Ahhhh... the good ol' days... Who doesn't think fondly of them? Happy memories of growing up, friends, family, and even some "things" - old photographs, that souvenir from the high school prom, or trophies from our glory days.
In real estate, I probably qualify as well as anybody to talk about the good ol' days, starting as a property manager in 1967 and getting licensed in 1973. But I can assure you that life as a real estate agent is much better today.
There is one thing I do miss, but I do NOT miss these things even a little bit:
Weekly MLS books - They've been replaced with up-to-the-minute computerized listings, accessible to the public as well as agents.- Picking up keys at listing offices (and returning them) - Lockboxes are so much more convenient.
- Driving across town to deliver offers on property - Now I can fax them.
- Missed messages - No more, because I have voice mail.
- Pay phones - To say that cell phones are more convenient is an understatement.
- Map books- The better way to find an address is my new GPS system.
- Typewriters - 'So much easier to correct typos on a computer and send correspondence via email.
- Adding machines - Financial calculators handle more complex problems.
- Carbon paper - Now we just print extras, instead of pressing hard with the pen to show on three copies.
- Rolls of film (and getting them developed)- Ahhh, the joy of digital photography!
- Black and white copies - Beautiful color property brochures on glossy paper, from our own printers.
- Dot matrix printers- Professional looking documents printed with laser or inkjet printers.
- DOS computer language - MS Windows is so much more user-friendly.
- Index cards- Computerized databases synced between our computers, PDA's, and cell phones.
- Cold calling and door knocking - These staples of real estate prospecting have been replaced by mailing programs and Internet lead generation.
Photo is an IBM Selectric - the Cadillac of typewriters.
The one thing I DO miss, however, is OFFICE SYNERGY!
With more and more agents working at home, instead of the office, the camaraderie is just not the same. I've worked in offices with 100 or more agents, and known them all - we brainstormed together, partied together, and collaborated on community projects during the holidays and throughout the year.
But now, with all but a handful of agents working from home, I don't know most of the people in my 20-agent office. They come in long enough to drop off paperwork and pick up checks. I may not miss the tools we used in real estate in decades past, but I DO miss the office synergy of those good ol' days. I miss building and decorating floats for holiday parades, sponsoring community events for kids, even touring homes together. Those are some of the things that made real estate a fun career for me.
Surely my area is not the only one where this situation exists, in these days of laptops and call-forwarding. If your office has a lot of work-from-home agents, what have you done to build and maintain the feeling of an office community? That synergy IS worth saving from the good ol' days of real estate!
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DISCLAIMER: Information contained in this post is deemed reliable on the date of publication, but it is not guaranteed and it is subject to change without notice.
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Margaret Woda, REALTOR and Associate Broker
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I actually miss the sound of a typewriter. LOL
I do not know how we would survive though without the computerized gadgets we've become dependent on!
I just today met one of our office's more successful agents (I have been here a year and a half and we have about 90 agents). I grew up in a Real Estate office so I can understand what you mean.
The office synergy has been replaced by the Team Synergy for me. My partner and I are very much like the "office" was when I was younger - yes I remember the TELEX listing printout that took 30 minutes or so to print out a search that was far inferior to what takes 2 minutes today.
My partner and I plan and strategise like I used to see my Mother's agents (she was the broker/owner) do. I still help other agents get their Internet act together and any where else that I can. It is not the same as it was years ago though.
Patricia - I ordered your book from Amazon and it just came. Now all I have to do is find time to read it. About the driving - today's customs sure cut down on gas consumption, don't they?
Karen - I still use some forms I created decades ago on the typewritier, but I'm glad to have my computer for making new ones.
Steve - You are so fortunate to have that. Do what you can to keep it going!
Julie - I'm sure that's true because most workplaces have some number of people working together. I guess it's the cost of having so many home-based agents.
Court - I never thought of that before - I guess the teams can still have that type of relationships. Good point!
I remember those days! What about email! I remember those days of driving across not just town but towns to pick up keys and then having to go back to drop them back off. I never liked to type so I just wrote my contracts in blue ink. I remember the MLS books. I did have a hard time changing over to the computers. In fact in my office back then, we had a choice to keep the books or go with the computer. Since you could not get MLS at home back then we all chose the books because we could take them with us home and mark them up. For Real Estate I use the digital camera but for family shots I still love my rolls of film and I love scrapbooking and just like it better with real photos developed from film. Still old fashioned that way. Katerina
Well, I came into the business "late in life" :) so I just get to hear the war stories. I am actually happy I wasn't in the business back then...and most likely...I had to go through life the way I did up until this point anyway. I am WooHoo Sally in this stage of my life...and a darn good one at that! lol!
