y Mother was a real estate broker/manager of 19 offices in Ct. during the 1980’s. In a recent conversation with her, she described the work behind buying and selling homes used to be. At one time, the field of real estate was predominately male, many of which crossed over from other careers that had not been successful. Women entered the field thinking it could be part-time to accommodate other roles like mother, housewife, etc.
At this time there were no cell phones, no faxes, nor GPS. An agent had to practice the route the day before or the early morning on the day of the customer tour. In rural Connecticut, it meant traveling between 4-5 small towns to cover the targeted territory. A good knowledge of working phone booth locations and a plentiful stash of dimes were necessary. This was to keep the seller informed of the anticipated time of arrival because prior to the MLS, appointments were arranged directly with the seller.
Sellers were acquired by looking for FSBO signs. Then the sellers agreed to an open listing and the agent would get both sides of the transaction once they had found a buyer. Knowledge of listings was often kept secret so that an agent would not lose the opportunity to sell a listing.
There was a lot of conflict around the onset of the MLS. Many small brokerages didn’t want to pay both the annual and monthly fees. In addition, individual agents also balked at this new expense. To make matters worse, different towns had different MLS’s requiring member ship in order to show a house in that town. This made it necessary to belong to several different MLS systems or to be good friends with someone who was.
Each MLS system printed their own copy of the listing information on a monthly basis. Initially, they were in loose-leaf books with 2-3 properties on a page. The print was small and there were no pictures. These books of some 500 pages or so were lugged around by the agents. On a weekly basis, changes regarding sold, pending, price, etc. were faxed to the offices and each agent was responsible for notating these in his/her master copy. Unless you called the listing agent prior to every appointment, you easily ran the risk of showing a property already under contract or withdrawn, etc.
Prior to the MLS, obtaining keys were not necessary. The owner was either at the property to provide access or left the door unlocked. Once the MLS came about, keys were collected for the lockbox and/or the office. Often these keys were stored conveniently and all-too- prominently on the office wall with name and address making it easy for inappropriate access. When agents didn’t belong to certain desired MLS systems, they borrowed other agent’s keys making it difficult to track who had actually viewed a property. In the early stages of lock boxes in the north, there were a lot of problems with the technology because they would malfunction with the freezing temperatures and snow.
Each listing had sign in sheet where the agent was to record name, agency, and time. The agent then called the owner for this information to then call the agent for showing feedback.
Alcohol consumption was widespread both in the offices and at open houses. It was common practice that their would be both a spread of food and a bar at open houses and it was typical that agents would visit several of these on a late afternoon or weekend day. In fact my mother lobbied with state representatives to outlaw the use of alcohol at open houses because of the liability issue. Some of the offices had reputations for 4:00 happy hour with some pretty famous customers sitting around drinking cocktails.
Thinking of the inconveniences and the additional work necessary in prior days that technology now does for us, may I be struck by lighting if I get caught complaining about some little snag in my work day. As I live in a town steeped with history, I am curious about the progression of our industry. A book that looks interesting is The Community Builders.
It is an ever-evolving industry and we will see what changes transpire in the upcoming 2010.
An Marshall, REALTOR
Prudential Network Realty
Extremely Full Service
www.AnMarshallOnTheMove.com
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email:an.marshall@prudentialnetworkrealty.com
www.staugustine.com
