There was a time when I had 10 file cabinets lining my office walls, all legal size, organized by various categories and all the files were alphabetical.  I had hundreds of client files, and I felt obligated to keep them forever.  What if I needed something in one of the files, or what if there was a liability issue, and I had to defend myself?

All those files took so much paper and folders and labels.  Creating them also took a lot of man hours (or paid secretary hours).  Maintaining them took time.  But sometimes a file would get filed out of order.  It could take hours to find a misfiled file.  Even worse, a document could get filed in the wrong folder.  That document was lost forever.  Even everyday documents had to be handed to my secretary, and she would put them in a stack to be filed, and what if it never made it to her or to the stack?  Hard files were not only inefficient, they were often an excellent way to lose a document forever.

Thank God for digital systems.  These systems are inexpensive and super efficient for all our real estate documents and files. 

Digital or paperless transactions allow us to send documents back and forth to clients via scanned documents we email or through an online system that sends and receives the documents directly, and digital signatures that also increase convenience, speed, and quality.

Not only can we efficiently coordinate documents with clients, but digital technology allows us to send and receive documents of all kinds to and from other parties, such as title companies, escrow companies, home inspectors, well and septic companies, and other real estate agents.

Apart from the obvious efficiencies, online systems also make broker review quick and easy from any computer anywhere, and state audits make compliance manageable.  One might think that digital transactions would have eclipsed hard copies and file cabinets, but they have not.  Many traditional real estate offices are full of paper and files and cabinets.

While physical files can be misplaced or lost in a fire, digital copies reside on a hard drive, and digital online backup systems save us from almost any disaster.  Real estate agents have so much information at their fingertips now in this new digital world.  Real estate deeds, CC&Rs, plats and maps, and assessor information are all available online in a matter of minutes.  Due diligence on properties and people has risen to entirely new levels.

Real estate forms used to fill up an entire file cabinet, but now we simply go online, enter the MLS number, and the parties names and terms, and the forms are print ready.  Much of what we use is now found in the cloud, the Internet cloud that is.  All of this digital technology does something else that is very green: it eliminates a lot of garbage and shredding.

Of course, one of the great uses of online technology is the subscription side of the MLS for agents.  This sure revolutionized the handling of listings in the back office, and now with IDX data feeds to public MLS search sites, buyers have more information about listings at their fingertips then ever.

Using this technology has revolutionized my real estate business, and my clients love the freedom and power it gives them.

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Real estate advertising is dramatically changing, because consumers have changed the way they shop for real estate.  Traditional print media is struggling to remain relevant, because consumers have been empowered to take control of their own destiny and they are doing it.  I absolutely love this reality:  New York Advertising Agencies no longer dictate what products and services will be crammed down consumers’ throats; Consumers now have the power to research and shop on the Internet with total control of their decision making process (and their wallets).

But this means traditional media is struggling just to survive.  Another big one bit the dust yesterday.

The Huffington Post reported today, December 15, 2009, “After 125 years as the ‘bible’ of the newspaper business, Editor & Publisher magazine announced yesterday that it would shut its doors at the end of the year.”

This continues the hemorrhaging of newspapers and magazines trying to survive this new economy.  The challenge is not just that we are in an economic recession, although that certainly is a major factor.  The bigger reality is that there is a massive shift in consumer control from the old to the new, and  Internet technology has created the fertile soil in which this new marketing and advertising medium is so rapidly growing.

Real estate is unquestionably one of the major industries that is so dramatically effected by these extraordinary changes.  How real estate is marketed and advertised is in the midst of changes  I’ve not seen in my 30 years in the real estate business, and consumers are clearly the winners.  They now have more tools and more freedom to find their next home than ever before, and they can do it more efficiently, faster, with no annoying sales pressure, and have fun in the process.  This is the age of the new real estate broker–the virtual real estate broker.

I give you Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC with hundreds of articles, videos, MLS search tools, and many other great tools and guides for buyers, all absolutely free.  Read, watch, and find your next  Sequim or Port Angeles home here, and enjoy yourself along the way.  If I can be of help, email or call.  I’m chuckmarunde@gmail.com and my phone is 360-775-5424.

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