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Last week, a consumer news event occurred that was lightly reported, but packed seismic ramifications for both good and bad. This past January and February, Apple's iTunes Store was the biggest music retailer in the county, online or off, outpacing even the marketing giant that is Wal-Mart...
Could this be a threat to the way brokers have traditionally operated?
At this point, just about anybody even remotely interested in real estate is familiar with the Web site Zillow.com. This ambitious Internet startup was created in 2006 by the founder of Expedia.com, which helped transform the travel industry by giving consumers the tools to book their own travel arrangements.
Will realtors who have yet to move towards the online world will survive?
The number of people using the Internet to find a home continues to rise. This is confirmed by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that found 39 percent of Americans who regularly use the Internet have gone online to find a place to buy or rent. While this is no surprise as high-speed online access is readily available across most of the country, it is still is quite a jump considering that only 27 percent of online users utilized the Web to search for a home in 2000.
So, how does the Internet impact the day-to-day business of a realtor? First, the Internet provides an incredible opportunity to market properties to a sophisticated group of viewers who rely heavily on the Web for information. Secondly, more than one-half of the online population have yet to embrace the Internet—which is no longer simply the technology of the future. If one is to continue to grow and prosper in this industry, there is still plenty of market remaining to be mined. The real question is whether the realtors who have yet to move towards the online world will survive.
The old world style of using a simple handshake to close a deal and establish a long-term business relationship is evolving into something much more fluid and transparent. It's been more than a decade since the digital revolution began, and it's amazing to see that so many in this industry have yet to welcome it.
This topic was published as part of the House Media Network newsletter. Read this newsletter in its entirety at www.housemedianetwork.com/newsletter/14
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