How Real Estate Websites are Chaning the Way We Buy Houses

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How Real Estate Websites are Changing the Way We Buy Houses - by Katy Osborn/ Real Estate/ Time.com

"Who needs a tour when you have an iPhone?

I recently found myself at a lunch where I was asked whether I’d used Compass, a real estate search platform that just raised $50 million at an $800 million valuation, to find my current apartment.

I hadn’t, but it’s not unlikely that I’ll use Compass or a competitor in the future. Between new startups like Compass and established apps like Trulia and Zillow (which merged last week), online and app-driven real estate is taking off—so much so, according to a recent survey conducted by the real estate brokerage firm Redfin, that 21% of just over 2100 respondents to the survey said that they’d bid on at least one property without ever having seen it in person during their most recent home search. Among millennials, sight-unseen offers were even more common: Around 30% of respondents said they had made at least one in their latest round of house-hunting.

It’s high-end real estate that’s undergoing the biggest change amid all this technology. Just over half of buyers in the survey who paid over $750,000 for their home said that they’d made an offer without seeing the space in person..."

Andrew Harrer; Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Zillow Inc. app in front of the Trulia Inc. website on Friday, July 25, 2014.


Richard

 

[VegasBella]

I sold a condo (my first home) to a buyer who never saw the condo in person. He bought it based, in part, on my staged and quality photos posted online. I sold it for a profit despite the bad economy at the time.

I would never buy a property I hadn't researched online. Even if it's just Google maps and Google earth, it would make sure to examine it online in detail.

 

[Passepartout]

People have been shopping via internet since MLS got started. It's become ever more sophisticated, but there's nothing new here. Notice even the photo example in the OP is over a year old.

We searched our desired neighborhood, price level, amenities, and a hundred (OK, I exaggerate) different parameters before engaging a buyer's agent and physically visiting a few finalist properties in person.

Google Earth, 360 degree virtual home tours, dozens of photos available on MLS and Zillow really narrow the search. But it isn't really new.

Jim