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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 14:39:01 |
Real-estate agents add micros to their bag of tricks
Buying property often involves a battle of wills, with real-estate agents, buyers, and sellers competing for the best deal in the property wars. With the winter-time house-buying season upon us, agents and sophisticated investors are arming themselves with personal computers and specialized software in hopes of victories in this year's campaign.
Losers in the real-estate wars are often the agents who can't match clients up with the right piece of property, the seller who loses money while his property sits unsold, and the buyer who can't determine which property is the best investment for the future. The fact that the microcomputer can solve the problems of all three parties makes it "a sleeping giant that is about to wake up," according to one real-estate-software developer.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) in Chicago is bringing out the big guns with its Insite microcomputer system -- a repackaged Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Professional 325 or 350 computer with bundled software and a laser printer.
The DEC-written software will provide standard word processing and list processing to facilitate mass mailings by real-estate brokers. With these two applications, the salesperson can keep a list of people who are interested in, for instance, a two-bedroom house with one acre of land. When a piece of property fitting that description comes on the market, the salesperson can merge a letter with the list of buyers and immediately notify a number of prospective buyers. In this case, both the needs of the potential buyers and the seller are served.
Packages such as Real Estate Strategy allow the buyer, seller, or agent to build a model of a real-estate deal and determine the best price and terms. The model takes into account the down payment, current interest rates, and desired cash flow. The package becomes even more useful when comparing more than one real-estate deal.
Another package that allows analyses of real-estate investments is available from HowardSoft of LaJolla, California, the company responsible for the best-selling Tax Preparer software package. HowardSoft's Real Estate Analyzer for the IBM PC or Apple II allows investors to compare as many as ten loans and calculate the monthly payments on each. Unlike simpler programs that can perform this basic arithmetic task, Real Estate Analyzer calculates the tricky adjustable interest rate and balloon mortgages based on estimates of future economic conditions.
The HowardSoft package compares five factors of inflation and, drawing on the company's tax background, includes the latest tax laws for depreciation, recapture, and capital gains. The Real Estate Analyzer also allows investors to maintain records on renters.
But not all agents are as eager to use a microcomputer. Pointing out that the currently used remote-terminal-based multiple-listing service is only as good as the people that use it, Steven Carlitz, a broker with Taylor Properties of Palo Alto, California, says, "I don't think we're ready for it yet."
Carlitz says he doesn't need a sophisticated record-keeping microcomputer to keep up with his current customer load. "If I had 200 clients of my own, it might be good to have a computer [to keep track of them], because I've made the most money when I've followed up a lot with people," he says.
So though some agents are jumping on the microcomputer bandwagon, there is still some resistance.
There are a number of existing real-estate networks that are commonly known as multiple-listing services (MLSs). The large minicomputer databases maintained by MLSs are now reached by real-estate agents through dedicated dumb terminals. Agents list their properties on the network and, in exchange, get a crack at selling property placed on the network by other agents. The database can usually be searched for specific characteristics such as price range and number of rooms.
One idea that seems to be universally rejected by real-estate professionals is that of hooking a microcomputer to a videodisc or videotape to call up an image of the property.
USA Real Estate Listings:
http://search.ezilon.com/united_states/business/real_estate/index.shtml
Europe Real Estate Listings:
http://www.ezilon.com/cgi-bin/estate/realestate.cgi
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