Frog Legs Anyone?
September 18th, 2008 categories: Market Trends, Relocating
“Facts don’t cease to exist because they are ignored”
Aldous Huxley
Have you ever heard the “boiled frog” story?. You know, the frog who starts out in a cold pan of water, and sits there while the temperature slowly rises, and before it realizes it, it has been boiled to death. It is one story I’ve often used in my attempts to teach my sons a lesson or two.
The use of this anecdote or object lesson serves as a warning of the perils of complacency or false sense of security. By the time you’ve realized the perilous state you’re in, you’re past the point of rescue or return. In other words, you’re doomed!
How real estate is bought and sold has changed tremendously since the development of the web and the digital age. The capabilities of the internet have revolutionized how we do business. Every year, we’ve seen an increase in the percentage of buyers who begin their search for homes via the internet. This makes perfect sense. When homes are simply a few mouse clicks away, why wouldn’t you choose the easiest path of resistence?
The California Association of Realtors trade group recently reported that in its annual survey of home buyers, 78% percent of buyers used the internet as an important part of their home buying and selection process. This was an increase of six percent from the previous year, and followed the increasing pattern of previous years. According to Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes and Gardens, this shift of information access has had a dramatic change on the real estate busness. Today’s “consumer has access to all the infomation now, it is much different than it used to be.”
Most of us agree that one of the beauties of the web is the education it provides. On just about any subject, there’s more information available than you have time to read, or watch (Thank you, YouTube). For home buyers, while there are a number of different available “Homes For Sale” sites, the key question might be, “Are you using a search for homes site that is drawn directly from the MLS? If not, you should be. Why? Because they provide you the real time status of homes. If a home is Under Contract or Sold, the actual/current status will be reflected, not two day, or two week old status. If you’re working with a Realtor, they should be providing you with a daily feed of active homes directly from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that are on the market that match your search criteria. If they aren’t, ask them to provide you this free service. If they are unable to meet this need, it might be time to look for another Realtor.
For some real estate agents, these modern search tools aren’t exactly what the doctor ordered. While they certainly appreciate the online search for homes capability, their willingness to educate and provide useful online home related information to their clients isn’t met with that same enthusiasm. That doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want their customers or clients to have the information on financing options, home inspections, settlement issues, moving links, and local utility providers, among other things. It simply means that THEY aren’t providing the information. I suppose the question is, “Why?”
The information paradigm has shifted in the home buying and selling business. What used to be something controlled to a large degree by those inside the real estate marketing club, has now been put on the web for all to see. We live in an “open source” or online world. For buyers, there’s no excuse not to take advantage of everything that’s available concerning neighborhoods, county agencies, schools, and homes, and anything else about the next place you’ll be calling home. These days you can often tour a prospective neighborhood and walk through a home from across the globe months before you ever set foot in your new location, by just going to the web.
For agents, we can provide our clients more information about their new county, city, local culture, and home, than they could ever desire to know, in just a few minutes by maneuvering the mouse and using the keyboard. I certainly appreciate clients that have done their research before beginning their quest for their next home. They, in turn, appreciate more information as opposed to less.
As far as the boiled frog story goes; it is an urban legend and not true. Tests have shown that as the water temperature increases, the frog becomes more and more active in its attempts to escape the gradually increasing water temperature. If there is a way to jump out of the hot water, the frog will. And, that kind of makes sense. There aren’t many of us who like being in hot water.
