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Net income: firms benefit from home buyers who use the Internet as a key part of their house hunting search.

Article Excerpt
Ah, the good old low-tech days of house hunting--scanning the Sunday classifieds, dragging a hapless real estate agent through miles of fruitless prospects, and soloing around town, peeking into the darkened windows of vacant properties, hoping some guard dog is not within chomping distance.

These days, that's all a quaint memory for many consumers, real estate professionals and even builders, whose most valuable selling--and buying--tool has become the Internet.

"The Internet is probably one of the most industry changing events in my 35 years in the business, and I believe it's been a positive," said Rick Hoffman, the president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in San Diego/Inland Empire.

According to the latest survey by the California Association of Realtors, home buyers who used the Internet as a key part of their searches grew from 56 percent in 2004 to 62 percent in 2005.

"The Internet is such a great way to shop for anything, especially a home, in the initial stages, when you're not sure what you're looking for," said Marianne Browne, the vice president of sales and marketing for John Laing Homes. "Then you can narrow it down. It's such a timesaver."

Time Is Money

In the real estate business, time is definitely money.

"We are in an age when time is one of the most valuable commodities for people," said Browne. "We love people who have been to the Net. They are so educated when they come to our sales centers. They already know what they want. It delivers us a much more qualified and interested prospect. It is time well Spent, rather than someone who might be looking for ideas on how to do the backyard landscaping. It's an extremely good tool for the homebuilder."

Laing's site gets about 2,500 hits per day, according to the company, with the highest number of visitors accessing it around 4:30 p.m.

KB Home, which has a Spanish language version, reports that about 70 percent of its home buyers use the site at some point during their search.

"When we launched the...

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