The 7 Deadly Technological Sins for Today's Real Estate Professional

1. Overspending on Hardware.  You've heard it said before: less is more.  When it comes to technology it couldn't be more true.  Even with an unlimited budget, you'd be crazy to try to buy a computer hoping for it to last more than two to three years. 

I pride myself on being “green,” but when it comes to computers you can only milk your equipment for a few years.  Even if you can get the hardware to last that long, the operating system gets so bogged down with garbage you'll need to backup all your data and reformat the hard-drive, re-install your operating system and all your programs (if you can find all the disks or websites that you downloaded your programs from) and restore all your data. 

This is even more work than setting up a brand new machine and in the end, you've got an old computer and possibly an old operating system to boot (no pun intended).  So, if it isn't going to last much longer than a few years, don't spend precious money on a HUGE hard-drive that you'll never fill up or a top of the line processor when a few more gigs of ram will make any machine measurably faster than your old one.

2. Obsessing Over Brand Names.  I've had them all: Gateway, IBM, Acer, Packard Bell, HP, Toshiba, and Compaq to name a few.  The fact is, they are all made from the same pieces from the same manufacturers of hard drives, disk drives, keyboards, screens, etc. 

With the exception of the Apple ibooks you're pretty much comparing apples to apples (again, no pun intended). 
I like to touch and feel a keyboard before I commit to banging on it for the next two or three years (see sin number 1).  Look at the screen, not just straight on, but from the side as if someone (a buyer or seller) were looking over your shoulder.  Tap on the keys.  Type a paragraph and make your fingers find the tab key (you'll be using that a lot if you don't want to keep grabbing the mouse).  Especially, try out the touchpad or pointing device. 

I have a laptop that no matter what I do, I can't get the touchpad sensitivity to stop picking up my thumb movements (even when I don't physically touch the pad) and moving the cursor randomly around the screen.  I finally had to resort to turning the touchpad off and bought a wireless mouse to set on my desk.  I should have done more typing in the store!  If it feels right, looks good and fits your budget, BUY IT. 

3. Believing there is a BEST.  Cell phones, laptops, printers, cameras, etc.  There is no best for everyone.  And even if there is, there will be a better one released the day after you finally finish months of research and get yesterday's BEST. 

The only exception is the iPhone.  I got it, and it's the best.  Oh wait, now they've got the G3… 

You're only going to use 10-30% of all the features so decide what the most important features are for YOU, and then get the device that makes those features the easiest to use. 

For phones, my wife wants easy to read (without glasses), easy to hear (loud ring tones), small in size (Blackberry, iPhone, Treo – all too big), and easy to text with.  Well, two out of three ain't bad.  She got a flip phone with big letters, loud ring tone and fits in the smallest pocket of her purse.  Text messaging still requires three taps on the 1 key for the letter “C”, but she's happy.  Ever notice as you get older, keypads gets smaller?

4. Believing you'll remember to back up your data.  Forget it.  If it doesn't happen automatically, it won't get done.  This is such a HUGE issue, I've written an article on it for this newsletter.  DON'T FORGET TO READ IT!

5. Delegating ALL your computer work to some kid.  Look how well that worked for John McCain.  I think he said he had people who did e-mail and Google for him (or was that W? – either way, both were out of touch with technology and thus the voting public). 

If you think you're too old to pick up anything technological, RETIRE.  You simply cannot keep up with the real estate business and avoid using the Internet or a PDA.  Don't try to learn it all at once, but dive in. 

We're all students of technology, and as I say to my students: “Anyone can learn computers, but very few can learn how to survive in real estate!”

6. Spending Too Much Time on the Computer.  Sounds like I'm contradicting myself doesn't it?  Not.  You know who you are.  I meet a few of you at every seminar or convention.  You want to prove to me why Macintosh is WAY BETTER than a PC.  Or, you want to show me how simple it is to set up my own website with my own blog and how anyone can write html code. 

Well you know what, Earl?  I got one question for you, “How many houses did you sell last year?”  That usually shuts Earl up. 

If you are that into computers, odds are you don't like people much and your sales prove it.  Do us all a favor and start up a tech support service for all the other REALTORS® who want to make a living selling homes.  Come to think of it, that makes me Earl!

7. Not Budgeting Time or Money for Training.  Okay, I'm a little touchy on this one.  But hey, you guys don't tell homesellers to go FSBO, right? 

Seriously.  Every time someone buys software from me and says, “I really don't need the training, I'll figure it out myself,” or “If it's any good I should be able to figure it out myself.” 

Then I wonder if anyone would get on a 747 with a pilot who read the manuals and figured it out himself. 

Time is money.  The only thing we all have in equal amounts in real estate (and life) is time.  Actually, time is different than money in one HUGE respect.  Money comes and goes, time only goes. 

If you spend months trying to figure out how to enter a contact into your data base (correctly) and then don't know how to find them, you're wasting time that you'll never get back. 

If you want to make $100,000 in real estate working a 40 hour week,  50 weeks a year (I know, I know, but we can always dream…) you need to bill out at $50 per hour. 

When someone tells me they can learn a software application in under 4 hours (because your DVDs are just too expensive!) I think, “Wow, my DVD's are 10 hours long, and it took me over 10 years to perfect them, you must be really, really good.  Want to teach the class?  I could use a break.”