Brooklyn Secret Agent: Before the Internet and Cell Phones

Today we bring you the second of an anonymous weekly column about real estate by one of the most experienced agents in Brooklyn:
The real estate agent’s work world has changed so much over the last 15 years, I thought it might be amusing to describe some of the changes. It is obvious that the Internet changed everything, as it did for so many businesses. But there have been other changes, too.

We used to have a secretary who fielded all incoming calls — the office had just one phone number. You picked up Line 1, or Line 2, etc.  Nothing was more fun than arriving at work to a pile of pink “While You Were Out” slips. The thing I find most astounding in hindsight is that if you were not in the office, you simply could not be reached! How did we get away with that?

Our listings were written on 4-by-6-inch index cards and filed in a flip book. There was a book for one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms, three-plus-bedrooms, and houses for each neighborhood. The plastic sleeves in the books cut your fingers. One agent actually wore finger condoms. A lot of time was wasted hunting for those books.

When a seller gave an exclusive to our firm, only buyers who came directly to the firm could see the listing. There was no sharing whatsoever. Again in hindsight, how was that good for anyone but the broker? The seller had limited customers and the buyer had to run around registering with every firm. When we finally went to full sharing via the Real Estate Board of New York, it became obvious that a system that is best for your customers is the only way to grow your business.

Advertising in the classified section of the New York Times was our lifeblood. We fought for space and labored over the three-line ads. An especially high-priced property got four lines. A selling point to potential sellers was how large a banner headed our column of ads. There was even an ad agency employed by the firm to place the ads. I hope all those folks have found jobs in the digital world.

The biggest change is the way all information about sales past and present is easily accessed. Between public records and the sites that aggregate information, there is almost nothing that can’t be discovered. For the most part, the information is correct, too. It was that change that led to predictions that there will be no more real estate agents. But it hasn’t happened — there are more licensees in New York City than ever before. Why?

Sellers still want someone with sales experience to manage the process for them. They still want pricing advice, screening of buyers, careful management of multiple offers, and a beautiful on-line presentation of their home. Buyers, while doing a lot of search work themselves, still need to gain entrance to properties and still want some space between themselves and the seller to negotiate as hard as they can. Voila: a Brooklyn community of thriving and competitive real estate agents. And while the barriers to entry in this business are virtually none, the changes described above have made it harder to succeed. You’d better work at least as hard as your buyers and sellers do in their worlds, and you’d better embrace the changes that come our way every day.