It was a three-month slog 11 years ago, up and down the winding drives, ways, circles and closes of our chosen neighborhoods, seeking the elusive perfect house.
Our realtor’s knowledge was crucial, information on values, soundness of the houses we saw and the neighborhoods.
We succeeded.
Now we’re thinking of downsizing if a couple more kids move out. (No, that’s not a hint, guys.) My wife has her eye on a particular condo townhouse complex nearby.
A few keystrokes on the computer narrow a search from Canada to our neighborhood. There are units available in nearby townhouse complexes, including the one my better half likes.
We covered as much ground in 15 minutes the other night as we did in a typical spring Sunday afternoon when Brian Mulroney was prime minister and the family computer was an aging Atari 512 ST.
But in 1989, we had to cover that ground in a Pontiac, not an Atari.
Real estate agents have become knowledge workers, says Alan Tennant of Re/Max North. When Tennant started in real estate 15 years ago, he was the second person in his office to carry a pager. Now the pager has been replaced by cellphones and voice mail. The common denominator among realtors is batteries, he says.
Laptop computers are common, with client management software interfacing with palmtops. The next phase will be client scheduling and followup on the fly. “You can give your client a higher level of service because you’re using the tools,” says Tennant.
Last year, he had a customer in Nigeria pick a new neighborhood in Canada before coming here. Tennant recalls helping with child safety concerns by e-mailing digital photos of a railway crossing to the customer.
Real estate agents Len Wong and Sam Corea have made technology part of a house-marketing system at Re/Max House of Real Estate in southwest Calgary. The system includes a team of specialists, instead of every real estate seller trying to be all things to all customers. The four team members do what they’re best at.
Wong says they advertise heavily, spending $6,000 to $8,000 a month. Marketing tactics include the traditional — placing print ads on right-hand pages — the hi-tech and in between.
Their Web site, calgaryhomesearch.com, offers free advice links as well as listings. Very short range radios in listed houses broadcast descriptions on 1610 AM. Telephone codes on print ads link to descriptions.
Potential customers don’t have to talk to a real estate professional until they’re ready.
“I don’t know of any other realtor who uses as many tools as we do,” says Corea. “It’s more than technology,” says Wong. “It’s the system, too.”
That system has put Wong near the top, 14th of Calgary’s 3,500 real estate sales people in a softening market.
REAL ESTATE MARKET 'SIMMERING'
Calgary’s formerly hot housing market is “simmering,” according to CIBC research. “This is a pause while Calgary absorbs new supply,” says Joanne Plaxton, an economist with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
Plaxton’s housing market survey, Where it’s Hot, Where it’s Not, takes a monthly look at the four hottest Canadian real estate markets, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.
The bank’s quarterly Canadian Housing Market Trends, also by Plaxton, looks at affordability in 16 major markets. The quarterly examines factors driving housing markets: population movement, employment, income and interest rates. CIBC is hoping to make the information available so people can make the best decisions possible, says Plaxton.
Both publications are at www.cibc.com at the shortcuts for economics online, then housing update.
Web Watch:
www.mls.ca
www.calgaryhomesearch.com
www.cibc.com
