Are You Keeping Up With Change?
Yesterday I wrote a personal check...remember those? With electronic bill pay, Paypal and other methods, personal checks are getting scarce. With 30 checks in a book, it now takes us about four months to use one book, something that would have happened in a matter of weeks a couple of decades ago! If we switched to electronic giving at our church, that four months might go out to eight months!
Real estate continues to change too! Technology continues to give us new avenues for promoting our clients and our services. As REALTORs®, part of our job is to continually evaluate the latest offerings, and decide what is cost effective, which just sounds nice but doesn't return anything on our investment, and act accordingly.
Some technologies have a definite impact and are an essential part of our daily tool bag: smartphones, websites, blogging, wireless capable laptops, high speed Internet access.
Some new methods may turn out to be a false start, since not every technology actually delivers on it's promises or isn't the best choice and will ultimately disappear from our landscape (e.g. 8 track tapes, VCR tapes, cassette tapes).
Are you keeping up with Change?
Keep on Blogging!
Liz and Bill aka BLiz
Claudette, We're on the same page. Evaluate, weigh the pros and cons, is it worth the time, effort and cash?
Cheryl, We've been noticing your iPAD posts. We're still running on an old Dell laptop, probable replacement during the winter.
Michael, A two year contract on a phone leaves us perpetually behind on the newest and greatest, but in general, what we have is more than adequate. The technologists would have you change your laptop and your phone every few months just to keep up with the latest...but is it needed?
Hi Liz and Bill: It is so hard to try and keep up with the new technology... but a necessity.. (sigh!)... Have a great one. Gay
Gay, We don't have to keep up with everything, just the ones that make a positive difference. Knowing which ones that will be...ahh....there's the rub!
I've learned so much new technology since being on AR. It really is a great forum for education and advancement.
Bernadine, AR is a fantastic source of new information and training. We've never found a better place than here!
Hi Liz and Bill,
I am with Claudette, we don't go after all new technology. We only want what will make us more productive and prefer some things that are a little time-tested as the learning curve and aggravation are not always worth it. Good or bad, we still write plenty of checks.
~Lisa
Lisa, I think we're on the same page. We want improvement in our life and capability, but aren't adverse to trying something new if it shows enough promise.
Jim, That's certainly the risk with technology. When it goes south, things get hectic in a hurry! I don't want to think about how many unexpected hours and late nights spent fixing a tech problem.
With all the new technology, we still have to remember that this business is ultimately still high touch. All the technology helps drive buyers and sellers to us, but in the end it is the service that keeps them coming back and referring the people that they care about. Keeping up with the change is just making one business decision at a time and implementing it fully. Great post!
Karen, Agreed. It's that combination of agent with the personal touch and the right technology that should do well.
I believe change is always a good thing. For instance the change the market has brought us is good for realtors who are targeting short sales and reos. Change is required to survive in this world and I'm for it.
David
David, We'll disagree a bit. Not all change is necessarily for the better, but have no problem with changes for the good. What is good change may be somewhat subjective.
BLiz,
There is a great adage: 'Just because you can do something, does not mean you should.' I have always heard of it as an engineers motto and can apply to REALTORs adopting tech quite well. Some technology is extremely effective, but the majority of the new items coming along are not.
-Brent
Brent, Hmmm... I'm an engineer! And I agree. Assess new ideas (and on AR they come straight to you), then decide the likelihood of positive impact, and if positive, enough to justify the expended resources? Selectively implement those with best chance of helping us. I don't want the latest gizmo just to have the latest gizmo. Bill
Erica, Our office also has online forms, others Liz and I created for ourselves using Adobe Acrobat. E signature hasn't caught on here yet.
I got stuck behind some old lady at the grocery store who was writing a check, and I think the cashier forgot how to process those...
Whoa...can't remember the last time I wrote a check at the grocery store!
Christine, I'm a little skeptical of them taking off in my area, perhaps decent odds in Cincinnati itself, but the further out, the less likely I think it'll have the desired impact. However, doesn't hurt to check into it and perhaps try a few stickers here and there!
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