Virtual Realty

NewsDay - 09/15/2000 - Friday - Page C 6

By Joe Catalano

LIKE A MAGICIAN preparing to do an amazing trick, Tayseer Razik instructs an onlooker in his Bayside real estate office to watch his computer screen closely as he demonstrates software available to his agents.

Razik, owner of RE/MAX Universal Real Estate, types in the Whitestone address of a seller's home. He then fills in the appropriate boxes, asking for all homes sold within a one-mile radius of the house during the past six months. A list of 16 homes appears. A color photo and detailed description of each is easily accessed along with a map showing each home's location.

The "print" icon is clicked. A 27-page comparable market analysis, complete with photos, property data, a cover letter and information about Razik's office, appears a few seconds later ready to be slipped into a plastic binder and handed to the seller.

When Razik was an agent back in 1983, it would take him an hour to prepare these kind of market analyses, which show homeowners what homes similar to their own have sold for so they can establish an asking price. Now, as an office owner, he has a program that allows agents to do the same task in minutes-the time it takes to heat water in a microwave oven for a cup of tea.

Desktop computers, the Internet, laptops, cell phones, pagers, e-mail, digital cameras and other technological wonders are all changing and streamlining how real estate agents do their jobs.

"Technology has made my job easier and more efficient," said Dianne Scalza, who does referral sales and is manager of Century 21 Benjamin Associates in Dix Hills. "I can reach any listing on MLS [Multiple Listing Service] by pointing and clicking." "Buyers now come to us having done the prep work that agents once did," added Patricia Petersen, president and chief executive officer of Daniel Gale Associates in Huntington.

Consumers can access the same MLS listings as its 15,000 member agents by logging onto www.mlslirealtor.com. Individual agency Web sites also include exclusives for sale by just that office. Agents are "no longer the keeper of the information," Scalza said.

Before Web sites, agents drove buyers to homes they thought purchasers might be interested in, said Jack Muratore, an associate broker with Coach Realty in Smithtown. Now buyers can pre-select homes before meeting the agent.

With sellers, Muratore does a listing presentation on his laptop to show owners what homes similar to theirs have been selling for. Muratore can even use his digital camera to snap a photo of the owner's home, download it onto his computer and have it on the screen as part of his presentation.

With a laptop and a cell phone, "I now have a portable office wherever I am," Scalza said.

The heart of an MLS member's computer is a new Internet-based system called MLS Stratus. It became available in January, said Jenny Natale, director of information systems for the Long Island Board of Realtors and the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island. It was designed with input from member agents and can be accessed only by them.

The system performs a multitude of tasks, Natale said. For example, it alerts agents to new listings. Agents can have a new listing, along with a photo, automatically e-mailed to a buyer who has expressed an interest in a home in that community with similar amenities.

Public records can be accessed to find out a home's taxes, who owns the property and how often it changed owners. Agents can also prepare a market analysis and do property searches with a few clicks of a mouse, Natale said.

"Stratus allows agents to serve 10 times more clients and give them all better service," said Bart Cafarella, senior regional manager of Prudential Long Island Realty. "It gives them more complete information and faster. You're not fumbling through paper." The system is "bringing the agent up to the level of the buyer" said Joseph Mottola, the Realtor board's chief executive. The average age of buyers nationwide is 38; for first-time buyers it's 31, he said. "These buyers were brought up with computers." However, the average age nationwide for agents is 50. They were weaned on bulky MLS listing books delivered biweekly to member offices with printed updates mailed nightly. Keeping track of everything took time. "The old joke was that the person with the best records had the worst sales," he said.

The realty board offers classes for agents to learn Stratus. In addition, individual offices have modified parts of Stratus to fit their own needs while also having their own software programs. They also provide in-office training.

But getting agents to use these tools hasn't always been easy.

For example, Dayton-Halstead, with three East End offices including one in Sag Harbor, has its own software that tracks who saw what house and what comments were made, said Diane Saatchi, president of the firm. For it to work, agents have to input information into the computer. Some agents, however, still write it down on paper. It's the newer agents entering the field who are embracing technology the quickest, she said.

