Wikicomics and real estate

Some of the most critical social and ethics issues in real estate, I feel is (privacy)personal information. We come across so much personal information of our clients. The worse offender is leases. We get credit card information, bank account numbers, social security numbers and birth dates. That is a lot of information for anyone to have. I don’t know if identity theft happens but it is possible.
I feel wikinomics will be playing a role in real estate, with collaboration. I feel that agents will be working in a larger scale globally and will be collaborating with others for insight,clients and infromation. In the company I work, collaboration and peer sharing goes on daily with people. Many are helping with issues or dilemmas. Real estate has an ongoing learning curve, there is always something that you can learn or experience. Now having a large network of people willing to help, the job becomes easier. Most real estate offices are not as forth-right with information and have willingness to help others. I had run across a situation that I was unfamiliar with TICS and asked for information and had great response and all of my questions and concerns settled. With the combined knowledge of many agents, I was able to learn a new aspect of real estate

E- Commerce and Real Estate

.E commerce has effect real estate in many ways. In marketing, realtors have hit the internet looking for ways to market their properties. Agents use eflyers that are sent directly to into our company in email real estate agents the ability to see how many people come to our website. Blogs started hitting real estate a few years ago. Many agents have websites.
Now a person can practically be paperless in real estate. Many companies are working with email and using PDF’s to forward files over.
For the consumer they have the ability shop or sell by themselves.( a lot tougher in todays market to sell). But consumers could post their house on Craig’s list and sell to a buyer and not use agents at all.(not recommended because of disclosures), but possible

Google has been effecting real estate for a long time. Agents have been paying for sponsored ads for years, ranking themselves at the top of the Google search. As Google gains more power and information they will find ways to effect real estate. I could see them purchasing Zillow or Realtor.com just to have the information.

For me, e-commerce has made me a more efficient agent. My clients are spread out all over Los Angeles, now I have the ability to write a contract by pulling over. I could be showing property to my clients and we drive by a home with a sign. They ask me a question, I can pull up all the property information from my blackberry in a few minutes. I have the ability to help meet the urgent needs by my clients and to be more flexible and accommodating. The information that has become available is truly allowing to sell real estate in and down the coast of California.

Bad Real Estate Photos

This is what you get when real estate agents and technology try to mix:

Bad MLS Photo of the Day

Tips on good real estate photography to come in future post.

Technology in Real Estate

I found a great article in Realtor Magazine that discusses technology for realtor
http://www.realtor.org/rmohome.nsf/pages/rmotechnology- check it out. As real estate agents we are always looking for the quickest and most efficient way to do things.

To Buy or Not to Buy

This is the question posed each day by buyers. Will the market drop lower? Am I buying at the bottom? First and foremost a buyer must know what they can afford. Then the buyer must find something they like. Many buyers think that when they decide to buy that their perfect home is waiting for them. They think it will be a quick process. Many learn it is not. Finding the perfect home becomes a large task and there is no guarntee to how quickly you will find the right home.