Imagine sitting at any TV or computer screen surfing a 'real time' two-week channel guide as fast as your remote will fly. The Steelers are on; you select it, and put it in the corner to monitor as you continue scanning the guide. Wow, Shrek is on at 2:00 a.m. next Tuesday. You touch the record button and your system automatically cues it up to record and save it in 'My TV' recorded file.

Don't have the patience to scan the channel guide? Click search, type in what you want, and, if it's on somewhere, it appears, touch record. What you're searching for is not currently available? A prompt appears and asks, "Do you wish to place it in the cue to be recorded next time it appears, and be notified?" You click 'yes' and it's done. No more stacked video tapes of unwatched recordings on top of the TV that you never find time to watch. Worried about storage? No problem, your system will maintain from 200 to 400 hours of your personally recorded programs to save or delete at will. Or, maybe, you want to burn it to a DVD and watch it later on your laptop on the plane, in your hotel room, or at the beach.

Oh, and you're doing this while answering email, creating a PowerPoint presentation, surfing the net, sorting your photo or music library, or managing your database. Judy Jetson eat your heart out, the complete digital home entertainment system is here! It'll even play your CD collection with a slideshow of your favorite digital photos; not just a slideshow with passé transitions, but an automated action transition starting at the focal point and slowly panning out to reveal the entire photo. But wait, there's more. With MS Media Center and Linksys Media Extenders, every TV in your home becomes part of the digital home entertainment system with the same features. Every TV becomes your computer. All you need to start is digital cable or satellite TV, High Speed Internet connections, and, of course, a new computer like DHPC's^TM Digital Homes PC^TM System with Microsoft XP Media Center 2005^TM, the only completely ready-to-use system available so far. Reflecting back to the twentieth century at the 1999 NAR convention in Orlando, then again at the 2000 Washington Association of REALTORS' and Iowa Association of REALTORS' conventions, I presented a program with input from HP and Intel called Hot Wiring Your Homes for a Techno Hungry Market. We demonstrated what the 'wired home' would be like, what trends were developing and what knowledge REALTORS needed to keep pace with emerging digital home trends. We also suggested that real estate associates encourage builder clients to bring in extra phone lines, install multiple outlets, and use CAT5 wiring.

I showed video produced by the Intel Architectural Laboratories of the digital home where Internet tablets, email, TV, DVD's, video phone, digital photos, music, security system, and computer software all came together in one practical, easy-to-use digital solution using an interface, then known as a 'gateway'. Intel said that most of the products in the video were currently available and the whole package was only months from being market ready. But 'hardwire' was quickly becoming a dinosaur and wireless 'WiFi' was emerging at the speed of light. It took over a year for the technology industry to decide on which 'WiFi' protocol to use and the digital home had to again be rebooted.

In the meantime, Microsoft was working diligently on its Media Center^TM Platform. Media Center^TM was made available only through the 'system builder channel'. Early 2002, Microsoft Windows Media Center^TM became available to the public through retail companies like Best Buy. However, it was not aggressively marketed and no one really knew what to do with it or how to demonstrate its capabilities. System builders were so busy building and maintaining the new 'wireless' networks that they didn't have time to explore the wonders of Microsoft Windows Media Center^TM, let alone the hardware that could comfortably support it.

Enter Shayne Yonce of Christian Dimension, Wichita, KS, a computer solutions engineer and system builder with an extensive audio/video background, and a real visionary. Microsoft pre-issued the new XP Media Center for beta testing to a few companies. Shayne grabbed this software by its digital horns and began assembling the hardware and designing new attractive cases to conform with the look of home theater and stereo equipment. By the time Bill Gates introduced the new and improved Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005^TM to the market on October 19, 2004, Shayne's product, Digital Home PC^TM and its supporting infrastructure, had been operating seamlessly for six months.

It was received with honors. On October 20, 2004 in Atlanta, GA, NASBA - The Association of Channel Resellers (a professional trade organization with over 12,000 member companies) announced the finalists and winners of the prestigious NASBA Awards. The winners and finalists in each category were selected from among the leading computer manufacturers, resellers, and IT solution providers located across the United States and Canada.

Christian Dimension/Digital Home PC^TM was one of two finalists in the following categories: Top System Builder, Top Value-Added Reseller Awards, New Business Innovation Award, and Customer Care Award for System Builders. See this page for more information.

How does this impact the real estate industry? Beyond the obvious of having your builder clients offer Digital Home PC^TM in their premium packages, and improving the quality of home lifestyle, it may be the most important listing and selling real estate tool to ever come down the digital highway.

With real estate market information available everywhere and pressures building on commissions, it's become harder and harder for real estate professionals to satisfy public needs and wants, let alone stand out. In the strategic planning portion of my ASPIRE^TM program, I have my coaching clients define what their compelling point of difference is and how that will cause the consumer to do business with them. As we say in NAR's on-line certification program, e-PRO®, real estate is a 'Me, too' business. "I'll put it in MLS." 'Me, too.' "I'll put it on the Internet." 'Me, too.' "I work for a great company." 'Me, too.' Consumers demand more. They do not want to know what you are 'going' to do. They want to know what you 'are doing'. And they don't want to hear it, they want to see and touch it.

Picture this, you're sitting in your home office at your Digital Home PC^TM system watching Market Update on CNN preparing a RPA (Right Price Analysis – I quit using the term CMA years ago when a client asked if that was a Country Music Award) searching your MLS for comps to define the price point. Once selected, you insert this information into your custom built PowerPoint listing presentation including pictures you took earlier of the outside of the property, an Absorption Rate Analysis, area maps, and aerial photos highlighting homes sold and for sale.

Online, you create a 'just listed' postcard requesting addresses of 100 of the closest residents to the subject property. You add a copy of this postcard to your presentation noting that it will be mailed in 24 hours from approval.

To further illustrate your compelling point of difference, you set up, but don't activate, a website using the property address as the URL; i.e., 'http://123MainStreet.com', using collected information. Save and copy into your presentation noting that site activation will occur upon sellers' approval of the listing agreement. You then generate and print a sign rider from your own printer, http://123MainStreet.com, to give prospects instant access to property information while taking the place of the messy information box. With disk in hand, you're now ready to meet the sellers at their home and take the listing. "Good afternoon Mr. and Ms. Seller, thank you for allowing me to demonstrate how I will manage the marketing of your property and get it sold. Do you have a DVD player? (If they don't, you have one on your laptop.) I have created a marketing plan specific to your property that is ready to be put into action upon your approval." Place the DVD into their player. When the menu appears, you select where you want to start and wow them with your digital 'Market Ready Presentation'. Put yourself in the sellers' shoes. Would this be a compelling point of difference? How many agents will show up with a DVD presentation specific to your property? Would you really choose the agent with a penciled in CMA, a brochure box, and a promise of putting an ad in the newspaper, of course not? 'Market Ready Presentations' are here now. Digital technology activates the market and the marketing. Now can you as Bill Gates says, "move at the speed of life"?

Published: December 2, 2004

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Rossi, Edutainer, Author, Humorist, Lifestyle Motivator of ROSSI Speaks, Inc., provides fun-filled interactive workshops that motivate and educate individuals, companies, corporations, and associations internationally to rave reviews. In ASPIRE (Activate Success Patterns Inside Resolute Effort), his most successful coaching endeavor to date, 60 percent of the participants surpass their targeted income and life goals. Rob McCain of Iowa said, "Never before have I had more time, money, and fun." Rossi, a Certified e-PRO Trainer, can be contacted at Speak2Me@RossiSpeaks.com. For more information, visit his website at www.rossispeaks.com.