Comments on: Clicks and Bricks

By: Bricks & Clicks Is the Industry REALLY Changing?

Bricks & Clicks Is the Industry REALLY Changing? — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:28:28 +0000

[...] already did a version of this post on AgentGenius which turned into a rant on service. But the nice thing about posting to more then [...]

By: Jonathan Dalton

Jonathan Dalton — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:43:17 +0000

Real estate is local, folks …

The Phoenix real estate market stretches about 75 miles from one side to the other. Many buyers from out of state have no concept of how expansive the area is until they get here.

Last month, one of my buyers who started their search in Glendale ended up in Chandler after side trips to Fountain Hills and Gold Canyon. They drove several hundred miles just checking out different areas.

Sight unseen might work if someone knows a particular community or subdivision they want, but if they just want to be in the Phoenix market in general they are, as my Canadian friends say, hooped.

By: Holly White

Holly White — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:35:00 +0000

@Bill – Thanks! And you are right on! First and foremost, we’re hands on Realtors. Nothing is going to take the place of that. Gaining those clients to hold the hands of is where the internet comes in (for me anyway).

@Jennifer – Well said!

By: Jennifer in Louisville

Jennifer in Louisville — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:00:48 +0000

Theres 2 ways to look at – from a human perspective, and from a business perspective. From the human perspective, people are still people. Buying/selling a home is generally an emotional roller coaster and we help guide them through the entire process. From a business perspective, there are dinosaurs among us. Either you are adapting to the constantly evolving business, technology, and expectations from your clients, or you are going to become extinct.

By: Bill Lublin

Bill Lublin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:55:25 +0000

Paula and Holly – if you guys agree with me I must be right
And I think you make the points effectively and appropriately – thanks for commenting.

By: Holly White

Holly White — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:52:56 +0000

Fortunately or unfortunately we get about 85% of our business from the leads our website generates. Fortunately because I am thankful for our ranking and traffic, but unfortunately because I haven’t spent as much time developing other advertising and marketing avenues and pray that we never lose our ranking… but I digress….

We’re not trying to sell homes online (rarely have we sold homes sight unseen), we’re merely giving people the opportunity to do some research prior to physically looking at them. It saves everyone time and money. With gas prices the way they are nowadays I’m pretty sure the general public is welcoming the ability to take some of the leg work out of finding an area they want to be in.

I will say however, that from time to time I’ll get someone who doesn’t want to look at all online, they want me to personally find homes for them to look at after we’ve talked about their criteria (which is fine)…. but they still found me as their Realtor ONLINE. I am a full service Realtor who is thanking God I latched on to the internet several years ago. I’ll always have an office and I’ll always have that one on one time with my clients. Those Realtors who don’t “get it” though will more than likely disappear sooner than later.

By: Paula Henry

Paula Henry — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:21:00 +0000

Bill – I agree! While there are some clients who will buy sight unseen, the majority want to “feel” what the home is like. Even if they don’t walk the neighborhood, they will drive through.They check out the schools, parks, shopping and amenities.

When we moved back to Arizona from California, we knew the city, yet we still looked at homes. We wanted to walk through, we did walk the neighborhood before we decided on the exact home for us.

While we need the online presence, we still do our business face to face.

By: Frank Jewett

Frank Jewett — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:06:31 +0000

One real estate comparison to that eBay store would be transaction management systems like SureClose, TRPoint, and RELAY. Some agents may have their transactions on those systems, but most of them refuse to learn how to use those systems (even to look up vendor contact information), preferring instead to visit or call the “corner store” of their transaction coordinator.

By: Bill Lublin

Bill Lublin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:12:37 +0000

Robin I agree with Kelley also, and I make that statement based upon my experience as a tech savvy buyer who purchased a second home last year in West LA near the beach. We had the choice of all the communities from Santa Monica to Redondo Beach, and had spent so much time at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey that they would ask where our dog was when we didn’t bring him.
But when I was going to be putting hundreds of thousands of real dollars into a property, I wanted to knwo what I was buying and what it was going to be like to walk out my door everyday.
And I buy a heck of a lot more property annually then most consumers.
So I still think, becuse our products are so unique, and each area so different that consumers will still have a need for some physical connection with the area before they complete a purchase.

By: Jose Ramirez

Jose Ramirez — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:51:41 +0000

Reading: "Clicks and Bricks | agentgenius.com- national real estate opinion column" ( http://tinyurl.com/5kpgl5 )