The Electronic Whiteboard of Real Estate

The whiteboard is a corporate icon. 

Collaboration, ideas, concepts and workgroups. 

We progressed from the old newsprint paper flip chart to melamine covered boards on wheels, to whole conference room walls. Then we got fancy.  The electronic whiteboard - you could write and print! The ultimate. Expensive though - the price has come down over the years and now you can buy your very own brand new electronic whiteboard starting at about $3,000.

Each year electronic whiteboard manufacturers add new features, print in colour, a USB port, a laser printer, whatever. Fancier and fancier.

This is the 200 Square electronic whiteboard. 

It has a funky retro design aesthetic, but with about 10 times the features and functions of most electronic whiteboards on the market today (actually maybe 100 times).  

Like all fancy modern whiteboards it has its own remote.

Our whiteboard is so cool it even takes pictures of itself.

The market for electronic whiteboards is basically education and corporates. But, in our office everyone has their own personal remote they can use anywhere (we do recommend they write on a surface where it can be removed - most of the time anyway).

Yep, we just take a pic, email it, share it, post it on facebook, manipulate it with fancy graphics (the tech guys mostly), whatever.  We all have an electronic whiteboard in our pocket.

Why does anyone buy an electronic whiteboard these days when there are better, cheaper, faster solutions?

Is it habit? 
Is it comfort? We’ve always had whiteboards.
Is it not understanding the modern world? What if people don’t have a phone?
Is not knowing the alternatives?
Is it a lack of lateral thinking?

Like traditional real estate in many ways.  The industry keeps adding features and technology to the agent in the field so they can read information out to clients, when Trade Me, www.realestate.co.nz and the internet in general means the client is probably better informed.  

Is the commission only agent standing in the living room the electronic whiteboard of real estate?

For many home owners, it’s always been that way and they perhaps don’t realise yet there are better alternatives. 

But they will.