Labor Saving Devices???

22 years in the business and the one thing I have learned is…THERE IS NO LABOR SAVING MAGIC BULLET!

Just read another blog  by Roger Johnson, Realtor - Hickory NC Real Estate about purchasing leads.  This got me thinking about all the marketing stuff I have bought or, “bought into” in the past 2 decades of real estate. 

What motivated me when I purchased a product or idea was probably the same thing that motivates anyone looking to accomplish a task.  Like say, a better mouse trap, or a palm nailer, (the nails don’t go into your palm when used correctly) or any number of other “labor saving devices.”  With each product comes the pitch that this “will change your life.”

Imagine 40 years ago, (yeah, I am old enough to have memories that far back, but not too old not to remember, thank you.) you’re a young person on a ranch that has a small dairy operation on the side.  How small an operation is this you may ask? It is so small…the milking machine is you.  You have heard rumors of profits this year being enough to invest in a real milking machine and one afternoon your Grand-dad pulls into the drive to the milking barn with a trailer loaded with shiny stainless steel tanks, hoses etc.  I, my brothers and cousins all thought we were looking at the “Magic Bullet.”  The days of each of us milking by hand 7 cows in the morning and 7 cows in the evening were over.  (Cue the Hallelujah Chorus)

Once every thing was set up and operational the reality set in.  This labor saving device worked wonderfully well.  So well in fact, that Grand-dad promptly went out and doubled the size of our milking stock.  This meant that while the milking was being done by the machine, there were more mouths to feed and more bovine scat, (B. S. for short) to scoop and remove.  In other words this device just allowed us to…work.

Real Estate is the same way.  We now have computers, (that fit on our desks)cell phones, (that are computers) MLS on line not in books the size of the A-D sections of encyclopedias, lock boxes that leave your thumb in tact when opening them and let you see who has shown your property without looking for business cards on the counter or having to take the key box in to “have it read” and this is a very short list of all the new cool things we have today so…why am I still working so many hours in a week? 

I’ll be thinking about this as I look for the remote car starting thing that will allow my car to be a comfortable 72* when I leave for the office this morning to cram a 8 hour day into a 10 to 12 hour day.

Hope you agents will enjoy your 9 to 5, 5 day work week J.  Oh and please, don’t forget to put the lid back down on the scanner.