The National Association of Realtors recently did a study to find out how much Realtors are going to be hurt by the new information technologies. What they found is that buyers, in particular, are definitely able to do a lot more research before they even talk to a Realtor, but Realtors continue to be the number one source of information for both buyers and sellers.

In fact, the study found that folks who use the Internet are MORE likely to use a Realtor when buying or selling a home - 87% - compared to 76% for non-Internet users.

As anyone who has ever accessed the World Wide Web can attest to, having more information doesn't necessarily mean having more knowledge. It can still be a daunting task to sort through it all. 80% of buyers who scope out properties on-line ultimately purchase a home introduced to them by their Realtor. Only 4% end up making an offer on a home they found themselves via the net (see below for what happened with the other 16%).

The Internet is doubtless changing the WAY Realtors should go about marketing homes - open houses, for example, are greatly decreasing in importance as casual lookers do their looking on-line. In 1995, 41% of buyers went to open houses. Today, that number is 28%.

Sellers are also continuing to list with Realtors. The number of For Sale By Owners (also called "fisboes" by Realtors for FSBO) increased only 1% from 1995 to today, to 16%. And almost half of those FSBOs are undertaken by sellers who already know their buyers - often they are related.

For more reasons why Realtors won't be replaced by a machine any time soon, see our Important Information for FSBOs.