Remember when we used to walk properties with a camera and a legal pad?

I started in 2001 and I'd spend all Sunday driving around with a disposable camera taking photos of every for lease sign I could find, then hand-write each one into a binder. Now I just pull up a few apps on my phone and have comps from five different cities in ten minutes. Are we actually getting better deals now or just faster at missing the real details?

2 comments

2 Comments

hayden72012d ago

Man I feel this in my bones! It's the same thing everywhere now - we traded the slow, careful way of looking at stuff for speed and convenience, and I'm not sure we came out ahead. I see it at the grocery store too, people scanning barcodes with their phones instead of actually reading labels and checking what's in the box. The real details get lost when you're just looking at numbers on a screen instead of standing there with your own two eyes.

lilyfisher12d ago

My own two eyes have let me down so many times though. I once spent ten minutes comparing two jars of pasta sauce in the grocery store aisle, reading every single ingredient, only to get home and realize I grabbed the one I didn't want anyway because I put my reading glasses on top of the fridge that morning. Now I just snap a photo with my phone and zoom in like the visually challenged gremlin I am. Speed and convenience are my crutch, but your mileage may vary on whether that's a good thing.