How to Help Senior Real Estate Clients Use the Internet

When people my age complain about using the internet, I like to point out that this Sacramento real estate agent has been online for 23 years, having first signed up for a Bulletin Board in 1991, at which time my first sentence ever composed online was swiped from Steve Martin: I was born a poor black child. That experience prepared me for eWorld in 1994 using my very own 900-baud dial-up modem. I was so excited. I wasn’t using the internet much for my real estate business back then, it was much more a network of people, unlike the spam and mass product marketing of today.

It takes a while for some older people to become comfortable using a computer. Of course, I can recall when we had no computers. And then in the 1980s when only secretaries used computers, which forced us Type A personalities to say, oh, crap, just give it to me and I’ll do it. I bought my first IBM clone in 1988 and promptly took the computer apart to examine its hard drive, and then put it back together again. I read the DOS Bible at night to understand how they worked.

I used one of the first voice mail systems to run a pet recovery business on the side, called Pet Crisis Hotline. But I didn’t use a computer for real estate.

When Apple pulled the plug on eWorld and shut it down, I was devastated. Completely crushed. That happened, I believe, around 1995 – 1996. We knew it was coming because Apple informed us of that impending doom. It meant eWorld users would have to switch over to AOL, which would cost twice as much and we didn’t know anybody at AOL. Waahh. It was a strange new land.

I try to use my former experiences when I work with senior real estate clients who struggle with the computer. They don’t know how easy they have it because they don’t know how hard it used to be. Before Xtree came along, we had to use DOS all of the time. That was like slumping through the mud in a Goldie Hawn GI uniform, crying in the rain. Real misery. I have known real misery, and I never want my clients to know it.

When I first introduce my senior real estate clients to DocuSign, for example, I upload a one page form I created entitled TEST, with their name on it; it’s personalized to make it friendly. I walk them through how to set up a signature and sign that initial test page. Then, when we get an offer, their information is already in the DocuSign system and it’s easy-peasy for them. There is no heart attack panic to get it signed or computer crash concerns.

If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent who shows compassion, even if her senior clients are not tech savvy, you’ve come to the right place. Let my experience guide you. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.