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The Internet is here to stay (for real estate buyers)

One of the largest, if not the largest growth areas on-line is the use of web sites for real estate searches for listings , local market statistics and demographic data, and home value estimates.

There are a multitude of sites offering listings and real estate information for Phoenix , Scottsdale and the many towns in the Arizona Valley.

More than ever, consumers start their home buying (or selling) process on-line. A great idea, and something I recommend. However, I also suggest that you enlist the tools of more specialized and localized professionals, Realtors, neighbors, news outlets, etc... to either confirm or help assimilate all the information on hand.

Real Estate is not (yet) like stocks and bonds. Real Estate is not a commodity. It is a tangible asset. An emotional bond. Decisions are made with the heart as well as the mind. Numbers are critical. However , for the most part, numbers, charts, graphs alone cannot completely replace the emotional and human aspect to real estate.

I encourage you to use the information on-line, in conjunction with localized experts and make sure you touch, look and feel the areas, neighborhoods, and home.

Only with all of these tools can you make the most informed decision.

Posted by Daniel Wexler on 12/23/2008 11:59 AM

Comments (4)

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4 Comments on The Internet is here to stay (for real estate buyers)

DEC

This is in fact one of the resons I got into the business. I see a lack of the tools being used by the local agents in my market. There is of course Zillow and Trulia but even they have low participation by local agents. I think that this is leaving a large segments of the market(Gen X and Gen Y) unserved.

JAN

I couldn't agree more Daniel. There have been some great advances and great search sites which have popped up over the last few years such as Zillow and Trulia. The issue that bothers me with these sites is that the information may not always be accurate since there is no oversight and you are not getting all of the properties avalaible for sale. These sites are dependent upon participation from individual Realtors. The MLS is obviously the most comprehensive place for property search. The downside being that the presentation online from locally provided IDX's is often lacking. That is going to be a huge focus going forward. The great thing is that these external sites have given valuable insight into the features that customers want in terms of information and functionality.

Obviously, the internet is not going away and will continue to be a very important part of our industry. I find it to be very important therefore to provide a website which is organized, informative, and interactive much like the regular office provides.

JAN

I love to use the internet to find information about a property before I look at it with a client. Having these types of web tools at our fingertips is an amazing step forward and what really worries me is the lack of other local agent that aren't even using them. I like to use CyberHomes.com and RealSeeker.com to get information but like you said the final decision is more of a "guts" call for the client. If the numbers all line up but the home just "isn't right" there's no way they're going to buy it.

Great post.

Matt Rains
www.RETechBlog.com

JAN

No question buyers use the Internet more and more. I held an open house this weekend and alot of the people had found the open house online. I assumed they came from the newspaper or were neighbors.

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