Connection Seen Between Tech Spending, Leads

May 12, 2006

The number of REALTORS® with Web sites has soared 129 percent over the past five years, according to a new survey by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

The 2006 REALTOR® Technology Survey, conducted by NAR’s Center for REALTOR® Technology, reveals that the Internet ranks third in generating leads, behind referrals and repeat clients, and ahead of community involvement. The survey also shows that there is a clear connection between technology spending and Internet-generated leads, and that getting leads from the Internet continues to grow.

Real estate practitioners have invested heavily in Internet technology and security, through Multiple Listing Systems and individually, in the past several years. For example, the survey showed that thus far in 2006, 56 percent of practitioners spent more than $1,000 apiece on technology and that 30 percent spent $2,000 or more.

In addition, 16 percent of agents and 28 percent of brokers are now spending more than $1,000 annually on their Web sites. Practitioners with personal business Web sites – not including an area on a broker’s site – was 71 percent in 2006, compared to 31 percent in 2002, showing a jump of 129 percent.

“Consumers are able to use information portals to look for homes to buy because REALTORS® have invested huge amounts of resources in technology to make accurate information available on secure sites, thus bringing added value to the transaction," says said Thomas M. Stevens, 2006 NAR president and senior vice president of NRT Inc., from Vienna, Va. "All this information is available to consumers, free of charge, 24 hours a day.”

The survey also shows that the amount of investment in Web sites has a direct relationship to the number of leads coming from the Internet. Thus, 40 percent of those who spent more than $5,000 on their Web site showed that more than 60 percent of their leads come from the Internet.

Practitioners are also reacting more quickly to online consumer inquiries. In a surprising change from past surveys and findings, more than half the survey respondents indicate that it takes them less than two hours to respond to an Internet inquiry, and only 2 percent indicate that it takes them more than a day to respond. That compares with a 2004 survey showing that only 27 percent of practitioners responded within eight hours to an online inquiry and 46 percent of inquiries received no responses.

Mark Lesswing, NAR vice president and director of CRT, says practitioners must be more vigilant about securing their technology and data.

“While the survey indicates that the vast majority of REALTORS® take steps to protect themselves and the listing information provided by their clients and customers, more work remains to be done,” he says Mark Lesswing. “Less than a third of respondents have received information security education from their MLS or brokerage. Only one-third are aware of written security policies that they must follow and less than half have a written privacy policy. Programs like CRT’s REALTOR® Secure can definitely play a role here.”

The survey shows that use of automated transaction management systems, which electronically monitor each step of the real estate process, continues to rise, moving from 13 percent in 2005 to 26 percent in 2006, with 70 percent of users saying they are satisfied with their applications.

The survey was based on data from field research conducted in April of this year. CRT e-mailed the survey to 20,000 NAR members, including agents and brokers and generated 719 usable responses. Read more from the 2006 study at REALTOR.org.