Can You Say Convenience?
June 10th, 2009 categories: Real Estate News, Relocating
As an old friend used to remind us, “We all going to make a little bit money, but none of us is going to get any more time.” Wasting time is something none of us can afford to do (well, at least I can’t). But, it seems that no matter how hard we try, it’s “built into the system”. In other words, it’s just part of life. Many of the processes we’re involved in are controlled by others. We don’t control all the moving parts, the timing, the content, or, the logistics of getting to the finished product. But, what if we could find a way to make things “better, faster, cheaper”, would we?
Callaborative platforms or software allows us to do just that. Collaborative management tools like videoconferencing, online chats, instant messaging, application sharing, Wikis, and many others, allow us to leverage technology to, in essence, make it easier to accomplish a task. Among other things, it provides users with access to the same material or event at the same time. In other words, simultaneous task accomplishment.
In yesterday’s real estate Google Alerts I ran across the article, New Business Eliminates Real Estate Paperwork, highlighting an effort by a couple of agents in Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop software that provides those involved in reale estate transactions the capability to track negotiations and complete transactions online, and yes, that includes using electronic signatures. The software is called MLS Contracts and is currently being Beta tested by their brokerage firm.
This looks like another tool to improve our business process. It’ll make the process more convenient and productive for agents and their clients. Let’s hope the Beta test is without too many hiccups, and before we know it, we’ll all be using MLS Contracts, or something similar.
[...] Making Real Estate Practice Simpler | Military Real Estate Voice … [...]
Have you considered combining the ideas of collaboration and Google Alerts? One way of doing this is through public versions of Google Alerts accounts. It is a technique that allows multiple users to interact with a set of alerts, and share their ideas with the alerts as the starting point. I’ve been testing this with a public Google Alerts account for a real estate firm that you might find interesting:
http://www.alertrank.com/mrgooglealerts/2009/05/14/public-google-alerts-account-for-a-real-estate-firm-first-boston-realty/