Greeting Homebuyers at the Digital Front Door

Homefinder.com
Published: 06/06/2012
Posted by: RET Staff

A recent HomeFinder.com consumer survey indicated that only 41% of consumers currently have a real estate agent. Not only is this an incredible opportunity for agents, but online agent engagement is needed now more than ever. Though real estate has gone digital, it is still a relationship business powered by meaningful, human conversations. However, the web has removed a lot of the human touch from the process. Real estate is ripe for innovation, but where do we go from here?

Data from the National Association of Realtors released in 2010 indicated that 89% of all homebuyers use the Internet as a source of information. Yet, here we sit in 2012 and there is minimal agent presence on web, despite the fact that the majority of homebuyers are starting their home search online. This gap is bogging down the entire industry; you simply can't have a relationship business absent of proactive client service. This bottleneck is slowing down both agents' reaction time to homebuyers and the time to sale.