Realty Times December 23, 1999

Technology: Word Of Mouth Comes To Chat
by Peter Miller

If you want to find a cheap and easy technology that will change the practice of real estate, stop by the 10 PM (EST) realty chats hosted each Tuesday night on Yahoo! by Connecticut-based broker Al Napier and Richard K. Worthington, a Seattle broker.

Online "chats" have traditionally meant online typing, a process which means that those who type best, chat best. Unfortunately, traditional chats also mean those with great ideas and limited typing skills are sometimes left out.

But now the newly-emerging technology of online telephony is creating new opportunities for chat -- real chat, with actual voices, interaction, and no requirement for typing skills.

Tuesday night, for example, I found myself talking with Bill Holt, a broker based in Bucks County, PA; Randy Hollister, a Pittsburgh-based national speaker for Realtor.com; and Napier.

So here we had several people with different computers and different ISPs, all linked with a common connection, in this case free "Yahoo! Messenger" software. And the exchanges were clear, crisp, and not likely to cause carpal tunnel syndrome.

You can see where this is going.

  • Many realty firms already require associates to have e-mail, no doubt on-line telephony is next. Instead of meetings each Tuesday morning (or whenever), entire offices can simply plug into a common chat room.

  • Not everyone types, and not everyone types well. Online telephony provides a new way to use the Internet which is not dependent on keyboarding. This is a significant matter because voice is far quicker and richer than typing.

  • Dysgraphia -- a profound inability to physically manipulate a pencil or type -- is a substantial barrier for certain children and adults. Online voice technology readily defeats dysgraphia.

  • Internet calls in the U.S. are generally local calls -- but as the Tuesday night conference showed it's possible to establish long-distance connections online at local rates. The result is that long-distance calling is largely doomed by the Internet, something which will no doubt distress a number of very large phone companies.

    It's too early to believe that online messaging will replace the quick and speedy phone call because now both parties must be online at the same time to use Internet voice messaging (in other words, if the computer is off, so is the online "phone" connection). But online conference calls now make sense when compared with traditional models, and in the near future calls between individuals will no doubt become increasingly practical.

    (To sign-up for the free Tuesday-night realty chats on Yahoo!, contact either Al Napier or Richard K. Worthington.)

    The Common-Sense Mortgage

    The latest edition of The Common-Sense Mortgage -- in its second printing since September -- is now available in bookstores online and off. In print for nearly 15 years and widely recognized as the standard consumer guide to real estate financing, it's described by syndicated columnist Robert Bruss as "an encyclopedic, detailed summary of just about everything real-estate investors, agents, lenders and borrowers want and need to know about mortgages."

    "On my scale of one to 10," says Bruss, "this superb book rates a 10."

    "This continues to be the most, lucid, comprehensive treatment of the subject on the market," says The Real Estate Professional. "If you want solid, reliable information about residential real estate financing, written in a thoughtful, convincing style, this is your source."

    For additional information, press here.

    For moreTechnology news and advice, check out the Agent News Technology Section

    • Peter Miller writes a weekly column on the special hard to understand issues in real estate. Peter is the author of six real estate books, the original creator and host of the Real Estate Center on America Online, and a regular columnist with The Real Estate Professional.



    Copyright © 1999 Realty Times. All Rights Reserved.

    With an award winning staff of writers providing up to the minute real estate news and advice, thousands of REALTORS® in North America reporting daily market conditions, and a nationally broadcast television news program, Realty Times is the one-stop shop for real estate information. That's why over 10,000 real estate professionals have turned to us for their publicity needs.