THE RENTAL STORY:
Did you know that a rental contract was only 2 short pages? We took one photo and put a sign in the yard (not even a very pretty one)! No website in the early 90’s!!! People came to our office to ask for our “rental list”. We did check a few things in regard to an application, but mostly if you had money and had a job you were good to rent!
Did you know that prospective tenants did not negotiate rental prices OR ask us to paint or clean ANYTHING! They seemed to appreciate just being able to find a rental home! We only managed houses, mobile homes or duplexes, not apartments. Some properties required security deposits and others did not!
Did you know that property owners were so happy and grateful to us for everything we did? We photographed their property and placed the sign, found a tenant, signed a contract, copied a key, collected the funds, called a repair person when needed, paid the invoices and sent them a check at the end of the month. And occasionally, we had to file for eviction!!!
THE REAL ESTATE MARKET STORY:
Did you know there were no publicly accessed multiple listing sites? No Realtor.com! No Zillow.com or any others. How did one access what was available for sale? You found a real estate agent. This could be a sales agent or a broker (this required further education and one could be a business owner with this title).
Did you know a real estate agent found listings for buyers with a book published twice a month? We had this precious book with the tissue-like pages of a phone book! This book had one photo of the house (maybe), an address, a price and a little information about the properties which were grouped by towns. We would talk with you, determine what you might be interested in, set the appointments, drive over to the listing agent’s office to pick up the keys (which we had to return after the showing) and finally we start driving you in our car to the showings. As Bill Gallagher (a real estate instructor at Superior Real Estate) says, “Hauling and hoping, hoping and hauling.”
Did you know that a sales contract was legal sized and two pages long with tiny type? And are you old enough to know about carbon copies? We had to use carbon sheets between the contracts when we wrote in any information or signed the contract because we needed multiple copies. The contracts were done in the home you planned to purchase or on the top of your car, in a restaurant or lastly possibly in your office! These were written immediately! (For the all those who use email and may be too young to know, the cc when you copy another person means “carbon copy”!)
So now you know just how far the real estate industry has progressed in 30 years. The commissions remain pretty much the same although the homes are more highly priced. The requirements and expectations are oh so much greater. Our multiple listing sites allow 25 photos which are shared to many websites! We still use lawn signs, facilitate multiple inspections and contracts that are a minimum of 14 pages (before the addendums). Prospective tenants and buyers now locate possible properties of interest on the internet and advise us on what they’d like to see. Tenants are even able to view vacant homes without an agent! Most often, this in not the right property, but gets you connected to us, the professional real estate agent who still walks you through your intricate and involved contract and process! What will happen to real estate in the next 30 years???