Take a moment to read this article … what are your online plans to sell more homes???
My New House? I Met It Online
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
LONG-DISTANCE Munyaradzi and Jacquie Chenje found their New Rochelle house online while living in Kenya.
Published: May 15, 2009
SEVERAL months ago, Munyaradzi and Jacquie Chenje fell in love on the Web — not with each other, but with a house.
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
The place lived up to the photos, they say.
When Mr. Chenje, a senior United Nations staff member in Nairobi, Kenya, learned last winter that he was being transferred to New York City, he and his wife powered up their computer and began the search for a new home in the suburbs of Manhattan.
Their list of must-haves included a commute no longer than 30 minutes for Mr. Chenje; a school within walking distance for their son, Nicholas, 17; and a backyard with enough space and sunshine so that Mrs. Chenje could grow a vegetable garden.
Months of e-mail messages flew back and forth between the Chenjes and the global relocation department of Houlihan Lawrence, as the couple sifted through myriad online listings, checked out comparable values on Web sites like Zillow.com and surveyed neighborhoods on Google’s map site.
Last fall, they found exactly what they were looking for: a four-bedroom Dutch colonial in New Rochelle. It was less than two blocks from the public high school, seven minutes from the train station and about a half hour from Grand Central Terminal.
They were particularly taken with an online photograph of the trees and bushes on the front lawn in full spring bloom. “It reminded us so much of Nairobi, which is very verdant, that we just fell in love with the place,” Mrs. Chenje said.
Before they signed a contract, Mr. and Mrs. Chenje traveled to New Rochelle to inspect the house.
“In the end, the final decision was an in-person one,” she said. “But it was what we expected it would be. We were not disappointed.”
Increasingly, virtual shopping, especially during the early stages of looking for a home, is a major component in the real estate business. Buyers, sellers and agents are using social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook, online classifieds like Craigslist and enhanced real estate sites like Listingbook.
A Web tool that enables agents to include up to 30 photos along with each listing, Listingbook offers virtual tours and 360-degree views. Agents issue the client a password allowing access to the site; they can then provide him or her with an update via e-mail on price reductions and new listings, explained Caryn Balamaci, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Scarsdale.
In general, she added, the younger the clients, the more Web-savvy they are.
As an example of typical clients, she cited John Hayes, an investment banker, and his wife, Michelle, a special education teacher, who live in a one-bedroom rental apartment in the Riverdale section of the Bronx with their 8-month-old daughter, Madison. Crowded in their current quarters, they are looking for a three- or four-bedroom house in either Westchester or Connecticut.
Each morning at 6, Mr. Hayes tends to the baby and searches the Web for a house, reading Ms. Balamaci’s morning e-mail alerts on Listingbook. He also checks out sites like PropertyShark.com for the most recent sales price and ownership information on specific listings. He continues online shopping throughout the day and stays in constant touch with his agent by e-mail and by phone.
“My BlackBerry,” Mr. Hayes said, “is never far from my side.”
The Web’s ease of access to international clients has only enhanced its use as a marketing tool. Houlihan Lawrence, for example, advertises online with telegraph.co.uk in Britain and the global edition of nytimes.com, among others.
In the words of P. Gilbert Mercurio, the chief executive of the 900-member Westchester County Board of Realtors in White Plains, “we’ve seen several big changes in this business in recent years.”
Less than a decade ago, for instance, real estate firms were still advertising only their own listings online. “Today, it’s the rare Web site where a consumer can’t see all the M.L.S. listings,” Mr. Mercurio said.
The Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service has also entered into a syndication agreement with ListHub, a Web site that reposts local listings on Trulia, aol.com and other sites. And as of last month, individual agents have been able to communicate with their customers through Listingbook.
As a further example of how the Web has oiled the wheels of communication, Houlihan Lawrence is now in partnership with Westchester magazine, a monthly, to share content online, said Chris Meyers, the brokerage’s chief operating officer. Houlihan is providing the magazine’s Web site with a real estate search engine; the magazine is providing Houlihan with restaurant reviews and other community information.
In addition, agents and agencies are increasingly using blogs to answer questions and opine on various subjects.
“For the real estate business, blogs have become an online version of Ann Landers,” said Claire Civetta, an agent for Coldwell Banker.
As for Facebook and Twitter, which help agents make new contacts, Mr. Meyers at Houlihan Lawrence likened those tools to “attending an online cocktail party.”
At the Sotheby’s office in Larchmont, Jim Whittemore, the manager, who became an agent in the 1970s, says he is now forever tethered to his BlackBerry. But, he said: “Technology can only go so far. You still have to get the customers in the car and take them there. Some people think you can even kick the tires online, but you can’t.”
Think about this one!
Passion Rules!
Tom Ferry
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