Hello Blanche,

Good article about the reluctance of Realtors to use the many excellent Internet tools. Here are some of my comments gleaned from being in the field of Agents every day.

At reMerge Transaction Coordinators, www.remerge.com, we put our day to day work on the Internet so that Agents and their clients can access their real estate transaction process any time. The Agents rarely use the site to check up on their transactions. Their Buyers and Sellers in escrow, however, are checking their files 3-5 times a week till the close of escrow. The clients are more up to date with their transaction than is the Realtor.

I would add that we have worked with over 300 escrow officers and only one to date communicates with us via e-mail. Of all the other services (home warranty, termite, zone disclsoure, etc) in a real estate transaction, only one e-mails reports to us. Some smaller companies are still wondering how a fax works.

Many Agents find that e-mail is just another nuisance call that needs to be answered (the phone, the fax, now e-mail too??). Most of the Agents web sites are unimaginative and redundant. The public has access to the same information in countless sites without having to contact an Agent. Agents, nonetheless, will buy an expensive "canned" web site, never up-date it, never advertise it and conclude that it doesn't work for them. Thus, they stick to their old habits that have been tried and are true.

Again, reMerge allows the Agents to display the reMerge client report via the Agent's web site (rather than the reMerge web site) thus insuring that at least current client traffic is driven to the web site. The clients have a reason to go there - to check their files.

Real estate companies have spent a fortune on the Internet media, yet relatively few Agents take advantage of the new (and expensive) tools that are offered to them virtually free. It is business as usual, for most. The current boom market (in CA)
straddles the old and new business styles in real estate. Agents are too busy and old techniques are still working just fine. They see no need for change at this time. This will change when we see a prolonged down turn in real estate sales. Then
the phoenix will rise from the flames!

Shelly Gorenstein
reMerge Transaction Coordinators
Toll Free: 1-877 4 REMERGE
E-mail: remerge@home.com