As technology progresses, I continue to be fascinated with the way people interact with it. For example, recently a woman asked me for the name of a a good restaurant for dinner. As I explained my choice, she used her iPhone to pull up restaurants in the area but failed to find my pick in the list. When I described it, she and her husband said that it sounded perfect....but it wasn't on her phone. So I said if you can make one right turn and drive 2 miles you will be there....but it wasn't on her phone. Her husband listened as I said, "Go to the stop sign, turn right and go 2 miles"...but it wasn't on her phone. So she said, "It's not on my phone, I'll have to do a search". Undaunted, I said, "If you can go to the stop sign and turn right, you'll be there".
Nevertheless, she did a search.
Why am I telling you this? Because sometimes people to use technology beyond the point of making things easy, they just like to play with buttons and screens. That's why people use a phone to text when they could call.
As a Realtor, I've found that people would rather search through the MLS themselves than let a computer do the work for them. And they jump from website to website, scouring through the same information in different formats, establishing new accounts, creating new passwords, logging in, getting on email lists from agents, hoping that they can find something that has been overlooked by the computer. Or maybe I'm wrong and they just don't know what they want so looking at pictures may help. In any event, if you want to let the computer do the work for you, here's how it works.
Every property listed in our Regional Multiple Listing Service is input by entering data into each field provided, some required and others optional. (Please read my other post Check Your Listing for details on this critical step). Therefore, once a property is in the MLS, you can automate a search to watch for properties that meet predesignated criteria...assuming the listing agent input the data correctly. (Please read my other post Check Your Listing for details on this critical step).
So, if you don't get a thrill from clicking your mouse or would rather watch TV, visit with your spouse, play with your kids, play golf, sleep, work, wash the car or anything else, you can have the computer monitor the MLS for you using Automatic Notification. The link to set this up in on my HOME page at http://www.coastalfloridarealestate.net/.
Basically, you just load in the criteria of the properties you want to search for (such as size, bedrooms, baths, pool Y/N, price, etc.), the computer searches and sends you all the initial matches (which could be hundreds if the search is not specific enough). From that point on, any time one of the search criteria changes and meets what you have asked for, you receive an email.
You can be notified immediately, once a day, once a week or whenever you want. It puts control in your hands.
You can still get a mouse-clicking thrill by going through the choices sent to you, but you don't have to do all the heavy lifting. On the other hand....
If you still want to do it all yourself, I have provided 3 options on my HOME page for you to access the info. To borrow a line from Home Depot: "You can do it, we can help".
