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…for Their Information?

When searching for a home, 90% of buyers used the internet in their hunt.  A few interesting numbers to look at here:

1. At least 95% of buyers 44 years old and younger used the internet to find a home;
2. Print usage was directly correlated with a generation’s familiarity with the medium;
3. The youngest buyers found open houses to be least useful as a source of housing information;
4. Overall, the internet and real estate agents are statistically even (within 3%) as a source
   • This gap will widen as evidenced by the 18 to 44 year old buyers trends and younger buyers entering the marketplace.

Where Buyer Found the Home They Purchased

From 2001 through 2009 the internet has seen a nearly 78% increase in being the resource the buyer used to find their home.  Conversely, real estate agent has experienced a 22% drop as being the resource that found the buyer their home.  Of course, the huge gains realized by the internet comes at the cost of a few staid “marketing” options agents have used for years: Home book or magazine isn’t even cracking 1% and newspaper advertisement has experienced a steady decline.

FYI – if you also list homes, and you’re reading this blog, you’ve likely come to the realization that some of the old marketing/advertising options are no longer effective.  For the sake of your selling clients, and therefore, your own business, please place your property in the locales the buyers are looking for properties…

Websites Used in Home Search

Is being on the internet enough for you and your selling clients?  No… A lot of younger buyers entering the marketplace are a lot more at ease finding ANY information across the internet and therefore will go where the data and easy to use websites are.  This is reflected in the chart above showing that 38% of the 18-24 year olds use “other websites with real estate listings.”  Simply interpreted, these are the Zillows, Trulias and HomeSeekr sites out there.

Professional One advocates a large “digital” footprint for your selling clients.  While social networking sites and video hosting sites do not rank very high on the list of sites used, they are key to “long tail” marketing.

Important Traits of the Buyer’s Agent

This is the Professional One Real Estate franchise blog.  Did you think I wouldn’t pull out this one last gem? 

98% of the buyers surveyed by NAR thought that “Honesty and integrity” were very important.

Coming Full Circle…

Let’s make one thing extremely clear:  Without honest and fair dealings with your clients, prospects and other agents, all of the other things that real estate clients need or think they need, mean nothing.  Oh, for sure, you and I can name a few agents in our respective marketplaces that “churn and burn” clients to simply fill their pocketbook, and do so at a great rate.  And I will argue that this is one reason that the Harris Poll Ken Brand references puts real estate agents as one of the least respected professions out there.

When a real estate consumer entrusts us with one of their largest purchases of their lives and “catches the vibe” that this is no more than a means to a paycheck for their agent, it can cause many consumers to question the advice given them throughout the transaction.

Treat others as you want to be treated.

It’s a novel idea, eh?  I can’t imagine there are many agents that want to be treated the way their customers perceive they’ve been treated during their transaction.