According to the 2007 NAR Buyers and Sellers survey, 1/3 of recent buyers reported that their first step in the homebuying process was looking online for properties for sale, and overall, 84% of  buyers used the Internet to search for homes, but it doesn’t take a genious to know that the internet has changed the world.
About the same time that I started Residential Properties, the Internet as we now know it was in the process of being created by the National Science Foundation , since then it really  has changed just about everything, the rapid exchange of information afforded by this new technology has exponentially increased the rate at which new technology is developed.
We launched rirealestate.com in 1996, and have continued to improve our web presence, launching www.residentialproperties.com and added all sorts of features to enhance the user experience
Steve and I sat down this week with my  Director of Information Technology, Tom Flanagan,  to talk about the latest revision of www.residentialproperties.com, all the  2.0 and interactive features that we have added and how that best serves our buyers  and sellers.
www.residentialproperties.com, hosted by our newest technology partner,  Lakewood Co. based Active Website, carries all of the  features you would expect  an IDX site to have with cutting edge tools including advanced search capabilities and mapping for property searches, rentals and open houses.
The primary focus of the new website is to create a heightened user experience.  The new site is able to support a variety of media including virtual tours, interactive floorplans, and video.
Also accessible through the website will be extensive resources for buyers and sellers   including quarterly market reports, buyer and seller guides, recent press, and an electronic version of the company’s relocation package.
  One great feature is our membership in the Enterprise Network, a select group of highly successful Brokerages throughout the country. We are able to take advantage of new technologies that are developed exclusively for companies in the network, and Residential Properties will always be the only Rhode Island brokerage in the Network.
Sellers benefit from their listings being fed  to all of the most popular Real Estate web portals, including Trulia and  Googlebase, enhanced Search Engine Optimization,  enhanced listing tools, and sellers reports where we can tell the custopmer from  exactly where the the people that visit their properties come.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

Millions of potential  homebuyers and sellers  are  surfing the web, if you are selling your home,  you owe it to yourself to list with a Realtor who can  get them to your site, and once landed, can offer today‘s web-savvy consumer the online experience they expect.

 

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 There are signs that the market is slowly slowly coming back: Last week the National Association of Realtors reported that the pending sales index was up  5.3% in June from the prior month, but remains 12.3 percent below June 2007. Pending sales are up 3.4% in the Northeast, down 15% from June 2007. The Pending Home Sales Index is  a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in June, of couse it will take a few months of positive growth for  this to be a trend, but there are glimmers of recovery.  Sales of Multi-families in Rhode Island were up 20% in the second quarter , mostly due to investors getting back in the game, and inventories are going down.  

One statistic that is going down is the number of Realtors in the United States: Membership in the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® declined 1.5 % in 2007, from 1.4 million to 1.34 million and as of July 2008, there were 1.26 million members. Rhode Island had a net loss of about 1,300. Now while this may seem like bad news, it is really good news,  with sales activity trending at 10-year lows in recent months, the market is  getting  brutally competitive. 

Entrepreneurial businesses tend to follow the 80-20 rule,  80 percent of the business activity being conducted by 20 percent of the people. The  top 20 percent of REALTORS® earned a median income of $175,000 while the bottom 20 percent earned less than $10,000.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

Perhaps this is what is needed to boost the overall professionalism of members, the downturn in the market is shaking out the marginal and bad agents, the part timers, and those whose only claim to fame is a  single listing from a relative.

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