You may have visions of homebuyers in their pajamas clicking through homes, shopping for loans, and previewing REALTORS from a quiet nook in the den in the wee hours after the kids go to sleep.

Guess what? You'd be wrong. Several studies indicate that while most online shopping occurs in the evening, home buyers shop for homes in large numbers - while they are at work.

According to a keyword study on AgentTools.com which was based on capturing a string of keywords by real estate searchers through one "meta" search engine, more people look at homes during working hours, not at night or on the weekends as is commonly assumed.

Realtor.com, whose top-rated mega-listing site offers the opportunity for real estate searchers to answer questionnaires, found that when they asked consumers where they were e-mailing from, specifically weekdays June 17th and 18th, 1998, that over 28% were on-line from the office, 63% from home, 3% from a Realtor's office, and 6% other means. In a previous weekend survey May 15th to May 17th, 1998, Realtor.com found that 11% of home searches still occured from the office, 82% from home, 2% at the Realtor's office, and 5% elsewhere.

Matt Cohen, CyberHomes webmaster, said that property/home search patterns for users seem to peak during the day and later in the evening during the dinner hours. "Although there isn't much difference between day and evening use, it would appear that at least as many people shop for homes during working hours as they do once they get home," Cohen said.

Although both AgentTools.com, Realtor.com and CyberHomes claim their results are far from scientific, they do agree that the at-work home buyer signals a definite trend worth noting.

So what does the fact that people shop for homes at work mean to the REALTOR? It means that if the online home shopper is stealing precious minutes from the job to look at homes then the REALTOR/broker can help by providing - a quick route to view homes at the local level.

Gregg Larson, senior partner of real estate consulting firm Clareity Consulting, and one of the founders of CyberHomes, one of the country's first mega-listing sites, said that traffic patterns on CyberHomes and other listing sites show that the consumer is most interested in viewing homes, then getting a feel for the community second.

"You would think it would be the other way around, but consumers want to cut to the chase and see homes. If they only have a few minutes on break, then they use that time to look at homes. Then what they typically do is print out the community information and read it later at home," said Larson.

"If a REALTOR or broker is really interested in improving their Web sites to appeal to the at-work home shopper, the quickest way is to make the path to home listings quick and easy. The fewer fields they have to fill in, the quicker the consumer can get to homes," Larson advises.

"One advantage that local sites have over national sites is the speed with which searchers can go directly to homes," Larson continues. "REALTORS can take special advantage of the fact that they are local - they have the feel for the market, they have narrow geography which limits the search time for consumers, and they can add community profiles to enhance their site."

Despite the mobility of our society, most relocations take place at the local level - over 85% of moves are within the same geographic area, with the remaining 15% out of town, state, or country.

Jesse Burst said in a recent column on ZDNet that "our lives revolve around local events." Although his column was designed to advise city guides to integrate local content with personalized pages and business services, the same acvice could well apply to agents.

"In 1998, the Internet is used daily by business users for the most part. Even when people do personal acitivities...they do it from work," wrote Berst.

REALTORS and brokers can easily integrate content and convenience for these pressed-for-time-but-determined shoppers. If you have the best and the quickest to access content on your site, the at-work home shopper will bookmark your site for a daily scan. Offer e-mail notification of new listings, put other agents' listings on your site, network with other agents for content, or put your local MLS on your site.

As Jesse says, think convenience.

Published: August 27, 1998

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.