When Zillow burst onto the scene some two years ago, I was, like many in the real estate business, skeptical about the website. Now, as the dust begins to settle, I’m finding that I kinda like the site.

The initial reaction of many Realtors, myself included, was very fearful towards Zillow for a couple of reasons.

1. The obvious concern was that their Zestimates were going to provide unrealistic expectations for consumers who believe that everything they read on the web is true.

And the truth is yes, I’ve dealt with both buyers and sellers who were more inclined to trust the mechanical valuation process of the website than they were my professional advice. Of course, they only lean that way when the Zestimate is in their favor (nobody ever says, “Tom, let’s lower our asking price. I saw it on Zillow.”)

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Apparently I’m not the only one trying to save some paper with a Tablet PC. President Bush was spotted signing the 2009 federal budget on a Dell Latitude XT.

Sure it’ll take me a while longer to save as much paper as he did - roughly 20 tons of paper or 480 trees were spared  by eliminating some 3,000 copies of the 2,200-page budget that would have normally been printed.

On the other hand, my approval rating has never been higher!

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In the past seven days, since I got my Lenovo X61 Tablet computer, I’ve gotten a listing agreement signed, written an offer to purchase, and received and countered an offer - all without generating a single piece of paper.

It’s easier than I could have imagined, thanks to VREO’s Real Estate Dashboard. And it’s not just faster, more secure and more economical - it’s fun.

 There was a concern that the clients would have an issue with it, but they haven’t blinked. It’s not even novel to them. The most meaningful comment was that it’s “just like Home Depot.”

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I’ve been living without a laptop computer for two months now, and I’m discovering just how much I need one. I know, in the grand scheme of things it’s not really one of the things I need. But my lifestyle, the way I live and certainly the way I work have been drastically altered without it. And it got me thinking about the other non-necessities that I never want to live without.

1. Starbucks/Peete’s - I know this will sound like sacrilege to some of you, but I don’t really favor one over the other. I’m even willing to try the occasional knock-off from time-to-time. (I have a post in my pocket about my experience at the new Saxby’s coffee in Antioch the other day - not good.) It’s not the coffee - I can brew that at home - it’s the ability to stop in on your way to work, or after a movie, or just for an afternoon break. It’s an excuse to take a five-minute diversion that these trendy coffee houses offer. And I like to do it.

By the way - I can’t imagine where we took these breaks before there was Starbucks? Maybe it’s why so many people used to smoke? Maybe it’s how all those people ended up at Denny’s after church? Maybe it’s the reason there’s not a decent donut shop in Brentwood?

2. Hi-Def Television - Yes, I watch too much TV. Well actually, as football season winds down, the writers’ strike moves on and LOST is still lost…I’m actually not watching as much as I used to. And while I can guarantee you that back in the late nineties while I was watching the Broncos win back-to-back Superbowls I never once thought to myself, “This picture sucks!” the evolution of HDTV has made a High-Def snob out of me.

3. Smartphones - I got my Treo 650 almost three years ago, and trust me I was reluctant to spend $200 on a phone. Like a lot of folks, I didn’t see the point - it seemed like overkill. But within six months, it began to seem ridiculous that anyone, especially in our business, would find themselves out of the office without their full contact list, their calendar and their email. In this day and age, communication has become much more than a phone call or a voice mail. Expectations for response times are immediate.

4. Satellite Radio - Have you got this in your car? You can drive for miles and listen to the same radio station without even a hint of static. There are low- or no-commercial channles, dozens of talk and information choices, comedy channels, kids channels, rock, hip-hop, showtunes…ok I’ve never put on the showtunes channel, but I know it’s there.

Great News! I just got an email indicating that my new laptop just shipped from the factory. That means in a couple of days I’ll be able to write these posts without having to kick the girls off of Webkinz.com first. I can write while taking a coffee break at Starbucks! Or from in front of the TV! I’ll be able to sync my phone with my computer again! Halleluja, my life will be back to normal!

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I can remember back in 2002 being implored by Mike Fanning, Windermere VP of Technology at the time, to invest in a digital camera. The idea was that as a modern real estate agent I would have the ability to snap digital photos of a listing for upload to the MLS or (this was really hot) a custom Windermere photo gallery.

It’s true. Just about five years ago not everyone had a digital camera, and not every listing on the MLS had a picture.

Then I can remember, a couple of years ago, standing in front of a group of Windermere agents imploring them to put away their digital cameras and hire a professional photographer. We had gotten to the point where a few snapshots weren’t enough. With the rate at which buyers were searching properties on the web, we had to make a great presentation on-line.

And then yesterday, at our last office meeting of the year, I handed down a new directive: embedded video.

Face it, you’re already there. How annoyed do you get anymore at a web page that requires you to actually read big blocks of text in order to get the information you’re looking for? (Like this one!) Video is the new killer app on the web. Why do you think those YouTube guys are gazillionaires? Read the rest of this entry »

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