MATTHEW FERRARA
A ‘business necessity’
When it comes to technology, real estate agents apparently aren’t hesitating to open their wallets and spend more on high-tech equipment that can save them time and help boost business.
According to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors, Realtors plan to spend 50 percent more on products like digital cameras and mobile phones as well as technology services and training than they have in each of the past three years.
The survey reveals that the typical member of NAR will spend more than $1,300 on technology this year, a 52 percent increase from a median expenditure of $900 in 2002 and 2000. Realtors are expected to spend $856 on high-tech products and gadgets, $254 on tech services and $256 on training.
“Realtors are understanding the business necessity to budget for technology,” said Matthew Ferrara, founder of Matthew Ferrara Seminars, a Methuen-based company that offers tech support and training to professionals in the real estate industry.
Even though Ferrara believes that the vast majority of real estate agents are still not using technology to its fullest potential, the survey findings are “very encouraging,” he said.
Noting the survey finding that Realtors are expected to spend $256 on technology training, Ferrara said that many agents are not budgeting enough for training and support that would enable them to maximize the value of high-tech products they already own.
“If they’re going to spend more money, I would strongly suggest that they spend it on training and support rather than buying any new gadgets,” said Ferrara.
Instant Access
Technology enables agents to share more current and updated information with consumers faster, according to Signe S. O’Donnell, president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.
In the 1970s, when O’Donnell first started working in the real estate business, agents had to type out all the listing data of for-sale homes and then paper clip black-and-white photographs of the properties to the listing sheets.
The listing sheets and photos subsequently were given to a printer who would print them several days later, O’Donnell recalled in an interview last week.
Those listing sheets would then be delivered to the multiple listing system, and real estate companies would have to pick up them up. By that time, the listings were one, and sometimes two weeks old, said O’Donnell.
Nowadays, real estate agents can use their computers to enter property listing data and photos they’ve taken with a digital camera on the MLS, and both consumers and agents can have access to those listings within minutes.
Furthermore, many real estate firms automatically e-mail listings of for-sale homes to prospective homebuyers. Such technological advances are not only valuable time-savers for agents, but they also help to get the consumer more involved in the whole transaction, explained O’Donnell.
“Buyers need to know more and they need to know it yesterday,” said O’Donnell, who works for the North Attleboro office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. “They are not patient because the way the marketplace is now the product [for-sale homes] isn’t staying on the market long so when something new comes on, they need to have access to it right away.”
Today, many Bay State real estate agents also have access lines that enable callers to contact them wherever they are. Some use wireless phones and laptop computers to check their e-mail messages frequently without physically being in the office, and some agents even own personal digital assistants, or PDAs, like Palm Pilots to keep on top of business.
“The majority of the people who are in the industry have several pieces of technology,” said O’Donnell.
A 2003 member profile that NAR conducted for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors showed that 79 percent of Bay State Realtors frequently communicate via e-mail, 89 percent use cell phones frequently and 42 percent use digital cameras.
However, a significant number – or 70 percent – of Bay State Realtors reported never having used wireless e-mail systems, according to the profile.
Nationally, 95 percent of Realtors use a mobile phone, 77 percent use a digital camera, 41 percent have a DSL connection and 40 percent use PDAs, according to the NAR survey. The NAR survey also showed that 96 percent use e-mail, with about half of them conducting at least 25 percent of their communications with buyers and sellers by e-mail.
Half of the Realtors responding to the survey also reported having their own Web page, up from 43 percent in 2001. Ninety-five percent of the survey respondents worked for a firm with a Web site and 94 percent of those sites featured real estate listings. Those findings are similar to those revealed in the 2003 Massachusetts Realtor profile. In Massachusetts, 50 percent of Realtors reported having their own Web sites and 85 percent said they work for firms with sites.
But despite the growing investments in technology, Ferrara said most consumers are still more tech-savvy than real estate agents. “The consumer is outpacing the average agent in technology,” he said.
One area that is particularly “lagging behind” is the tech training, support and services that managers of real estate offices receive. “Managers are under-funded in the area of technology,” said Ferrara, who noted that in the last two years his company has started focusing more on providing management training.
That gap is in place even as real estate industry experts maintain that Realtors have become so reliant on high-tech equipment that they can’t function or be productive without it.
“Whether you’re a small or large company, you really need the access to the electronic technology that is out there today,” said O’Donnell.
