The Internet increasingly plays a key role in the real estate sales industry, and this trend is expected to grow.
According to a recent article by real estate professional John Mudd, more and more homebuyers are using the Internet in some portion of their buying process, either to locate property for sale or to educate themselves.
By the same token, real estate professionals are leveraging the Internet to locate and educate potential buyers.
He writes on Blogcritics.org:
- …Internet homebuyers are quickly becoming the majority of homebuyers.
Most Internet homebuyers still work with a Realtor, and they do rely on their services and expertise when it comes to area information, property information and closing services, plus relocation services, but they also seek quite a bit of information on their own, whether or not they’re working with a Realtor.
***According to the “Internet Versus Traditional Buyers Survey,” traditional homebuyers decreased from 72 to 55 percent from 2000 to 2003, while Internet homebuyers increased from 28 to 45 percent, and still appears to be growing.
What does this mean for the real estate industry as a whole?
Well, it means that instead of cold calling to get listings, real estate professionals of the future are going to get most of their business from Google positioning and other electronic communications, other than SPAM, which is likely to become more regulated in the near future.
Smart real estate professionals, brokerages and other small and midsize businesses in the real estate industry will try to understand this trend and take advantage of it.
jpillow24
It’s true..the internet craze is irrepressible not only in real estate but in almost all industry. Real Estate buyers prefer to go online to search for homes in sale. There they get to find attractive offers from web ads and get informed through blogs.
Hey,
That’s why internet is here. Collecting information through the net is very easy. For getting firsthand knowledge on any subject; be it chemistry, physics, literature or real-estate, internet is the best place to start with. Of course you cannot rely entirely on the information but it is something to start with.
In 2007, The Calgary Real Estate Board published a survey that found 78% of Calgary homebuyers started their home buying process on the Internet. 4 years later, I can only assume that that number is in excess of 85% now.
I would also be interested in how many home buyers are using a mobile platform during their search.