As with so many industries, it’s hard to remember real estate before the Internet. A lot has changed from the days of scouring through classifieds, driving around in search of “for sale” signs and researching for hours with an agent. The Internet has afforded a wealth of information for potential home buyers and saved hours of time to find the perfect place. In fact, the web has become such a valuable resource that, according to a recent study by the National Association of Realtors, 90 percent of those in the market use it when searching for a new home.
Additionally, 68 percent of home buyers are couples (either married or unmarried), and 87 percent work with an agent. What that implies is that an overwhelming majority of home buyers works with at least one, and in most cases, two other people throughout the decision-making process.
In spite of this inherently “social” nature of home buying, the online experience for the real estate industry is a highly isolated and solitary one, e.g.: An agent emails pages of links and options from an MLS that may or may not fit the buyer(s)’ criteria; the buyer looks through the links on her own and eliminates the ones she knows off the bat don’t fit. Then she goes through the site doing some research on her own, copies the links and adds them to the list. Next, maybe she forwards the links from work to her fiancé, who then repeats the process. Once the couple has decided on their list, they may send it back to the agent, who then has recommendations on certain listings she knows have inherent flaws the buyer might not know about and finally they arrive on a set of possibilities. Then, it’s time to start pounding the pavement.
Social commerce tools like ShopTogether minimize those hassles by allowing two or more people to view properties online together from different locations. A couple can browse properties together in real-time from across town during their lunch breaks. They can even have their REALTOR join in to guide them and answer questions, and couples can give a quick “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” on a listing. And for rental sites, ShopTogether can provide similar benefits for friends or couples researching a place that will appeal to everyone in the group.
Given we’re still in the early stages of social commerce, ShopTogether can be a differentiator on innovative sites that will attract more visitors and keep them there longer, which benefits not only end-users, but also the sites that depend on ad revenue as part of their business model.
With the explosion in popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter, the real-time social potential of the web is finally starting to be realized, and the sooner real estate sites embrace this trend themselves, the sooner they’ll be exclaiming, “Sold!”
Tags: NAR, national association of realtors, real-estate marketing, real-time, s-commerce, ShopTogether, social commerce, social shopping