A New High Tech Real Estate Tip for Busy Sacramento Realtors

High tech Realtor plugs into real estate technology

When people call a Sacramento Realtor, especially when one of those persons is another real estate agent, why do they leave some other number for us to call back, like we walk around with pens and paper in our pockets? Or, like we can remember a random phone number or even want to? They know they are calling a cellphone. Why don’t they call from their own cellphone? Hello? Call Back from voice mail. Especially when they are asking a personal favor and the inquiry is not about a property listing, much less related to, say, a benefit to the individual, as in the callers are asking the Realtor to share a personal high tech real estate tip to help them to increase their own business.

I’m not even sure why people leave voice mails anymore since that kind of function has become so outdated. Today’s consumers almost feel like, dude, if we wanted to hear your voice, we would have called YOU. We want text messages. At worst, an email. But a voice mail is so, so, so, personal, dude! Time consuming. And obsolete. And then you want me to remember a phone number to call you back rather than me hitting Call Back? It’s enough that I listened to at least HALF of your message to start with. Who listens to the entire voice mail? High tech real estate communication is about text, email if you have to, and efficiency.

Your real estate clients are with it so you should be, too. You don’t leave a voice mail, you hang up and send a text.

We had a Cuban dinner party last night, consuming many Cuban Rum drinks (we carried those bottles of Havana Club Rum to the States from our Christmas trip to Cuba), and a lovely Cuban stew prepared by my husband, with black beans and rice side dishes, including plantains with bacon. The idea was our guests would bring potluck dishes. Since most of the guests were my team members, they walked in the door, one after the other, carting carry-out because, being busy real estate agents, they spent all day showing property and did not have time to cook. I laughed. I understand that dilemma. Our personal lives often go out the window in Sacramento real estate. It comes with the territory, and anybody who claims you can be a top producer and live a perfectly normal personal life is not a top producer.

During dessert, a Cuban rum cake contributed by the gracious and delightful Shaundra, we talked a bit about old technology, and I shared the story of my home falling in the ocean in the 1980s and how I used to cart my cordless phone out to the beach in front of my house in Ventura to sell real estate. I thought I was so high tech: bikini-clad lounging on the blanket with my newspaper, circling homes for sale, writing notes on a legal pad and chatting with buyers on my cordless, watching waves roll to shore. Cyndi Lauper style.

Shaundra mentioned a high tech real estate tip for organization, and brought up Alexa Echo from Amazon. You talk to Alexa, and it remembers everything you say, and shares information; it sounds better than Siri, who, btw, is often unavailable lately. Have you noticed that? You can ask Alexa to order pizza, send a cab to your home, find a client’s phone number and call or even buy merchandise on Amazon. Shaundra says she uses Alexa Echo to make up a grocery list and adds items to it throughout the week. When she’s ready to go shopping, Alexa emails the grocery list to her.

How cool is that? Perfect high tech real estate tip and big time saver. I wonder if one could synch Alexa to MLS to search for homes? I could email a home selling article from my work on About.com to potential sellers with Alexa. I might even be able to utilize Alexa to call back those agents who expect personal favors and don’t call from their cell.