What has changed in our market it the last few decade? Some of the AR members will laugh and others will cry. I guess we can lean on the fact that 40 is the new 20. It helps take the sting out of the wound, if you know what I mean. How long have we really been in this business and do you feel like a dinosaur? While I do not consider myself old and I have many more years in this business before I retire (or it kills me) I am amazed at the changes I have seen.
While waiting on an email with a much needed document for closing I had time (only a few seconds) to ponder the changes that I have seen.
When I first started in real estate......let' say 100 yrs ago....things were much different. People used a very odd piece of equipment that my step daughters have never seen. It was a "phone"....not a wireless or cell phone, but a big box like structure attached to the wall or desk and one that would not allow you to move around the house or office.
My first office did not have a fax machine. I worked for a real estate attorney and we shared a fax and copier with the real estate company across the hall. This may seem like a strange concept today but it was common practice way back then.
Closings were set up weeks and sometimes months in advance. Loan packages were at the attorney's office at least a week before closing. The HUD's were hand typed and the agents actually picked them up to take to their clients for review. It still makes me laugh when I am sitting in my car on the way to closing reviewing a HUD on my blackberry because the package was just emailed to the attorney. Agents were thrilled to have a HUD days before closing and they personally went over every line item with the buyer. Today we seldom see the HUD the day before closing much less one with lender approval.
Closings had there ups and downs, just like today, but the difference was the time it took to redo the package. Remember that there was no such thing as a computer and memory typewriters were rare. It has not been that many years ago that this was true. All documents were "filled in" by the attorney and the bank only supplied the basic forms. It could take hours to complete a package so timing was everything. How would you an agent react today if they had to wait for hours for a package to be delivered from the lender so that the attorney's office could spend several more hours retyping the package? I remember my first job in a law practice and the typewriter jammed. The attorny and I decided to work on it ourselves and when we took apart the working elements the manufacturing date was 2 years before I was born. Yes.....my typewriter was 25 yrs old and still working. Today we replace our equipment every few years and if a new gadget hits the market we find a reason to "upgrade" sooner.
Property descriptions are another big change.....there were very few subdivisions in our small town. Properties were conveyed by metes and bounds and it was another stressful task to type the two page boundrey description without error. I was a pro at drafting the calls from the big rock at the creek on Old Man Ted's farm.
Agents would call to show a property after looking at the listings in a large book....similar to a phone directory. The book was printed twice a month and gave a general description and one really poor quality photo. The agent would then pick up the key from the listing agent and show that propery. While this seems like a ridiculous waste of time and impossible to do in a busy metro market I personally experienced this a few years ago while looking for vacation property in the NC mountains. It was such a relaxed atmosphere and no one seemed stressed.
Also being from a small town every agent knew every other agent. There were no power struggles between the two and in most cases.....the buyers and sellers probably knew each other as well. Buyers were from the same small town and they were buying a home because they just got married or because they needed a bigger home. Seldom did I see a single buyer, no such things as a condominium or townhome, and when we had a buyer from out of town we were like meerkats in a zoo.....we studied the new kid at a distance before we made our way over for introduction.
What will this business be like in 10 or 20 years? Will a buyer meet us at a high tech office to view a number of houses that are shown on videos monitors around a room? They then press a key and we are able to walk thru the house in 4-D animation? Will they walk into a house or just into a virtual home? Will Emeril's concept of smell-a-vision be the next method of selecting a home? Will buyers be able to pick from a list of options and design features and a computer calculates the only option for them. Will agents still be driving a couple around for days or will we simply give them the fingerprint key pad for their next home?
I can't wait to see the changes.....
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