当Windermere于1972年开业时，房地产业是一个非常不同的行业。 销售合同写在鸡尾酒餐巾纸上，用握手封缄。 当时没有网站，没有iPhone应用程序，有时甚至连院子标牌都没有，所以你只能完全依靠你的经纪人来告诉你有什么东西在出售。 当时，人们非常重视竞争和销售配额。 This created a proprietary culture that valued winning agent-of-the-month over building long-term relationships with clients – and it didn’t do our industry any favors in terms of credibility.

当悦博体育的父亲创办温德米尔时，他打算改变这一点。 他的重点是把关系放在销售配额之前。 这种关系不只是一次交易，而是一辈子的关系。 It was an aggressive undertaking, but he eventually built an office – and an entire company – of like-minded professionals who understood the importance of truly great service.

快进四十年，房地产业发生了很大变化。 鸡尾酒餐巾纸已经被数字合同取代，房屋搜索过程几乎完全在网上进行。 We’ve also seen the rise of technology companies that offer real estate services of one kind or another. 然而，尽管有这么多花里花气的东西，这些公司中的大多数都把买家和卖家视为潜在客户，而不是即将着手进行重大财务和情感决策的人。 We love what technology has done for real estate, but Windermere’s business lives and dies by the relationships we have with our clients and our community. It’s one of the only things that hasn’t changed over the last four decades.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”. We couldn’t agree more. It’s impossible for us to predict what the future holds for real estate, no more than our dad could have predicted where we’d be today back in 1972. But, it’s probably safe to say that technology will continue to change our industry in new and exciting ways – just as relationships will remain central to Windermere’s core values for generations to come.