A story in history (I won’t claim to have been in business for this): The real estate agent was king of the information. Even if the consumer knew a home was for sale, the agent held the information– how many bedrooms, square footage, heating system, price, etc. The consumer, in many ways, needed the real estate agent for information. This age is over. The information is now widely available. For example, my website has what is called an “IDX Link” (in the upper right hand corner). This links active listings in real time and allows any consumer to search for listings in York and Adams counties much like I as a Realtor do.
In contrast today, there is an almost overwhelming amount of information out there! The consumer used to look at houses almost for the purpose to learn more about the house. This sounds to me like it wasted a lot of the consumer’s time.
The consumer today is trying to experience the house (through the resources are available) before they even consider spending their time to drive out and look at a property. This may be a more profound statement than first realized. The consumer is heading in a direction where they want to experience a house as much as they can before spending their time. How does the real estate industry answer to the desire of the consumer to experience?
Video Tours! Not the cheap tours where the agent uploads their MLS photos and a wizard pans and zooms on these photos and adds music to give the illusion of “video.” I am talking about a video that gives the consumer a feel for the flow of the house, and holds it up to the character and esteem in which the current owners regard it. ON IT!