"The internet has changed everything," so they say; and it's true. Sort of.

The 2004 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers sheds a good bit of light on the changing habits of homebuyers. Moreover, because NAR conducts a similar survey every year, readers are able to see trends. This year, survey questionnaires were mailed to 100,000 consumers -- more than twice the number queried in the past couple of years -- who had purchased a home between August 2003 and July 2004. The response rate was 8.2 percent.

In support of the view that not everything has changed completely, consider this: More buyers first learned of the home that they ultimately purchased by means of a yard (for sale) sign than through the Internet. But, having said that, we should also note that (a) the difference was not large (16 percent learned of the home from a sign, 15 percent learned from the Internet) and (b) the trend is definitely in favor of the Internet. In 1995, 18 percent of all buyers learned of the home they ultimately purchased through a yard sign. That number has held pretty steady over the years, being only two percent lower this year. On the other hand, in 1995 less than one percent of buyers learned of their new home through the Internet. In 1999 the number was four percent, last year it was 11 percent, and now it is 15 percent.

Those of us old enough to remember the '70s may recall that virtually all of the social commentators who cast themselves as "futurists" predicted that by the turn of the century we would pretty much be living lives of leisure. Technology would dramatically reduce the time required to be spent on our jobs or on our homes. Indeed, in those days some universities actually established programs and departments of Leisure Studies. The Academy of Leisure Sciences, an honorary organization which still exists, was founded in 1980.

Forgive us if we chuckle; but what has been learned is that the products of technology didn't result in more free time. Rather, they just enabled us to do more things in less time.

This phenomenon is reflected in the NAR Profile. The Internet hasn't replaced former methods of looking for homes. It has simply added another one. Seventy-four percent of all buyers now use the Internet in their home-search process. But buyers still do all the things they used to do. Ninety percent of all buyers engage real estate agents as a resource, 74 percent look for yard signs, while 53 percent consult newspaper ads, etc.

That is to say, buyers use multiple sources of information. A significant portion uses the Internet, but those people look to other sources as well.

The Profile also shows that some old habits die hard. Eighty-seven percent of all buyers said that they found open houses to be very or somewhat useful sources of information. Yet not even five percent of buyers learned of the home that they purchased through an open house! However, this is not necessarily contradictory. Buyers may have found open houses to be useful sources of information about the market in general, even if not a useful means of finding the house that they wanted to buy. This, though, should give pause to those who think they are likely to sell their home by means of an open house.

The NAR Profile contains a wealth of information useful both to real estate agents and to their seller clients. Much of the information is useful for finding out what apparently doesn't work. Some of the least productive methods of exposing property to prospective buyers are also some of the most expensive. This is something that agents certainly want to know, and sellers should want to know as well. It's better for everyone that an agent's resources are directed to media and methods that are likely to be productive than to one's that may be "glitzy" but not very effective.

Published: May 20, 2005

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Bob Hunt is a director of the National Association of Realtors and is author of the recently published book, "Real Estate the Ethical Way." A graduate of Princeton with a master's degree from UCLA in philosophy, Hunt has served as a U.S. Marine, Realtor association president in South Orange County, and director of the California Association of Realtors, and is an award-winning Realtor. Contact Bob at .