Various Real Estate Sites Fight for Eyeballs
As time go by, more and more Internet sites are attempting to be a one-stop location for real estate buyers and sellers. These include large company web sites looking to attract clients by providing lots of information.
In many ways, this is an excellent development that arms would-be buyers and sellers with knowledge before they ever leave their computers. The downside, however, is that the ability to garner market statistics and other factoids creates the impression in some that buying or selling a home is basically a simple enterprise. This could not be farther from the truth, and believing so could be a costly mistake.
In fact, real estate is a complex business which requires serious skill and substantial knowledge, including local trends and values. I do not worry about being “disintermediated” by the Net. Whether it is to help them buy, help them sell on a traditional basis or hourly fee listing, work with them as an hourly real estate consultant or assist as a San Francisco Bay Area real estate expert witness, there will always be folks who need my professional expertise.
The ones I worry about are those who don’t know what they don’t know. For them, these super-heated, charged-up web sites could actually do more harm than good.
Go to “The Online Real Estate ‘Arms Race’” for more about the real estate online war.