The best way to implement technology improvements into your real estate business is to create a well designed plan that is both viable and realistic. To do this, you need to identify a “technology expert” who can help you implement your plan and accomplish your goals (not just tell you what to do). This expert should stay with you every step of the way until you can take these tasks over for yourself (of delegate them to an assistant if possible).
The BIGGEST problem that I have seen is that most agents, although they may understand the potential future benefits of doing this, are far too busy keeping up with the day-to-day demands of running their own businesses to make any progress implementing technology.
Therefore, I have put together this proposed “Personal Technology Plan” for these agents who may need a little help making sense out of it all. The plan covers at least one critical topic per month for an entire calendar year. I broke it down this way because this gives you some time to learn and then practice your new skills each month. It also pushes you to move on to the next topic and keeps your learning fresh. It will be up to you to find specific applicable examples in your own specific business. I will give you general ideas on how these things can be applied, but everyone’s business is a little different.
You may want to consider this a blueprint for your 2003 educational goals. Mastery of these tasks will lead to higher levels of technological understanding and business performance. For the most part, the topics start off easier towards the beginning of the year and proceed to more difficult topics that require more of a technology “foundation” , which you will get if you go through the topics as outlined.
Please customize this plan to fit your own needs, and let me know if you find it helpful. I will be using this as a blueprint for my 2003 articles for Realty Times.
January
- Windows terminology
- Basic PC skills
- File management skills
February
- Set-up e-mail software
- Basic e-mail skills
- Access Web e-mail remotely
March
April
- MS Office - Word for word processing (beginning and intermediate classes)
May
- Search engines and use (general and real estate-related)
June
- Beginning digital photography
July
- Domain name registration and pointing
- MS Office - Excel for spreadsheets (beginning class)
August
- Creating real estate flyers (using MS Publisher, or industry-specific program)
September
- Real estate Web site content and improvements
October
November
- Cutting edge promotional tools
December
- Developing a digital listing presentation
Published: January 14, 2003
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