He was first on his block to offer Websites and digital photographs of homes back in 1995. Now he's trying a new transaction management system. Staying at least a year ahead of the technology curve is what Iselin, New Jersey broker David Fialk believes will make his brokerage competitive, as long as his agents are willing to get on board.

Fialk doesn't mind coddling agents into the 21st century. He knows that he is a lot more excited about innovations like having listings online than they are, but he also wishes they could see the big picture as clearly as he does - that sellers expect the brokerage they hire to be better than the others. He thinks technology will differentiate his brokerage and his agents, even if the agents are a little reluctant to agree.

"I'm more advanced than my agents," says Fialk, "between me and the secretaries, we provide everything the agents need for their business. For instance, I go take the digital photos of their listings, and the secretaries make them into fliers."

In a world where broker and MLS Websites promote listings with as many as 1/3 or more lacking a simple photo ( the most important thing online homebuyers want to see,) Fialk wants to be able to get his company's listings complete with photos online within two hours. He sometimes has to light a fire under some agents to get home descriptions to him so he can meet his goal.

"This is going to separate our company from the others," he says. "isn't that what the seller is paying us for - to get their home to the market as quickly as possible?"

Fialk tries to supply his agents with the latest benefits, which also keep him competitive against larger brokers as far as retaining and recruiting agents. For example, he provides a computer, color printer and Excel for every agent's station.

"They pay for the ink on the color printer," he says, "I have a laser color printer and whatever is printed for the homeowner, I print. That's part of the marketing package - putting out beautiful multicolor home feature sheets. And the owners really appreciate them."

"I don't charge them for anything and they get a large split," he says. "They don't want to do extra work, but they still want the extra commission, so with the new agents, there is a new policy. They have to buy into the technology more before they get things done for them. If they don't use the computer on their desks for more than searching listings, then they don't get a computer on their desk."

In addition, Fialk promotes the agents' listings on his Website. If a lead comes through the Website from a listing, the listing agent gets it. General inquiries go to the "floor person." No one pays a referral fee.

"I pay for their ISP accounts so they can access company mail from their AOL accounts," says Fialk. "I don't believe they should do business with an AOL account. They have to have a true ISP. They all have Office 2000 on their computers, and I don't have 20 percent using it as a contact management tool. Amazing. I have a $10 million-dollar producer and she doesn't need to do anything to stay a $10 million-dollar producer. She replies to e-mail but she tells them it is easier to call her. When the public would rather make the phone call, that is all right by me, but I think it is important that agents utilize all aspects of marketing. If they were even able to add one transaction a month due to improved efficiency, that's 12 transactions a year that they may not have had if they didn't adopt additional marketing ideas."

Agents in other brokerages would feel like they had died and gone to heaven for what Fialk's agents appear to take for granted, but then every market and every brokerage is different.

Fialk sees the push to adopt technology as making his agents better and more competitive. His vision for the future is that technology will bring the real estate transaction closer to buyers and sellers.

"That's why I wanted to get involved in online transaction management," says Fialk. "The consumers who are online with e-mail and used to computers appreciate this more than ever."

He explains, "Here's how online transaction management can save time. I sign a contract today, I FAX and mail it, and post it to the Website and to the buyer's attorney. Then the attorney makes amendments, and before they send it they want the buyer's approval, so instead of mailing it, they FAX it to me, and I convert it to a PDF, post it online to the transaction management platform, and I e-mail the buyer who can then respond immediately to their attorney. The only resistance is working with people who don't have e-mail addresses or don't check it regularly. If they don't check it, I don't add them. There are quite a few attorneys who don't have e-mail."

All this time-savings only costs $5 a transaction, he says. "At the end of the month if a close 12 transactions or so, I just click them off and the company sends them to me in a CD so I can have a copy to paste to my harddrive for my files. A year from now, if I get a call from a customer, I can pull it off the server."

"I wanted to do this a long time ago," he says, "but it was more expensive, and I'm the type of broker that I have to provide to agents.

Patience is a virtue. "They are very slowly doing it," he chuckles. "I'm still having trouble getting our agents to tell prospects about our Website, but as they see the value, they will come around."

Published: August 4, 2003

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