ON MONDAY, every Realtor® who has spent the last four years stranded on a desert island would have been astonished by the news!
It came in the form of a release from the National
Association of Realtors® and Google, who announced the results of a wide-reaching joint study. It was of interest primarily to the castaways, since every working professional in the real estate industry who has not been cut off from civilization already knows the conclusion:
Online real estate searches have been growing in volume!
The number of real estate searches grew 253% over the past four years. And James Bond goes after the bad guys, hobbits are attracted to gold rings, and the national debt has been growing a bit.
Busy real estate pros won’t have time to plow through Monday’s study, but as a time-saver, here are some nuggets:
· Buyers rely on search engines and general websites when they begin their search.
· Buyers rely more on mobile applications more toward the end of their search (equally startling, they probably use the same mobile phones to talk with people who aren’t in the same room with them).
· 90% of homebuyers searched online during their home buying process.
I might add, the sun has been tending to rise in the east (though there is increasing evidence that it isn’t setting there).
Google has a Head of Real Estate, Patrick Grandinetti. He concluded that the real estate industry would be smart to target homebuyers “where they look for and consume information.” That would be online, on “relevant websites” and the like.
The CEO of Realtor.com agreed with us that the Internet can be used to connect Realtors with home buyers (you can check us out at www.RealtyPLR.com to see how we go about it). But if you’re one of those out there on a desert island, maybe not so much.
Mitch Claymore is Editor of RealtyPLR, the confidential ghostblogging subscription service.
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