As I was preparing an offer for a client today, I pulled the tax records of the subject property and comparable sales, and pulled all of the deeds on the property as well.
He was impressed by the ease with which I accessed the information, and that prompted him to ask this question:
What did you do before you had computers?
I guess that I don’t think about it much anymore, but the fact of the matter is that we used to have to do a lot more work. We had to drive to the tax assessors office and to the Clerk of Superior Court,
We would manually search though hundreds of index books, with hand-written entries directing us to a deed or plat book. One located the deed would have to be copied and the books replaced.
But as archaic as that seems, an older friend here in Newnan said that before the copy machine was invented, he had to use tracing paper and a pencil to hand copy plats at the courthouse. A simple request for a plat could take hours of time!
And while I enjoy having the information at my fingertips, I sometimes miss those trips to the county courthouse. It was almost like being a member of a secret society with special access to privileged information.
And that always made me feel special!
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... and then there are those of us who havent a clue what searching through an MLS book was like !!!
Hope you are well Brother Richard !!!!!
Hi Richard... I still remember in 1987 when I first used a Fax machine to communicate with vendors and thought tho myself, "this thing will change the world for ever". Well it did, until not too many years later when emailing documents made faxing seem so antiquated!
Hi Richard, I am with Shel, what was it like? Like walking to school 10 miles each way, uphill in the snow, barefoot? LOL, sorry.
OK, I still have to go to the town hall for each listing and for each buyer. Not all info is online. So there I am in the vault. I don't know about secret society, but am I glad I don't have to bring the tracing paper!
Interesting... I can't imagine back in the 'ol days... heck, I laugh when an agent wants to hand deliver an offer or counter-offer to me. I'm like, "Can't you just email or fax it to me?"
Richard, It's amazing that now we are looking to go paperless. I actually like the feel of paper in my hand, to me, it lends to the reality of a transaction. And forward, we must go!
I'm with Steve. I can remember spending $700 on a fax machine for my home office when I had a travel agency...and people were like, "You HAVE your OWN fax machine?" And I can remember my Mom's MLS book that she had to update everyweek.
Where is the courthouse?
Sheldon...
Ah yes, the books. Hey, at least we had them with us all of the time! Thanks my friend.
Steve...
I remember the early days of FAX and it's true, it was amazing! THX
Andrea...
GA law requires all counties to report of a state wide system. That makes it easier for us! Thanks, my friend.
There was a time before lockboxes when you had to go to the listing office to pick up the key. And the MLS books....well, I sure don't miss them!
I managed to enter the real estate industry just as everything was being computerized. (Yay!) And of course, I was the first in my brokerage to have my own web site as well. I thank God for the resources we have at our fingertips that make our jobs so much easier. Can you imagine standing in line at city hall, and/or digging the micro-fiche films?
I have been a property manager for 30 years. We did not have computers back in those days. A copier was a luxury! Figuring out rent rates was mostly experience and intuition!
Richard, I cannot remember how it was before Blackberries and other smart phone when you could not receive your emails on your phones...:)
Funny Richard, we had a very similar discussion last week with some clients. Some times the simpler life in the 'old' days weren't really simpler, but have pleasant memories.
Richard ~ Is that the photo of the courthouse you got in trouble with? lol... I hear stories such as these from my broker who still uses the MLS Book, she is one of the few that still buy's it and I have not a clue how to use it. She laughs at me and I laugh at her at some of the ways we do our work. Its all good we compliment each other. I call a lady yesterday to check in with her about a piece of property they are interested in and she told me how impressed she and her husband are with the amount of info I provided them. Its all online...
Things have changed so much in the last twenty years alone, it's hard to believe we ever got anything accomplished in the past without these tremendous labor-saving pieces of technology.
Richard, we are becoming a society of people who don't interact. That is unless include, E-Mail, Texting, vidio conferncing ect.
I still go to the court house and do many of these things the long way. If the computors are down, I want to be up on my searching skills. Besides, I enjoy visiting with old friends!
My Mother worked at the Courthouse when I was a child and I used to spend hours digging through files at the Clerk of Court's office.