have very little foundation.”
Laurie Weston Davis has touched nearly every aspect of the real estate world. She’s a broker/owner, she’s been an agent, she has served as president of her MLS, she’s served on NAR boards, she’s worked with vendors, she is the original Geeky Girl, and has even invested in real estate technologies she believed in. So what is this powerhouse doing to ensure her business will be able to weather storms?
“We need to be aware of what’s going on, but ultimately we need to remember the client.” Laurie understands that real estate is a people business and it’s time to fully embrace the relationships that drive and safeguard the business. She reminds agents to celebrate the hard work that’s done every day and to be sure to share this with others. Showcasing what it will be like to work with you is one of the easiest stories to share online, and validation through people is one of the most effective digital strategies.
Read more from our conversation here:
Laurie: So my first encounter with Rate-My-Agent was at NAR. They were part of the REACH class. NAR supports new startups and picks a few of them every year to help mentor and so they had a booth at NAR and I’m always interested in new technology so I stopped and made the rounds. And that’s how I first met them.
Molly: So they’re tackling the issue of reviews. So talk a little bit about the void. You know, the under one roof idea. You know, our current state is reviews are everywhere.
Laurie: So RateMyAgent came along at a really great time. I think we’re at a point in the industry where agents need to be able to show their value and have a way to put that all in one place and give themselves more control than they’ve had in the past with having their reviews out there everywhere all over the internet and different places. A consumer never really could see it all and so they are creating a platform that consolidates your reviews, allows you to control where they go and when they go, and it’s really a great thing that we’ve really never had in the past.
Molly:Why is RateMyAgent something that they can’t not check out?
Laurie: I think now more than ever being able to show your value, like I said, is critical. With everything that’s going on in the industry we have a tendency to kind of get lost in the fray a little bit, I think. So pulling ourselves back in, it’s something that we’ve done in some form or another for a long time, but this is bringing our reviews to a whole new level and I think you cannot miss out on this.
Molly: So, is there anything you want to know? Let’s talk about how easy it is. About the free profile. What does it look like to actually start with RateMyAgent?
Laurie: So when you start out with RateMyAgent, it’s actually super easy. The platform gives you, really with ease, an ability to collect the reviews. And the reviews in the beginning, when you’re just collecting them all, it’s a free thing. So, there’s no reason not to do it. It will help you to reach out to your clients, which is something you need to be doing anyway. You also have an opportunity as you go back to try and get reviews to maybe reach out to some clients in the past. I think within reason you should be able to talk to people that maybe you did a deal with a year or two ago. That gives you a reason to make connections again and also add to your review portfolio.
Molly: As a trusted person, what do you want them to know from you? If you were really like…
Laurie: About RateMyAgent?
Molly: Yeah, if you, [inaudible 00:04:24] speaking to the agent, like what is that thing that you want them to know?
Laurie: Mm-hmm (affirmative). One of the really important things about Rate-My-Agent is that the reviews are all verified. They’re all attached to a property. It’s about a transaction that you participated in. There can’t be any random reviews that people come and leave. Good, bad, indifferent. It’s all about what you are actually doing in the business. So, that’s one thing that we have had issues with, I think, in the past is controlling some of the negative things that come out in places that we don’t have any control over. Well that’s a little bit different. If we’re compiling everything in Rate-My-Agent we have control over that and there can’t be any reviews that don’t have to do with the actual transaction.
Molly:Why did you get involved with RateMyAgent? Yeah. You’ve certainly been asked by other vendors, so why RateMyAgent and why now?
Laurie: So I decided to work with RateMyAgent because initially at first glance at the product I thought “It’s just another review platform, I don’t really need that”. Then at the encouragement of another friend, they said, you really need to take another look at this. And I sat down and when I had the full dog and pony show the light bulb went on. They are very different from anything we’ve had in the past. It gives us the ability to celebrate our successes in a way we’ve never been able to do in the past. And I think that’s hugely important for agents. We work hard and to be able to take those reviews that have been laying on other platforms and in places that were gathering dust, it gives us an opportunity to really use those reviews in a very positive way for our future business.
About RateMyAgent
RateMyAgent is an Australia-based review platform now expanding rapidly in the United States. In Australia, RateMyAgent is used by agents who sell 80% of property across Australia and get reviews for 1 in 3 homes sold nationally. RateMyAgent launched in the United States in 2018 and has partnerships with MLS’s from Florida to California, including CRMLS, the countries largest MLS. They are the first review platform to be included and endorsed by the National Association of Realtors® 2019 NAR’s REACH Accelerator Program. RateMyAgent is listed on the Australian stock exchange. More information about RateMyAgent can be found at www.ratemyagent.com
