Homeowners Using Internet For Home Search

Google and Craigslist May Weaken Realtors' Hold on Home Listings - By James R. Hagerty From Full Story: The Wall Street Journal Online 4/10/2006 Craigslist.com and Google.com, two Web sites that have fundamentally altered the way consumers buy a broad range of products, are emerging as places to shop for residential real estate, a development that in the long term could weaken Realtors' hold on home selling. Several more specialized sites launched in the past year -- including Trulia.com, Oodle.com and Propsmart.com -- offer free access to substantial numbers of listings. The proliferation of real-estate sites comes as brokers are under pressure from several directions. As home sales slow, an increasing number of discount brokers are vying for customers. In addition, the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are investigating industry practices that they say deter competition. For buyers, the new home-shopping sites promise to further erode the information advantage enjoyed by real-estate agents over consumers. Most of the new sites offer listings of homes being sold directly by owners, as well as those being sold through agents. "As a buyer, you want to see everything that's available," not just the homes represented by agents, says Ron Hornbaker, co-founder and president of Propsmart Inc., Kansas City, Mo., which owns Propsmart.com. The National Association of Realtors says about 13% of home sales last year were FSBO and that often those were sales between people who already knew each other. To keep up with the competition, a number of real-estate brokers are improving their own sites. Real Living Inc., a big regional broker based in Columbus, Ohio, recently upgraded its site to provide email alerts to buyers when there is new information about some properties and to let sellers see how many people have viewed their homes and what comments they have made. Full Story: The Wall Street Journal Online Real Estate ,Appraiser , Technology , Marketing , Realtor