I know the internet has shaken up allot of traditional industries such as travel. I mean, who uses a travel agent any more when you can use Travelocity or Expedia or any one of numerous other websites to book your airfare and hotel? Look at the taxi business being shaken up by the likes of Uber and Lyft. So the internet is wreaking havoc to a number of traditional, well established industries and according the the article from the Mercury News, there those right here in the Silicon Valley that are backing these online upstarts because apparently they think the real estate industry needs the same shakeup.
Real estate however is different. I know companies such as Ebay and Amazon have made shopping from home as convenient as possible, but for one thing, you can't have a house or condo delivered to you. You have to physically go and look at it. Many home sellers don't feel comfortable having complete strangers in their home who aren't accompanied by a REALTOR. There are many legal requirements involved in selling a home, and a real estate agent can explain those requirements and make sure both the buyer and seller are not getting themselves into trouble, and believe me, there are numerous areas where one can run afoul of the law or provoke a lawsuit in this business. Also, agents have a tremendous value, particularly to first time home buyers when it comes to negotiation of the purchase of the home. Many first time buyers are just not savvy and don't have the wherewithal negotiate a good price for the home with terms that are in their best interest.
Conducting the entire purchase of a home online will greatly short circuit this process and do a major disservice to the home buying public, but I am afraid internet is going to embed itself deeper into the home buying process whether agents like it or not. It will be interesting to see how things play out in the coming years.
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