OMG  soooooo much easier.  I am from the days prior to the big MLS print book.  We had the newly invented Polaroids stapled to typed listing sheets. (which we had to type on a manual typewriter with sheets of carbon paper for copies!)

The time spent driving around to collect signatures, etc was huge.  No Home Inspectors put a lot of the liability on us! 

It is a very much changed business and, I for one, EMBRACE technology and have no desire to go backwards.

Both I guess.  I know that I am REALLY PO'd that we have to reset everything up in DocuSign now that my company switched from Dotloop. 

It seemed faster & there are plenty of people that will argue with me on that. 

Since I type at 80+wpm swiping on the screen is not faster than the mouse or typing. If I couldn't type - that would be a different story.  If I have to now go to 5 screens instead of 3?  That's not efficient.

It has made it both harder and easier.

It can be a blessing or a curse. 

It depends on the situation.  Also some technology is poorly or well designed.

Seems rather obvious, EASIER.

in nearly every way, I do not want to back to the pre tech days.

Both!  I remember the carbon copy forms you had to buy in packets... lord help you if you made a mistake on page 6 and the montly MLS books 3 inches thick with the weekly supplements.  Having to be with a big brokerage to afford that full page ad in the sunday paper!  Oh and lets not forget waiting for your photos to be developed and then SCANNING them in to upload over your (if you were lucky) 9600 baud modem!  Yeah, I've been around a LOOOOONG time.

Electronic forms, electronic signature, the entire state's listings on a website, 99 photos that can be taken and uploaded within a couple hours of signing the contract.  Worldwide marketing of listings for free or at most the price of a steak dinner... Definitely the pluses!

Buyers going to places like zillow or realtor.com and not knowing what they are seeing, yet thinking because it is there the information must be accurate and better than what you can provide.  The "I texted you at 830pm why didn't you get back to me until the next day?"  The rise of transaction coordinators... definitely the minuses!

Technology has proven to be a force equalizer and multiplier.

Less expensive to get into the business.

Easier to be competitive against the deep pockets.

Technology has not made the job easier. It has caused a deeper intrusion into the persona life of agents, creating a never ending demand of instantaneous response all the while the agent must balance personal, family, professional, educational, spiritual, physical, experiential, social, community and charitable service and reach their destination in some state of sane-ness. What missing from that list....they have a business to run ALSO!

IT is more demanding but those demands are  wearing a different suit than seen in 1982.

The good news is their are more real estate business models that have proven successful. The agent who can identify the business model that meshes with their genius, resources and skills will discover a much simpler way to make a living.

 Easier.

Many search on line and often go direct to listing agent. The number of buyer agents is significantly reduce since everyone can find new listings.

Yes.

Both for sure.  Has many benefits and made things more efficient, but also causes some slight headaches.  Both buyers and sellers have more information at their fingertips, and some of them think they are experts now in the field of real estate. 

Much, much, much easier. I started back in the day when we used carbon paper to make copies of our handwritten contracts. We carried around big, heavy books of all the listings in very small print, took pictures of homes, made 100+ copies and glued them to our listing brochures etc.., etc.. Today is WAY easier!

easier

Easier.

Easier

Easier.

Easier, no question.

Easier, much easier. Less driving, less printing, no faxing, huge exposure and online possibilities of marketing. 

Aaron Sorensten - if we use technology, right way, to connect with our clients, the job becomes easier...

i believe it has actually made the profession easier but also less profitable

it depends on the day and the hour

It has definitely made my job easier and enabled me to do 2-3 times more business by myself.

Technology has made it easier, but with the fast faced advancement of that technology, it is difficult to keep up.

Aaron, technology has made my life radically easier. The mobile devices make keeping up with clients easier. We can look up a property while looking at properties. I can grab a tax record while in the field. My clients find a lot of their own properties to view before they even call me. It is quite a change for the good.

For the most part it is easier but there is usually a learning curve!

I like to say easier in most cases.

I can see both sides of the coin.  But to be honest, it depends on alot of different circumstances.  Life was easier back in the day of make a phone call, someone answers, you ask a question, they answer and you are done.  Now it's like ... Make a Phone Call, No one answers.  You send a Text.  They don't respond.  You send an Email, and you wait. After a while, you start all over and in the long run?  Alot of wasted time spent for nothing -- just stress.  Sometimes I want to get off that Merry-Go-Round.

Both.  On the "harder" side, it has made people more demanding.  On the good side, it has made gathering info, and timely communication so much easier.  

Aaron, easier!

Ditto most of the comments before mine

Both...at first technology appears to help and it does. Then, certain types of it make you dependent on it and that is the hard part. Keeping up with it

Much easier. I can't imagine trying to do what we typically do using 80's or 90's technology. Of course, the very definition of our job has changed drastically since then as well, and we do a lot more, but we also do it better.