Staff Photo by John Rawlston Realtor Carrie Gallant works at a "hot desk" at the Realty Partners office in the Lovemans building in downtown Chattanooga on Wednesday morning. The office is equipped with new technology that coordinates information wirelessly through various platforms.
The moment you pass through the doors at 807 Cherry St., it's clear the future has arrived.
From the Internet lobby complete with an interactive plasma TV at the entrance to the "hot desks" closer to the back of the office, the new offices of Real Estate Partners are brimming with the latest technology.
"We knew the way of doing real estate was changing," said Darlene Brown, firm co-owner and managing broker.
Today, instead of sitting in her own office, or "mini-kingdom," Ms. Brown and most other agents operate in a mobile environment where they use cell phones, BlackBerries and laptops to communicate with clients.
The owners of the two-year-old company kept that work style in mind when they designed their new offices in the storefront space formerly occupied by the Pickett's women's store in the more than 100-year-old Lovemans Building. The company's 30 agents and support staff moved into the space in November.
A trip to Europe by co-owner and broker Gina Sakich helped the company take the mobile concept a step further. While there, she visited a company that used something called "hot desking" to provide a more flexible work environment for its employees.
With a hot desk, the employer furnishes a permanent work station which is available to any worker as and when it is needed. In the Real Estate Partners office, there are several work stations where agents work when they come in. The stations have lockers for agents to store belongings and desks have laptops with wireless connections to printers.
The new technology also includes a phone system that seamlessly delivers calls to agents no matter where they are, so calls can be received in the office or in the field and the client never knows the difference.
For real estate agents, the concept works beautifully, Ms. Sakich said.
Hot desking allows agents to come in when they want to and have a place to go without feeling responsible for being at the office.
"I felt that way back years ago," she said. "It was like, ooh, I feel like I'm going to get my hand smacked because I'm not spending enough time (at the office), but honestly, I didn't make my money sitting at the office."
Ryan King, a broker with the company, is a hybrid of the old style and the new, Ms. Brown said. He prefers to come into the office at the start of the day, but his two young children require that his schedule has some flexibility. These days, clients have access to much of the same information that agents do, so they must respond quickly, he said.
"You have to have access to them all them time and they've got to have access to you," he said.
In addition to the newest technology, the new offices also feature private rooms and a large conference room for client meetings or training sessions. The Internet lobby, with its large plasma screen TV, acts as a sort of large laptop and lets customers walk in from off the street to view listings or use the free WiFi to shop for homes.
