In an era of digital media where everything is just a click away, searching for a property through websites is nothing new. But is it posing as a threat to the traditional real estate agents? Read on to know more
Traditional Real Estate Agents Fading Away
Obsolescence of traditional real estate agents can either seem flat or just early—depending on how you feel about them. The idea that is far dubious is that traditional real estate agents are facing a hard core challenge from the digital media as the technological threats in the form of property websites continue to appear. There are full of stories raging across the country about traditional real estate agents feeling a considerable threat from the websites.
Once the digital media forayed in and alongside India experienced a property boom, property websites all of a sudden emerged and created ripples within the market. Young tech-savvy Indians began to look forward to property websites in order to find an answer to all their queries. The current real estate sector of the country has been scaling high; despite that India requires more residential homes. According to the Eleventh Five Year Plan, it was estimated that there is still a shortage of 26.53 million houses. This implies the strong concern for real estate developers in India.
The Earlier Scenario
Though, real estate in India is yet to receive an industry status, nonetheless the realty boom transformed the country’s landscape to a great extent. However, over time, it has been felt that emergence of the digital media has endangered the traditional market of the real estate agents. Gone are those days when you as an end user had to go running after an agent in search of a property; most of the times, the end-user had to be at the mercy of the agent; this is because either they had too many clients to cater to in one particular time or they ended up charging exorbitant fees (commission) for their services. More so, there was less of transparency when it came to property dealings; either the end user was clueless about property rates or most often the real estate agents would have his way out some way or the other.
Property Websites and Current Situation
Now, there came a time when the digital media became the order of the day and property sites began to be launched. As Indians became more tech-savvy, they began to resort to the digital media for every other thing; so searching for a property through websites gradually caught up.
This came in handy because the user had easy access to all kinds of information required for searching a property. Current real estate prices, locality, floor plans, and rental values—everything was only a click away. Moreover, a list of real estate agents was also available! Such convenience obviously made a dent in the thriving market of the traditional real estate agents. No longer, buyers had to rely on real estate agents in search of the perfect property in the perfect location. And even if they had to approach an agent, the details would be available on the website itself.
It goes without saying that traditional real estate agents began feeling the heat as buyers had an easy access to all kinds of information related to properties. However, if we dig a little deep into the situation, we will figure out that, today the situation is quite interesting. While there are several real estate websites available today, but real estate agents also exists side-by-side. May be their importance has gone down considerably, yet their importance within the market remains considerably well-off. Today real estate agents also end up advertising for their properties online and you can end up speaking to any of the agents in case you have some queries.
After analyzing the current scenario, it can be said that existence of both are required at a level; one is dependent on the other. Though, the earlier fads of traditional real estate agents have comparatively faded away, their importance still remains with buyers definitely to some extent and they are very much into their business.
Sampurna Majumder writes on behalf of 99acres.com which is leading real estate portal providing genuine and accurate information about the current real estate trends and different properties available across various cities in India.
Featured image License All rights reserved by kyle flemming
