High-Tech Toys for Tech-Savvy Brokers

By Tom Inglesby, Real Estate Business Magazine, February/March 2007

Depending on the source, every electronic gadget, gimmick and "golly-whiz" has some obvious value to marketers, businesses and salespeople. How can you sort out what's hot and what's simply hype?

They came like thunder in TV, radio, print and word-of-mouth advertising — all the latest, greatest (until next week) and important electronic … things. For months leading up to the December gifting season, "new" and "improved" were the clichÈs while gimmicks and gadgets were the hot topics. No doubt, every product has a loyal following. Many are the REALTORS® who will assure you they will be making serious use of their new purchases or gifts in the coming year to increase their sales or listings. Some gadgets will, indeed, be valuable and others, as is always the case, will end up in desk drawers, closets, trashcans and landfills — or the Internet equivalent.

The hot and the hype are, for the most part, interchangeable depending on your personal point of view. One agent's gimmick is another agent's gadget or gizmo. Here are some current buzzwords in the business and some cautions about running — or surfing — out to buy them.