This year will go down in real estate agent history as the year in which thousands of agents all over America bought web sites that they never learned how to effectively use. But the thousands who got those sites still represented only a small percentage of the profession. Want to prove this? Just look around your own office and start counting.

Realtors Fumble on the Internet

As a result of all these new agent sites, consumer searches for "(city) real estate" in major metro areas across the country produced pages and pages of agent web sites (mostly template ones) that all looked pretty much the same.

After a consumer had visited two or three of these almost identical template web sites and found their content virtually interchangeable, he likely never touched another one again. He moved on to find a site with different or better information.

The agent-owners of the 1999 crop of web sites told themselves, "Whew! Now that's out of the way. I've got my own web site and so no one can say that I'm not 'with it' when it comes to high-tech." But they were wrong.

Few bothered to take courses to learn anything about web marketing. So their sites came up poorly on search engines or, if the sites did produce an inquiry, they checked their e-mail only infrequently, so the inquiring consumer had moved on to a more responsive agent. These same agents also spent nothing or minimally on links, banners and enhancements (ads) on other web sites to drive consumers to theirs.

This scenario repeats the same mistake that occurred in the '80's when Personal Computers (PCs) first became big in the market. Firms raced to get a computer then used it merely as a typewriter in their business. Why? Because manufacturers didn't offer much training, (they thought they were in the hardware business), and thus expensive machines sat there far under-realizing their potential value to their buyers.

The Realtor Loses the Point of Contact Advantage

In 1999, the same thing happened with real estate agents and their web sites. Web site "manufacturers" sold sites by the thousands to agents who "knew" they were essential. Again, manufacturers offered little or no training and so agents didn't know that a web site was not the end, but only the start of their web marketing. Free "seminars" on web marketing offered by web site manufacturers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), title, escrow, insurance, inspection, storage and other realty-related firms were often simply sales pitches with a few generalities about web site marketing thrown in. So agents learned little about how to marketing themselves on the web. Thus, at the end of 1999, most of their sites are just sitting there doing them little good. Yes, there are always notable exceptions, but I'm talking "most" here.

And since none of the venders bothered telling the agents that getting a web site is only the starting point in web marketing, few opted to learn on their own by hiring expert web marketing coaches or professional Internet marketing consultants. However, the few that did, now often capture the lion's share of inquiries in their geographic marketing region.

In 1999, the more alert among traditional Realtors®, who average age 52 and thus are not very prone to adopting "new fangled" high-tech tactics anyway, might have spotted a prelude to their own extinction. That extinction began when eHome eHome.com went online in November, 1999.

Instead of paying a 6% commission to an agent, eHome.com charges sellers a flat fee, from $2,000 to $8,500 based on the selling price of the home. EHome claims that on a $350,000 home, the seller would save about $10,500. Instead of paying about $24,650 for closing costs and commissions, the seller would pay only $14,000 if the seller works through eHome and the buyer doesn't. Now THAT is a powerful argument to online consumers who are, after all, on the web precisely to save time in doing transactions, saving money and getting information. Especially if the site walks the seller through most of the same detailed work that is typically provided by agents the "old fashioned" face-to-face way.

For buyers using eHome, a designated eHome Realtor® is on tap for questions, document review, etc. anytime and comes in basically to help kick the tires of the houses the buyer is evaluating.

Most significantly, regarding the possible extinction of traditional real estate agents, eHome removes the Realtor® as the consumer's first point of contact in a real estate transaction. The same is potentially true of most online mortgage sites that consumers visit before they contact an agent.

Other sites that consumers can use for realty transactions instead of first contacting an agent include sites like Homebid.com (although this one allows agents to register and only conveys homes through registered agents) and HomeGain.com where "registered" (translation: they paid to be there) Realtors® are kept at arm's length from anonymous sellers who upload a description of their home for sale. In Homegain.com, the Realtor® only gets to see an anonymous factoid about the property, then submits a competitive "pitch" indirectly through HomeGain to the seller. These pitches, however, may favor cut-rate agents since some agents offer to add a seller's listing to the MLS for only a $400 or so flat fee. Or they may offer a 1% commission. Or they may use bait and switch tactics.

