Recent news about real-estate website Zillow acquiring competitor Trulia could affect how home buyers and sellers find each other online, but real-estate agents expect their day-to-day operations to be relatively unaffected by the announcement.
HomeSmart real-estate agent Greg Markov tells The Arizona Republic his profession remains more relevant than ever, in spite of all the online maneuvering.
“The statistics I’ve seen indicate that Zillow and Trulia control close to 80 percent of the online lead market, and that’s certainly a force to reckoned with, but so far, the Internet hasn’t replaced the fundamental part of the business. Once an agent is found, transactions come together pretty much the same way they always have,” he said.
Indeed, real estate is still very much a local business, according to Matt Widdows, the founder of HomeSmart, even down to the forms agents use for documentation.
“There’s a lot more to it than searching online,” he said.
