Web Snares More Real Estate Buyers

Inman News (09/15/08)
The California Association of Realtors' annual Survey of California Home Buyers study revealed that 78 percent of those polled used the Internet "as an important part of [their] home buying and selection process," up from 72 percent in 2007. Furthermore, buyers who cited the Web as an important part of the buying process spent an average 8.3 weeks searching for a property with their agent, an increase from 5.2 weeks in 2007 and 2.2 weeks a year earlier. At the same time, "traditional" buyers who said the Internet was not an important part of their personal buying and selection process took 10.3 weeks searching for a residence with their realtor versus eight weeks in 2007. The report also determined that traditional buyers saw nearly double the number of homes with their agent (23.3 properties) as Internet buyers (12.7 homes).