More than 28 million employed Americans, or one fifth of the workforce, now participate in some form of telework!

According to the ITAC (International Telework Association and Council), “23.5 million employed Americans teleworked at least one day per month in 2003. This number rose to 24.1 in 2004. This number is expected to rise to 40 million by 2010.”  That number would likely be much higher except that millions of American workers cannot telecommute because they build houses, serve food, mow lawns, treat patients or perform other jobs tied to specific locations.

A June 13, 2008 article in USA Today recently quoted Chuck Wilsker of The Telework Coalition, who said telecommuting has grown faster since the post-Hurricane Katrina gas price spike of 2005. And he believes prices have climbed so high now that managers — who must grant workers permission to telecommute — are feeling the pinch too.  The coalition estimates that more than 26 million Americans now telecommute at least some days, which would be about 18% of people employed nationwide. Though he did not have figures related to the gas spike, Wilsker said anecdotal reports indicate it’s gaining traction.

A November 2007 telecommuting study, Web Commuting & the American Workforce, commissioned by Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) by the polling company, inc. found that: “23% of American workers (and 41% of small business owners) regularly work from home or another offsite location, relying on Web technology (e.g. the Internet, e-mail, or programs that allow them to remotely access their office computers or meet with colleagues online).”  It went on to reveal that: “of those who currently do not have the ability to do their jobs off site, 62% agreed they would like to be able to do so.”

Wow!  A full 23% who do and 62% more who would like to!  That’s a full 85% of our workforce!  Is our culture changing or what?!  Working remotely is clearly now a mainstream idea.  Now, I’d like you to take a moment to think about your current real estate practice.  While other industries have already made the transition to the virtual office, today’s real estate office looks just like it did 30 years ago.  In fact, judging by the average age of the real estate agent community, it probably has the same agents standing around the coffee pot!  Now I want you to think about what your practice might look like if you were able to work remotely.

I know what you’re thinking: “But can I be effective if I web-commute?”  The answer is a resounding YES!  An Oct. 2000 survey by The Gallop Organization and Opinion Research Corporation found that offsite workers have a 22-45% higher productivity levels than their at-office counterparts.  Retired mega-producer, best selling author, and real estate speaker Marilyn Jennings once said she never went into her office.  “If you want to waste an hour of your day, stop by the office for 5-minutes.”  Those of us who have spent any time in the real estate business understand just how true that is.

But it’s not just as easy as staying home.  The key to successful web-commuting is bringing the advantages of the office to you wherever you are, but leaving behind all the inefficiencies and wasted time associateld with the typical office envirtonment.  The solution is creating a “Virtual Office”.  So how, exactly, do you accomplish that?  An August 8, 2008 article in The{AppGap}Blog by Anita Campbell, quotes George Langan, the CEO of eXpresso, a developer of collaboration software solutions.

On the topic of “cloud computing”, SaaS apps for the virtual office, Langan says that virtual office software should help us mimic the set up of physical offices.  “More and more vendors are introducing Cloud platforms and software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings to bring people together online.  The purpose of these collaborative software systems is to mimic the work environment that we had since the first organized office.”  He goes on to outline the four requirements of a good virtual office environment:  (1) simplicity and familiarity,  (2) virtual presence or chat,  (3) file control, sharing and real-time collaboration, and finally, (4) conferencing.

Last year, CNN’s Pulse on America featured our company, FavoriteAgent.com, as one of a handful of companies that were changing the face of real estate in America.  So what was so unique about our company that it got us national attention?  Our company built the very first real estate specific virtual office software platform.  While other companies are just beginning to explore the possiblities of going virtual, we’ve been actually doing it for four years.

Over the next few articles, I’d like to share with you what we’ve learned in our quest to take real estate to a virtual level.  We’ll talk about the systems needed to make a virtual office a reality.  Maybe you’ve already thought about it, or maybe you haven’t, but either way, this series wil be an eye-opener for you, so stay tuned.