Profile of home buyers and sellers reports a mere 5% of agents are chosen because of their technology skills sadly behind honesty, reputation, and neighborhood competence. What does that mean?

Technology makes agents worker smarter, learn faster, save time, and creates a unique experience for the buyer/seller client but why isn’t technology at the top of the survey?

My two cents

Learn how to use technology, implement the technology, define rules how you will use the technology, and outsource the technology if you can. Go to classes, conferences, blogs, and suck everyones’ brain. Ask this one question, “What is the best thing you learned from this?” Take the stuff you will implement and eliminate the rest.

If you can’t figure out the details find someone who can.

Stop thinking about it.

Go sell a house and thank me later.

I can say that for a while, it really seemed like a drain because I wasn’t seeing any activity from my efforts (at least from a dollars and cents perspective). The education I was receiving, however, was having a tremendous influence though. I guess it doesn’t truly matter WHAT you do, as long as you’re willing to just get out and DO.

One of the most useful tech investments I have made this year is a Tablet PC. I can now create an offer, have the clients sign, and send it off to the other agent without ever having to print off and rescan a document. This definately saves time in the field (while keeping the offer halfway legible).

We should always keep professional goals foremost so that technology is one of the tools we use to help our clients and consumers. That’s only possible when there’s a high degree of mastery though. Trust me I love my toys as much as anyone, but technology should follow not lead.

The term, “tech savvy” in real estate was once a point of differentiation, but it’s become neutralized, in part because there are not enough performance standards. The really exciting news today is the growing value of “community” and the area I’m interested in growing my skills. Thanks for this discussion. It’s really central to what’s happening in the real estate profession.

RE: Tech Savy – My Ginger bud said it almost exactly the same as I was going to…… You must be a quick learner to constantly stay on the top of technology and the “new” thing. Evaluate platforms/programs/etc as they come out and know which ones to discard.

Adding one more thing, however, is that you also have to stay where your consumers are…. I’ve found this last week, that many of them are just getting facebook accounts. That’s sort of “old news” to me, I guess I’m glad I didn’t discover it was myspace!

The moral of my comment……….. you have to stay ahead, in, and a little behind the “norm” for tech to reach consumers.

The use of power point on a listing is a great example – there were tech companies with very complex slide show presentations available a few years ago. I think that they failed to really gain traction because the technology was the focus instead of the relationship building and information exchange that needs to take place in a listing presentation.

@Ginger You are proof that you can be lovely and smart! – Being tech savvy means playing with new toys as they come out and knowing what you want to keep and what you want to discard (and knowing that those things change as time goes on)

I had a wake-up call, so I went back to basics by incorporating my WP blog as ONE of the new tools in my marketing plan, albeit the most important and most effective tool. I do everything in my blog that the “experts” say to not do. All I care about is providing information that keeps the public coming back … and some of them even comment. But most importantly, it’s generating business (up nearly 40% vs 07).

It’s not enough to KNOW the techie toys, it’s knowing how to use them to actually put money in our pocket. Otherwise, the ROI is very poor.

Bob Consumers may not purposely seek out the “tech savvy” agents, but they sure love the results when they “trip” over us! [and by "trip", I mean find us through some active marketing efforts ]

My two cents: agents these days are now called on to be data filters/miners and marketing gurus. With , point #9 about where consumers go for information could not be more poignant! Real estate agents NEED to have a grasp of data flow, data structures and technology simply to ensure they are doing everything possible to meet client needs.

If we as agents are not utilizing the low or no cost tools that web2.0 has coughed up for us to assist in getting the word out about our business, listings, properties, buyers needs, etc, we are simply not “doing all that we can do” in this rough market.

And that’s what our clients want and deserve: our best.

Yes, I can see the value of twitter for networking and “google juice” for sure…I think the distinction I am making is between
A) skills/tools which enable me to do a better job for my client, research, communicate, problem solve and market properties for sale effectively and versus
B) skills/tools which benefit my career/self-promotionm

A real estate client who is looking for a “tech savvy” agent ( the subject of the original post ) is probably a lot more concerned with the former than the latter!! …Whereas as agents – particularly tech savvy ones – we see the need for A) and B) !!

I have difficulty envisioning how it might 1) add to the quality of the service I provide a client or 2) contribute positively to the image I project as a professional.

@Amy – Twitter is used by some as a modern day party line. For many of us, adopting twitter for that purpose doesn’t seem to have much ROI, but Twitter can be leveraged to increase your online image if you have online content that people who follow you find valuable enough. That is the real value of micro blogging. Get your recent content out to people who may find worth linking to.