People Believe the Internet

I’m truly shocked that this is not understood more now that we’re in 2022. When I entered real estate in 2003 I was shocked even then about how little real estate agents knew about the internet. I guess it’s because real estate is an entrepreneurially led business based on relationships. Meaning, for example, people often use realtor friends for their real estate transactions, but I believe this practice of using realtor friends is decreasing.

REAL ESTATE IS CHANGING

People Believe the Internet (PBTI) is changing the way real estate is being done. Nowadays, everyone basically has a search engine with them at all times. Whether you have an iPhone, a Galaxy, Droid, or some other smartphone. Or if by chance you don’t have a smartphone, then you likely have an iPad or computer within arm's reach during the day at home or at work. 

Since people are preferring less and less to ask unintelligent questions, they use the internet on their smartphone to search, and then when they search they believe what they read, people believe the internet (PBTI). When someone searches your name they will believe what they read, whether you did or didn’t choose to put that information out there. 

So what do you need to do? 

The first step is to search the internet on a neutral device that is not your own, then search for yourself anonymously in incognito mode. You want the ability to search and see what other people see when they search for you. If they are using a phone, they can typically only see one item or two items, so you know then that you need to work on those items first.

WHAT DO PEOPLE BELIEVE

There are several things on the internet that people believe more than others. The first is pictures, the second is stars, next is written reviews. The beautiful thing about people believing the internet is you can control this and you have to work as soon as possible to control this.

Just like the consumer believes what they see, they also believe the opposite of what they don’t see. For example, if you say you have sold 200 houses and you only have one review, where are the other 199 reviews? Some real estate agents will respond to that question that they didn’t ask for reviews, but if you are good shouldn’t you receive some reviews without asking? I believe that reviews are now a very common thing to come by. 

So remember that people believe the internet, and they want to see pictures, stars, and written reviews.