For more than fifteen years, the Internet has been transforming the real estate industry, a phenomenon that virtually all real estate professionals are aware of. The number and variety of real estate web sites have proliferated and are increasing even to this day, and there is no end in sight.
Without a doubt, the Internet has facilitated sales of American homes to foreign buyers. The ability to browse through pictures and property information at will from anywhere on the globe at any time has had immeasurable effects.
This influence is increasingly noticeable to American Realtors on the beat. Between April, 2009 and March, 2010, 28 percent of agents worked with at least one international client, compared to only 23 percent, only one year prior. Next year’s figure is likely to be even greater.
Realtors, as an organized professional group, did not track foreign purchases consistently prior to 2008. However, in 2010, these sales equaled a staggering $66 billion!
Yet the influence of the Internet is so much broader than that.
One of the most formidable Internet-marketing giants in history promotes — even exhorts — purely local commerce. Craigslist, developed in 1995, now has 50 million unique American users. That means that approximately one in five American adults has a registered user account. Probably, there is still room for considerable growth!
The capacity of Craigslist for reaching the local consumer market is simply unprecedented. Upon typing “craigslist.org” into their Internet browsers, users are routed to their local Craigslist web site — no querying or searching required. Craigslist currently generates 20 billion page visits each month. It maintains more than 700 localized web sites. (By contrast, there were only 32 Craigslist web sites in 2003.)
Bargain hunters of anything from furniture to baby strollers to home school curricula are drawn to the site. In fact you’ve probably accessed the site numerous times. Posting ads is often free, making it appealing to sellers, too.
Craigslist is surprisingly safe given the freedoms bestowed to users. It has very effective self-policing programs in place to eliminate much objectionable, dangerous and redundant content. Craigslist is not infallible, however, meaning users must still use caution. On the other hand, the simplicity of the site makes it hard for anyone to resist!
For their part, more and more REALTORS® are posting brief descriptions of their listings on Craigslist, steering buyers to their own web sites to get more details about the properties. Once a shopper becomes interested in such a property, the rigorous requirements of MLS advertising means they have access to information that is checked, validated, and disclosed in much fuller detail.
For property owners and REALTORS®, use of Craigslist is even more widespread and accepted. This is because this market is more oriented to a youthful, Internet-savvy customer base.
So, as a real estate professional operating in an increasingly competitive industry, it’s important to jump on this bandwagon — if you have not already done so — and start utilizing the benefits of Craigslist.
By: Andy Asbury
