Chicago Real Estate Consumers Seek Services Online, Agents Must Sort Through Rushing Stream Of Inquiries

Has a sizable number of Chicago real estate consumers turned the process of looking at housing on the Internet into a full-time job? It often seems that way to Garry Vallo, an agent with RE/MAX Suburban in Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Vallo estimates that each week he receives 50 inquiries from potential buyers and sellers. A majority of these potential business leads are “just looking,” but Vallo’s livelihood increasingly depends on his ability to sort the “tire kickers” from the serious buyers and sellers. It’s a phenomenon that is becoming familiar to real estate agents from coast to coast. As more buyers and sellers make the Internet their primary tool for checking out the residential real estate market and finding an agent to represent them, agents spend a growing percentage of their time responding to and sorting through a continually rushing stream of Internet leads.

“The speed of the Internet has created a mindset among consumers that when they contact a business online they will get a more-or-less-instant response,” said Vallo. “A typical Chicago real estate buyer might e-mail 15 different agents about listings they like that they found online. Whoever gets back to that buyer quickest often gets the business.”

One recent milestone in the growth of real estate activity online was the announcement by RE/MAX that, as of August this year, its lead management system had passed along more than 5 million leads to RE/MAX agents across the United States. It took just 30 months to reach that number. In the Chicago area and other parts of northern Illinois, RE/MAX has sent its agents more than 1 million leads generated through its regional Web site, www.illinoisproperty.com, since its inception in 2004.
RE/MAX agents can receive leads on any mobile device with e-mail capabilities or on a computer. The agent can then either accept or reject the lead.

Vallo said he accepts those Internet leads whenever the prospect lives within a reasonable distance of the market area he services. Once the lead is accepted, he tries to contact the prospect immediately, either by e-mail or phone. Then the winnowing process begins. Is this prospect merely curious about a property or ready to buy or sell?

Agents estimate that 75 to 90 percent of the leads they receive are from buyers, and “they are in all stages of the buying process,” said Patricia Regan of RE/MAX City in Chicago, Illinois. “Some are just starting and are doing basic market research. Others may be close to making an offer on one property but then see a new listing in the same area and want to find out about it.”

Regan estimates that about one of every 10 Internet leads she receives is viable and about 30 percent of those result in a closed sale. However, the percentage of viable leads has been increasing in recent years, so that clients who contact her in this way now account for 25 to 30 percent of her annual sales volume.

It can take a long time for agents to cultivate prospects who make initial contact via the Internet, according to Elizabeth Sidorowicz of RE/MAX Signature in Chicago.

“Many of them want to be anonymous. They’re often skittish, and it takes a lot of time to gain their trust,” she said. One way in which Sidorowicz sorts serious buyers from tire kickers is to check on the listings they look at online.

“If someone searches first for $90,000 properties and then for homes priced at $1.5 million, chances are they’re just looking,” she said.

Frequently, the agents find, a prospect won’t return their communications. Sidorowicz admits it took her a while to adjust to that, “but now I understand the Internet is a tool for the general public, and you can’t take a lack of response personally.

“You have to give them time. If they have a question, you have the answer. The agent should be professional, knowledgeable and as helpful as possible. But if they don’t want to talk to you, you have to accept that.”

As Internet leads have come to play a larger role in the residential real estate business, agents find their business has changed. For one thing, they now work with many prospects who won’t be buying right away. It may be a young couple trying to save up enough for a down payment or an older single who has run into financial problems in years past and now needs to clean up his credit score. It could be the parents planning to buy a condo for a son or daughter who will graduate from college next year.

Regan happily points to a major sale she just closed near the U.I.C. campus in Chicago for a buyer who originally contacted her online. She worked with him for four years, and didn’t even meet him until two years ago when she helped him make two offers that didn’t work out. The third offer, however, was the charm.

Sellers who use the Internet to seek out an agent to list their property tend to be more reliable leads, according to Garry Vallo of Glen Ellyn, IL. But whether they are buyers or sellers, the Internet is putting real estate agents in contact with many prospects.

“Following up on all those leads does represent a large investment of time and energy,” acknowledged Vallo. “You know that many folks aren’t serious, but initially you must treat every lead in a professional manner because you can’t be sure, when a lead first shows up on your cell phone or computer, how it will work out in the end.”