More than half of buyers in 2016 found the home they purchased on the internet, the first time a majority relied on the web to find a listing. That rate is expected to climb, considering that millions of tech-savvy Millennials are entering the homebuying stage of life.
Real estate agents remain important, however. According to NAR data from the 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the Economists’ Outlook blog reports that 34 percent of buyers found their home through a real estate agent, a share that has remained steady over the last decade.
For buyers that looked online for properties, they also visited 10 homes over the course of 10 weeks before they purchased. For buyers that went straight to a real estate agent and did not look online, they visited four homes over only four weeks before they made their purchase, indicating that they likely know the neighborhood already where they want to buy.
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