California Association of Realtors released “2005 Internet Versus Traditional Buyer Study”.
Results say:
- The median age of Internet buyers was 39 years compared with a median of 46 years for traditional buyers.
- More than nine out of ten Internet buyers were married, while eight of ten traditional buyers were married.
- 85% of Internet buyers had at least a four-year college degree and 11 percent completed post-graduate work. By comparison, 78 percent of traditional buyers held a college degree and 4 percent completed post-graduate work.
- Internet buyers had an annual income of $185,088, compared with $151,190 for traditional buyers. They can more home.
- Internet buyers spent an average of 5.8 weeks considering buying a home before contacting a Realtor®, nearly three times more than traditional buyers, who spent 2.1 weeks in this stage of the homebuying process.
- Internet buyers spend 4.7 weeks investigating homes, and neighborhoods, before contacting an agent, while traditional buyers spent 1.6 weeks.
- Internet buyers took only two weeks before selecting a home ,while traditional buyers took seven weeks.
- Because the Internet allows buyers to preview homes, a typical Internet buyer only viewed 6.2 homes with their agent, while traditional buyers visited 14.5 homes.
- Nine out of ten Internet buyers found their agents through an online real estate listing site; 60% found their agent through Internet search engines such as Yahoo! or Google. (note I am not sure that google is a real estate searchengine) 12% used agents they had worked with previously. (I would take this to mean that the online exposure buys you loyalty)
- Traditional buyers found their agents through for-sale signs (47 percent). Half (47 percent) found their agents through agent advertising. One quarter (26 percent) of agents were referred by friends and family, and 19 percent had a previous transaction with their agent.
- Internet buyers typically interviewed only one agent (71 percent) — the first one who responded to them. Traditional buyers interviewed a median of three agents, and 37 percent interviewed four or more agents.
- A whopping 47 percent of Internet buyers said they selected their agent because of responsiveness, while only 42 percent of traditional buyers chose their agent for that reason.
- 22 percent of Internet buyers and 21 percent of traditional buyers choosing agents they felt would be the most aggressive on their behalf.
- Internet buyers are more likely to be first-time buyers, they are younger, wealthier, better educated and more likely married.
- All first-time buyers typically spent four weeks considering buying a home and four weeks investigating homes for sale before contacting a Realtor. They then spent three weeks previewing eight homes with their Realtor.
- All repeat buyers spent three weeks considering buying a home, and only two weeks investigating homes for sale on their own. They spent five weeks previewing ten homes with their Realtor.