Impact of the 1st 25 years of the WWW on Real Estate
Impact of the 1st 25 years of the WWW on Real Estate
So today is the 25th Anniversary of the World Wide Web and boy how our lives have changed. Think back to 1989. Did you have a PC? I got my first one in 1994 way before
my friends because my father was a computer programmer and he gave me his old 386 when he upgraded to a faster model (ha). When did you get your first PC and how many have you had since?
Our family is pretty computer savvy so we have our share of internet accessible products. I’m not trying to brag but my husband does work in the IT field and as a Realtor, my work relies on being able to communicate with my clients, market their homes and find homes for them. Between desktops, several laptops and iPads as well as our smart phones, we are connected.
When I first began in the Real Estate field back in the 1990’s, none of my co-workers used the internet. The MLS service was online, you had to use a disk to access it and they had not developed the technology to be able to e-mail listings. An agent had a 10 step process to send listing summaries by e-mail. Also, back then, there was not a vehicle for folks to see the listing summaries online (no Realtor.com or any of the others) so buyers relied greatly on the agent to provide them a list of what homes were available. Back in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s only about 10% of the buyers were looking for home online, now, the % is up to about 45%. Times have changed.
No longer are buyers looking for an agent to provide them with a list of homes to see. Most people go online themselves and find the homes THEY want to see. I’m happy to work with buyers either way.
The internet is older than the World Wide Web. Not that I’m an expert on computer or the web and know how it all works, but from what I believe is true, the internet is where all the information is but it’s the Web that connects us all to the vast amount of information out there. And to date myself, do you remember going to an encyclopedia and or a card catalog in the library to find out things? Now libraries are filled with technology and card catalogs are prized decorator items. We are not limited to what we see on the shelves in library or at home but we can access a world of information with the tips of our fingers.
With this evolution of technology, we have seen homes evolve too. In the 1990’s new homes were being built with a new room called an office to accommodate the desk top computer. Homes without an office soon turned bedrooms, basements and sometimes dining rooms or living rooms into an office. Nowadays computers have come out of the office rooms and are accessed by family members wherever they are and they can access information from around the globe by just typing in a few words.