Our office is pretty cool. We have about 30 agents...some I don't see much but I more than others see most of them...because I work there part time anyway.
Gee...I was in the office all day and starving for commenting....I'm gonna go wild for the next couple of hours.
Margaret - There is nothing TO miss about the things that you no longer have to deal with. However, there is one on your list that I still have to deal with and I get annoyed 100% of the time that it happens, and that is the courtesy key in an office. It still goes on today, and I can't understand why when we now have great lockboxes here. Since January we have lockboxes that open with our ID cards which are the size of credit cards. It registers who we are and these cards must be validated every 2 weeks by a computer program, so it is actually safer for the homeowner. A former agent would likely be able to get a key at many offices, but only agents in good standing with the board can open these particular lockboxes.
As far as office comaraderie is concerned, I can see the value of it if most of the agents are dedicated professionals. I enjoyed my time working in an office (before real estate) because we had a good group of friends that socialized regularly. However, before I was an out-agent, I worked in an office that had no such comaraderie. The office was rife with conflict between productive agents, and littered with agents that were more interested in the menus at broker open houses than the house itself.
I can't fix the courtesy key problem, but I feel that I have addressed the comaraderie issue by being on Active Rain. It's not the same as going and hanging out after work, but it beats the alternative of having no one to talk to and/or dealing with office politics and conflict.
Margaret, I can honestly say that I have never had to deal with any of the 15 things that you mentioned in my real estate business. Of course, I have only been in the business for 5 1/2 years. I do remember using my Dad's old typewriter when I was a kid and searching for change for pay phones. It's interesting -- every year the Wall Street Journal issues a report about the incoming college freshman class (and how young they are) detailing all the things that they were born after and don't even know about. For instance, recently they said that the incoming class had never used rotary phones (I'm old enough to remember those) but had never been without e-mail. Always fun to read for a stroll down nostalgia lane.
Cell phones, GPS, and digital cameras are some of the best innovations for life in general and for real estate particularly. No successful agent today should be without them.
In terms of comaraderie in the office, I do understand, though I am happy to be able to work from home most of the time. Rather than weekly sales meetings, we have a quarterly business meeting where almost everyone gets together. We also have an intranet where people post questions, listings, etc. and there is a good bit of cooperation there. Also, we have a company-wide convention every year in September and do other functions together like the Race for the Cure in D.C. And I can choose which agents I want to associate with, be friends with and hang out together without being confined to the office and forced to interact with those I would rather avoid.
Neston and Katerina - Yes, the key thing was SO awkward. For those who weren't in the business then, most offices had just one key to each property, so you had to wait 'til the last minute to pick up the key, and then return it immediately after the showing in case another agent might want to use it - all with your clients in the car. Just imagine adding that time into showing property! It DID make a difference in those days, to list with a nearby office, and not one 20 miles from the property - or agents might not show your listing.
Rondel - I hear you!
Sally - I probably see my co-workers more than most because I have an office in the office. But people don't collaborate they way they did when there was a bull-pen environment. Of course, we hated the lack of privacy then...
Mary - Like you, I kinda wonder at times if it is me or the environment... I have definately lost interest in office partying (nothing wrong with that, I'm just "over" it - but I do remember fondly the days when two agents would go out for a late night dinner, and another would join them, and pretty soon we'd have a table of eight or ten people talking about what kept them out late that night. No age barrier in those groups, we all had a ball exchanging war stories and unwinding.
Cyndee - Sounds like a great idea to have a mastermind group. I'm sure it would be fun, inspirational, and provide that relationship-based environment.
Thanks to the rest of you for commenting, too - 'Gotta run, but I promise to get back to you!
I wasn't in real estate during those days, but I do remember those items. And yes, inside real estate and outside we have traded the convenience of technology for the comraderie we used to enjoy---hence Active Rain's success.
Thanks Margaret.
the camaraderie is just not the same ~ That is so critical...the more people help each other the more you will be successful!!!
Can't say I miss the rest of your list...only can hear it from the ole timers ;)
Margaret, I'm with you on the office synergy thing. When people stop interacting, relationships deteriorate. Interaction here on Active Rain and other blogs has filled the gap.
I still carry index cards.
