REtech South in Atlanta, One Day, Endless Value

REtech South delivered on their promise, one day, endless value. A huge “atta boy” to Brad Nix and Matt Fagioli for their initiative in launching this event!

On March 11, at the Atlanta Real Estate Bloggers networking group, Brad and Matt met for the first time, came up with an idea, and launched one of the most productive real estate technology events I’ve attended in a over a year.

It was exciting to be in a room full of young, energetic real estate professionals who are second generation web users. They understand the power of social networking. They know how to connect with real estate buyers and sellers online. They are developers of new real estate systems designed to enhance the home search process. They blog, they twitter, they connect. In short, they get it.

They remind me of another group of real estate professionals I met in 1996. As you scroll through the pictures of these first generation web users, you’ll quickly see we’re about 25 years older than the folks at REtech South. But, our online real estate experiences are the same.

Our static websites were designed to enhance the real estate experience of buyers and sellers. Email was our method of starting conversations. We took lots of pictures of houses, and put them on single property web pages to market our listings. We were early adopters of tech toys and software (like visual tours, egg lenses, and handheld scanners).

We met the people that lived in our computer. We helped them buy and sell real estate. And, because we’re older than the Web 2.0 folks, we’ve helped a lot of these buyers and sellers move more than once.

Our peers said (and continue to say) the same things you hear:

• You’ll never make any money sitting in front of a computer.
• How much does it cost to build a website / blog?
• Where do you get your content?
• Real estate is an eyeball-to-eyeball business.
• When times are tough, you need to get back to the basics.

We laughed all the way to the bank!

Now, just because I use the past tense in the above paragraphs, don’t think this original group has lost their passion for technology in the practice of real estate.

We blog, we twit, we video. We still meet nice people who live in our computer. Some of them are buyers and sellers. Some of them are real estate professionals. And, when we meet eyeball-to-eyeball, we are old friends.

I’m glad REtech South gave me the chance to meet some of the folks I’ve been following online: Mary McKnight, Rudy Bachraty, Jason Benesch, Dustin Luther, Kevin Boer, Pat Kitano, Christian Sterner

Showing Houses to Buyers Can Be Dangerous

Showing Houses to Buyers Can Be Dangerous

Without proper preparation for showing houses to buyers, I could be losing more than my time. My life could be snatched away by a dangerous buyer.

A couple of days ago I read a post by Jennifer Kirby, Minneapolis real estate professional and fellow blogger, who talked about real estate, time management, and client loyalty.

Like Jennifer, I am a full-time professional Realtor with a full-time calendar of appointments. More often than not, my clients understand the need for flexibility in scheduling times to look at houses for sale.

On a rare occasion, I get a phone call from someone I don’t know who’s sitting in front of a house in Alpharetta, urging me to come show them the house.

My first response is to be helpful, explore their needs, and try to arrange a mutually convenient time for us to meet. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. Bottom line… I don’t disrupt my schedule, jump in my car, and travel across town. That’s how newbie agents work.

My second response is, “I don’t have a clue who you are; or what you want.”

This past week I was reminded of the need to meet buyers in my office. A real estate agent was killed by a man while showing houses.

So, when you are ready to start looking at houses, let me know in advance. I’d like to reserve time for you on my calendar.

And, plan to meet in my office where we can comfortably review your housing needs, wants, and the benefits of representation.

We’ll also talk about our company vision of bringing peace of mind to your real estate transaction.

How Many Geeks Does it Take to Sell a House?

Can You Sell a House and Move Using the Web Exclusively?

Drew raised some interesting questions after stumbling across a post on Proud Geek earlier today.

The blogger (and his wife) conducted a 8-month experiment to sell their home using the web. No phone calls. Only e-mail, text messaging, and web tools.

There were 6 main steps they went through during the experiment (you can read their findings on Proud Geek):

• Find a realtor via the web and who’s willing to do everything through email
• Advertise the home on the web
• Find a lender who’s willing to deal exclusively via the web
• Switching or starting new utilities and services for a new house
• Find a moving company willing to deal via web and email
• Changing addresses for a range of organizations, stores, banks, employment-related sites, etc

Can you, as a real estate agent, meet the criteria the blogger set forth? What about you mortgage folks?

Sellers, how important is electronic communication to you?

Our team always get hung up with the utility vendors.

What’s your experience?

Use Comments to respond (under title). We really want to know.

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