Among the several dozen e-mails waiting for me when I came home was the following notification from the Arizona Republic. Keep in mind my last print ad was run sometime in February.

October 6, 2007

Dear Jonathan P:

The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com are continuously looking for ways to improve our products and service. Most recently, we have taken a look at our internal structure and processes and are excited to tell you about several changes we are making effective Monday, October 8, 2007.

The first change is that our sales organization will be restructured to focus on geographic areas of the valley. This new focus will allow us to become more knowledgeable about your business and the trends within your industry.  We have added category specialists to help you with specific online and luxury products as well.
The second exciting change is that we are restructuring to give our sales reps more support, striving to be more efficient and accurate. Our goal is to produce ads right the first time.  To assist you in reaching the appropriate person to place a new ad or make changes on a current ad, we now have one phone number for you to use.   Please call 602-444-2900 and you will be routed to the appropriate person to assist you.
Due to these changes, we will be moving account executives around and you may receive a call from a new account executive in our department who has been assigned your account to help us meet these efficiencies. If you do not receive a call or contact by Monday October 22, please contact me for any needs.
We appreciate your business and look forward to a long term business relationship. We look forward to hearing your feedback regarding our changes.

Diana L. Vowels
Director of Real Estate Advertising

The Jonathan P is a dead giveaway that my e-mail came from the local Realtor association (your dues at work!) since I inexplicably used my middle initial when I moved from the West Valley board to Phoenix two years back.

Putting that aside my response is very simple:

Dear Diana,

Print is dead. No one is using classified ads to find a home. They’re all online. So am I. To truly understand “my business”, as you put it, you need to accept that one basic fact.

Respectfully,

Jonathan P

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Great news arrived in the Google Reader this morning - FBS Systems has inked a three-year deal with the Arizona Regional MLS to replace the current Tempo system in use here in the Phoenix real estate market.

For those in the know, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

No more dealing with an MLS system that doesn’t realize Firefox exists (I can’t run searches based on elementary school districts, for example, because the entry form doesn’t register from Mozilla. The same goes for entering listings, changing status, etc.)

And I can assure you Michael Wurzer’s folks wouldn’t allow the same typo to remain on the system for months on end.

The change may not seem particularly relevant to the public at large but it absolutely is. While we generally determine our own destinies as real estate agents, we’re are limited by the technology and tools we’re able to access. While the current Tempo system has some decent features - Client Gateway, where automated listings can be sent to clients, springs to mind - the general inaccessibility is a major hassle.

For instance, I can’t access the MLS on my iPAQ because it’s not Tempo approved. From what I see, that issue will disappear with the new system and I’ll be able to answer client questions about certain properties almost instantly.

Anything that makes us more efficient only can help the consumer at large. FBS knows that. And amazingly enough, ARMLS realized that as well.

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