#AREFchat discusses Technology and Real Estate

This morning during #AREFchat, we touched on a topic that everyone wanted to chime in on and had our biggest turn out to date! Since REtechSouth is gearing up and is only a little more than one month away, we focused on how real estate agents use technology for better business practices.

The conversation started off pretty basic – what sites do you consider to be most effective. What we decided is that, while it is extremely important to utilize social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Active Rain and Trulia, it would be to your detriment to spread yourself too thin. Instead, pick three or four sites and devote enough time and energy into them in order to make it worth your while. You’ll find this tactic to be more beneficial than having a small presence in many different sites.

Next we moved on to discussing effective technology tools and had many different responses:

“The most effective tech tool in RE by far is a well designed blog on your own domain chocked full of fresh content with IDX,” said @PhxREguy. We definitely agree with Jay Thompson about the many benefits of having a blog. It’s a great way to reach more buyers.

We also had real estate agents talking about Dropbox, TeamViewer and LogMein being beneficial technology tools.

Brad Nix (@bnix) encouraged many re-tweets when he said, “I still find email as the most valuable collaboration and workflow management tool. Just can’t beat the ubiquity & mastery.” This statement proves that even with all of the advances in social media, email can still be the most important technology tool -  as long as you are responding to the emails coming in.

We even touched on the importance of incorporating photos into your website. Unfortunately many MLS, FMLS and builder sites do not have home photos with their listings or they are ugly photos. In this day and age you cannot afford to omit photos or substitute them with ugly ones. All participants agreed that Atlanta real estate agents should attend the Ed Wolkis seminar at REtechSouth to learn how to take pictures that will sell homes. Pictures could very well be one of the most effective technology tools.

One of the participants asked a great question about whether or not the advances in technology have made being a real estate agent easier or more difficult. Jay Thompson summed it up real well when he said, “Both easier and more difficult. Technology provides greater efficiency, which leads to a broader reach, which leads to more business, which is more difficult to keep up with.” Of course, the issues and difficulties associated with more business are problems you want to have.

You can learn to use technological advances to have more business just like @PhxREguy by attending REtechSouth. Go ahead and get your tickets now as they are selling quickly and will likely sell out.

Join us next week Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. EST on Twitter for our next #AREFchat and join in the conversation for yourself.