The Internet Puts Cracks in Bricks and Mortar, and Erases Print

November 27, 2006 |

I happened to be in a shopping mall on Black Friday. Luckily, it was later in the evening, and the big crowds had long since disappeared. While my wife and sister-in-law were doing some shopping, I wandered into a bookstore. I soon remembered why I usually shop for books online.

The first thing that you notice in a bookstore is that it is pretty easy to find the books on the New York Times Bestseller List. Those books are at the very front of the store. You actually have to walk around them to get into the store. If you are looking for something other than that, good luck.

The store is at least arranged by genre (Fiction/Non-Fiction) and further separated by topic. As is usually my habit, I went straight to the “Business” section. It was at this point that I ran into a problem. Within the Business section, the books were arranged not by topic, but by author. Of course, that was only true most of the time. Books that were part of a series were all grouped together, regardless of the author. There was no way for me to find books about individual topics unless I browsed through every book on the shelf. With about 12 shelves of books, it was difficult; especially since I couldn’t even judge a book by its cover, I had to do it by it’s spine. Needless to say, I eventually got frustrated, and then tired, and then I left.

Contrast this experience with searching for books on the Internet. When I search on the Internet, I can search by title, author, keywords, etc. I can read reviews of books by other readers, and some sites will even recommend books to me that are similar to the ones I have chosen. The experience is much more efficient and enjoyable.

It occurred to me that the differing experiences of searching for books in a store vs. books online is very similar to the experience of searching for real estate in a real estate print publication vs. real estate online. If you pick up one of the local Charlottesville real estate publications, you are literally bombarded with home advertisements. These ads are not arranged in any real discernible pattern; and even if they were, the ads from individual companies aren’t usually arranged in an order. If, for example, I tried to use a real estate publication to search for a home in a particular area, in a particular price range, with a basement and a 2-car garage, I would be in trouble. I would have to look through almost every page of the publication in the hope of finding something.

Now, let’s take that search online. I can run the same search through the any number of different web portals, and get results in seconds. Then, once I have results, those results are far more in-depth than any ad in a print publication. Searching for real estate on the internet wins hands-down when compared to trying to find real estate in print publications. I know this, and so do most of the potential clients who call me.

Why then, do people still look in print publications? I can think of only 2 legitimate reasons:

1) They don’t have Internet access.

2) No one has shown them how much better it is, so they continue with the old method.

Increased access to the Internet, and consumer education can solve both of these issues. The solutions to these problems pose a very real threat to agents who chose to ignore, or refuse to adapt. In short, the Realtorsaurus should be afraid, very afraid.

[tags] real estate, realtor, charlottesville, virginia, realtorsaurus, real estate advertising, real estate marketing, marketing [/tags]

Posted by Daniel | Filed Under Buying, Industry Issues, Realtorsaurus, Selling 

Comments

One Response to “The Internet Puts Cracks in Bricks and Mortar, and Erases Print”

  1. Athol Kay on November 28th, 2006 2:18 am

    Realtorsaurus… Love It!

    And yes book stores are lame compared to shopping online. I only go to them to get out of the house and hope to find something unexpectted rather than what I am actively looking for.

    When we look for properties for our buyer clients, we don’t use the Sunday paper now do we….

    [Reply]

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