The Tech Edition
April 09, 2008
The invisible investors, renters in real estate
By ANN RICHARDSON
Staff Writer
 Bill Palmer, David French and Jack Decker they do more of their business from the Internet than they do from their Ocean City office.
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Back in the day, if you wanted to purchase a second home or
investment property, or find a summer rental for the family on the
Jersey Cape, you packed up and headed to the shore. The first stop
across the bridge was the local real estate office, where the Realtor
literally held the keys to your kingdom.
All was possible, but only with the help of a licensed professional. The
family - a captive audience to the inventory presented - battled the
crowds, waited in line, grabbed handfuls of keys and set out to explore
the offerings.
Securing a rental was, at best, a daylong affair. Rental sheets in hand,
families roamed the island as they bounced from office to office. A sale
was no different. It could take weeks to evaluate the inventory, narrow
the search, check out the properties, negotiate and secure the deal.
Technology has changed so much, so quickly, that even a fax machine is
now considered obsolete in the transaction process. The end result is a
dramatic sea change in the way property is rented and sold; changes in
technology could lead to a revolution in the real estate industry.
Ocean City’s French Real Estate has been around since the early 1900s.
Bob French said his family and long-time crew operate the business in
the modern technological age based on old-fashioned principals -
reliable, honest service, handshake deals and knowledge of the market.
Yet they rarely see most of their rental customers until they walk in
the door to pick up their keys on a busy summer Saturday.
"It's all done on the phone," said French. "No one comes in anymore. We
do maybe 10 percent of our business with a real live person standing in
the office."
French admits he does not use the computer, he leaves that to his staff.
"I don't know how to turn it on," the amazingly spry octogenarian said.
"My customers know the deal; this is how we work with Bob. I have to be
educated. Anyone coming into this business now has to be very
tech-savvy.
"We used to be able to gauge business by the crowds we would see on
weekends; the keys piled up at the end of the day, not anymore," he
said. “They’re at home, on their computers. I’ve been in this business
for 60 years; the last five have brought more change than the first 55.
People rent sight unseen. That was unheard of years ago.”
John McCann, of McCann Realtors, says the atrium in his Sea Isle City
office was built to accommodate the 50 or more people who used to line
up on weekends.
“They’d be waiting for keys,” said McCann. “In 2000, we started to see
that dwindle. Now there’s no need, they’re all on the Internet.
Charles A. McCann started the business in 1939.
“I can remember my dad driving to Philadelphia to get a contract signed,
and he’d sit down with the three-page document and go through it, word
for word,” he said. “Today it’s 30 pages and we e-mail it. He passed
away in 2005, and he would tell me this is way too fast and way too
impersonal. He didn’t like what he saw coming, we lost the personal
touch.”
McCann said his father is right.
“I don’t like to e-mail customers, but that’s what people want,” he
said. “Sometimes you can’t explain things in e-mail, they have a tone
that you don’t intend; they’re misunderstood. I just finished an entire
negotiation through e-mail. Everyone is in a big hurry, a big rush.
“I remember rental cards, with Polaroid photos of the properties,” he
said. “All the rentals were done by hand. There were files everywhere.”
Steve Booth, manger of Prudential, Fox and Roach’s 34th Street Ocean
City office, said efficiency is key.
“I can remember driving to meet clients at Olga’s Diner on Route 73 with
a contract,” he said. “Now you send it in an e-mail, it’s almost
instantaneous.”
Booth remembers Sunday mornings so busy people would be lined up when he
arrived.
“We spent the whole day catching up, it was incredible,” he said. “It
used to be on a winter weekend you’d have to walk sideways through the
bodies, it was packed. They’d come down and look, go out to lunch, look
some more, it was a tradition. Now they’re at home surfing the net,
they’re not patronizing local businesses. Everyone’s losing a little
bit.”
Tom Repici, owner of the Chatterbox, feels the void.
“You used to see them walking down the street with the rental sheets,”
he said. “We’d get them in for lunch. Now they’re gone, I can’t tell you
the last time I saw a rental sheet.”
In Avalon, Bob Scully, of Ferguson Dechert, said Donnelly’s Deli –
apopular grocery and sandwich shop -- went out of business.
“It started about five years ago. They told me how bad their business
was on weekends, the rental people stopped coming. They couldn’t make it
through the winter. They had been there for years.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. It used to be unless they were
renting the same place again, they came down to look. Now if one out of
a hundred comes down, that’s a lot.
“Avalon is small; people pretty much know where they want to be. With
virtual tours they can see it all online. They just call us,” he said.
Scully said today’s buyers are well prepared.
“We do everything on e-mail, they know value, and it makes the buying
process a lot easier,” he said. “Sellers still have their own opinion,
but they know what they are competing against.”
Bob Pitera, of RE/MAX of Ocean City and the Wildwoods, said Realtors
have to keep up the pace.
“The day of people coming into a real estate office, talking to a
Realtor and asking what properties might be available, are gone,” he
said. “Buyers are doing their initial searches on the web. When they do
finally reach out, primarily because of a company’s web presence, they
know what they are looking for.
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“I’m not liking it, honestly. It’s very impersonal. The
Realtor’s role has changed, we’re a facilitator. We have lost
the touch and I miss the people coming in. I have one woman who
has rented numerous times over the past several years. I’ve
never met her. She calls me Invisible Ken. We have a great
relationship, she refers her friends to me, yet I’ve never met
her.” |
Technology assists both sellers and would-be buyers.
“It’s helpful for the sellers too, because they can compare their
property to others on the market,” he said. “Technology has been
instrumental in allowing sellers to take a realistic look at pricing in
the market. It helps them see if they are appropriately; or
realistically priced.”
At Monihan Realty’s Battersea Road office in Ocean City, Ken Cooper said
he’s seen the changes.
“We used to be packed on weekends,” he said. “I have news for you, it
wasn’t that long ago. Things have changed quickly. It affects local
businesses, it affects open houses. You don’t have the traffic anymore.
People used to come down and get their fix of Johnson’s Popcorn and Mack
and Manco pizza, they’d buy fudge. Now they’re at home. It’s affecting
our business community. Our customers used to go next door to Express
Pizza.
“They all want new,” he said. “That never used to be a description, it
is now. They base their decision on the year it was built. I tell my
customers, the Internet presence is where it counts. You have to have
good pictures; people can spot an investment property and a nice
property that is a second home, with nice furnishing and nice touches.
Presentation is everything. Everyone is on the web, even the oldest of
old people are using a computer to search at home.”
Cooper said he’s not convinced changes are for the better.
“I don’t know what real estate offices will be in the future,” he said.
“You have all these rental websites popping up. Will they still search
each office, looking? Will these college kids, when they have babies and
become renters, call an office? Everything is changing, and we can’t
just change with it, we have to be ahead of it. It’s an interesting,
expanding environment.
“I’m not liking it, honestly,” he added. “It’s very impersonal. The
Realtor’s role has changed, we’re a facilitator. We have lost the touch
and I miss the people coming in. I have one woman who has rented
numerous times over the past several years. I’ve never met her. She
calls me Invisible Ken. We have a great relationship, she refers her
friends to me, yet I’ve never met her.”
Cooper, president of the Ocean City Historical Museum, said the museum
is full of early real estate “artifacts.”
“The little cards, the pictures,” he said. “It’s amazing. No copiers, no
fax machines, no cell phones. Can you imagine?
“Where are we headed? What will it be like 10 years from now? “
Ann Richardson can be e-mailed at
annrichardson@catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by
calling 609-624-8900, ext. 250.