Property Point

A mate of mine has got one of those modern cars that never shut up. It can’t keep secrets either.
He works in the city and when he jumps in the car around 11.30am on a weekday, it announces: “The Austral Hotel is three minutes away.”
A bit forward, in my view. The car thinks it knows him pretty well and feels it can predict where he is going and what he’s likely to be up to. My friend would like to hear a bit less talk and a bit more keeping your thoughts to yourself, thank you.
But in the world of artificial intelligence and digital everything there are all sorts of traps and challenges.
I walked past a busker outside a shopping centre the other day and couldn’t toss him a coin because I don’t carry cash these days.
The business model of a busker has to have changed now that people like me tap their phones to pay for everything. Do buskers now need an Eftpos device? It’s not really the same.
We all face challenges of the modern world. Technology helps us, so it is important that we understand it and make the best use of it that we can.
That is definitely the case in real estate, where we now use drones for photos and digital sites and social media for a large portion of the advertising.
But I feel there is a general push for “back to basics” service.
There have been a couple of elections this year that I feel were decided by the “back to basics” demands of voters. First the Queensland State election and then the US election.
Rather than focusing on fringe issues and agendas identified by the woke brigade, voters were more interested in cost of living, the economy, the rule of law and feeling safe. Bill Clinton summed it up years ago when he was running for president and said: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
When people went to vote this year they wanted candidates to show they were going to focus on them and the basic, important things that really affect their lives … not the peripheral stuff.
Those of us in business, and definitely in real estate, need to remember that among all the digital wizardry that is part of what we do, the basics still count.
Taking and returning phone calls, providing information that buyers and sellers need, being friendly and available no matter how busy and stressful our jobs can be.
The algorithms that help us target potential buyers for a property on social media are important and must be used. But they don’t replace the “back to basics” work that we need to do.
I recently advertised a property for sale in this magazine. It was slightly out of the Mackay suburban area so many potential buyers hadn’t gone on to the digital sites and searched under that particular suburb.
Those buyers saw the property in this magazine after flicking to the real estate section. It wasn’t in the suburbs they had been looking in on the digital sites. But they came across it in the magazine and it ticked the boxes in terms of size, features and still being close to town.
It was a great sale that relied on getting the basics right and making use of a bit of traditional advertising.
Speaking of tradition, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This will be my final column for the year and I look forward to refreshing and being back on these pages next year.
Meanwhile I need to try to find a coin for the Christmas pudding … you definitely can’t do that with a digital scanner.

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