The Internet-Savvy Buyer.....Picking And Choosing The Information They Want To Believe

It's true that the best place to find an overall picture of local market conditions is an experienced local Realtor.

I'm not sure if it's that these nuances are hard to convey via internet or that they think we (the REALTORS) are just out to get a bigger commission so they don't listen to those posts or, as you said, they just hear only what they want to hear. 

Karen, almost everything a buyer needs to get started with a home purchase can be found on the Internet. Our value to the transaction is in getting them to understand what all of the information means so that they can make a properly informed decision and get a fair deal on a purchase. The mis-information they read online has them thinking very seller is desperate, and the starting price is just there to get things going.

Very interesting post.  One of the big benefits of writing blogs posts was to educated buyers as to the truths of today's real estate market.  I think your last sentence of the post is probably the reason buyers are still acting in the fashion you described.  I just had a client do something similar.  They bought the worst house in an expensive neighborhood and wondered why it was not in mint condition and maintenance items had been neglected.  Well, that's why is was the least expensive house in the neighborhood.  But they had read all these articles online, ect ect ect.

I don't know how it was before the Internet, because I was not in the business.  But I think this is a case of too much information.  And yes, people look for the information they want to hear.

I think telling stories is the best way to reach these internet saavy folks.  I find myself debunking myths with buyers in my car with the use of stories.  It sounds much less like someone saying, "Because I said so."

I agree with Chris Ann that story-telling or vignettes involving the experiences of other buyers is the best way to educate them.  It's always a process, isn't it?  These days the process that results in an educated buyer is so much more difficult...because the internet is plastered with inaccurate values (thanks, Zillow) and media hype.  Basically, I think buyer's agents spend a good chunk of their time these days correcting mis-information that people gather online.

Yes, people do hear what they want to hear. But on top of that, we have the "news" media feeding consumers bad information.

They can't seem to "get" the fact that the list price already reflects what's happened to the market. Maybe the answer is a blitz of press releases telling the truth - so some of these newspaper, radio, and TV people would get it right and pass it on.