REALTORS® are often accused of being out of touch with technology, but a closer look at their electronic purchases states otherwise.

As self-employed business people Realtors are in a unique situation - they have an office to go to, but they are almost never there. Instead they are constantly on call. You'll most often find them in their cars, in a meeting or closing, or at a client's home. That means that more so than other business people, Realtors are dependent on computer and digital technology - at the office, at home, in the car, and at off-campus meetings.

According to the latest figures compiled by REALTOR® Magazine, Realtors must have immediate access to the information they need which includes listing data, financing information, marketing and sales updates, and the news. For this access, they rely primarily on computers.

Almost 460,000 Realtors have a home office in addition to their primary place of business where they spend approximately 14.29 hours per week. Although their broker is likely to offer access to most technologies such as computers, fax machines and copiers, Realtors choose to stock their home offices with their own equipment.

These offices are equipped with any or all of the following - desktop PC's, laptop PC's, hand-held computers, and fax machines, copiers printers and modems. In addition, many Realtors use digital cameras, video cameras, and traditional cameras. Again, these products are purchased at the Realtor's personal expense.

The Realtor home office computer market is $1.9 billion, according to the magazine's figures. The following is a breakdown of home office equipment owned by Realtors:

• 541,651 computers
• 320,163 fax machines
• 225,747 copiers
• 126,361 CD ROM players
• 97, 960 laser printers
• 77,739 modems
• 632,920 traditional cameras
• 358,497 video cameras
• 52,532 digital cameras

Approximately 720,000 Realtors are members of the NAR, which means that approximately two out of three agents own their own computer, half own fax machines, a third own copiers, one seventh own printers and almost every one owns some sort of camera. Approximately 10% have private Internet access apart from that offered by their brokers.

Published: December 11, 1998

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