One of the traditions that has lasted in this era of modern travel is the distribution of wet towels to passengers who want to clean their hands. Of course, the train porter only does this in the first class car. I suspect this tradition began when travelers with newspapers needed to clean the print off of their hands. The question is, “How long will THIS last?” I don’t often take a train for business travel. But living in New England with easy access to Amtrak, it can sometimes be a treat to hop on in Providence and three hours later, hop off in New York. I recently did this for a meeting in New Jersey, and my colleague, Tom Flanagan, director of IT at Residential Properties Ltd., brought to my attention the lack of newspapers present on the train. I looked around the car and every single passenger was either reading on an IPad, a computer, or a mobile device. There was not a newspaper in sight. People were getting up-to-date stock quotes, reading national and international news, and checking the latest information on the fallout of the Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the US government debt. Technology is addictive when you can get accurate information on demand. This inevitably got me thinking about the real estate business. The consumer is on-line getting information on the marketplace every hour of the day. They expect instant access and demand instant answers. To be successful in today’s real estate market, professionals and companies need to adapt to this new technology, and embrace the new ways we receive and provide information. I am extremely proud of the technology services we provide at Residential Properties Ltd. Since we are always looking for areas of innovation, we are constantly improving our methods to help you buy or sell your home. For instance, we are the only independent Real Estate company in the state to provide clients with Lifestyle Search. This new feature helps to streamline the home buying process by focusing your research on neighborhoods that are ideal for the way you live. Even more, there are website applications which allow us to track our online traffic, giving us the ability to see how many people have even evaluated the properties. In olden times, people would place an ad in the newspaper, and there was no way to tell if anyone even looked at it. Nowadays, we can even tell from what part of the country the people are viewing the listings. This helps us figure out where we can get the most bang for our buck, and how we can get the most exposure to benefit our sellers. I am truly grateful to work with some great movers and shakers in the field of real estate technology. Sometimes, I do miss the feel and smell of that old grimy newspaper, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading this post. Out With the Type And In With the Tech
- By Michael McCann
- Posted
One of the traditions that has lasted in this era of modern travel is the distribution of wet towels to passengers who want to clean their hands. Of course, the train porter only does this in the first class car. I suspect this tradition began when travelers with newspapers needed to clean the print off of their hands. The question is, “How long will THIS last?” I don’t often take a train for business travel. But living in New England with easy access to Amtrak, it can sometimes be a treat to hop on in Providence and three hours later, hop off in New York. I recently did this for a meeting in New Jersey, and my colleague, Tom Flanagan, director of IT at Residential Properties Ltd., brought to my attention the lack of newspapers present on the train. I looked around the car and every single passenger was either reading on an IPad, a computer, or a mobile device. There was not a newspaper in sight. People were getting up-to-date stock quotes, reading national and international news, and checking the latest information on the fallout of the Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the US government debt. Technology is addictive when you can get accurate information on demand. This inevitably got me thinking about the real estate business. The consumer is on-line getting information on the marketplace every hour of the day. They expect instant access and demand instant answers. To be successful in today’s real estate market, professionals and companies need to adapt to this new technology, and embrace the new ways we receive and provide information. I am extremely proud of the technology services we provide at Residential Properties Ltd. Since we are always looking for areas of innovation, we are constantly improving our methods to help you buy or sell your home. For instance, we are the only independent Real Estate company in the state to provide clients with Lifestyle Search. This new feature helps to streamline the home buying process by focusing your research on neighborhoods that are ideal for the way you live. Even more, there are website applications which allow us to track our online traffic, giving us the ability to see how many people have even evaluated the properties. In olden times, people would place an ad in the newspaper, and there was no way to tell if anyone even looked at it. Nowadays, we can even tell from what part of the country the people are viewing the listings. This helps us figure out where we can get the most bang for our buck, and how we can get the most exposure to benefit our sellers. I am truly grateful to work with some great movers and shakers in the field of real estate technology. Sometimes, I do miss the feel and smell of that old grimy newspaper, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading this post. 
