Corcoran Group enters new age of brokerage.

Ten years ago, I invited my brokers to a book burning party. The mission: To literally destroy 2,000 hand-written co-op and condo listings which, over the years, had been pain-stakingly accumulated and glued with great care into our "Bible" binders. The reason: The installation of a new computer system which, overnight, would outdate our binder method of storing information.

What resistance from my troops! Nearly one third of my brokers (the company was in its infancy and the staff then consisted of only 30 brokers) refused to hurl their precious listings on the pyre, wary of the new technology. Comfortable with the routine of compiling listings daily by-hand, the majority were skeptical about accepting the high-tech route and even after the installation, many continued to compile listings by-hand at home.

Today, stored on a DOS-based system, our computers contain more than 8,500 listings which are updated every day. An average of nine hundred new entries are now made daily by one person, as compared to a decade ago when it took four people to enter a quarter of that amount. The Corcoran Group's four offices - East Side, West Side, Downtown and Video Gallery - are virtually paperless. Personal computers, portable phones, voice mail, and fax machines have all contributed to this phenomenon, vastly improving our efficiency and revolutionizing the way we work. There is no resistance whatsoever to instituting the latest new computer upgrades because we have learned through experience how such advancements improve productivity and save time. Congratulations go to computer experts, of course, who have given us programs that are user-friendly, so that one needn't be a rocket scientist to access and/or input information.

What's New

Bloomberg Financial News network: The Corcoran Group has just gone online with Bloomberg's "Shopping" network, via which as many as 150,000 subscribers can access 150 of our exclusive listings of co-ops, condos and townhouses. We are already receiving calls from Wall Street brokers and analysts who have tapped into the "Real Estate New York" category and want further information.

Floorplans: In the first quarter of 1995, we will have the capability of viewing floorplans on our screens and faxing them, through our computers, directly to buyers. I shall probably hold another book burning party to divest ourselves of the volumes of floorplans we currently store in the office! This capability is a huge time saver, enabling us to eliminate requests for units that might have the desired square footage, but an undesirable layout.

E-Mail: In the "old days" brokers, like town criers, would make oral announcements in the office about changed listings. But with the entry of E-Mail, each broker can make these changes him or herself, as they occur and the entire staff is immediately apprised of the news on their PC's.

Paperless Office: Residential real estate brokerage is a business which, by its very nature, generates piles of paper-work. Mercifully, this is on the verge of changing upon the installation of a new computer program which will eliminate the need to fill out 30-40 forms on each property. I'm told this will cut our office paper generation by fifty percent.

What's In Place

Voice mail: What did we do in the days before voice mail? This 90s' phenomenon is truly suited for the residential real estate broker who literally works 24 hours a day. Anita Perrone, in charge of marketing at the Corcoran Group, often receives messages in the wee hours of morning from brokers who wish to comment on ads or discuss marketing ideas. What an advantage it is to be able to transact business whenever one so desires and not be restricted to conventional work hours.

Portable Phones: Cellular phones are de rigueur for more than half our agents. Many organize to have their calls forwarded to their cars in order to be kept continually in the loop en route.

Telecommuters: Twenty percent of our brokers rarely set foot in any of our four offices. Wired on their home IBM compatible PCs to our office mainframe, they prefer to telecommute for a variety of reasons. Some look after children and need flexible work hours, some find they are more efficient in the tranquillity of a home environment than in the competitive atmosphere of the office. In all cases, those brokers who are home-based are more productive than when they were based in the office. As computer networking capabilities become more sophisticated, they seem to have a positive impact on our brokers' lifestyles, offering them the flexibility to adapt work hours to personal time. Some people, temperamentally, are the most creative after midnight; some are more productive at home. The most successful are not restricted to time or place as long as they are "connected" in order to transact business. With networking, the era of the non-conformist has finally arrived.

Thanks to the computer, virtually all New York City brokers share listings. Ours is not the nationwide version of MLS, but a uniquely established New York version which has served to bring the brokerage community much closer together. The ability to do a search for the perfect property based on keying in parameters, in any order, such as: town-house/2 beds /2 baths /fireplace /garden /$600,000 /Upper West Side, is quite a coup, not to mention that those properties which fit the criteria are produced "within a twinkling of an eye."

It came as no surprise to me to learn that, on a per broker basis, our real estate gallery on the Upper West Side has proven to be the most successful Corcoran office this year. Fitting right in with the high-tech trend, the gallery provides an interactive means of shopping for real estate through informative videos and a library of New York City apartment floorplans. A staff of eight brokers, who man the gallery, field questions and offer advice. But they refrain from any aggressive selling, since the whole idea of the gallery is that it be a relaxing, interactive venue for viewing apartments. So here is where high-tech meets New Age. Since techology provides for us the kinds of atmospheres in which to work more efficiently, problem solve, relax, and create, our brokers are more productive, happier, richer, and more fulfilled. It's ironic that the ceremonial burning of our paper listings at the Corcoran Group way back in 1984, was the harbinger of our paperless offices today.