Technology Tools for Real Estate

This week Sony announced that it was ceasing Japanese production of its iconic portable music player, the Walkman. First introduced in 1979, the Walkman sold more than 220 million units worldwide and was to cassette tapes in the 1980s what the iPod is to digital music today.

Imagine if this holiday season someone gave you a Sony Walkman for a gift. You’d probably assume it to be a gag gift, right? After all, where on earth would you even get cassette tapes to play on it? But what if they told you it was a “real” gift—that in their opinion it was a great way to listen to music and they wanted you to have one. You’d probably wonder where that person had been for the past 30 years!

Real estate professionals with few or no computing skills create that same impression. When you say to a client, “I haven’t been able to check my mail because I’ve been away from my desk all day,” or “I’m having trouble getting my messages. Can you just drop that in the mail to me,” it probably makes them wonder. It’s challenging enough trying to navigate the current real estate market without a consumer having to worry that their agent is stuck in 1983.

So take a good look at your tech skills. Are you continuing to learn and to grow? Or are you a Walkman in a digital world?

The Internet gives anyone the opportunity to comment on companies, people, or current events, and the comments are not always favorable. How a company handles negative comments says a great deal about it, its perceived openness, and its commitment to customers.

Consider, for example, how Apple handled negative comments about its iPhone 4 released earlier this year. Customers’ comments were removed from the Apple Forum when those customers tried to write about a poor review the iPhone had received in Consumer Reports. When word got out that Forum comments had been censored, the resulting clamor was perhaps worse than the iPhone problem people were commenting on. Apple was quick to find a fix for the not-working-so-well iPhones, but it’s handling of the PR problem left something to be desired.

In a day and age when anyone can post a comment about almost anything for all the world to see, it’s good to have a plan—or at least give some thought—to how you would handle a disgruntled customer who left a negative comment on your blog or Facebook Page. Would you ignore it? Would you delete it? Would you respond to it? If so, what would you say?

For an example of what it looks like when a company responds to its online critics, drop by AT&T’s Facebook Page. People love to gripe about their cell phone service, and there is no shortage of such comments on the AT&T Facebook Page. Yet amazingly, AT&T staffers wade in and respond to customer complaints. True enough, AT&T probably has an entire staff devoted to monitoring its Facebook Page and responding to critics, something most real estate agents and brokerages can’t possibly have. Yet, its willingness to respond online to customers and to try to find solutions provides a model for all businesses—even real estate.

What would you do if a would-be client left an unflattering comment about you on your Facebook Page?

These days a blog, a Facebook page, and an active Twitter stream are pretty much de rigueur for any brokerage that’s serious about connecting with prospects. But some brokerages are taking it a step farther by creating smartphones apps as well.

The Corcoran Group, the well-known New York-based real estate brokerage uses a free app to showcase listings, to make it easy for consumers to find open houses and neighborhood events, and to link consumers to additional information on the brokerage’s website.

The app’s interface is clean and easy to navigate. Consumers can see interior photos, floorplans, and maps. They can search by price and other property attributes or they can let the geolocater help them find properties that are near where they happen to be.

Consumers would no doubt complain that they can’t use Corcoran’s app to find properties listed by other brokers. But then again, those same consumers probably accept the fact that they can’t use the Starbucks app to find Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Branded apps are, after all, marketing tools for the companies that create them.

To get feel for what’s possible, try using the Corcoran Group’s app.

There are two kinds of people working in real estate. There are the technology savvy agents—blogging, tweeting, texting, posting videos and working with digital signatures—and then there’s everyone else. This latter group includes people who struggle with e-mail, people who don’t use smartphones, and people who still say things like, “I’m not good with computers.”

These two camps have to co-exist in the same office and sometimes they even have to work together. What happens when you’re a techno-whiz and the agent working for the other party is just learning to use the fax machine? Changes are Agent Techno-Whiz is going to have to adapt. Here are some suggestions on how to do that.

Be Patient. You may be frustrated at how slowly communication progresses, but don’t let your emotions to poison the interaction.

Be Respectful. You gain nothing by deriding your colleague or making fun of her limitations. Adopting an attitude of respect makes it easier to be flexible which—let’s face it—you’re going to have to be.

Be Adaptable. Determine how your non-tech-savvy colleague prefers to communicate and adapt your work style accordingly. Understand and accept that you may have to work a little harder to keep the communication flowing. Be prepared, for example, to fax documents (or even deliver hardcopies) to keep the process moving. Follow-up e-mails or text messages with phone calls to review what you wrote in the message.

Think of it this way: if this person were your client, what would you do? My guess is, you’d go the extra mile to keep him or her in the loop no matter how much effort it took. So be at least as accommodating with your colleague.

I lay in the bed in the darkness before dawn this morning thinking how much I didn’t want to get up and go work out. My muscles were stiff and sore, as they often are when I first wake up, and it seemed as if it would just be easier to sleep a few more minutes rather than force myself to start moving right then.

Fortunately, I overcame the desire to take the easy way out. I got up, got dressed, and made my way to the gym. And guess what? It was the right choice: no stiff muscles now. I’m moving perfectly well and feeling great. And I have no doubt that had I given in to the part of me that wanted to whine, I would have had a slower, less productive, less successful day.

And so it is with real estate professionals who say they “can’t use computers.” Every day they delay learning how to put technology to work for them, they fall farther and farther below the bar. And yet it only takes a few baby steps—maybe trying one new thing each day—to grow in confidence and skill.

So, if this is you, stop whining. Get up, get your computer out, and try something new.

Are You a Walkman or an iPod?

How Do You Handle Negative Comments?

How One Real Estate Company is Using an iPhone App

How to Work Across the Digital Divide in Real Estate

Stop Your Whining

Tech Tools for Real Estate

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