Mobile Devices in My Business

Mobile Devices in my Business

I’ve been in the real estate industry for over 26 years.  I’m not sure how I ever did business without my laptop and my smart phone. 

I remember the days when there were no cell phones and no pagers.  Buyers and sellers were less demanding then and there was no such thing as buyer’s agency.  If a buyer wanted to buy a house they called the number on the sign and a showing agent took them to see the house and hopefully they bought it.   But buyer’s called an office not expecting to speak to the listing agent but rather they expected to leave a message and get a call back either at their place of employment or at home.  Our office had an answering service to answer the calls outside of office hours.

I remember racing into the office in the morning to get the tear sheets of new listings each day to see what houses had come on the market.  Our multiple list service was electronic but not in the way it is today.   We filled out information sheets and faxed them to a central number and someone input the data into the system.   By then we had pagers and the receptionist could page messages to the agents to call the office or to call a client or prospective client.

Now, fast forward, buyers and sellers expect immediate gratification.  Agents carry smart phones that give them immediate access to the internet and to listings available in the MLS.  When a buyer calls I can give them immediate information about listings.  When I’m showing homes I can access a program called Smarter Agent on my phone that will tell me every house in the neighborhood that is for sale, and I can also find the most recent sales.  Buyers can snap pictures of QR Codes on signs with their smart phones and get immediate information about listings.   My clients and prospective clients can call, email or text me and I will have immediate access to all and be able to address their concerns immediately.

My broker, Century 21 New Millennium provides us with access to Centralized Showing Service to make it easier to schedule appointments for our listings.  In addition we have state of the art back office software for writing contracts on the go, #MobileDS to email contracts to our clients so they can electronically sign contracts without ever having to print them out, contact management software and so many great tools to help us be more productive and so that we can work anywhere that has a Wi-Fi connection.  How much better can it get?