A few months ago I had a client come in from Maryland for the weekend. While making arrangements to meet he mentioned he was going to bring his Garmin. I thought, "Oh yeah, like that toy will be useful." I went ahead and got my maps and routes ready.

He brought it with him, stuck it to the windshield and plugged it into the cigarette lighter. The first few houses were closeby so I didn't need the maps. I listened to it while it gave directions. During the short trip to one house the buyer seemed a little disturbed when I didn't go the way the Garmin said to. After I went a different direction through the intersection I heard it say "Recalculating". That peaked my interest. It actually knew I didn't turn there and was determining a new route. Cool!

Anyway, I listened to it for the next few houses while I used my maps. At that time the lowlands in the area were flooded. We ran into a couple of spots that were inpassable due to flooded roads. These were out in the country. We turned around and he pushed an option that said something like alternate route. A little further along we ran into another flooded area. I turned around and went a completely different way the Garmin was directing us.

By the end of the day my maps and routes were in the backseat. I didn't need them anymore. The following week I purchased one on eBay after I reviewed what I wanted at a local store (BestBuy and Circuit City).

I was unable to continue showing him homes on Monday so I had to let another agent in the office show him around and take over the sale. I told her he had a Garmin and it was really fantastic. To my surprise she said that's what she had. Since then I've talked to other agents that use GPS. I didn't realize that many agents had them.

Another client that came up from Chattanooga was using his phone that had built in GPS. I had mine by then but I really didn't want one built into my phone.