The California Association of Realtors recently released its annual “Survey of California Home Buyers” and some of the statistics are enlightening, especially if you are a real estate agent trying to list or sell homes in today’s tough market.

An article published this morning by Inman News provides several interesting insights into the CAR survey. Among those statistics which should be of great interest to all real estate agents are the following:

• 78 percent of buyers used the Internet as an important part of their home buying and selection process, compared to 72 percent in 2007.
• Buyers who stated that the Internet was an important part of the buying process spent an average 8.3 weeks searching for a home with their agent, up from 5.2 weeks in 2007 and 2.2 weeks in 2006.
• Traditional buyers who said the Internet was not an important part of the buying and selection process took even longer — 10.3 weeks searching for a home with their agent compared to eight weeks in 2007.
• Traditional buyers saw almost twice as many homes with their agent (23.3 homes) as Internet buyers (12.7 homes).
• Satisfaction with the home-buyer process dropped in every category in 2008 compared to the prior year — the average rating among the nine categories was 3.4 in the latest survey (five is “most satisfied” and one is “most dissatisfied). In last year’s survey, the average rating was 4.1.
• Overall satisfaction with agents averaged 3.3 in the 2008 survey compared to 4.1 in the 2007 survey.
• About 31 percent of the Internet group in the survey expected an instant response from their agent, up from 22 percent in 2007. And 96 percent of Internet buyers expected a response within four hours or less, according to the latest survey. Also, about 84 percent of participants said they considered the agent’s response time to be either a “very important” or “extremely important” factor in their decision-making process.
• An individual real estate agent’s Web site was cited as the most useful Web site during the home-buying process (33 percent).
• Of particular interest to us, as it should be to every agent that wants to show their listings in the best light possible, “multiple pictures and a slide show were named by survey participants as “extremely important” Web site features by buyers (61 percent), followed by maps and directions, agent contact options, virtual tours and neighborhood profiles.”
• About 90 percent of buyers in the Internet group found their real estate agent using the Internet, while 9 percent found their agent through a for-sale sign and 1 percent through an agent’s marketing materials.

It goes without saying just how important the Internet is to the home-buying consumer and Obeo is perfectly positioned to help in every single way that is important to those home buyers.

To read the entire Inman News article click here: http://www.inman.com/news/2008/09/12/web-snares-more-real-estate-buyers.

Brent Gray
Chief Operating Officer
Obeo, Inc.