By Peter Hernandez, Teles Properties (www.telesproperties.com)

These days the consumer’s first stop is the Internet when they begin their search to purchase a home, check real estate values, or look for a Realtor. Print advertising is slowly going the way of the horse and buggy as newspapers and magazines struggle to survive despite reduced revenues and a changing world where free online information trumps paying subscription fees. I even notice on my morning runs that there are fewer and fewer newspapers on the driveways in my town. On a recent appointment with an elderly customer, their first question after we delivered our presentation was “What is your opinion of Twitter?” They went on to say that magazines were useless because of the lead time required before each publication.

Most of our customers are now conducting their business and personal lives from hand held mobile devices such as the iPhone. Watching the technology develop on these mobile devices is quite amazing and this clearly is a big part of the future. It’s almost like the phone function is itself an afterthought compared to any given device’s numerous capabilities! The real estate industry as a whole has not kept up with technology at the same pace of the customer. In fact we have to study companies outside our industry to find technological solutions that better service our clientele.

What does this mean for Teles Properties? We are creating new ways to market properties and provide good information for our clients through the Internet. We are experimenting with viral marketing, social media, information rich websites, Mobile technology, digital magazines, and advertising. We are experimenting with cross marketing while combining and sharing our databases. We are moving toward completely paperless transactions and filing. As we adopt these technologies we become better at servicing our clients and more efficient in everything we do. We think appropriate use of technology combined with competent and highly professional agents is a smart idea.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 2nd, 2009