There are some fascinating things in here, so it’s well worth a read. For example, Teena feels she gets more leads than the office-based agents.Read on to find out why.

NOTE: Because Teena is a guest on this blog, I would like to ask the more aggressive commentators on business2.com.au to be gentle to Teena and grateful that she has been willing to share a bit of herself with us.

Q. Teena, tell us about your career trajectory. How did you end up a Road Warrior?

A. My background prior to real estate for 26 years was photographic processing & printing, marketing, graphic artwork and design. I have been in real estate for 8 years, worked originally at a traditional suburban real estate office and the impetus to make me move to Coldwell Banker Property Direct (CBPD) in May 2006 was the need to be more “independent.” I was looking for a company who showed something a little different from the other offices.  I had outgrown the office I was working at and wanted to operate and function in a different number of areas [ geographically speaking as well as career-wise ] which I wasn’t allowed to do, nor encouraged to do and CBPD offered the opportunity I was looking for.

Q. You have said that CBPD calls Road Warriors like yourself “Suburb Agents”.  How do suburb agents fit into CBPD’s business?

A. The original “suburb agents” model for CBPD came about I believe because the company saw the need to expand in the area of residential suburb sales. The office actually specialises in inner city projects and apartment sales, so the suburb model came in as a separate department. The suburb agents appointed have all had a number of years experience in suburban offices, and we were all looking to be independent operators as such, working the majority of our time out of our specific suburbs.

Q. What sort of properties and number of transactions you work on?

A. I cover a wide selection of property sale types including acreage, residential, house and land packages, land, land developments, units, townhouses and seniors investment properties – as well as personally handling property management on the Northside of Brisbane. Due to the range of properties I work on, I cover a range of property type contracts and documents and I have to be conversive in all of the areas I am dealing with. This diversity in itself makes for a busy daily schedule but I find it rewarding and like to cover as many facets of real estate as I can.The number of transactions I work on vary, and it has been quieter of late, but I am currently waiting on around 8 sales to settle over the next 2-3 months.

Q. Do you personally like being a suburb agent and how does it compare to being a traditional agent?

A. I love being a suburb agent. Personally, it gives me the independence I need as well as the mobility to list and sell in a wider range of arenas. The main difference is probably not having to drive to and then “walk” into the traditional office each day but – because the Virtual Assistance system is in place – we can operate for the office, away from the office and still have the admin and sales support if and when we need it.The other advantage is that I receive a higher percentage of commission than if I was working out of a traditional office – because I do have the separate associated costs and expenditure from operating the way I do.

Q. Do you feel you lose anything by being suburb-based?

A. I don’t feel that I have lost anything in becoming a suburb agent – only most of the time I work longer hours because it’s only 10 steps to my office – you can’t just lock the office and walk away as easily. I am mobile and take my office with me wherever I go. Being productive is very personal I believe for a suburb agent; self motivation is imperative and you need to be fairly disciplined in your plans and systems. I consider that I am running the office from my home office. I have all the necessary equipment, computers, printers, scanners, copiers etc that a normal office has and have access to the web based systems which aid me to operate autonomously.

Q. Do you get the same number of leads from the office as the other agents?

A. The majority of my enquiries come from the internet. I get the same number of leads if not more than if I was in a traditional office, because they are coming directly to me and the enquiries I get are generally very specific so I am responding to these enquiries usually quicker than normal and on a more personal basis.

Q. Describe a typical day. What technology do you use? How is your job different than that of an office-bound agent?

A. A typical day for me starts around 6.00am, I spend about an hour having breakfast and playing housekeeper. I then spend the next 1-2 hours answering emails and sorting out my plan of attack for the day. If I have no early appointments I spend a couple of hours doing paperwork as in scanning whatever needs to be scanned and emailed to the office, updating the internet information and I try and arrange appointments for mid morning to early afternoon, but this of course depends on what the appointments are for.I have a couple of days each week where I am out and about most of the day, either letterbox dropping, door knocking, or researching properties, photographing what needs to be photographed and calling in to visit past and prospective clients or businesses. What I have had to force myself to do though is make time for lunch and coffee breaks away from my desk, which is not always easy to do, because I’m a bit of a workaholic. But I have realised that it is necessary to have that time out. Back in my office I spend the rest of the time doing phone calls, internet research, answering emails, creating flyers, brochure and letters for advertising, posting and letterbox drops. If I have late appointments, as in anything from 5.30 pm onwards, I generally finish off things after dinner and would normally get back online until later in the evening. Saturdays I am out most of the day organising and doing Open Homes and inspections.

Q. Do you have a boss?

A. I do not see my days as anything different from an “office – bound agent” except that I do not have to “report” to anyone as such. Dave [ MD Of Coldwell Banker Property Direct ] overseas all the suburb agents activities as we operate under his licence as Principal Licensee and are “supervised” in the respect that we regularly make contact with him to keep him updated of what we’re doing. Plus he has full access to my activities via email and our Virtual Assistant program. We regularly attend sales and training meetings in the office as well as teleconferencing between ourselves. We all were then registered salespeople and we now all have completed our full licenses, another concept CBPD has encouraged with their corporate and in-house training.I have no set hours or roster and can arrange my appointments to suit. I have a PDA, access my emails and messages wherever I may be, so am truly mobile in that sense.

