I love technology, always have. I remember the first TV remote control I ever used. It had two options, one for volume and one for channels - and for the adventurous, 'vertical hold'. You would hoist this rather large and clunky device, make sure you weren't more than 10 ft. or so away from the TV and click. The TV still had the actual knob for changing the channel and it would physically turn when you pressed the button on the remote. I remember it made this astonishingly loud "thunk" every time it turned, but man was it cool!

Technology has certainly come a long way, hasn't it? Sometimes I wonder if all this technology really useful - I do think most of it is really cool, but is it truly useful or is a lot of it simply a time-kill. This thought certainly holds true with real estate technology. Of course some technology offers great usefulness to real estate. It can be a great time saver and information gathering tool. It makes contract signatures and tracking much more efficient. My problem with real estate technology is that very few agents, and frankly very few consumers really understand how to effectively apply the technology they see. Information is great, IF you understand what it is telling you.

I love cars. I love to drive them even more, not just any car but "special" cars - cars made for real driving. Being a good driver (making a car do what you want it to do) takes at least some basic understanding of physics and the particular car you are driving - you must have information to know how to handle certain situations. The problem is that having the information is only a piece of the puzzle. It is the application of the information and the experience to know how to apply that information that begins to cause one driver to achieve better results than another. The same idea holds true for real estate. Actual experience is king!

Real estate information is all over the place. The same data is provided in a million different formats and flavors. It's wrapped in countless agent marketing efforts and syndication sites. It's simply...everywhere. In many ways, all of this access makes being able to understand it all very confusing. It is proper information with proper interpretation mixed with experience that ultimately makes the technology itself truly useful and not just cool.

Our web site, for example, is not a showcase for technical achievement - nor is it meant to be. There are all kinds of technology "toys" that could be added, however, none of it will help our clients achieve their goal. We have chosen to provide what is expected and what is actually useful to our clients. We have chosen to base all of our technology choices on what provides an ultimate value. Technology that see beyond spreadsheets and satellite imaging; technology with more power and capability than any other ever devised - the human brain. This is the primary technology of Eastoria agents, everything else simply plays a supporting role.

I think the sooner we collectively realize that the process of buying and selling homes is not an exact science, it's full of variables, pitfalls, detours and fun, the more efficient and effective we will become - efficient and effective not because of all technology but in many cases, in spite of it.