From Dealer's Notebook to Search Filters: How Home Hunting Evolved
Consider two weekends about twenty years apart. In the first one, a family needs to buy a three-bedroom apartment. On Saturday morning, they call up their local dealer who talks of two apartments. Then they visit both and spend Sunday running after a third through some family connection. At the end of the day, they’re exhausted but have no idea if the prices mentioned were reasonable. In the second weekend, a similar family picks up a mobile on Friday night and by dinner time, they’ve saved eight homes, made comparisons of price per sq ft and ruled out five. The next day is spent visiting the remaining three. Same objective, very different experience. This article considers the difference and what we gained and lost because of it. What the Offline Era Did Well The simplicity with which old methods can be described using terms like "slow" shows the value they once provided to us. Knowledge gained locally. An agent who works the same few streets year after year will know whic...