Mike in Tucson
Margaret, Great reminder. We weren't in the business then so we didn't experience those things. But it is a reminder of how we take things for granted. It's funny how we get upset over the tiniest of things..but if we were to stop and think of how things used to be, we would be very grateful. Thanks for the reminder.
Thesa - Who knows, that old typewriter might be worth something!
Rosario - Just imagine the conditions for real estate agents in the decades before then, if we've seen so many changes!
Paul- I know what you mean, but I've been fortunate to work in large offices that had very nice people. My brokers/managers never tolerated the prima donnas, in spite of the market share they provided.
Karen - Good point! I wonder if the real estate profession will still exist as we know it, or will one of the entrepreneurial business models float around out there make us all obsolete?
Adam - Our electronic lockbox keys have to be updated overnight EVERY night! And we don't have courtesy keys. It's so interesting to learn how other offices and areas do things, don't you agree? And you're right about ActiveRain... it does flll that void with a whole new community of friends nationwide. Thanks for being one of them!
Margaret....great posting....and I too LOVE the IBM....but that's not the top of the line...remember the Correcting Selectric...it could backspace and erase for you! Talk about cutting edge technology! Whew!!! I can say, I am SOOOOO thankful that typing was one of the classes I took in high school some 30 years ago. But with the invention of the computer, I find I make WAY more mistakes, especially when typing from my head, versus from copy.
I recently attended a technology class to learn that the old cell phone I threw in the garbage last year (one of the really big ones) could of fetched me upwards of $1000 on eBay! How depressing that was. Now I know why we are all pack rats! We just KNOW it will be worth something one day.
My office is got to be one of the most cut-throat environments I have ever worked in. It can be quite depressing at times. We are all competing for much of the same market, so no one ever wants to talk about what they are doing. In fact, don't leave anything in your desk you don't want someone to know about...they will snoop! I also think the office synergy relates directly to the Broker. When I have my own office, we will have Friday Happy Hours, monthly Breakfast with Broker Thom, etc. We don't even have soft drinks in our office to offer to clients. Coffee and water....that's it! Oh well.....it's a great location for exposure and walk-in traffic...so...we'll stick with it for now!
Brian - 'Sounds like you have a great office!
Karen - You're right, I think that' one of the reasons I enjoy ActiveRain, too.
Bob - Yeah, as Patricia said in the first comment - old geezers. Someday, you too...
Mike - I "get" you on the index cards. I kinda miss my Franklin Planner, at times.
Lane - Count me "in" with that wish! I keep threatening to hire someone to scan all my paper files for the past few years and just save all those files to a CD or DVD. Hey, Don said you contacted him - thank you for your warm ActiveRain welcome!
Margaret, wow I have not been in Real Estate that long and I am glad to be working with our our modern conveniences.... like spel chekc ! lol
Margaret - I certainly remember those days. I don't miss them at all. I did a blog myself on this topic about a month ago. It is nice to reminisce though.
Yes, Thomm - In fact, that's the ONLY selectric I remember... was there another before that? Wasn't that the greatest, when we didn't need those little white correcting strips any more. But even they were better than white-out. Sorry to hear about your office. 'Guess I've been fortunate never to experience one like that. But you're right - it does start at the top. At the 200-person office I mentioned, the broker invited folks to his place to watch football (Maybe 25 would make it for any one time), summer pool parties... worked with lenders to sponsor bus trips to Atlantic City, etc.
Charles - You're right! An extended list, maybe to 20 things, would have to include spelling erors. lol.
Jeff - 'Wish we still had a typewriter around. Every now and then I have something that needs just one little thing inserted, and I get nostalgic for my typewriter.
Bill - I'll have to look for that blog. I try to reciprocate comments and skim through recent blogs (and I know you've commented on mine before), but I must have missed that one.
The changes over the last __ __ years is truly amazing being from a generation where the radio or newspaper was the source of most information and televisions were for the few I can just imagine what the next few years will bring.
What is today is no longer tomorrow. Your yesterdays are gone forever and your tomorrows may never be what you want or expect if you are unable or unwilling to change in a rapidly changing environment.
So true, Kathy.
Eric, thanks for commenting.
"Picking up and returning keys"---yes, that was the bane of my existence.
Jason - Isn't that the truth... That's one thing I do not miss - all those little strips of paper with holes.
Donna - And who would have guessed that we might get new client leads as a result of typing on our computers!
Diane - Such a nightmare. And what were we thinking, to have one key to each property. If we had that situation today, I think I'd have 3 or 4 for each property