Technical Opportunities in Real Estate

As many surveys show, more and more buyers are turning to the Internet to research their home purchasesabout two thirds, according to recent surveys by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). And sellers are also increasingly using the Internet to gauge the potential selling price of their properties.

This fact shouldn't surprise anyone, given how common online shopping has become. In the last decade, Americans have become comfortable using computer and Internet technology at home, work, and school, with shopping and product research among the most common activities. In fact, many clients now expect their providersincluding their real estate agents and brokersto use the Internet to provide information. This is particularly true of younger buyers and sellers, who use technology routinely in their lives: e-mail, the Web, digital cameras, cellphones, iPods, and so forth. They expect the people who serve them to work at the same technology level.

Some members of the real estate industry have quickly adopted these new technologies. For example, in California, about 90 percent of agents have high-speed Internet access at home, according to a recent California Association of Realtors survey. NAR's surveys show that most agents now access the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) over the Internet, rather than connect through special computer setups at the office or rely on the old paper books stored at the office. Most Realtors associations have made active listings available to the public via their own Web sites, through their brokers' and agents' Web sites, and through aggregation sites such as www.Realtor.com. Thanks to this technology adoption, tens of thousands of people can now explore current listings to better understand the market. Savvy agents and brokers encourage this, since better-educated customers usually don't waste your time looking at places that don't fit their basic budgets or criteria.

Despite this Internet adoption for MLS data, many agents and brokerages still tend to be low-tech. There's an understandable reason for that: You don't have the skills, time, or inclination to develop and then implement a technology strategyafter all, you're an agent, not an engineer. You're focused on the bread-and-butter activities of finding clients and then helping them sell or buy properties instead.

But in a world that is increasingly technology-oriented, you'll have to make the time to adopt current technologies to serve those clients well. Otherwise, your efforts will become less efficientand often more expensivethan your competitors' processes. If your service begins to fall behind that of your competitors, you'll lose many of your clients over time and find it harder to get new ones.

Does that mean you must become a technology expert? No, but it does mean you should judiciously apply technology to serve your clients and market your services. Because real estate is such a local business, there's no single answer to what technology a particular agent should use. But a savvy agent can craft her own strategy by using the techniques and tools described in this bookand improve your customer service, business operations, and overall success. If you're a broker, you too should craft a strategy that meets your local business needs and customer requirements, keeping your firm ahead of the competition.

Just as not investing in technology can hurt your business, so can inappropriately investing in technology be bad. Agents quickly learn that there are hundreds of companies trying to sell services, sales methods, and technologies. You'll go broke spending money on every possible "solution." The real estate business has many demands on agents' pocket books, and the tech-savvy agent also knows when not to spend on technology.

All technology used must serve a purpose worth its investment. When creating your technology strategy, first ask yourself what you want to do, why it is worth doing, and finally how to do itassuming your analysis says that it still makes sense to do.Don't get caught up in using technology just because you think you have to, because "everyone else is doing it," or because the technology looks "cool." Technology can be a great help to your business, but only if it actually improves your business.

How to Use This Book

Whether you are an agent or a broker, achieving the right technology strategy means assessing several parts of your real estate business: marketing yourself more effectively, facilitating communications, and managing transactions more effectively.

This book is organized around those key aspects of your business, with sections that show you how various technologies can improve your business and how you can actually use them. The first section covers the technologies themselves, while the rest of the book focuses on how to use the technologies in the practice of real estate.

Once you understand the possibilities, it's up to you to decide which technologies to use. To help you do that, the book provides handy checklists of what to look for in various technologies and services. You'll also find "The Bigger Picture" sidebars that help you understand a related issue. The CD that accompanies this book includes links, demo soft ware, and templates to help you act on the advice; summaries in each section of the book list the related resources on the CD, which will save you time hunting for Web addresses and other contact information. There are also multiple-choice quizzes on the CD to use in a training or classroom environment. See appendix E, "The CD," for detailed information on how to use the CD and its contents.

Note that the book is written largely for agents, but much of the advice equally applies to smaller brokerages (those with no IT expert on tap). Also note that because real estate is such a local business, there are often many ways to accomplish your business and technology goals. Local laws, requirements, standards, customs, and expectations also affect your decisions. As you read through this book's advice and tips, be sure to think them through within your local context. Some advice simply might not work for your specific situation, but that's fine: What really matters is that you think through your needs, understand the appropriate options, and then figure out the best way to implement them. This book will help you do just that, even when the specific technology options or how-to advice doesn't apply to your situation.

Even with that caveat, you can expect to use a lot of the hands-on advice in this book. While many real estate issues are local and specific to each individual, many are common to all agents and brokers, and even local norms and requirements are usually based on a wider issue or need.

My deepest hope is that this book will help you act smartly to make your real estate business more successful and easier to manage.