There's a great divide in the real estate industry.
I'm talking about the divide between those real estate agents who are using the latest technology to learn, acquire and do business, and those who are not. And it's a very lopsided divide, with relatively few agents on the technology side of the aisle, while the majority seem to ignore technology or make believe it doesn't exist. Seems like they don't care about learning how technology can help them despite the overwhelming evidence that consumers care about it, and are using it in staggering numbers to more efficiently find, become more informed about and to conduct their real estate transactions. And despite the flurry of new technology-based real estate models that offer consumers new services, information and new ways of doing business that often don't include a real estate agent.
This is not like the dotcom boom of the late 90's with its wildly inflated expectations for transforming the world. This technology is here and it's being adopted and used by ordinary people every day, and it's getting better all the time. It's not going to go away.
Are Zillow, Reply.com, Propertyshark or Craigslist going to wipe the traditional real estate companies off the map? I don't think so. I believe that most people are still going to want the help and advice of a good Realtor with such a large and complicated transaction.
But the benefits of technology and the innnovations being introduced by the Zillows et al are attractive to many consumers, and increasingly these innovations will have far-reaching effects, directly or indirectly, on the way homes are bought and sold and who facilitates those transactions.