I know, you are all singing the Cher song right about now.  Unless of course, you’re my friend M#tt (yes, I am trying to make this reference anonymous while giving the 30 or so people who were present for it a nice clue) who is not only singing the Cher song, but also doing a well rehearsed spin move along with it!

This song is stuck in my head today.  It probably has something to do with an old folder of expense reports found in the back of a borrowed filing cabinet here at the Allen Tate office.  This was no ordinary envelope.  It was like a ‘real estate time capsule’.

Here is just a quick sampling of some of the more common entries:

Local phone- $22.14

Portraits for Newspaper- $8.40

Pager rental- $16.23 (I’m not sure, but I think that my friend K#vin still has one of these)

Mobile phone- $22.27

Gas- $10.50

MLS Dues- $35.00

Long Distance Phone- $5.40

While the cost of many of these items is interesting (especially the gas total- I can’t ride by a gas station without paying that), I think that what is more interesting is what many of these services have been replaced with.

Can you imagine what this Realtor would’ve said in 1995 if you had talked to him about Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Salesforce.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com, a Blackberry, Droid or an iPhone, an e-Newsletter, blog or even a voicemail transcription service?

The way most businesses operate today has changed.  The successful ones have embraced the change, but there are still some clinging to the past.  People, let your pagers go…