I can tell you that as an agent who has been in this business for more than 9 years, the number of buyers who now start their house hunt on the internet has increased to the point where, I can conservatively say, 90% of my new buyers come from the internet.
I hear a number of theories expressed as to why we are experiencing this new way of beginning relationships. The beginning may be a bit detached as though we are, client and agent, circling one another to see if this might be a mutually beneficial, stress free (a delusion regardless of the basis for the relationship-we are after all still human) and expedient relationship.
Not to play the warm and fuzzy part up, but even though the internet gives us more information than we can process in 10 lifetimes with anonymity (nobody knows how much time I spend surfing FoodTv.com and you never will...I am not talkin'), we are all still wired to seek out that trusted person who will tell us the real deal with no spin, use their skills for the power of good and not evil and help us to get to where we want to be. The key word in all of this is "relationship".
The internet does offer something else besides anonymity...it offers independence. I completely understand and relate to the "why" part of consumers seeking independence. They are able to get the information they feel they need in the time frame they are available to actually take advantage of it. The "Beckon Call" element of the internet is seductive. Now, as a service provider I have the ability to make information available 24 hours a day, no strings attached. My willingness to offer information on my site that gives potential clients that independence requires that I have good faith in my fellow consumers. Faith that giving them the tools will be a better beginning to our relationship than if I were to pick up a phone and randomly call a consumer to see if they are looking to buy or sell a home right now. You know those calls, it's 8pm on a Sunday and the phone rings and it's someone who wants to know if you have a need for what they are offering (and its never anything that's interesting at that particular moment). Simply by offering something at an inconvenient time, invading my private time and doing the warm fuzzy reach out, they have lost me. I am not really that much of a tough customer either, so if this is my reaction, I am sure I am not alone. Even if they have something great to offer, it's the reach out on someone else's terms that loses me. So with good faith that I have a great deal to offer potential clients, I put the carrot of independence out there and I usually find that it is the right thing to do for today's sophisticated consumer.
I think another attractive part of the internet is the ability to choose. Everything from location to the sex of the agent you wish to work with, the internet let's the consumer make the choice before they ever actually go house hunting. Unfortunately, this also leaves the door open for agents with slick marketing sites, who can't really deliver the goods, to wow the consumer and get them intersted while having no chops whatsoever. Marketing is not care and skill and it is not results. It is a tool used to sell something. I have been in sales in marketing longer than I have been in real estate and if the marketing is not backed up by service then what you see online can be misleading. "Buyer beware", age old phrase that still holds true even in our modern world.
So, my dear internet consumer, enjoy the sites with flash and java, they are great and full of useful information. They are open 24 hours and you can find just about anything you are looking for, from a log cabin to a palace. But keep in mind, when you have educated yourself online, there is nothing to replace that trusted advisor who will actually hand you the keys, be there when the water heater explodes and explain what is going on in our market, the truth, no spin, just the facts. True in any industry, not just Real Estate (I always thinks it's funny how we capitalize those words, like a Deity), if you end up working with a live human being who loves what they do then you have found the right partner. All the information at your fingertips will never replace a person with passion for their chosen field. That person, if they don't know the answer, don't know how to do something, they will figure it out, just because you ask them to.
Would love to hear from anyone out there reading this.
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