Making Connections

Web 2.0 Creates New Ways for Agents, Home Shoppers to Find Each Other

Jeanne Bobofchak, 31, was looking for a real estate agent, but she wanted to avoid the awkwardness of choosing among her friends' recommendations. So she went online and found agent Bob Carney's blog, FocusOnFrederick.com.

The information on the Frederick community was detailed, the comments from former clients were glowing, and Carney seemed as if he would be fun to work with.

"I'd been told to never pick a Realtor out of a hat, but I feel like Bob was recommended to us out of the comments on the Internet," she said. "I just remember reading Bob and going 'Oh, yeah. He's the one.' "

So the next day Bobofchak enlisted his services to help her buy a house -- without the traditional "meet the agent" interview.

Call it Real Estate Agent Hunting 2.0.

No longer must potential home buyers and sellers actually speak to real estate professionals to meet them. Instead, consumers are accessing agents' ever-more-common blogs, social network pages or viral video campaigns -- all of the burgeoning options that have been called Web 2.0 -- to tap their expertise and get a sense of their personalities. Some meet agents who quickly feel like buddies; others go with discount brokers and don't have any direct contact with their agent until they're ready to put a bid on a house.

"In this type of environment the cream rises to the top," said Jonathan Washburn, chief executive of ActiveRain, a popular real estate blogging site that boasts membership of more than 100,000 real estate professionals. Traditional advertising provides limited information, he said, but online, agents "get a chance to demonstrate their actual expertise by writing about things that are relevant to the consumer."

But some financial planners warn that consumers who find their real estate agent online risk getting swept away by the flash of a fancy marketing campaign and missing out on substance.

"In the last several years, real estate agents have been trained to market through creative ways with online content," said Timothy J. Maurer, director of financial planning for the Baltimore-based financial advisory firm the Financial Consulate. "While it can be helpful to review this content, prospective home buyers need to explore beyond the realm of technology to confirm that there is genuine substance, experience and strategy behind the façade of the Web content."

Real estate agents have long based their marketing strategy on referrals, direct mailings and print advertisements. Now, with consumers going online to research everything from digital cameras to teeth whiteners, some are looking to learn more about potential real estate than they could in a Yellow Pages ad.

"It's really a new tune that prospective home buyers and Realtors are dancing to right now," said Steve Schultz, senior director of product and business development for Yahoo Real Estate. "As more information comes online, people are mimicking what they do with physical products."

Agents are adapting, but slowly. Between 2007 and 2008, the number of real estate professionals with blogs doubled to 8 percent, according to annual surveys of the National Association of Realtors. But many agents are already actively engaging with consumers online. People with a specific question -- or who want to learn about an agent's specific expertise -- can test the waters by posting questions in the comment field of an agent's blog, or on such forums as Trulia Voices and Zillow.