The Good, The Bad And The Oh Darn!
How things have changed since I started my Real Estate career twenty-five years ago. At that time we wrote contracts on multi-layered legal documents and raced around in our cars to get signatures and deliver them to the agent on the other side of the transaction. Today much of this work can be done over the internet from my desk or….as I had planned my vacation in Mexico.
Every year my husband and I take our grandsons and their parents to Mexico for sun and warm water. (They live outside Seattle.) This year I was in the middle of negotiations on a significant transaction but since there was Wi-Fi in the condo, took my lap top to keep in touch. What I didn’t realize was that multiple pages and standard internet slows things down significantly and then stops all together. I couldn’t get anything “over the border.” My computer and I missed my high speed cable. However, I had my iPhone as backup. The screen was small but I was able to review the documents and with the assistance of my marvelous transaction coordinator, Sherry Moore, get the contract signed and escrow opened.
I think that we all have mixed feelings about cell phones. They allow us to connect with others anywhere and almost anytime. But that can also be the wrong place and definitely the wrong time – restaurants, concerts, church, time alone with family. When communication is important as it is in my business, I still prefer face to face or at least a conversation on that phone. But it is a wonderful gift to be able to use the tech tools as well. (I once sold a condo to a woman stationed in Afghanistan entirely over the internet).
It is my hope that when you have real estate questions and concerns or other reasons to connect that you will reach out to me in some manner be it in person, by phone, email or text. You can also check my website www.SantaBarbaraLiving.com on which I have posted the entire Multiple Listing Service for your use, a community calendar, mortgage rates and sales stats. Communication in 2014 is varied but vital.
~Joanne
Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.
~ Steven Spielberg