I have renamed the real world we do business within. If the online/virtual world is the Internet, then the real/offline world is the Outernet. We've lived and worked in the Outernet for quite some time now. In fact, for all of history. In the dim past, our only Internet was really an Innernet of dreams and visions and wizardry. Now, we're having a relationship inside a computerworld that seems just as magical, strange and compelling. Though we've created this world called the Internet, the results we receive are often, like dreams, - not what we expect.

How do we apply all our Outernet real estate traditions, knowledge and experience to today's Internet? Can the virtual world and the real world overlap? Is the Internet merely a marketing tool, or a toy for the Outernet...or is it a reality unto itself?

Realtors today--from big companies to your local real estate agent--are having trouble making the transition from traditional real estate to today's real estate. In the way are roadblocks such as: Having to learn and effectively utilize e-mail as well as snail-mail, the Internet as well as the Outernet, their own websites as well as print brochures, and the advanced computer equipment and programs necessary simply to accomplish the modern tasks.

There's one old adage that rings true today: "You have to invest money to make money." I would edit that for the modern world and take out the word money. There's more than a money investment involved here. There's time, education, motivation, psychology.

No longer can a Realtor succeed on social status and friendships. A Realtor must be plugged in--not to the social scene, but to the electrical outlet. Whether you, as a real estate professional, utilize the computer and Internet opportunities does not matter. What matters is that consumers do, and they rely upon you for answers and services. So if you can't walk the walk, you'd better darn well talk the talk.

Added to this mix is that fact that the real estate industry is drastically changing, becoming a Outernet/Interent one-stop-shopping center for homes, mortgages, insurance, home security systems, discounts on products and services, and so forth. In three years, Realtors will not be marketing the same product they are marketing today. In five years, any Realtor who doesn't get with the program will be left way back in the 1900's.

I don't want to wax metaphysical or all-knowing. I want to get practical and realistic about what is going on in the world today. And if you are a traditional Realtor, guess what?....I think the best place to say that you are a traditional business is on the Internet. The Internet reaches people. Any medium that reaches people is an opportunity for you to create customers in your own way.

So, as we sit here in the Outernet, perhaps relaxing on a Sunday evening with the newspaper, the Internet and it's millions of computers are whizzing information back and forth at top speed to people who are motivated to find a Realtor without getting newsprint on their hands. These consumers are unlike any others ever seen before. They are smart, they have computers, they have money, and they embrace the Internet culture. They need only one thing to make you a stop in their search for a Realtor: a bridge called your e-mail address.

Are you @ home?

See More: Technology Advice

Published: February 24, 1999

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