San Diego real estate blog – Peter Toner

The Rising Use of the Internet ~ the Internet is quickly transforming how we as Americans buy and sell homes.

In a recent study by the National Association of Realtors, 24 % of buyers first learned about the homes they wanted to purchase by using the Internet. This number was up considerably from the 15 % in the year 2004 and only 2% in 1997 !

Most buyers, however, are still using experienced Realtors to complete their real estate transactions. Over 36 % first learned about the home that they purchased from their real estate agent, 15% bought from seeing yard signs and other categories were less than 7%. The number of individuals that choose to sell their own home ( For Sale by Owners), have continued to decline and are currently at a record low. FSBO’s are generally not placed on the open market or on the MLS, they are usually private transactions.

It was once thought that the Internet would “disintermediate” real estate agents, however, today’s housing market shows a contrast. In fact, it has grown dramatically – there are so many complexities to buying or selling a home. It is certainly not the same as or as easy as buying a book, an item of clothing, or even purchasing a plane ticket over the Internet

Reputation is the most important factor taken into consideration when choosing a real estate agent by 41%. This is followed by knowledge of the neighborhood at 24%. Other important qualities that rated as very important are: knowledge of the purchase process, responsiveness and knowledge of the market. Overall satisfaction with real estate agents is very high, with 85% of buyers saying that they were very likely to use their agents again for another transaction.

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