Where Are You On Technology?

Where Are You on Technology? By Marlin Cone RISMEDIA, March 20, 2007-Just a few years ago, NAR reported that the average age of their members was 55. Then, as the hot real estate market continued to heat up even more, the average age of NAR members dropped to 52. It was widely conceded that, finally, the younger generation recognized real estate sales as an attractive career alternative and that the huge influx of younger people into real estate would have a long-lasting and positive impact on an industry that was rapidly aging away from the core of its business base. Shockingly, NAR now reports that the average age of its members is 57. The analysis has not been completed, but one can bet that many of the younger agents who entered the business during the past few years were impacted dramatically and negatively by the normalizing of the market during 2006. (Notice that I did not say downturn-what we have today is more of a normalized/balanced market.) The revelation that the average age of NAR members has jumped to 57 raises, again, the question of how in touch the average agent is with the largest group of home buyers over the last few years-generations X and Y-who average 35 years of age. These are the buyers who were raised with a computer and television from an early age, expecting to do business in a much different manner than their predecessors.These are the people who do not have a hard-wired home phone, opting for only a cell phone. These are the people who do not read newspapers or magazines, getting all the information they want from the Internet. These are the people who want to be entertained when they are searching for goods and services they want to buy; why wouldn't they when they grew up with television and the Internet? And, these are the people who utilize the Internet as the number-one source for searching for the new home they want to buy. So, where do you fit in the spectrum of NAR members who average 57 years of age today? Are you at or above the average age, scared of or intimidated by technology and uncertain of the future? Are you on the lower end of the age spectrum, fully embracing technology and ready for the challenge of the future? Or are you somewhere in between?