True story: When my friend asked her husband why he wasn’t returning his emails, he said “Because I’m not going to get caught up in that fad.” Funny? Yes, but also very telling. Whether email is a fad or not isn’t the point. The point is that he’s not using email because he doesn’t find it useful. Technology can be a wonderful tool, but the real question is whether it adds value.

This is as true in business as it is in our personal lives. Take the real estate business, for example (surprise, surprise). Great strides have been made to disseminate information via the internet in order to bring the market to our front doors, so to speak. Most of these innovations have created very helpful information sources if you’re thinking of buying or selling or if you’re an agent. That said, residential real estate has always been more of a people business than an information business.

Don’t get me wrong. From my perspective as an agent, I’m very pleased that real estate information has become more easily accessible to the public because this saves me time and allows me to spend more time doing one of the things which I most enjoy: analyzing this information in the context of my clients’ needs and desires to help them achieve the best results possible. While many people have access to the same information, how that information is used can make a huge difference to your result. In my opinion, this is where a good agent truly adds tremendous value.

For example, let’s say you’re looking for a home in a certain price range. On the one hand, you could find out from an online source or from an ordinary agent that there are currently 7 homes on the market that you might like. This information is marginally useful. On the other hand, if you speak to a proficient and knowledgeable agent, you could find out that none of the 7 homes fit the bill, but there are other homes that aren’t listed yet that would seem to meet your needs perfectly. Because you’ve received better advice based on the same information, you’re able to choose between buying one of the 7 homes that are for sale or waiting for a more perfect home and avoiding the expensive mistake of buying a home today that you’ll regret buying 3 months from now. This example shows that having information is one thing, but using it to your full advantage is quite another.

It’s very important to keep this in mind as we move into the future and you’re inundated with more and more information. There will be companies and agents who will try to convince you to hire them because they have all the latest “toys”. Toys are nice, but their effectiveness depends on who is playing with them. Agent A could place your home for sale on fifty different websites, but if he doesn’t have the experience and knowledge to know what the potential buyers for your home want and where they’re looking, this doesn’t really add any value. You’d be better off having Agent B place your home for sale on the one website that potential buyers for your home visit and having the features that appeal most to these buyers properly highlighted. In this case, Agent B would be combining her knowledge and experience with technology to help you achieve your goal. Her pre-listing presentation might not have been as glitzy as that of Agent A, but her result is better and, at the end of the day, it’s the result that matters.

At the same time that it’s important to keep the limitations of technology in mind, it’s also important to take advantage of its many benefits. As we start 2011, I’m pleased to be able to communicate with you via email, twitter, my blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and my talking business card. This technology is great for staying in touch and sharing useful real estate information so I’ll be tweeting about things that I think might interest you and blogging about subjects that require deeper explanations. (Go to www.michaelmeltzer.ca to check these out.) As noted, technology does not replace personal contact in a people business. That’s why I’ve decided that I’m going to spend more time communicating face to face or over the phone. (I even considered going back to my rotary phone, but ruled it out when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to use it to access my voicemail.)

Have a great 2011 and I look forward to speaking to you!