I obtained a Real Estate Broker’s License in 1963. John Dalton was Governor. Back then, you did not have to be a Real Estate Salesperson before becoming a Broker. I struggled for several years in the real estate business and had to take other jobs in order to make a living.
I finally decided to specialize in farms and I came up with the idea to obtain my listings and to make my sales through the mail. In 1975 I bought a word processor made by Olivetti, from Italy. It was the first to have unlimited storage capacity and allowed me to type a personalized letter to both the farmers to obtain listings and to my investors to make sales. I paid $6,000 for the machine. You have to realize at that time, gasoline was around fifty cents a gallon. I then added to my office equipment an $8,000 copy machine, and a $400 fax. I made copies of an aerial photo of farms for sale, and mailed them to my buyers. It was a highly successful operation. I even sold one farm I never saw. For several years I sold more farms than any broker in the State of Missouri. The Carter embargo on the sale of grain to Russia caused grain to fall 1/3 in price and the value of farms plummeted, thus ending my farm sales.
Today it wouldn’t work. No one writes or reads letters anymore. It takes too much time. All they have to do is turn on the computer and communicate with Facebook or e-mail, or by texting on their cell phone. Today you can buy a fax, copy machine, printer for less than a hundred dollars, and the program to put the mailer out is in most computers. Now only politicians and restaurants put out mailers using an oversized postcard with a picture that you have to look at while you are tossing it in the trash. Ten years from now, there won’t be Post Offices, which is alright with me. The only thing I get in the mail anyhow is bills.
Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075 or jackremembers@aol.com
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