September 20, 2007

Estate agents on the way out?

Lets be honest here, estate agents are never really at the top of anyone’s Christmas card list, and this could be for various reasons. So the fact that estate agents could be on the way out will mean that not many tears would be shed for them.

So why is this? Well there was a time when buying or selling a house meant an obligatory visit to the estate agent, nothing happened within the property market without the estate agents say so. Yet the internet means that people have access to many of the resources that only estate agents had, so now we can see homeowners selling their homes and bypassing the estate agent.

Should this trend continue, and there is no reason why it should not, then the estate agents could find themselves struggling to meet their costs and therefore will have to start cutting back. There will always be a need for an estate agent for some people, but the high street may look different in a few years time.

Source [Real Blogging]