The Hip Roof Launches This Week

I am so excited that The Hip Roof officially launched this week! This is a real estate educational community for, by and about real estate agents. Of course we do include industry partners as well. The purpose of this site is to create a place where real estate agents can receive coaching, education, interaction, masterminding and much more from the comfort of their own home, office, or marketplace.

I am so excited that The Hip Roof officially launched this week! This is a real estate educational community for, by, and about real estate agents. Of course, we do include industry partners as well. The purpose of this site is to create a place where real estate agents can receive coaching, education, interaction, masterminding, and much more from the comfort of their own home, office, or marketplace.

When I travel to events, one thing I notice most often is that it is almost entirely the same group of people who are consistently attending. We refer to ourselves as “The RE.net”, that community is not defined as any specific group but anyone who swims in the circles, and it always welcomes others into its folds. I also notice that there are many others who are not able to attend, who follow along on the Twitter stream on the various hashtags.

With a tough economy, and a variety of real estate market conditions across the country, a lot of agents are really going back to the basics of coaching, training, accountability, and more.  The classic tools in our arsenals are becoming more and more essential. The difference between a “mega agent” and an “agent” is how disciplined and studied they are in the techniques of the industry. The Hip Roof makes all of these things affordable and accessible to everyone, no matter where you are geographically or economically.

To bring together some of the top minds in the area, and we always welcome more, to provide the content to compliment the learning systems and upcoming eBooks and eCourses – we rely upon many minds. There is no single way to do anything in the social spaces, there are many ways and the techniques and success may vary from market to market. The availability of the live forums allows people to mastermind, post, and develop concepts collaboratively; sometimes the input of someone else makes all the difference.

The ability to share personal experiences and have amazing resources in one place is the whole point. To have many contributors, including the members, makes the knowledge share even more powerful. Some people have strengths in areas that others do not. The Hip Roof brings them all together into one place.

Premium not Freemium

Some people might disagree with this being a membership based site. Everyone is allowed to have their own opinions, we respect that and realize this might not be the right place for everyone. You can not be all things to all people, The Hip Roof will be the best it can be for it’s members; so far the feedback has been very positive.

So why premium? The Hip Roof does not have any advertising inside, nor are there any sales inside. The terms of service clearly state the requirements to be a member and the zero tolerance of any sort of platforming. Self-promotion of a business and selling of products are prohibited. The goal is for members to feel comfortable and at home, to be able to kick-off their shoes and share a story with a co-worker. There are things real estate agents can only say to other real estate agent; this is the place for that.

The Sandbox is Large

There is room enough in the sandbox for a variety of educational and coaching sites. In fact, I encourage agents to belong to more than one. If you only seek knowledge in a single place you might miss out on an opportunity. The Hip Roof gladly acknowledges many of the learning platforms that are already in existence and would be happy to collaborate, isn’t that the point of a community?

When I approached my friend Ben Kinney a few months ago and told him what I was doing, knowing he has IMSD.net, I was hesitant to hear his reaction. Ben said “There’s plenty of room for everyone,” and that is the attitude we share.

Flexibility

The Hip Roof is built upon the vBulletin platform, this incredibly flexible and robust platform gives us nearly unlimited options in what we can do. We have a content management system, we have a blogging platform (currently only offered to “Expert Bloggers”, if you want to learn to blog we will have courses, but Active Rain is still a great place to start), and the forums. We have an amazing calendar of events (actually two calendars), and can create private forums for brands, offices, and more.

The Hip Roof is light on its feet, it can be changed, modified, and tweaked easily. We might even add a consumer facing section without access to the real estate member side where consumers can post questions and the “member of the week” can be the forum moderator for the consumers.

I am going to try to create a few “tours” of the inside in the coming week so people can get a taste of it. I'm so excited that the site is out there and growing!! I am incredibly grateful for the generosity of Chris Brogan and his company Human Business Works in helping develop and deploy the site. I'm also very thrilled at the caliber of agents who have already stepped up to be “expert contributors” and grow their own presence in the space and in their local market.

The beauty for the contributors is that when the site gets contacted to have someone present in a local office, we will turn to our own experts, because The Hip Roof is only virtual, there will be no tours.

We always welcome new expert contributors, it isn’t by invitation only. "Expert" is loosely defined as well. So, if you are interested in contributing, or have a great success story to share, feel free to email The Hip Roof and we’ll get back to you.

Here’s to happy educational adventures and sharing!