I was reviewing my notes from Real Estate Connect and noticed a couple of quotes I wrote down that I thought was interesting.

“We are focused on real-time real estate.” – Lennox Scott, CEO, John L Scott Real Estate

I said in my last post that I think real-time is interesting. That’s what people buy mobile computers for anyway, right? Piece of data from a report done by the WAV Group says that “78% of the time, consumers will work with the first agent that gets back to them.” It goes on to say that the typical realtor responds in 2 to 52 hours while the average consumer expects a response within 30 minutes. Oops.

I have to wonder, by the way. Wouldn’t it be nice if business was really that easy? Generate a lead, respond immediately and the deal is mine 4 out of 5 times. Me thinks there is something missing in the translation!

“The web is about people connecting. The difference between today and 20 years ago is the speed.” – Alex Perriello, CEO, Reology

A presenter at the show (not Alex) commented that his parent’s generation (baby boomers) would buy a house and then tell their friends while his generation would tell his friends, solicite feedback and then buy the house. Ah… the social networking crowd.

The speed part is true, though. It is changing everyone’s business. Here at Infinity Softworks we are taking steps internally to be able to handle support from a BlackBerry. Hey, we sell mobile products. Why shouldn’t we be mobile? But most importantly, it allows us to respond very quickly to enquiries. All this blather about how to make customers more loyal. Easy answer. Make useful products, charge reasonable prices, treat customers with respect, respond quickly and accurately when they ask a question. Doesn’t seem so hard.

Another aside — I wonder if social networking will be as popular as these late teens/early 20-somethings get older. I find I barely have time for my handful of close friends and family, let alone 100 other associates on the web. A different kind of friendship, I guess. My day consists of work, wife, daughter, sleeping and eating, not necessarily in that order. For the other five minutes…

“At the end of the day, [business success] is all about perseverence.” – Russ Capper, Prudential Real Estate

The show wasn’t huge. There were maybe 1,000 or 2,000 people there so I would see the same people walking the halls. One person I noticed was walking around with crutches. I’m assuming he had cerebral palsy or MS or something similar. But he was there, attending seminars, talking to vendors and making the most of the show.

At one point, he was walking between a couple of people talking and a sign, got a little close to the sign and tripped over it. The sign was on a light-weight stand. For most of us, we would have knocked the sign down but for him, he lost his balance and went straight down.

The two people talking stopped, went to help him up and then stopped when they realized that he was going to help himself. The man grabbed his crutches, stood himself up, said something polite to the two people and kept going. He wasn’t embarrased at all. The whole event happened with more dignity than I could have mustered.

As he walked away, all I could think of was Mr. Caper’s comment.