When naive sellers see such a low-cost offer, they consider the 6% rate offered by most of the Realtors® submitting competitive and descriptive pitches about their services to be outrageous. But the point again is that while Homegain may give Realtors® additional opportunities to get listings, it most assuredly also removes the Realtor® from being the initial contact with the consumer - a position that s/he has traditionally enjoyed. Conversely, any seller who's been previously buffeted and annoyed by over-aggressive agents seeking his/her listing or re-listing can find refuge in Homegain.

If you are serious about staying in real estate, you need to not resist, but embrace, the task of learning web marketing. Medical doctors kept their heads in the sand and let HMO's take over the practice of medicine. And now doctors are not the first contact by patients; HMOs are. That scenario can easily happen in real estate. In fact, watch for many more sites in 2000 that promise to basically replace the agent. However, if a majority of agents get serious about learning web marketing---not just thinking the task is all completed just because they got a web site---then, and only then, can at least those agents continue to be the primary place that consumers go first to buy or sell a home.

What is the rule of thumb for web advertising? All the top web agents I spoke with for the article that I wrote in the California Association of Realtors®'s 1999 annual technology issue said that their web ad budget was shifting from 60/40 for print/traditional advertising to 40/60 in favor of the web.

What portion of your ad budget are you devoting to buying links and presence in realty-related web sites? What seminars are you signed up for in 2000 so that you are not forced into retirement three years from now because you wouldn't learn about web marketing? If the Internet were baseball, its progress would equal breaking ground for the stadium in which the baseball games would be played. If you don't start learning web marketing now, you'll lack the fundamentals to play the game and no one will let you into the stadium even to watch---because you didn't buy a ticket.

What You Can Do

Insist that your board of Realtors® begin offering courses not taught (for budget preservation) just by vendors who often disguise their sales pitches, even ones for CE credit, as "how to" seminars to help you do better web marketing. Tell your local association or board that you want quality instructors who themselves know about realty web marketing. Or, you go and hire you own personal web marketing coach to show you the minimum fifteen sites that every Realtor® needs to be in on the web in order to have even a minimal presence or hope of attracting consumers.

What? No one in a course told you what those sites were?

You can also take other free realtech-related courses online at University.com's new Real Estate University site. And you can read hundreds of articles on web marketing at AgentNews, Real Estate Library, Real Estate ABC and look up definitions of web terms at Webopedia.com.

The ePRO Will Raise the Bar in Internet Marketing

Much good stuff, however, did happen to help agents market better web-wise. Kudos to the National Association of Realtors® for launching its ePro designation for web-savvy Realtors®.

In this course, agents will have to know their web marketing stuff---no profession-cheapening open book tests allowed here---because the courses are taken online. And just to be able to complete the exercises will demonstrate much of a student's proficiency. Brilliant! We need more courses like this from the NAR. But we need more of them from state and local associations as well. Tell them you want your dues spent for exactly that!

In summary, 1999 was the year that a small minority of agents, many begrudgingly, coughed up several hundred dollars for a web site, mostly template ones, mostly all looking much the same, most of which will seldom get found by consumers. Don't get me wrong, getting any site was a good step in that it got agents finally (though minimally) on the web. Some of them may even see the potential and actually budget some advertising money to spend promoting their site on the web in 2000. But that's just the beginning.

In the year 2000, agents will need to know what they are up against on the Web - the many agents who do Internet marketing better, third-party companies who are now the first point of contact for the consumer, and the soon to be certified ePRO agents. That means its time to get serious with Internet marketing.

But then that's only my rant, my opinion, with a nod to Dennis Miller. What's yours? Better yet, what are you going to do about your web marketing in 2000?

Editor's note: In March, Bill Koelzer's book, co-authored with Barbara Cox, Ph.D, "Internet Marketing for Real Estate Professionals," Prentice Hall, will be available for sale at Amazon.com.

Published: November 18, 1999

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

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

Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, Internet Marketing in Real Estate and Internet Marketing. Bill is also webmaster of Orange County Real Estate, among the most-awarded known Realtor® sites. Visit his website, Koelzer.com or e-mail him at .