Changes in the Real Estate Industry – Part 1

Taking a picture of lights with a mobile phone

Jim:  Hi, I’m Jim Clifford, I’m the Designated Broker with Washington Realty Group.

Jason:  And I’m Jason Clifford, I’m the Designated Broker at SJC Management Group.

Jim:  We’re going to talk a little bit about how real estate has evolved.  This is going to be the first of we hope a number of different videos to help people understand what has happened to real estate over a number of years.

Jason:  Yeah, real estate has really changed, even over the last 15 years that I’ve been doing real estate.  I know my dad’s done it a couple more years than that but I say there’s been a lot of evolution to it and it’s just the way that the processes have changed from from then till now and what we’re doing for our clients today is just, are things that I didn’t even imagine back then.

Jim:   Yeah if he couldn’t imagine it back then just think about how it is for me.  I started about over 40 years ago in real estate and it was a whole different world of capabilities and and process as what we go through today.

Jason:  Yeah so I think you know there are several of them and we’re going to talk about them, over the course of a few of these but today we’ll just talk about one in particular. And you know so, what do you think this is the biggest change for how real state is evolved; what would be the number one change do you think?

Jim:  Without a doubt the number one thing that has happened in real estate, just like everywhere else in the world. The flow of information has evolved to being immediate. What started out, when I started in real estate, that in order to even find a home for sale, people would have to go to a real estate office ask a real estate agent to show them what was available for sale. Today you go on the internet, the buyers know exactly what’s for sale. The question becomes, can they afford, it is it really what it looks like on the internet and the whole process starts totally differently.

Jason:  Yeah, yeah and I’ve even noticed that over the last 15 years. I think in 2002 when I started obviously the internet was around at that time but it just, the the information flow looking for you know just waiting for the photos to come up, line by line by line. Today that information flow is so much faster and you know it’s so much more readily available to everybody at their fingertips.

Jim:  There’s more than just the photos, what’s available to buyers is full knowledge about a home. That when buyers first started, when I first started in real estate, when buyers were looking at homes and what they knew and what they could find out was very very difficult and was very limited information.

Jason:  Yeah and I think some of the ways that you know even today in the ways that we’re interacting with our clients has really evolved. Today you know we’re using multiple ways of getting information out to the clients extremely fast as fast the information comes up in to us, it’s being disseminated out to our clients. We’re using technologies like apps. The Home Spotter app which is a great app if you’re looking for purchasing a house you can let us know and we can send you and set up with that it. Allows you at your fingertips just on your mobile device or tablet to look and see every property that’s for sale, to message, um your agent right away and you can send us a message. Any property, you can actually hold the app up, and it will take a photo if you use in the photos section and will tell you about the property just based on looking at the property. So it’s pretty cool technology and it really allows information to flow out to the clients seamlessly.

Jim:  So over the next months, we will go into some of the different technology, how its evolved, where it started, why it came into being and how important it is for buyers and sellers to use the technology right in order for each client and customer of ours to obtain the goals that they are looking for.

Jason:  Yeah absolutely we look forward to talking with you again.