“The More Things Change . . .”
[Editor’s Note: In honor of Twitter’s IPO tomorrow, I thought it was timely to re-run this post from more than 4(!) years ago, offering my perspective on how technology and specifically social media are impacting residential real estate. P.S.: Oh — and I was right about Susan Boyle, too (remember her?). Enjoy!]
Taken to their logical conclusion, innovations like Twitter are inevitably leading us, I suppose, to some sort of real-time, Borg-like mind meld (my apologies to Star Trek fans).
And certainly, advancing technology is affecting how real estate is bought and sold (more posts on that in the works).
However, I think it’s fair to say that a good percentage of the advances relate to the speed and reach of people’s communication.
So, Susan Boyle is a nobody yesterday, and famous today (and back to a nobody tomorrow?). Or, the street riots in Tehran are on display worldwide, notwithstanding the regime’s efforts to suppress eyewitness accounts.
In the meantime, real estate itself is surprisingly technology-resistant.
At the end of the (24-7) day, it’s still about bricks-and-mortar, or land, or some combination thereof. That’s so even if the “bricks-and-mortar” are now high-tech composites, and the central nervous systems of buildings — homes included — are increasingly sophisticated.
“Nothing New Under the Sun”
I find that both a bit of a relief, and reassuring.
It reminds me of an experience I had in law school, when I argued a real estate case in moot court (simulated courtroom practice for novice attorneys, in front of a panel of attorney-judges).
Although I did well, advancing three rounds, I remember being thrown by one of the judge’s questions.
In particular, he wanted to know why I couldn’t cite any legal authority more recent than 1892 to support one of my arguments.
A bit flustered, I said that, actually, that still appeared to be the governing precedent.
Afterwards, the judge came up to me, and told me I should have “stuck to my guns” when he had pressed me.
“A century-old case is recent when it comes to real estate law,” he pointed out (correctly).