Recently, I went for the first time in many, many years to the National Association of Realtors Convention, held this year in New Orleans. Aside from sampling some great food, and looking at some lovely real estate in the French Quarter, I heard a lot about what's on the minds of Realtors around the United States. In no particular order:
--Trulia and Zillow, while getting lots of attention, are no panacea--they are wildly inaccurate in many cases. Although we know that their values are not too accurate, and consumers know that too, consumers don't seem to realize how many listings appear there when they are unavailable, or even sold. Consumers do a lot of searches that turn up listings not matching our Realtor.com results.
--Technology for our industry is abundant, but often comes with a steep learning curve, or is incompatible with other programs we already use. The Jetson-like devices I have been waiting to see are still not here.
--While the market is pretty flat for the year in most parts of the country, other places have largely said goodbye to short sales and foreclosures. Hurry up, Connecticut!
--We have as much in the way of politics in our industry as you could ever imagine. I couldn't bring myself to get interested enough to get outraged about much of it!
--People come to New Orleans to eat. And eat. And eat. And I thought New Haven was a foodie city. It is, but it doesn't get the same tourism. And I had no idea how many people take cruises out of the Port of New Orleans. I guess that means I'm pretty sheltered, up here in New England!
