"Is Real Estate Bust a Web Boost?"

Found an interesting post on The Real Estate Bloggers on how a downturn in the real estate market possibly could boost the real estate online services.

"And your present real estate agent is so mired in the toxic phrase “We have always done it this way” that you know how to better market your home than the “professional” does."

The post is based on an article in the Red Herring, talking about online brokers like Redfin and ZipRealty, and quoting Mr Inman; “Sellers never really migrated to the Internet, but now as they are disadvantaged they will use the Internet in ways that never happened before... demand for sites like these will increase as buyers become more powerful and need more analytical tools to assess the market.”

I strongly believe that Mr Inman is correct. Buyers are interested in doing more research themselves on the housing market. That's why the interest in Zillow is so great and why it is a brilliant solution (if you use it correctly).

Comments

[Ed Kohler]

I was at Inman's latest conference in San Francisco and watched the guys from Zillow present what they've learned since launching their site. One point was that they were amazed by how hungry people were for the data they presented. I belive it.