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EFFECT OF INTERNET DEBATED AS NAR HYPES ITS IMAGE Real estate agents have known for some time that the evolution of technology and increased consumer access to property data could drastically alter the way they do business, but most believe they will still have a role in the sale transaction. There will always be people who want the human touch, and there will always be people who do not" said Ronald Rothenberg of Home Base Real Estate of Belmont. Rothenberg and several other brokers - as well as representatives of three multiple-listing service providers in Massachusetts - discussed the agent's changing role and the growth of new technology at a form in Cambridge last week. The event, a follow-up to the National Association of Realtors' midyear meetings in Washington last month, as hosted by William Wendel, a buyer broker who owns the Real Estate Café. Speakers included Corp. representatives of Quest Technologies, Interealty, Moore Data, Be HereCorp. Inpho, the International Real Estate Digest, and Inman NewsFeature. Industry experts predicted that the traditional agent will evolve into a "transaction broker" who is paid a standard fee instead of a commission. Steven Kropper of Cambridge-based Inpho, which sells real estate data to consumers, said the three main services provided by real estate agents -gathering listings, paperwork and closings, and selling homes - will be "unbundled" and handled by separate, salaried employees. As agents struggle with the changes in technology, the NAR is considering launching a $55 million campaign targeting for sale-by-owner properties, or FSBO's. Wendel described the association's efforts to build its image and discourage owners from selling their homes without a broker as a "breakthrough event." Kropper said he believes that despite the initial resistance to self-marketing of properties, NAR and other professional groups will accept these listing on their World Wide Web sites. "After a gentle transition period {the Realtor.com site and any other sites that are geared toward the transaction will take FSBO listings." Kropper said. James J. Pecora of Buyers Network Real Estate Advantage of Westford said that one reason for the low number of homes for sale is the increased use of the Internet for marketing. "We've heard about (agents having trouble getting listings because sellers believe they can sell it themselves on the Internet" Pecora said. Rothenberg predicted that fewer homes will be sold by brokers as Internet use increases, but W. David Brown, president of Marlborough-based Quest Technologies, said his firm is not concerned about FSBOs gaining market share. We look at FSBOs as a boutique business," Brown said. "My feeling is that the consumer is looking for the Realtor associated-backed (World Wide Web) sites." Some Processes "Cumbersome" Regardless of whether new technology will alter their profession, real estate agents are using computers and advanced software products to help them do their jobs better. Buyer broker Patricia Rioux said she contacts many clients by e-mail, sending them property information and photographs as new listings come on the market. She described the process of sending about five electronic messages per day -and managing the various programs required to translate and encode text and graphics - as "cumbersome" Howard Latham said Moore Data recently launched an e-mail service that would forward listing data to consumers and brokers on a daily basis." Practitioners can much more easily merge information from the public Internet with private intranet data," said Latham, whose firm works with the Bay State Multiple Listing service in Massachusetts. "The ability to merge this information is important". Other products - from programs that create reports on a community demographics, crime rate, schools and financial data to cameras that allow potential buyers to take a "virtual tour" of homes for sale, are expected to become commonplace. "In the next year or two years, you will see a wider exposure for this type of technology," said Daniel J. Patton of Be Here Corp., which is marketing a camera and software package that provides a 360 degree view of the interior of homes for sale. "From a Realtor's perspective, I would expect that in the next three to five years, this is the way people are going to buy and sell homes." For some consumers, however, the Internet and fancy software packages will not replace the traditional process of purchasing and selling property. While the Internet is a large part of our communications, the applications are not yet mature enough to do it all," said Quests Brown, whose company is the data provided for Southborough-based MLS-I. "We have to look at what we can do." On most consumer-accessible sites, a query will not get enough response back because of the selectiveness of the data," added Kropper. "Almost every online experience (for consumers} is disappointing. "Latham disagreed, saying that some part of the Internet are troublesome, but "the technology has evolved enough" for real estate commerce to be effective, "I think a lot of the MLS vendors are in transition right now," said James Crowley of Interealty, a provider of multiple listing service technology in southeastern Massachusetts. "Internet browsers are the primary information retrieval tool, but are not yet the replacement for the MLS technology." |
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