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05/24/2005: "Finding a Home on the Internet"
Saw an interesting real estate news story from Inman News this week. It quoted a realestate.com survey of new homeowners- 40% of which said they started their home search on the internet and 27% of which said they found their agent on-line as well.
If you're reading this, of course, this might not be news to you as you're on a real estate website which means you are probably looking for a home on-line.
Although the Inman article was full of stats and examples of what today’s home buyers are doing differently from buyers a few years ago, what the article didn't talk about is what the real estate agents are doing to actually make it easier for on-line buyers to find and evaluate homes.
One of the biggest problems in searching for a home on-line is actually finding the home listings you are looking for- and finding them before the home is actually sold! Most local websites only list a few homes and national sites like Realtor.com can take weeks to post new home listings.
This brings me to our website, www.stlagent.com. We’ve incorporated an MLS (stands for Multiple Listings Service) search option that lets you search the database real estate agents use. It includes virtually every home listing in the St. Louis, MO area regardless of agent or listing office. Unlike the national websites, our MLS feed is updated daily.
We also have an advanced search engine, called the Scouting Report, which gives you a secure, password protected website where you can set up search criteria specific to what you are looking for. The Scouting Report will then send you a daily e-mail of the new homes from the MLS that meet your criteria. If you see a home you like, you can log in and save it. That way if anything changes- the home sells, there is a price change, or even new photos are added- you will know immediately.
More important, we’ve spent a lot of time researching the internet looking for ways we can improve the home search process. As such, below is a press release for our Streaming Internet Video Home Tours. If you haven’t seen one of our videos yet, read on. Also, we have low bandwidth versions of our videos for those of you on dial up connections.
Local Agent Brings Internet Real Estate Video Tours to St. Louis
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For Immediate Release
CHESTERFIELD , Missouri ?May 24, 2005?Kimberly Cameron, with Prudential Alliance REALTORS in Chesterfield, is now offering streaming internet video home tours on her website, www.stlagent.com. Cameron and her real estate team, The St Louis Agent Team, are the first real estate agents in St. Louis to offer on-line home tours as a standard listing feature.
“It’s something agents on the coasts started using a few years ago to help sell luxury homes,” said Cameron, “but we have yet to find anyone who is offering it as a standard service on all the properties they sell.”
The on-line videos are two to five minute tours of featured homes that are listed with Cameron and her real estate team. The videos, which are embedded in a standard web page, play using the Microsoft Windows Media Player which is available for both Windows and Macintosh computers. Because the videos are “streaming,” users don’t have to wait for the entire file to download before they begin to play.
“The internet has changed the way people are starting their search for a new home,” said Cameron. “Today, we’re finding that more people are starting their home searches on-line instead of with the local newspaper or open houses. Unfortunately the real estate industry has been slow to embrace the internet. It's not uncommon for local agents to still not even have a website; and the majority that have a website are just publish static information and photos that mimic a newspaper ads.”
“We believe the on-line video tours will give a prospective buyer a better sense of what the home and neighborhood is like,” Cameron continued. “This is especially important for out-of-town buyers who want to feel like they are there.”
To see samples of the on-line tours, please visit:
http://www.stlagent.com/video/7127glades_media.html
A video home tour of 7127 Glades Ave in Richmond Heights, MO.
http://www.stlagent.com/video/new_listings.html
A video home tour of five new and upcoming St Louis area home listings.
Thanks
Darin “Sid” Cameron
Director of Marketing
The St Louis Agent Team
Kimberly Cameron
Team Leader
The St Louis Agent Team
