These days I don’t have much time to write on this blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand, but sometimes weenie type blog posts just kind of fall into my lap, and I just can not ignore them.
I just got a call from an agent in California who is looking for an agent who can help his clients move to Minneapolis but he really means St. Paul. He does not know that they are two separate cities and that a Minneapolis agent may not be the best choice to help people who are moving to St. Paul. He did not ask me any of the important questions but asked me if I am “techie”.
I had to ask him to repeat the question, probably because I could not believe I heard him correctly, and when he did repeat it, he mentioned Facebook, yes I use facebook and have been on it since they allowed grown-ups on it, and yes I have been using Twitter since 2006 and have thousands of followers and so do a lot of other people who do not sell real estate.
No I don’t use DocuSign we have “Authentisign” built into our MLS and I have an Echosign account because my clients love it and I can use it for two businesses instead of one. Electronic signature software is a personal choice and I have made mine. My clients have never heard of any of the real estate specific electronic signature systems and could care less which one I use.
Yes I have been using drop box for years and of course I use Evernote but I would not have to use either of them to have a Minnesota brokers license.
They must do things differently in California than how we do here in Minnesota. I would ask a real estate agent a bunch of real estate related questions if I was trying to find an agent to recommend to my clients. “how long have you been a real estate agent?” “How well do you know St. Paul?” I would have used google and gotten as much information about the agent as I could get before calling. If this agent had used Google he would know several things about me that he asked about. I guess doing research on the internet is not part of “techie”.
I would also ask the agent if she has time for more clients, and how many clients she is currently working with and if she is comfortable working with people who are relocating, and I would ask her if she has ever worked with people who are relocating from California. If I really cared about the buyers I might even ask for references from past clients.
Most anyone from the oldest grandma to the not even a teenager yet can use Twitter or Facebook, and I have watched toddlers use iPhones, and iPads with the greatest of ease yet I do not think that qualifies them to do my job and even if it did they would still need a real estate license.
Only in real estate do we have something separate and extra called “tech savvy” or “techie”. In every other business we just assume that the business person is familiar with modern electronics, the internet, social media and knows how to communicate with people who live in far away places.