Q. What online marketing do you do? How important is it to you?

A. Online marketing is vitally important to me – I need to be able to get my listings out there so I can generate the enquiries, plus they need to be effective and look good. I spend a lot of time researching other sites and listings to see if I can improve on what I have. Plus, I routinely add my URLs to google-add-url to increase visits to my site and my listings on a selection of the real estate sites the office subscribes to. Currently we subscribe to over 15 sites as well as several international sites, so I look for coverage and spread. I ask for Vendor advertising and usually obtain it, by offering a selection of reasonable options and prices including internet Feature Properties and Priority Placement, as well as print media and monthly realtor publications.

Q. How do you see your job changing in future?

A. I see it becoming more and more internet based. More mobile with the laptop and pda and more versatile because of my mobility.I see it increasing with regards to extending the number of sites I subscribe to, as well as offering the full range of real estate related services. I have very good contacts within the finance and building sector and see that aspect pushed further as well, with more and more agents being able to offer these extended services from reputable and trusted businesses. I do believe, however, that the personal contact is important to developing and maintaining a sound referral database.

Q. How do you see technology changing your job?

A. I believe the options for an agent like myself become greater with technological advancements – and because of the increase in advancements – a more viable and mobile economic business system. I am a self-confessed internet geek and love the opportunity it presents to display and market myself and my listings as well as the research and information it provides. With regards to accessing a larger number of people by having to do less, as in bulk emailing and databasing I believe this is more time and cost effective, hoping to work smarter by using technology better. I know principals who have been in the industry for many years who either are disdainful of the advances or fear them because they feel the traditional real estate agent is being lost in the scheme of things. Or maybe they feel they are losing control if the agent is not within their office walls.Not so: real estate will always be the essence of what it is – land and bricks and mortar – but the way we do real estate has to evolve.I also know many agents who embrace these changes for what they really are – improvements to enhance our lives. Real estate is not just a job to me, it’s a lifestyle, a career and an adventure.

TED has now released the Top Ten Talks of all time, I am sure this will be updated in the future, but it brings together some great insights and I hope you enjoy watching these. There are hundreds of talks here but listed below are the TOP Ten as voted by readers. You will see a young guy  (Jeff Han) whose technology is now used in everything from Microsoft’s Surface Technology to the iPhone.

1. Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness –- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

[TEDTALKS JILLTAYLOR-2008_high.flv]

2. Jeff Han: Unveiling the genius of multi-touch interface design
Jeff Han shows off a cheap, scalable multi-touch and pressure-sensitive computer screen interface that may spell the end of point-and-click.

[TEDTALKS JEFFHAN_high.flv]

3. David Gallo: Underwater astonishments
David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a color-shifting cuttlefish, a perfectly camouflaged octopus, and a Times Square’s worth of neon light displays from fish who live in the blackest depths of the ocean.

[TEDTALKS DAVIDGALLO-2007_high.flv]

4. Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo
Blaise Aguera y Arcas leads a dazzling demo of Photosynth, software that could transform the way we look at digital images. Using still photos culled from the Web, Photosynth builds breathtaking dreamscapes and lets us navigate them.

[TEDTALKS BLAISEAGUERAYARCAS-2007_high.flv]

5. Arthur Benjamin: Lightning calculation and other “Mathemagic”
In a lively show, mathemagician Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares, solves another massive mental equation and guesses a few birthdays. How does he do it? He’ll tell you.

[TEDTALKS ARTHURBENJAMIN-2005_high.flv]

6. Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

[TEDTALKS SIRKENROBINSON_high.flv]

7. Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen
You’ve never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called “developing world.”

[TEDTALKS HANSROSLING_high.flv]

8. Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better
Tony Robbins discusses the “invisible forces” that motivate everyone’s actions — and high-fives Al Gore in the front row.

[TEDTALKS TONYROBBINS_high.flv]

9. Al Gore: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis
With the same humor and humanity he exuded in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways that individuals can address climate change immediately, from buying a hybrid to inventing a new, hotter “brand name” for global warming.

[TEDTALKS ALGORE_high.flv]

10. Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote
Building sophisticated educational tools out of cheap parts, Johnny Lee demos his cool Wii Remote hacks, which turn the $40 video game controller into a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer.

[TEDTALKS JOHNNYLEE-2008_high.flv]

There are many more, I hope this gives some inspiration

Still, the future always arrives.

From Peter Williams’ entire presentation the other day, there is one line that I can still quote from memory.

He said that, because of the web, in the future, “Traditional agents will not be replaced by technology…they will be replaced by agents with technology.”

Here’s an example. When my wife and I decided to relocate to Sydney from Manhattan, we didn’t have Saturday newspapers freight shipped to us from the other side of the world. We just got out the laptop.

In the eight or nine months that we were looking, we contacted many agents. Some never got back to us and some were slow to get back to us.

One of the few who did reply promptly is the one who ultimately got a nice commission from selling us the unit we now live in. He didn’t have to meet us in person to close the deal because we bought the unit sight unseen. We even used the mortgage broker he recommended for our loan.

This agent at least partially and profitably embraced the new technology that is changing the real estate business. He responded to an unlikely internet lead and shepherded it along until it turned into a commission. We felt he had done a good job and communicated well throughout the process.

It’s not all roses, however, because after that he dropped the ball. We’ve lived in the unit he sold us for 16 months and–since we closed the transaction–we haven’t heard the word Boo from him. No email, no card, no visit. Because we are disorganized, we’ve lost his information. That means he’s lost a lifetime of potential business from us–after he went to the trouble of earning it the hard way.

Losing track of a customer could be understandable if this were 1979, or even 1995. But it’s 2008 and every agent today has the tools to never lose track of a customer.