Sabrina: I am very, very passionate about technology and real estate equally. I find that in the real estate industry, a lot of people just treat it like a side job and not really as a business. They feel like, “Oh, I can just go and do 2 or 3 transactions each year, and I’m good with that.”
I never went into real estate as a part time agent. I’ve been a full time agent for 12 years since I got my license. That is what I do for a living.
When I cooperate with these other Realtors on the other side of the transaction and I see the way they operate and mismanage their business, it gets quite frustrating for me because I’m very detail-oriented, I’m very organized. I basically end up teaching and coaching them throughout the real estate transaction without them even knowing it.
Let’s just say something really simple example. I get an offer on e-mail. The contract is in the form of a PDF. If something in that PDF is not correct, I’ll find myself either e-mailing them back or calling them back and giving them a few little tools and tips to say, “Hey, did you know that we could e-sign that contract by using the software called Authentisign?” They’re like, “Oh.”
It’s not the old school days of faxing an offer and then faxing the fax back to the person. Now we have the tool for electronic signatures. If they’re a newer agent, that might be something that their broker didn’t even teach them, not to mention all of the very, very detailed reports that we’re able to generate through the MLS systems that we have.
When we go out on interviews and appointments with sellers to list their house, I have a beautiful presentation that I created in Google presentation. It’s called Google Presentation, which is the equivalent of a PowerPoint.
Instead of me spending a thousand dollars a year on the latest Microsoft Office software, I can use the free Google platform and create just this professional, high-quality looking presentation using the Google platform with Google Presentation. That’s just a small example.
Craig: Yeah, that’s a really good example, too, of how to connect with other people in a way that they are helped and then they want to turn to you and say, “There must be more that I need to learn,” and that you’d be a good person to talk to to learn some of those things.
Sabrina: Exactly.
Craig: Sabrina, really enjoyed talking with you a little bit about the direction that you’re going. I think it’s always good to hear about people who, even though you changed directions in your career, you’re still able to leverage all that experience that you had and bring the technology back into a field where I’m sure there’s a lot of Realtors, like you said, who are part-timers, they’re just not technology-savvy. You can help the field and use both types of your own experience as well.
Is there any last thing that I maybe forgot to ask you about? Go ahead.
Sabrina: Yes, I want to add one more thing. The average Realtor, according to the National Association of Realtors, is 57 years old. Having said that, even if I just spoke to that audience as my target audience for real estate and technology, I would help change the direction of the real estate industry, because you think about those older people and their love for technology is so far and few between.
When I’m able to come in and take the time … And I have a lot of patience. People tell me I must have been a teacher in my former life, but I never was. I just know how to communicate with people on their level.
Even though I’m from New Jersey and, normally, I speak very quickly, when it comes to teaching and training, I’m very patient, I speak at a very slower phase so that they have a clear understanding of what I’m talking about. Then, not to mention, the hands-on effect that just even one boot camp had changed the way that people do business.
That, in itself, it just gives me joy at the end of my presentation each time, where somebody just walks away and feels like the light bulb just went off and they can go and be more productive, not to mention more profitable in their businesses. That’s what excites me.
Craig: Oh, that’s really nice because it’s always good that you’re able to start teaching helping people and get that feedback so then you keep wanting to do more and more.
Sabrina: Yes.
Craig: Sabrina, like I said, I definitely appreciate talking with you today. I know that we’re going to be seeing more of you, both teaching and in conjunction with Google there in Atlanta and probably teaching quite a bit in your local community as well, as more people find out that you have this ability to help them marry their technology with real estate.
Sabrina: Yes, absolutely. I’m very excited also that I was just chosen as a mentor for an organization that works with high school students. They basically help them enter into different fields that they’ve identified that they want to study in college, and one of them was real estate.
