The Internet Has Changed The Way Homes Are Sold
The internet has changed the way that homes are sold, and many real estate professionals are not even aware of these fantastic changes. If you happen to be thinking about selling a home sometime soon, this article will show you how the real estate world has changed, and give you some food for thought before you begin the process of interviewing agents for the job of selling your home.
Back in the 1990s, the stock brokerage industry was changing fast, as online discount models were being created for use by the average Joe. By creating and offering easy-to-use research tools, the average investor now had the same information as stock brokers and were empowered to make their own trades. Had you asked a stock broker about this threat to his career, you would have seen little concern as most brokers felt that their jobs were firmly secure. But today, there are far few stock brokers working, as the ones without insight, training, skills, and talent are easily replaced with an online trading system.
The housing industry today is much like the stock brokerage industry back in the ’90s. The internet has evolved from “another place to advertise” to the main marketplace for the real estate consumer. A recent survey of homebuyers showed that 94% of them used the internet during the process of buying their home. There should be no doubt that the internet is the real estate market place of the future.
Thoroughly being “on the internet” is the focus of most real estate agents. They think this is what it takes to get a home sold. They put their property listings in the MLS and it then sends the data to all the major real estate sites. When you list a home for sale with any real estate broker, your home is automatically placed on all these different sites. But does this really sell a home?
Definitely not! There is so much more to marketing a home for sale than merely placing it on the high-traffic, low-converting websites. A real estate agent who understands buyer behavior on the internet is going to be creating low-traffic, high converting web pages for each and every property that is listed. This is not a “set it and forget it” task, rather it is a sequence of daily activities that must be done. Marketing a home on the internet requires a lot of daily work, and the prudent prospective home seller will take the time to ensure that the agent that is hired can first demonstrate how this will be done.