Property Talk

As much as things change, they remain the same

The impact of technology on business fascinates me. In the relatively short time frame of when I travelled the world seeking adventure as a newly minted graduate from UCT - a world without email or cell phones, the world today has become a place where social media dominates our daily communication enabling people to be in touch 24/7, regardless of where they find themselves.

Surprisingly some of the world's remote destinations have excellent connectivity. I remember vividly debating the merits of small relatively poor quality cameras in phones - at the time I was still using an SLR with KODAK or FUJI Chrome film.

Today business schools teach budding entrepreneurs how KODAK slipped into irrelevance by ignoring the impact technology was about to have on the camera market.

Steve Job's 1000 songs in your pocket speech when launching the iPod seems like yesterday. One of the world's most valuable private or non-state-owned companies - Apple (currently part of the top trio of tech stocks with Amazon and Microsoft) - is built on the extraordinary success of the iPhone.

The first iPhone was launched on 29th June 2007 - just over ten years old - really not that long ago. For real estate agents the communication technology revolution has transformed the way in which we do business.

The print media advertising of properties in the weekend newspapers has been replaced with on-line portals that charge their subscribing clients to engage and connect with potential clients.

Access to actual transaction information is readily available to the general public so there is no longer value to be obtained from an agent who has access to this information.

Viewing of properties online from the convenience of your own home certainly creates the opportunity for prospective buyers to save time by limiting and focusing their search criteria along a more narrow spectrum in order to create a short list to then physically view on site.

Technological disruption has found its way into many industries including transportation with Uber and Lyft, Hotel rooms with Airbnb.com and Bookings.com, travel agents and more. I do not believe any industry or profession will remain untouched by this technological revolution we are experiencing.

As an estate agent with almost 25 years of experience I constantly interrogate the essence of the value add we bring to our clients on a daily basis. I often say that in a thousand years time a buyer of real estate will want to pay less than the seller counter-part is asking - no matter what part of the galaxy they find themselves in.

This basic human aspect to trade and transactions means that there is scope for a skilled fascilitator or negotiator to act as the catalyst or lubricant to the transaction.

I am convinced that without this role or person providing that critical service, very few transactions would result. For this reason I believe the low flat fee service is fundamentally limited in its scope and application when it comes to property transactions. If homes were a homogenous good this business model would have merit, but our built environment we currently work with and sell every day is far from that. As different as people are so are the properties they occupy and live in. Long live the professional neighbourhood realtor.