Laura and David Hunt video review of Karen Goodman’s real estate services in the sale of their St. Charles condo.
Video is becoming more and more a part of my business, so it makes sense to use it to introduce you to some of my clients and have them share with you their experiences in working with me and the Arch City Homes team.
Laura was a first time buyer when she purchased her condo. Just a few years and a marriage later, Laura and David were ready to move on to the next stage of their life.
As first time sellers, they had a lot of questions. We talked through all of the issues and put together a great marketing plan. But there were a number of condos on the market in their community and the overall condo market was severely depressed.
No matter what you do, it’s hard to sell a property when their simply aren’t buyers. Determined to capture the next qualified buyer, we knew we had to be proactive.
We weren’t getting the number of showings that I hoped for in the first few weeks, so we made the decision to do a small price reduction and to offer a buyer’s agent bonus.
Seven days later we had an accepted contract.
In the end, it took us 42 days to get an accepted contract. We were the first condo out of the 6 available in the community to sell.
Now that Laura and David have sold the condo, I’m looking forward to working with them when they are ready to buy a house.
I seem to be part of a small group of real estate agents who can relate to both technical and non-technical colleagues.
The fact that I am always looking for ways that technology can improve my business puts me in the minority of real estate agents who are often described as “techie agents.”
I can barely understand the gibberish that my IT friends throw around so easily, but I am still light years ahead of the typical real estate agent.
But I also know and respect a lot of agents who would describe themselves as non-technical. I’ve seem many of them thrive and do a great job serving their clients.
What is a Techie Agent?
A techie agent is one who welcomes new innovations in technology to find new clients and better serve existing clients. A few of the tools that I use today are:
Many of my clients appreciate my use of these new tools. They’ve met me through social media or like that I know how to market their homes online. Others couldn’t care less about the tools that I use, as long as I can get their home sold or help them find a new one.
I don’t use technology simply for the sake of using it. I’m not an early adopter of technology compared to my IT friends. I don’t have an iPad (and have no plans to get one). I can’t write html code (but I do know what it is!) and I’m afraid every time I do an upgrade to the software for this site that it might go down.
But, compared to most people…and most real estate agents…I’m using cutting edge tools in my business.
What about the rest of real estate agents?
The vast majority of real estate agents consider themselves non-techie. They cringe when they hear about some new tool that is going to revolutionize the way real estate is done.
These agents tend to use template based websites which Google will never find. They aren’t sure what an IDX is or how to get it onto their website. They know that they should be using Facebook for business, but they aren’t sure exactly what they are supposed to be doing (and what they shouldn’t be doing). They are thrilled that online home searches have made newspaper advertising obsolete, but they aren’t really sure how to connect with the people who are looking for homes online.
I spend a lot of time reading real estate industry blogs and attending training events to stay on top of the latest innovations. One of the things I hear over and over from the “techie agent” community is that the agents who don’t start blogging and using the technology tools available won’t be able to survive for long. I keep hearing that they will be obsolete and will end up without any clients.
I simply don’t agree.
There are a lot of great real estate agents who have loyal clients who will continue to refer their friends to them. These agents will learn how to get their home listings advertised online and how to find homes for their buyers using internet tools.
As a new technology tool becomes widely adopted, these agents will learn how to use it. Most already use GPS and know how to send a text message.
And since the general population isn’t using the advanced tools either, these agents are probably doing enough to get by.
Will a young technology-focused buyer hire an agent that isn’t using technology?
Probably not.
Then again, I’m probably not the best agent for someone who doesn’t use email.
Real estate buyers and sellers tend to find the agents that suit them best.
My regular readers may have noticed that I haven’t been posting as much as normal lately. While I miss pumping out helpful information for St. Louis home buyers, sellers and residents, I always have to remember that my bills get paid by actually selling homes. 2010 has been a very good year. There are a [...]
Five years ago, St. Louis Magazine started working with Crescendo Business Services to survey St. Louis home buyers, lenders and title company professionals. The goal of the award is to identify the best agents in the St. Louis region from the people who really count – the clients and the professionals who have to work with [...]
Hiring a real estate agent to help you purchase or sell a property is a big decision. There were 5,460 real estate agents who closed at least one of the 21,279 sales in St. Louis City, St. Louis County or St. Charles County in 2009. Plus, there are many more licensed agents who didn’t make [...]
For those of you who have been regular Arch City Homes visitors, you’ve seen a lot of changes over the last 2 years. I launched my fist website in October 2007. Only one month later, I wrote my first blog post. The site was initially called RealEstateInfoSTL.com and was a real estate template website. I [...]
PDF 
Email This Post
The vast majority of real estate agents consider themselves non-techie. They cringe when they hear about some new tool that is going to revolutionize the way real estate is done.
