Realtors® Tap Technology to Transform Transactions

LAS VEGAS, November 14, 2007

Real estate has always been about relationships, but these days, this high-touch business has gone hi-tech. The latest trends and developments in real estate technologies were discussed in several sessions here today at the National Association of Realtors® 2007 REALTORS® Conference & Expo.

According to the 2007 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, released here yesterday, 84 percent of recent home buyers used the Internet in their search, up from 80 percent in 2006. Most of these buyers – 82 percent – used a real estate agent to help them complete the purchase.

“We know from our research that, rather than displacing real estate professionals, the Internet is actually helping connect them with home buyers,” said NAR President Pat V. Combs, from Grand Rapids, Mich., and vice president of Coldwell Banker-AJS-Schmidt. “Our members understand that the most effective path to today’s buyers and sellers is often through their modems. Realtors® advance technology to serve their clients and make the real estate transaction more efficient for all consumers.”

 REALTOR.com President Errol Samuelson unveiled a number of innovations for NAR’s property listing Web site at the session, “REALTOR.com: What Comes Next.” “As the world’s leading real estate site, REALTOR.com is the first and best resource for today’s home buyers,” said Samuelson. “Moving forward, our commitment to maintain the site’s leadership position in our category through ongoing enhancements will help Realtors® continue to provide exceptional value and service for home buyers and sellers alike.”

Visitors to REALTOR.com can now use new mapping and satellite imaging tools, view more photos and video footage for many listed properties, automatically monitor the latest listings that meet their search criteria through a downloadable desktop window, research surrounding neighborhoods, and learn about community issues directly from blogs posted by Realtors®.

“As online social networking gains popularity, more and more Realtors® are engaging with consumers through blogs to share knowledge about local real estate markets that also demonstrates their industry expertise,” said Samuelson. “REALTOR.com’s new blog tool, Featured Blog, gives buyers and sellers direct access to Realtor® blogs across the country.” Highlights from these blogs are posted daily at http://talk.realtor.com. 

Participants at the “Stay on Top Tomorrow with Today’s Top Trends” session learned how to make the most of latest trends in the real estate market to meet the needs of home buyers and sellers in 2008 and beyond.

The influence of baby boomers on the burgeoning second-home market, the immediacy of new forms of communication such as instant and text messaging and the expectations it creates, and the continued growth of the Internet are all issues that impact today’s real estate professionals. Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, offered a comprehensive look at these and other economic, demographic, and technological trends and how they will affect real estate services and specialties in the future.

“Realtors® must be able to capitalize on immediacy and technological trends to better serve their clients by providing information and services home buyers and sellers want and need in real time,” said Ross. “You can make the most of this market by figuring out what it is your clients need and how to provide it.”  

Participants discussed the latest technological trends and their applications to real estate. More and more Realtors® are using syndication strategies like Point2Agent and Zillow to send their clients’ listing data to other Web sites or sources, blogging and vlogging (video-logging) to provide local market and community information to consumers, and social networking sites like Facebook, Craigslist, and Myspace.com to reach out to potential home buyers and sellers. 

Ross also spoke about capitalizing on niche markets by becoming proficient at specialties such as auction sales and second home purchases; reaching out to growing buyer populations like immigrants, minorities and single women; and learning how to meet the special needs of buyers and sellers in different generations, as the baby boomers approach retirement and members of Generation Y begin entering the housing market.

“There are a lot of opportunities out there for Realtors® if they are willing to identify them and make the most of them,” Ross said. 

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.3 million members involved in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate industries.

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