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After growing up in the 40s and 50s, the internet is a source of complete amazement to me. I sometimes wish I could go back to the 50s when life was much simpler, when Elvis was singing, we went to drive-in movies and sock hops, walked alone at night without fear and almost eveyone had 2 parents. So much has happened since then it just boggles my mind to think about it. We have put a man on the moon, computers and cell phones are a way of life and transplants of body parts are commonplace. Would I really want to go back to those days? Only if I could take my cell phone and computer with me along with the medical care of today.
When I sold real estate in the late 60s, we kept a looseleaf notebook of all the listings. Twice a week, we would receive a list of solds, changes and a supply of new pages. We would then have to go through and remove pages, change prices and comments and add new pages. In the Washington DC area this was quite a job. We could arrange them by areas or numbers but setting up a tour was very time consuming. I remember when we received a new innovation that was a sort of suitcase with a phone cradle. It came with a book of maps with each area containing a grid system. When we wanted to search an area for available homes, we entered the grids into the keypad and it gave back the MLS numbers of the listings. We really thought that was something. Of course it was still dependent on human input error so there were always listings that did not show up so we had to back up those searches by hand. We could let the customer (buyer clients did not exist then) look at the book but we could not let it out of our sight. Closings usually occurred within several months.
Fast forward to 1997 when I went back into real estate sales. We still had books but they were published once or twice a week with all the listings printed and changes made automatically. Each agent could get his own book. A lot of trees gave their life for those books. We had MLS programs on each computer which we had to download each day for updates. Eventually the published books went the way of the looseleaf notebooks and we now have online MLS so we no longer need to download unless we want to keep our laptops up to date for use while traveling in areas without internet access. Of course, we still print quite a few listings so we must still sacrifice some trees. And of course, the accuracy of the listings are still dependent on human input error so we usually have to back up those searches by hand.
Now only can we search the MLS, but we all have websites with IDX feeds where potential clients and customers can do their own searches. If we have a VOW (Virtual Online Website) the client can text message us or call our cell phone at any time. They can have searches sent to them as soon as they come on the market and drive by the house at any time. Has this made our jobs easier? I don't think so. Now we are expected to answer all inquiries within hours. be available 24/7 for questions, and be up to date on all the latest technology. We can email or fax contracts, arrange closings in a matter of weeks and even sell a house to someone we have never met. As they say in the ad "You"ve come a long way baby". Would I want it any other way? I think not. Except, I sometimes would like to take a walk after dark without fear, go to a sock hop or drive in movie, listen to Elvis live or see more 2 parent families.
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