Eye-to-eye contact - a key to a good home buy/sell outcome
Are smart phones and other forms of new-age digital technology overshadowing the effectiveness of face-to-face human contact between estate agents and the buyers and sellers they deal with?
This question came to me in a light bulb moment during one of the training sessions I routinely conduct.
They went wide-eyed when I mentioned that, at one stage in my decades-long real estate career I, and most of my colleagues, were selling decent numbers of houses per month - at least equal to, and occasionally beyond, what today's agents achieve.
Furthermore, we were doing so without the support of smart phones; online brochures; emails; websites and countless other forms of new-age technology.
All-round satisfaction
When asked how I could sell a half a dozen homes in four weeks without the technological tools that are currently available, I was briefly stuck for a reply.
On reflection, the answer was, and has remained, quite simple:
Eye-to-eye, face-to-face personal contact which, balanced with the appropriate technology, inevitably leads to improved results and all-round satisfaction... to the benefit of everybody involved in the transaction. This business is about relationships more than about houses.
Looking back, there was a time when the only communications technology that was at the disposal of real estate agents, home buyers and sellers, was a wall-plugged telephone!
The calls I made on it were virtually exclusively for making and confirming appointments. I wouldn't talk on the 'phone' other than to say: "I am coming to see you" or "may I meet you at the property?"
Agent/buyer/seller communication
That personal eye-to-eye approach to home buying and selling provided much more in-depth communication between agents, buyers and sellers.
Granted, the technology we have at our disposal today - has certainly revolutionised the residential property market. But it remains nowhere near being a substitute for the human brain.
Studies have shown that smart phones, and other high-tech communication devices, strip away the value of the personal interaction that is needed to breed trust.
There is no question that trust between estate agents, buyers and sellers - forged in separate face-to-face meetings - is by far the best route to a successful home sale outcome.