I was just forwarded the PowerPoint presentation that Chrisopher Lee of CEL & Associates, INC. used during his “Get Ready For The Age Of Real Estate” presentation at PSU’s Center for Real Estate June 5th. The 84 slide presentation is interesting but most of it isn’t applicable to this forum. What did strike me as interesting both on the agent side and the consumer side was this:
1) 30% – 40% of real estate service companies that exist today will be gone by 2017.
2) The emergence of the Big 3 or Big 4 will create 3 – 4 niche opportunities for everyone else.
3) By 2017, 50% of today’s Brokers will be replaced by collaborative teams of professionals and Advisers. A new Brokerage Model will emerge.
4) The shift to a knowledge-based, client-centric and talent-focused business model will be fairly commonplace.

#1 doesn’t surprise me. I don’t know who we consider the big three or four for #2. I’d expect that at least one of them will be something that doesn’t exist today. #3 makes sense. I think we are already seeing #4.