Professional Report - 1st Quarter 2012

the computer, he’ll never find it again. You ask me six months from
now what happened at that meeting, I can search it on my iPhone and
bring up the notes.”
Schacker also likes the new QR Codes technology. QR, which
stands for Quick Response, is a four-square icon found in adver-
tisements that works similarly to the bar code found on items in the
supermarket. You scan the icon with your smartphone and it, for real
estate purposes, drives you to a single property website where you
can ascertain more information and pictures about the property you
might be interested in. “You put that QR code on a sign or an adver-
tisement, so somebody reading it can be directed to where you want
the viewer to go to find information,” says Schacker.

Another technology that has become popular is cloud computing (storing files on a server far, far away), which is most readily available through programs like the Dropbox. Dropbox makes all your files available to you from any computer or smartphone. Installation of the software creates a special folder on the computer and anything added to this Dropbox folder will automatically save to all your computers and to the Dropbox website.

“I’m not an iPad freak, but things like Dropbox and the on-the-
spot research definitely enhance your abilities and portability,” says
Schacker. “Instead of bringing a flyer, I just bring my iPad and
show the client the information about the building and then e-mail
the information.”
“Our company does not allow us to use Dropbox, but we use cloud
service,” says Jeff Bender, SIOR, CCIM, a principal and senior vice
president with Cassidy Turley in Cincinatti. “We tend to do a lot of
things that get uploaded to a cloud site. We have this program that
allows us to store documents (in the cloud) as big as we want.”
In the old days, if you had a 300-page policy or, even worse, an
environmental audit that was an inch and a half thick, it’s too big to
e-mail so you had to make a copy and stick it in an overnight to the
client, says Bender. “Now you can scan, upload and make it instantly
available to the client.”
In the old days, if you had a 300-page policy or, even worse, an
environmental audit that was an inch and a half thick, it’s too big to
e-mail so you had to make a copy and stick it in an overnight to the
client, says Bender. “Now you can scan, upload and make it instantly
available to the client.”
Not only is this a more thorough way to do business, but it saves
time, Bender asserts. “As a seller you can assemble all of those docu-
ments before you go to market. As soon as the buyer says do you
have this or that, you have it all and can immediatley pull it up on
your smartphone.”
The thing about technology is that it can cut both ways—be useful
or not. “I made a presentation to a steel company and afterward while
speaking to them, they said our competition didn’t show the level of
technology that we depicted,” recalls Waters. “This was a major coup
for us. We showed that we were not only using our noodle but lever-
aging technology. If you don’t use technology, it can be a detriment.”
On the other hand, Waters points out, there is a broker in his New
York office making $2 million a year. “He does not use the computer
or e-mail,” Waters observes. “He uses a cellphone. His secretary takes
messages on pink papers and puts them on his desk. Why do some-
thing differently when your method makes you plenty of money.”
Well, because technology has made the business faster. In deal-
making, time kills.