Socialize
I attended Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco this past Wednesday, where I heard Brad Inman give an interesting talk on nomadic culture, inspired by an article in The Economist and his recent purchase of a new IPhone. He highlighted three trends which are here to stay and will have great impact on real estate: 1) universal wireless 2) smart cell phones and 3) cloud computing.
More people (3 billion or half the world’s population) have cell phones than personal computers – making this trend transformative. The impact is beyond the home office or “flat world” with outsourcing employment globally.
Our son Jim Pennington is a good example of the growing nomadic culture. He is an entrepreneur who manages a growing business training pilots who need to earn various aviation type ratings. Jim has a officeless, paperless business and is always on the go, but never out of touch. His cell phone is in constant use with the internet, text messaging, email, GPS, music entertainment, videos and oh yes… voice communication. Jim has a home in Scottsdale, AZ, but he could live anywhere.
Jet Blue reservation system is now done by employees who work entirely from home rather than commute to an office. They may be sitting in their family room conducting business on their flat screen television monitor. Companies that have investments in office buildings and corporate infrastructure will slowly adopt a less geographically fixed employment model.
In terms of real estate, I predict that a rising “nomadic culture” will further release employees to live wherever they want, so “quality of life” and affordability of local communities will become even more important.
For years I have studied why certain regions like silicon valley and communities like Saratoga flourish and grow stronger, while other outlying communities languish and don’t grow. I have come to understand that part of “quality of life” is proximity to the richness of personal interactions, culture, medical care, personal safety, drug-free and pressure-less environments for raising children, educational opportunities and employment that urban areas offer so I don’t see a rapid urban/rural shift. The cost of fuel, housing affordability, a slower pace of life and attraction of friendly smaller communities will cause a gradual exodus to smaller towns.
Face-to-face contact will always be essential, but personal business slowly networks will become flatter and geographically broader. It may take a generation – note the predominance of cell phone use in The Economist article among those under 25 years of age.
Face-to-face contact is particularly true for real estate professionals and their clients. Blogging allows potential clients to get to know the personality of an agent writing a blog, so they “know” the agent fairly well before they ever meet. This puts the burden on the agent of taking the time to learn about their client’s specific needs, once they do meet. Call Rick Bonetti at 408-857-8800 if you would like to set an appointment.
This potential of “constant, immediate, global connectivity” will present new sociological challenges for people to keep their lives in balance. People are always more important to technology, which should serve to create meaningful personal connection. Manners will have to be refined around technology so we remain a courteous and gracious society.