Slower

It's 4:56 AM, and I just sent out an offer to purchase a property in Charlotte for one of our clients. We're just one of the probably 20, 30, or even more offers that will be submitted by the deadline today.

You've probably heard the real estate market is crazy right now.

And it is.

Given the pace of sales, I'm thankful for electronic contracts. Compared to their paper counterparts, they are incredibly efficient. Using these digital platforms, one can draw up documents and have them signed in a fraction of the time it takes with pen and paper, and there's no driving required to get signatures.

Last week, I bought a property owned by an estate. In that case, the attorney handling the estate and I sat down in my office to discuss the deal and sign the contract. Afterward, we had a pleasant conversation for a good half-hour, maybe more, on topics ranging from vintage stereo equipment to old Toyota Land Cruisers.

If I were the type of person to describe things as "lovely," I would say it was lovely.

Although the custom was fading fast by the time I began my career in 2005, there was a time when such meetings were the norm. Even in the mid-2000s, you could request the opportunity to present a buyer's offer to the owner and their broker in person. While it was uncommon enough to raise eyebrows, rarely was it refused.

Sixteen years later, it's hard to imagine that scenario. Routinely, I broker transactions where I never meet the other agent, much less the seller, in person. With so much information at our fingertips today, I've even brokered transactions where I never stepped foot on the property.

In some ways, I find that amazing. But, this morning, sending out that digital contract, signed electronically by my client, to an agent who is so inundated with other offers that she had time only for the briefest of telephone conversations, I can't escape the feeling that we are missing something.

In my conversation with the estate's attorney, he talked about how things were when he began his law practice. There was no such thing as the internet, telephone signals still ran across wires, and fax machines were not yet in widespread use. Documents were signed using physical pens with liquid ink and, for the most part, signed in-person and face-to-face.

"Life ran at a much slower pace back then," he said.

By the time I finished school, the digital revolution was in full swing. My first job out of college came with a cell phone and a laptop, and it wasn't long before a Blackberry was ever-present. Today, despite catching a glimpse of it as a child, I don't think I can truly understand that time of which the attorney spoke during which life's pace was much slower.

Still, somehow, I miss it.