But many veteran agents, like Muratore, are also taking computer classes.

"The consumer is demanding that an agent have knowledge in both real estate and computer technology," Muratore said.

Razik, 55, said he was "forced to learn" the new system. He didn't like being dependent on outside technical support. Today, he designs his own programs, making them easy for his 26 agents to use. All have computers at their desks where they are able to do things like design fliers, generate mailing address labels and create personal stationery in minutes.

"I do training every morning" to help them, he said. "I am addicted to technology," he said glancing at his new flat-screen computer monitor.

To jump-start the computer era in her firm, Petersen gave all 22 members of her management team laptops for Christmas two years ago. Today, more than 50 percent of the 300 agents in Daniel Gale's 12 offices have laptops and more than 80 percent are computer proficient, Petersen said.

When agents know how to use the technology, they are more professional, Saatchi said. She recalled how she recently typed the name of a real estate investor she didn't know into her computer as his incoming telephone call was being transferred to her line. The system brought up public records showing everything he owned and what he had paid. Before he said anything, Saatchi asked if he had considered selling one property that had greatly appreciated in value. He was stunned at her knowledge of his holdings, she said.

Technology enabled Lori Sunshine Harrow to leave the agency she was working for and open Sunshine Discount Realty, her own home-based, one-person real estate office in Dix Hills last year.

Harrow has two Web sites, including sunshinediscountrealty.com, that offer video tours of select properties. With a laptop, a cell phone and e-mail she is always reachable, Harrow said. If a new listing arrives while a buyer is in her car, she can show photos of the home and its interior on her laptop.

Daniel Gale now advertises its Web site-www.danielgale.com-on all of its advertising, literature and for-sale signs, Petersen said. To turn e-mail and Web-site responses into leads, all are fed to a coordinator. That person forwards them to agents who have passed an in-house "e-certification program" that has taught them how to use e-mail and attachments.

Some agents, such as broker associate Carlos Rabassa with RE/MAX Universal, have their own personal Web sites. Rabassa advertises homes on www.Newsday.com, Newsday's Internet edition, and has his Web address highlighted. Those who click on it are transferred to his site to learn more information about the property, Rabassa said.

Another new tool is the electronic lock box, Muratore said. It's a lock-like device that attaches to the front door of a seller's house. Instead of giving a selling agent a house key, a code is used to access the box and home. The box tracks which agents entered and when. It can be programed to deny entry at certain hours when the family is at home, he said.

Providing agents with the necessary tools and getting the information out to buyers and sellers, however, "costs us a great deal," Saatchi said. There are monthly charges for high-speed Internet lines as well as paying hardware and software technicians.

But the cost is worth it, she added. Besides the inquiries e-mail generates, it eliminates prejudices. The agent can't see what the buyer looks like who e-mails for information and sets an appointment. Likewise, e-mail documents everything an agent or consumer said or promised. In addition, the homes chosen by buyers via photos help to better define what a buyer wants, she said.

What's available today, however, is only the tip of the technological real estate iceberg, agents said.

By year's end, Prudential will begin giving their buyers and sellers their own personal Web pages, Cafarella said. Sellers will be able to track the status of their property 24 hours a day, while buyers will be able to review homes they've seen and check new listings.

Further into the future, Cafarella envisions Web-cam broadcasts where an agent shows live shots of a house to clients sitting in their office or home.

No matter what comes along, though, agents will still play a role in the buying and selling process, Mottola said. Technology provides more complete information faster. It's the agent who helps consumers analyze, apply and interpret what it means, he said.

Home is Where the Hand-Held Computer Is

Multiple Listing Service agents are now able to have their office's data in the palms of their hands.

In mid-August, MLS introduced its Stratus Unplugged system. All an agent needs is a hand-held computer and Internet access, said Jenny Natale, director of information systems for the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island.

No matter where agents are, they can pull up public records, such as what a home's property taxes are, get MLS updates of new properties and receive price changes on existing ones. They also can display information on any listing and access any Web site on the Internet.

This data, however, can be accessed only by agents who are MLS members, Natale said.

Joe Catalano is a freelance writer. He can be reached at joecat5@juno.com.