This is my column for last week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link).
What’s the obstacle to a paperless, iPhone-able real estate transaction? The sclerotic real estate industry itself
I carry my digital still camera and my Flip video camera with me wherever I go. I have belt-mounted camera cases, so they’re easy to carry, never in the way. I keep those two cameras with my car keys, along with everything else I take with me when I put my keys in my pocket: My wallet, my business cards, my watch, my phone, my Bluetooth headset and my MLS key.
All of these things are small and portable, either pocketable or belt-mounted, but I have almost all of the tools of my trade upon my person when I leave the house. I look like a cop — not always a bad thing — but I have my stuff with me so that I can work when I need to.
This is what I want for the iPhone or for some later iteration of the idea of a hand-held computer. A laptop or a notebook computer is luggable, not portable. Even rechargeable printers are luggable, not portable. I might have a laptop and printer in my trunk — absorbing damage from every bump in the road and cooking in the summer heat — but I don’t have that computing power on my person.
My dream is simple: Everything that I might do on a desktop or laptop computer, I want to be able to do from a hand-held computer. I’m perfectly happy to give up printed documents if I can shoot PDFs in all directions at will. This sounds almost implausible, but I think we might be down to the sclerotic real estate industry itself as the obstacle: Realtor associations, lenders, title companies, and all of the many branches of government.
It’s common, when discussing ideas like this, to throw up technical issues. The technical problems are truly trivial. The problem we face in real estate is the dinosaur mentality of our leadership. Properazzi.com has an iPhone interface, as do Zillow.com and Trulia.com. The National Association of Realtors doesn’t even have a clue, much less a plan, even though the importance of the iPhone has been undeniable since January 2007.
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Jim W says:
I’m with you brother. The work we do really does need to be out in the field.
August 10, 2008 — 6:13 am
Log Home Builders says:
I don’t think you are off base at all. With the internet companies looking more into the mobile arena and becoming more advanced it will happen in a short amount of time.
September 4, 2008 — 12:32 pm
Jim W says:
I have tought about this some more. People make it too complicated. Really the only thing we are supposed to do is fill in the blanks on a contract. You can add and delte sectons and adendums. I am not a lawyer, and do not play one on the internet. Most of our work is marketing. Our job is to promote the listing and then bring the two parties to a meeting of the minds. then make sure all the blanks are filled in properly. Shepard the process through closing. The tools are all available to make this happen someone has to put it together. you should be able to pull up a listing on you iphone tap on make an offer. bam it is auto populated with the mls info and chose your contact info. ask how much emd, when do you want to close, contingencies, concessions and which inspections do you want. send to other agent. when approved send it to everyone else.
September 7, 2008 — 10:43 am