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The number of hits at real estate websites is growing quickly. And e-Visory report from the NPD Group, Incorporated, and Media Matrix stated that quantity of exclusive visitors to websites that show real estate grew by 75% during this summer, as compared with the same months of last year. For contrast, the increase in total internet activity grew by 22%.
The growth in activity is especially notable since the number of people who access the internet and the number of people who are in the market for new homes has had only moderate growth. At any given time, 30% of people who use the internet are looking for a new home, or have looked within the last sixth months. This shows moderate growth from the 28% of intent users looking for a new home in 1999, as found by the NPD Group.
The NPD Group’s study verifies that about 50% of people who are looking for a new home researched or shopped online. Of those, the vast majority, 74%, searched for a house; 10% searched for land properties; 10% searched for condominiums; 1% searched for co-ops; 1% searched for commercial structures; and the remaining 5% searched for various other types of properties.
The mean cost for properties that were listed online has risen by around 9% from last year. Last year, the mean cost was $128,000, and this year it was $139,400. Almost 20% of people who look online looked specifically at properties that were listed over $200,000.
Shoppers who are looking for a new home or other property are usually using the web to research and contrast a lot of information in a short amount of time. The NPD says that 74% of shoppers listed convenience as the deciding factor in using the internet. 69% said that they like to be well-informed and -researched before talking to an agent.
Even though the number of visits to real estate sites has grown in the past twelve months, 36% of online real estate shoppers say that they are not completely pleased with website amenities. For example, 92% of shoppers say that a photograph of the piece of real estate is extremely important, but only 40% said that they liked the photos they found on websites. Real estate website designers have an opportunity here to increase customer satisfaction by improving what is a crucial feature.
The study determined that Realtor.com, which is authorized and created by the National Association of Realtors, was the most popular site. Realtor.com had nearly 2.5 million exclusive shoppers in July 2000, which is a reach of 3.2%. Second place was shared by HomeAdvisor.com, run by MSN, and Homestore.com, each of which had 1.5 million shoppers. Homestore.com has links to many other sites, including Realtor.com, HomeFair.com, and HomeBuilder.com. The Homestore.com network as a whole had more than 4 million shoppers, or a reach of 5.2%.
NPD Vice President Pamela Smith says that “the internet is absolutely changing the way people shop for real estate…It is becoming a much more efficient way of doing business for all.” She says that it is saving a lot of time for both real estate agents and buyers since it is so easy to access information quickly. Also, it increases customer satisfaction since they feel that they are well-informed, involved, and in control. She adds that the next big step is for websites to find ways to improve their amenities and combine the personal services of a realtor with the efficiency of the Internet.
Media Matrix and the NPD found information that was similar to the information found by a telephone survey conducted by Coldwell Banker. They found that 85% of those surveyed appreciate the ease and efficiency of the internet which helps those looking for homes get complete listings and data.
Despite the popularity of using technology to find a home, most buyers aren’t ready to give up the personal services they value in a real estate agent. Shoppers like using the web as a part of the research process of finding a home, but only one tenth of those surveyed said that they were comfortable working with companies that are web-based and don’t have any “real” resources, like offices and personal human contacts. Almost nine tenths said that they probably wouldn’t make a bid on a home that they had found on the web but hadn’t personally visited.
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