Women go online to research new homes

Women lead the way when it comes to researching property to buy online, according to a recent U.S. survey conducted by the National Polling Service on behalf of Obeo.com, and they desire as much visual input from real estate websites as they can get.

by Helen Leggatt

obeo%20logo.gif Real estate marketing product retailer, Obeo.com, surveyed over 500 U.S. residents to investigate gender’s impact on purchasing a home. They found that women lead the way when it comes to conducting real estate searches on the Internet and view larger volumes of potential properties than men online.

According to Obeo.com, "the Internet has created a consumer used to going online to research products before taking psychological ownership and ultimately making the purchase".

Survey findings include:

- 41% of women began their search for a new property online, compared with a quarter of all men.

- Over 52% of women searched 21 or more homes online, compared with 45% of men.

The survey also discovered the impact that visual and interactive aspects of online property search results have on women. Almost all, 94%, said photographs of property were ‘very helpful’, almost three-quarters said interactive elements were ‘helpful’ and 70% said 360-degree panoramas were ‘very helpful’.

"We know that today's home buyers are more knowledgeable about the process in general and have higher expectations of information provided regarding the homes in which they are interested," said Obeo CEO Glade Jones, in a recent statement.