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When you’re thinking about buying a house or a condo, where do you go?  The phone book? The nearest real estate office?  The web?  Chances are, you’re like 84 percent of people who would use the web for some part of your buying process and might even fall into the 33% of people who begin their home search online. 

This surge towards the internet for home-buying is something that Real Estate agents are still adjusting to, and MUST adjust to in order to keep up with the times.  Last Thursday The Seattle Times wrote about this rising popularity for online real estate, and the dangers for agents who refuse to climb on board with it.

Of course, the nature of business online means less personal interaction between the buyer and the agent, and this can be discouraging to business when most customers prefer a personal touch.  Michael Russer, who writes and speaks publically about online real estate, mentions in the article that ”The solution involves carefully worded messages that make it clear an agent will respect privacy, plus a regular stream of information to keep agents in potential buyers’ minds.”  Automated emails can work, but often are’t personal enough for interested buyers.

Another agent featured in the article was contacted by a client from out of town.  He took her on a tour of Seattle when she came up to visit, and then based upon what she’d seen and liked, his office followed up by sending her emails with sample listings that fit her preferences.   She had chosen this agent specifically because she wasn’t required to register on his site before she could view listings and she found the agent’s blog to be unbiased, offering positive and negative opinions on real estate news and updates.

This new online movement is tough for some agents, who are used to having control of their sales.  Online real estate searches give the potential buyer much more control, and buyers are liking it.  In the end, it seems that online searches are going to continue to rise in popularity with buyers, while the desire for personal contact will also remain.  An agent with great success in online real estate notes that, “For every 10 e-mails you send, you should probably be sending out one old-school, snail-mail letter…People want to see that you’re kind of going out of your way to communicate with them and say, ‘Hello.’ ”

An excellent point.  Go online, but keep it human.

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