The best invention of the decade

On my look back over the last decade I can not ignore all of the inovations that have made life better for all of us.  Mobile apps come to mind and of course the internet which was not invented in the last decade but there is far more real estate data and information available to consumers than there was at the begining of the decade.   High speed internet access is far more common than it was a decade ago and that literally speeds up the home buying process.  

In my humble opinion one of the very best inventions of the decade for consumers was the do not call list.

The cold call is still taught to Real estate agents and some still use it. We are not above the law and if your number is on the do not call list agents should not be calling you without your permission and it is in violation of the rules to call and then apologize or to say that we don’t have the do not call list.  It is up to each agent to get a copy of the list and some real estate companies provide them.

When the do not call list came out it wreaked havoc in the real estate industry.   A good hard working Realtor was supposed to make calls each day so that they could get more listings.    If an agent did not have enough business their broker would ask them if they were making enough calls each week.

The script was pretty simple.  Agents would call and say that they had buyers looking for a home in the area and ask if the home owner knew anyone who wanted to sell their house.  It is a numbers game,  if a sales person consistently calls enough people every day the calls will result in listings. 

There are fewer home phones these days.  I still have one but I don’t answer it.  I have had the same number for decades and I guess I worry that some relative or friend that I lost touch with will call.  Most of the calls are from non-profits asking for donations or are robo calls.