My Life as a Realtor from 1985 through 2022!

My Life as a Realtor from 1985 through 2022!

I got my license back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. There were only 470,241 agents in Florida in 1985. Now there are 5 million both active and inactive in the state! I have been with Coldwell Banker for 27 of those 35 years and have been very happy for all that time! I made a lot of good friends and sold a house or two along the way.

Back in 1985 there were no computers, no fax machines, no copiers, No BIG BROWN, no cell phones, no virtual MLS or TAX ROLLS, no electronic lockboxes (the few lockboxes that existed were not push button but rather like the twisty combo kind and the code was always “SPI”). Most of the time we had to pickup what were called “courtesy keys’ from the offices who had the listings and God help us if those keys weren’t returned the same day!

We had to look up home owner’s names and addresses on microfiche and find new listings in BOOKS. The books were multi-colored in yellow, green, blue, and orange. There was ONE picture of each property in the ORANGE residential books. Every photo was in black and white! The MLS photographer was a kick in the head. He always had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and was a funny curmudgeonly sort of guy! I distinctly remember the day when the MLS went live in MS DOS! No pictures but at least we could print out something once one printer magically appeared in the office! All I can say was thank heavens for MICROSOFT!

The days when we that we went to 2 color pictures, then 4, then 8, then 16, then 32 I thought my life had changed forever! Well there you have it a Realtor’s life in 1985! It wasn’t easy back in the Dark Ages. Somehow we muddled through and still sold houses. I saved a few of the orange books from back in the day. They cause raucous laughter whenever I show them to new agents.

New agents in 2021-2022 will never know what we went through back then yet I am here to remind everyone just how lucky they are with the myriad of new devices and the methods of self-promotion that are literally at their fingertips!

One last thing! We had to wait 6-weeks before we found out the results of our exams. If you received a fat envelope in the mail you had to retake the test. If you got an skinny envelope in the mail that meant you did get your license the first time around! Such misty memories of days gone by! I hope that I have provided a laugh or two along the way.

Experience is a dear teacher! For the best service in the business call me or text me to 954-647-3694 or reach out to me by email @ laura.swanberg@floridamoves.com!