Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Homes

The Real Deal

Realtors making a heavy tech investment

The number of Realtors with websites has increased 129 percent over the past five years, and many of the sites display property listings, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors.

The 2006 Realtor Technology Survey, conducted by the association's Center for Realtor Technology, reveals that the Internet ranks third in generating leads, behind referrals and repeat clients, and ahead of community involvement. The survey also shows that there is a clear connection between technology spending and Internet-generated leads, and that getting leads from the Internet continues to grow.

Realtors have invested heavily in Internet technology and security, through Multiple Listing Systems and individually, in the past several years. For example, the survey showed that thus far in 2006, 56 percent of agents spent more than $1,000 apiece on technology and that 30 percent spent $2,000 or more. Realtors with personal business websites--not including an area on a broker's site--was 71 percent in 2006, compared to 31 percent in 2002, showing a jump of 129 percent.

Thomas M. Stevens, 2006 National Association of Realtors president, said, "Realtors have invested huge amounts of resources in technology to make accurate information available on secure sites, thus bringing added value to the transaction. All this information is available to consumers, free of charge, 24 hours a day."

The survey also showed that the amount of investment in websites has a direct relationship to the number of leads coming from the Internet.

In a surprising change from past surveys and findings, over half of the survey respondents indicated that it takes them less than two hours to respond to an Internet inquiry, and only 2 percent indicated that it took them more than a day to respond. That compares with a 2004 survey showing that only 27 percent of practitioners responded within eight hours to an online inquiry and 46 percent of inquiries received no responses.

A recent California Association of Realtors survey shows most California homebuyers respond to the first person who responds to their email. Of Internet buyers, 62 percent expect a faster response; 44 percent expect Realtors to respond to their email in 30 minutes or less.

"The speed of the response time is important," said Leslie Appleton-Young, California Association of Realtors vice president, to Realtors during a Women's Council of Realtors luncheon in San Jose this fall.

Appleton-Young said surveys show nine out of 10 times, problems between clients and agents center on the level of communication, and being technology- savvy can improve and agent's relationship with clients.

"Communication is almost everything with your clients," Appleton-Young stressed. "Respect and listening, luxury service, skills, professionalism is what buyers expect. Communicate, understand their stress, earn their trust, keep in touch."

Information provided in this column is presented by the Realtor members of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors at www.silvar.org. Send questions on any topic to rmeily@silvar.org.