Tech Changes
In 1982 there were no faxes or mobile phones in Palm Beach or small office copiers to speak of, but there was plenty of carbon paper and foolscap paper, email was in its infancy, listings were kept on DL-sized bits of paper, only big businesses had telex machines. We ran on two-way radios and golf ball computers but it was all about to change. The DOS P.C. and Microsoft had arrived.
We moved from trust accounting manually with cash books and ledgers to software that initially did little more than keep the books and manage distributions but did it quickly. By the mid nineties, we had websites, contact management software, faxes and mobile phones.
Our Property Management software now handles lease renewals, rent increases, maintenance, open houses, enquiries by more than 1000 people every month and emails vacant properties to matching potential tenants.
David Hamilton recalls more than 15 years ago, a major player in the travel industry telling a Real Estate Conference, that we would be finished in 10 years because the internet was going to cut out the middleman. We are still here and servicing our market better and more efficiently than ever thanks to that internet. We have better tools and certainly in our case a strong culture to serve our community.