We live in an exciting time. It's a time full of technological advances of the likes few other generations have ever seen before. But uncertainty about new technology can be a frightening thing for some people. Some individuals may even see technology as a threat and may be reluctant to embrace it and take full advantage of its benefits.

In order to keep up with these changing times and technological advances, you need put those fears aside and become more proactive than ever before. There are no better risk management tools available than anticipating changes and putting measures in place to respond to them.

One way you can do this is to try and identify trends in the industry and respond to those trends. The real estate industry is already changing in preparation for the new millennium and you should be reacting to those changes. Simply put, you need to be on the forefront of the new century.

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), recently did a study of 750,000 Realtors® nationwide. Over 10% of them have private internet access in addition to that provided by their brokers, and 50% of agents have their own web sites. Internet usage is predicted to increase dramatically across the board for many industries, especially the real estate industry.

According to the U.S. Census, there are over 60 million households in the United States today, with 2.5 people occupying the median household. At the current Internet user rate, there could be well over 1.2 persons per household using the Internet.

These figures demonstrate that one of the biggest upcoming trends in the industry is the use of the internet in the real estate marketing strategy.

How this information superhighway has already affected the world of marketing is nothing short of revolutionary, according to Gordon MacDonald, owner of GMBS, a computer consulting firm in Kansas City, Missouri.

"You have a market of approximately 200 million people in 150 countries," says MacDonald. "All of them have equal access to your message. It's unfiltered. By that I mean, when someone takes an ad out in a magazine, it is filtered to some degree. They only show that ad to a subset of people, only the subscription base and readers of that magazine. It doesn't go to everyone. The point has been to show your message to a certain group. And the web just doesn't work that way."

The world wide web is already having a big impact on the real estate industry, according to MacDonald.

"The web is affecting the sales and marketing community greatly. It used to be that people would go to the Yellow Pages to find a Realtor or maybe ask their brother-in-law who his Realtor was. I think most Realtors would agree that they get many of their customers by referral. But now, consumers can search for Realtors on the web and search for the house they want on the web. They can be much more selective because they can choose a Realtor on the web. And it can be a complete and total stranger."

There has been some concern in the industry that the web will replace the human element in real estate transactions. But we can all rest assured that this will not happen, according to MacDonald.

"I do think the way business is attracted is changing. But we are not going to get away from the traditional way of buying and selling a home. I don't think people will ever look at a home on the Internet and then buy it on-line. Agents will be needed. There is a great deal of paperwork and legal things that are going on when you buy or sell a home. It's my opinion that John and Jane Doe need a hand helping them through all of the inspections, paperwork, etc. They are not prepared to do that by themselves. Buying a home is not like buying a t-shirt. John and Jane Doe can go look at open houses but they need to know what to do next. "The agent is a coach who walks them through the process. The agent also acts as a moderator between the buyer and the seller. If individuals were to try and sit down to work out the sale of a home, no good end will often come of it. So agents aren't going anywhere. The only alternative would be to replace an agent with an attorney. But attorneys are not prepared to hold your hand as much as an agent could, should, or would. They would deal with the legal aspects of the transaction, not the human aspects."

"However, if you are the MLS service, there is a potential threat there. As more individuals list their homes, eventually all of those listings may be on the web rather than the private computers that only brokers and agents have access to." Some brokers are submitting their listings directly to large national home search sites, if their MLSs don't have agreements to do so.

MacDonald adds that if you do not utilize the web, you will be conspicuous in your absence.

"If people choose not to use the web and its' advantages, then customers won't be able to get to them. They will have to go through the traditional hoops to buy and sell a home. But their competitors will be on the web. And, I as a consumer will opt to choose what is more convenient. People will inevitably ask you what your web site address is. And if you say you don't have one, the next question will be, 'Why?' And there is no good answer to that question because others do it to make things convenient for their customers."

"When an agent hands out business cards, and they do this quite often, do they have a web site address on them?" MacDonald continues. "When a customer puts them side by side, one has a web address and one doesn't. What does that say? It says that the agent without the web site address is not up to date and is not a 90's kind of agent. The customer may not even have a computer but the lack of a web site address implies psychologically that there is something missing. The consumer looks at all of the credentials on both cards, cell phone numbers, pager numbers, pictures, and so forth, but if one has a web address and one doesn't, it isn't good."

The internet is an increasingly powerful marketing tool. Each and every day, 18,000 more Americans are joining the millions of people already utilizing the world wide web. Once you decide that the web is not a frightening place, your marketing potential is simply unlimited.

Published: July 6, 1999

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Editor's Note: This article reflects the opinions of Dave Crawford only and not necessarily the views of this or any other publication, organization or Website owner.