As I wrote my last blog "tales of an office going paperless" I started contemplating the great strides by Real Estate Agents and Companies have made to catch up to the Consuming Public. Certainly its fair to say that we as Realtors and Brokerages did not pave the way for the online consumer, moreso the consumer drove us to the digital world.  And that is what brokerages and agents are diligently trying bridge......THE DIGITAL GAP.  And I also thought about the timing of this article as we as agents in a down market are looking harder then ever to create business opportunities and may not take the time to step back and evaluate our companies to see what is on the horizon for them....basically we scramble now, and again when the market rebounds because these items are not being addressed in the down market. 

Online Consumers with high demand for information, data, and prompt service have forged ahead....while some of us as agents and brokerages are still embracing some of the fundametals of the Digital World.  This gap is going to be the surviving factor for Real Estate brokerages and agents over the next couple of years.  Not just email and websites....but we as real estate individuals will have to evaluate, implement, and to some degree create new forums. I use the word individuals here because in the real estate industry more than any other is a crucial point. With higher commission splits being offered coinciding with agents shouldering more of the business building expenses, shortly this will produce a sink or swim time for agents and companies. 

As an agent in this market, I know the biggest part of evaulating a brokerage today is how they are answering the "technology front".  I not talking about having a "help desk" for people who are having issues with the printer....I talking big picture.  As an agent I want to see how web soultions are being handeled to capture, retain, and grow realtionships with the online consumer.   I as an agent (more specifically having a strong background in Web Development, Design, Application Planning & Development, & transit) know I cannot support the cost of this on my own.  Yes I know that there are comapnies offereing pre-canned web sites....pick a template post your photo, and idx your properties....but the online consumer is looking for more.   They want school and community data for every listing, and want see alll lisitngs from one site, the want statisical data on homes sales in the area.   They want INFO and NOW. So please save your 70/30 speech and tell me how you are solving these topics over the next year. Tell me how you are implementing email solutions like a Blackberry Enterprise Server.  I talking a transaction management system that increasses my flexibility and improve my customer support without me faccing the financial burden of the whole thing.

As a company in this market, I would be looking to my agents and see how they are going to be answering these same questions.  It is time to put it all out there because this market is causing consolidation and consolidation breeds a matching of compensation, and elimination of support staff, and opportunities for agents to evaluate other options.  A well prepared company can offer more to an agent the just a high compensation plan.

I guess what I am saying is that the 800lb tech gorilla (if thats still an in style saying), is it sitting in your room/company.