Old Fashioned Real Estate 

August 26, 2008
Volume 2 Issue #13  

A couple of weeks ago we were driving up to Wisconsin for a wedding and passed by a drive-in movie theater. My current wife (of 29 years), also my graphics department and business partner, Sarah, and I exchanged a glance. The good old days we thought.

We started talking about the good old days, the things we liked about times gone by. There were lots of fun things to talk about. Things seemed much less complicated back then when we were sneaking into the drive-in via the trunk.

The wedding (actually just a reception as it had been a limited destination wedding) was lots of fun. There was a DJ and DVD player constantly projecting pictures of the wedding. The food was good, everyone had a good time. They even sent us the address of a website to see the night’s pictures.

Two weeks later we are now in our branch World Headquarters, our home on Beaver Island, 32 miles out in Lake Michigan. We are again talking about how we like the way things are on the island. It is simple, unhurried and beautiful with a 1950’s feel.

Our Beaver Island real estate broker, Ed Wojan of Ed Wojan Realty, is struggling with the real estate market like everyone else but he tells us he is sure glad that we built him his website a couple of years ago. Tonight, we are going fishing with our neighbors who will probably have to help us get the worms on our fishing poles.

This month’s newsletter is not meant to be a travelogue or trip back in time. There is a message here. The message is life and real estate both evolve. There are some things that never change or go out of style and there are new things that you must embrace in order to succeed.

Think about the wedding. Weddings have always been fun, a lot of the new ones have special destinations, DJ’s, DVD’s,  and videographers rather than hometowns, bands and photo albums, --that’s OK.

Drive-in movies are great but watching a DVD at home is pretty good too and you don’t have to worry about the windshield fogging up.

Spending time on beautiful Beaver Island is fantastic but we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have access to the Internet. Ed’s business would be really in trouble if it wasn’t for his website.

As real estate agents, it is time to embrace the Internet. That doesn’t mean you have to abandon everything you have done in the past. Real estate should be a combination of the people business of the past with the technology tools of the present. It is time to use the Internet (e.g., communicating with prospects and clients, using resources) and preferably to get a web presence and have it be valuable to the People who are you clients.

We are off to go fishing after we upload the newsletter using our satellite Internet connection. What a great new world!

Monthly Tech Tip
This may be kind of an old fashioned technology tool, but I am going to suggest that this month you use that old stand-by, the telephone. The end of the summer/ beginning of school is a great time to reconnect with clients, prospects and past customers. A simple phone call is a great use of old technology.  Who knows, you may actually reach the person on their portable device.