Has Technology Made Real Estate Agents Lazy?

I bought my first home long before it ever dawned on me to become a Realtor. At our first meeting, my first Realtor  sat me down in a conference room and grilled me mercilessly for about an hour to determine my wants and desires in a home. She then brought in a copy of the “Book”. It contained information on all of the  properties that were for sale in the general vicinity of her office. With great patience she guided me in reviewing all of the homes that fell within my limited budget. I recall that there were very few pictures and my Realtor appeared to know everything about every home in the book. We then selected seven properties that fit my needs best and off we went. We must have looked at 20 to 25 homes over the next few weeks, each time narrowing the search a little more. Her selections were always spot on. To this day I’m sure that she must have previewed every property before showing them to me.

Flash forward about 20 years, now I’m the Realtor…gone is the “book” replaced with a web-based Multiple Listing Service (MLS) which is accessible from laptop, notebook or phone; anywhere and at any time. Before you ever meet the client, they have spent countless hours on web searches using sites like: Realtor.com, Zillow, or agent/brokerage sites. They carefully scrutinize each picture in an effort to interpret the distorted images compliments of a fish-eye lens.  The human brain is a marvelous god-given tool that somehow, empowers home buyers with the ability to construct images in their imagination of what the home should look like (believe me when I say that rarely do these images even remotely resemble the real thing).

About three years ago, I found myself in my office, frantically searching the MLS for homes that matched my client’s wish-list. We had gone out before so I had a pretty good idea of what they wanted.  Their wish list read: at least three bedrooms, two full baths, not a corner lot, with a big backyard and dual sinks in the master bath. Piece-of-cake. I have mad computer skills so this would be a snap. The printer spit out my seven home fliers just at the moment my clients arrived.  After a quick hello, off we went to the first home. It was a corner lot on a postage sized lot with only one sink in the master bathroom. Each home in succession failed in at least two categories (What are the odds I thought). At the end of our home search, both clients just stood there kind of stunned. Finally the husband said, “Didn’t you listen to anything we said when we went out the first time?” The words stung. I felt bad all the way home. It bothered me tremendously because I really wanted to help that young couple find their dream home. They fired me the next day and found a new agent.  Who could blame them? I had become a lazy agent.

But I now know that it is imperative to preview as many properties as time allows. I’ve found this particularly important in light of the large quantity of short-sales and foreclosures on the market. Some are in very rough condition. If a client is not looking for a fixer, I could think of nothing worse than dragging them from one disaster to another. My team and I now try to use technology to foster better communication, not just as a short cut. After discussing what our client’s goals are in a home, we use a product called Listingbook to send them the latest information on available homes. The program works like a private twitter service, allowing us to tweet back and forth about specific properties. These tweets are in the form of private notes.  My goal is to not try to decide what will appeal to the client (if a client wants to view every property that we do-that’s fine), but instead; it’s an attempt to provide them with factual first-hand information to support their choice.

No, technology did not make all agents lazy, just me for a little while. But what are your thoughts. Is the preview approach over-kill or do you think it is productive? Is it “old-school” or “new school” with a twist?- Mack