Property Point 21 Novmber

Readers with even a basic knowledge of ancient history will know that the Flintstones were a modern stone-age family from the town of Bedrock and that they were a page right out of history. When you were with the Flintstones, you’d have a yabba dabba doo time, a dabba doo time, you’d have a gay old time.

A lot has changed since then. These days, if Fred Flintstone and his best mate Barney Rubble were to have a “gay old time” it would mean something completely different and dramatically change the story line of the show.

But some things have not changed. The Flintstones was a 1960s animated sitcom that told the stories of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their neighbours the Rubbles. The show depicted the characters taking part in “modern” activities in a stone-age setting.

One of the things that Fred and Barney enjoyed was ten-pin bowling. Now although archaeologists have found bowling-like pins and balls from ancient Egypt around 5000 years ago, ten-pin bowling did not emerge until the mid-1800s in the United States.

It was very popular at the time the show was being produced and Fred and Barney enjoyed the entertaining diversion.

It’s interesting that in a world that has changed so much, ten-pin bowling is still popular.

A friend of mine, Anna, owns the Mackay Leisure Centre and a big part of that business is the ten-pin bowling alleys.

As far as the bowlers are concerned, ten-pin bowling has not really changed … there are those smooth bowling balls of various weights with three holes for fingers and a thumb. There are those 10 pins, which look pretty much the same as they did in the 1960s.

Of course, like everything else in life, technology has introduced efficiencies.

When the Flintstones went bowling, monkeys sitting on a bracket would pick up the knocked-over pins with their tales. In the real world, after a player did their first bowl a device would pick up the pins that were still standing, sweep away the fallen ones, and put the untouched pins back in the same place.

These days at the Mackay Leisure Centre they have string machines that remove the fallen pins and replace the untouched ones exactly where they were, ready for the second bowl. Apart from having strings attached to the pins, computer technology has made scoring and the  bowling operation more efficient.

But if ten-pin bowling is pretty much the same activity it always has been, how about selling real estate?

Marketing a property used to involve simply putting up a for sale sign and placing an ad in the local paper. Thanks to magazines like this one, you can still put ads in a paper but your marketing needs to have digital reach these days to ensure you capture all the potential buyers for a property.

Those buyers might be in Mackay but they might be at work on a mine site or an investor living in Melbourne … digital technology allows them to see the listings, receive text or email links to a property’s marketing and make inquiries by text, email, What’sApp or mobile phone call.

We have digital data bases to ensure we can maintain contact with potential buyers. In a world obsessed with acronyms, we have a CRM system that automatically generates emails with new listings attached that go to potential buyers.

The photographer’s photos are processed by someone in the Philippines and arrive in my in-box in a drop-box link the next day. Videos are now an important part of marketing a property, some done professionally and others done on mobile phones. We use DocuSign to electronically sign contracts.

So, much has changed. There are new, faster and more efficient ways to reach buyers and create competition for a property. But, like ten-pin bowling, the fundamentals are the same.

You still have to talk to people, create trust and negotiate the best possible deal for the sellers. And when the deal is done … Yabba dabba doo!

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David Fisher - Gardian

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