This article is too detailed to efficiently summarize, so I’ll just snip two paragraphs.

Computers and the Internet have been billed as enabling new ways of doing business, but in the residential real estate industry, people’s expanded access to information hasn’t rendered the real estate agent a relic, says a Penn State researcher. “The expectation was that real estate agents would go away once consumers could see all the home listing information, but the number of real estate agents has increased, not decreased, in the last 10 years,”
…
According to the researchers, the introduction and adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) clearly has provided access to information–such as listings, mortgage rates, fees and neighborhood demographics–previously unavailable to consumers. That increase in the quantity of available information has led to better quality information which, in turn, has led to better-informed consumers. Armed with more information, consumers have demanded more specialized services as well as better service from real estate agents, Sawyer said.

But these are evolutionary — not revolutionary-changes, he said. (bolding mine)

If you are interested in real estate and technology’s influence on said industry and competition, read the whole thing. Yes, technology influences how I work, but I do not foresee technology ever replacing the people involved. A real estate transaction always involved emotions, be they aggression, regret, jubilation, or patience. Technology simply cannot (yet) replace the human factor.

Related note: Zillow is launching soon. Very interesting.

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