Keeping my brokerage relevant in the Lake Sinclair home buying process
High Tech For Real Estate Agents and Brokers.
Tammy's experience with the introduction of computers and online listing services shows just how far we have come since the mid-1990s.
However, the high tech experience actually goes back a few years.
I purchased my first computer in 1990 and real estate was already there. NO, there were no pictures. That said, any online real estate service was an improvement over the desktop terminal that most of us used in the office. I actually purchased my own terminal to use at home and when holding open house for home buyers.
BTW, my first computer was an IBM and cost $6,500. OUCH! Pricing is one thing that has surely improved over the years.
Photo below circa 1990. It was in a web site which was BB, before blogging.
Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988, serving home buyers in Loudoun County VA.
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I read a great article on technology changing the role of agents... and I want buyers to know that I accept this new role because it certainly is different than when I started in this business. It used to be that buyers would contact us and we'd bring them into the office and sit down and go through the available homes in the MLS book.
That's right boys and girls, back in the day we had a printed book that each agent got once a month and then we got weekly "updates" of new listings and those that had gone under contract. We'd sit down and look with buyers at the ONE photo in the book and choose homes to view. I hadn't thought about that process in long long time.
In the mid 90s our MLS went "on line" and we could put a whopping 4 photos in the listing. And joy of joys they were in color and we print fliers for buyers and fliers to put in boxes at the street. By 1998 Lane Realty had it's on website. Only our listings were offered via the website with lots of photos of all the rooms and the views of the lake. If the buyer wanted to see other listings it was still the on line system and fliers.
I honestly can't even remember the year we got our first IDX feed. I do remember the wall of old school brokers that our MLS was up against for a couple of years to make this happen. And just this past year we actually improved once again our system for buyers. We signed up with Listing Pages. Our old IDX feed updates once a day in the middle of the night. Listing Pages however pulls data every 15 minutes.
So any buyer who chooses to work with Lane Realty can virtually have real time data as it's entered into the system. That means our buyers sometimes have a full day advantage of seeing new listings from other brokerages over buyers working with an agent at another Lake Sinclair firm. Our buyers can sign up themselves or we can set up their private search for them. If they are started their search and not sure when they will buy here we can set it up for monthly updates or weekly updates. We let them choose. But for buyers who are ready to buy not only will they get daily updates, they can also check on the site for new homes that might have been listed literally every 15 minutes to find "the one".
I have worked hard over the years to keep up with not only market conditions but changing technology as well. My company was the first on Lake Sinclair to have a website and is the only company in the area with a license to use the Listing Pages system for our buyers. We work hard to give our buyers the edge.
Looking to buy on Lake Sinclair? Give our office a call and the agent on duty can set up your private search in a matter of minutes and you'll have all the new listings every 15 minutes too.
706-485-9668
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Tammy Lankford, Broker/Owner
Broker License # 169695 Lane Realty License # H-11420
Call me today for all your Lake Sinclair real estate needs.
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