The Edmond office of RE/MAX Associates is being honored for being named the top producing RE/MAX office in the state of Oklahoma. At the annual awards luncheon last week, our 34 associates were recognized for closing a total of $224,390.540 in volume in 2005.

Since 1990 when our office was opened by Ruth Boss, it has consistently been in the Top Five in production. The associates have always maintained a high level of individual production. The RE/MAX company has always prided itself on selection of it's associates, each hand-picked. I'm proud to be part of this Top Producing, #1 office in the state!

In a study released this week by the National Association of Realtors, technology is transforming how Americans buy and sell homes, according to one of the largest surveys ever conducted of real estate consumers. As expected, use of the internet to find a home has risen dramatically, up to 74% in 2004, however, 9 out of 10 home buyers use a Real Estate in the search process.

Based on more than 7800 responses from a large national sample of consumers through county deed records, the survey evaluates demographics, characteristics and marketing of home buyers and sellers.

The survey shows that although 81% of home buyers use the internet to search for a home, they use a real estate agent to purchase the home while 63% of non-internet users buy through an agent. Non-internet users are more likely to purchase directly from a builder or an owner they knew in advance of the transaction.

There has been a clear downtrend in For Sale By Owners and is now at a record low. Only 16% conducted transactions without the assistance of a real estate professional in 2005 and 39% of those transactions were between parties who knew each other in advance.

“In reality, the term ‘FSBO’ is a misnomer when used to broadly describe homes sold directly by owners. Since two out of five of these transactions are between related parties, and those properties are not placed on the open market, we believe that ‘unrepresented sellers’ would be a much more accurate term to describe this segment,” said Thomas M. Stevens, NAR President from Vienna, Va.

Survey data don’t explain the price difference, but Stevens offered some context. “Agents know best how to prepare a home and maximize value, agents provide broader exposure to the market and are more likely to generate multiple bids, and the portion of sales that are between private parties are likely to be at a lower price than those on the open market.”