THE BRAVE NEW REAL ESTATE WORLD

Do you feel the change coming?

No, I don’t mean the dramatic downturn in home sales and prices. To be sure, that storm is grabbing headlines and bringing heartache to many people.

But the howling winds on the surface mask another change, more profound and permanent. If you are still, you can feel the low rumble of tectonic plates shifting beneath our feet.


It’s the Internet. And it’s changing the way we buy and sell homes. Buyers no longer need a Realtor to research the market, shop for homes, or pre-qualify for a loan. Today, they can get the information they need on their own. According to industry experts, as many as 85% of all buyers now shop on-line long before they choose an agent or a lender. And incubation periods can run as long as 18 months. Information is power, and buyers are in control.

But it’s more than that. While almost everyone seems comfortable clicking around the Internet these days, the next generation of buyers are comfortable using HTML and CSS to create blogs and customize their MySpace page. They have grown up with the Internet and computers. Everything from how they stay in touch to how they buy homes will change.

I recently helped promote a home buyer’s seminar with a couple of agents who years ago had built a business this way. Although we put a modern twist on this old idea, we failed to get a single response. You can chalk that up to bad timing or a bad market. But when I told that story a few days ago to one of the young guys helping me with this blog, he chuckled, “why would anybody go to something like that ?”

His words still ring in my ears. So, can you feel it now? And more importantly, what are you doing about it?