Starting tomorrow, Ford will offer consumers another venue to buy its luxury brand Lincoln automobiles—- Amazon.com. Consumers will be able to customize the auto online but have to buy through a Ford dealer. It all amounts to a referral service for Ford. We should have seen it coming. Amazon was already selling Lincoln engines.
Could real estate be next?
Source: ABC News/Money (AP story)
I’m thinking not. A car is still an “off the shelf” item. A house is always too unique.
I can see amazon getting into some kind of RE marketing though, even if simply as a third party platform for others to provide service through. Struggling to think exactly how though.
No reason why not. I have a doubt as to its effectiveness, however, judging by the lack of traction ebay has experienced with intermediating real estate.
Buying a car online would be a snap. Properly researched, the buyer would know exactly what to expect. You could even pop into a local dealer to see what you’re buying.
A house is a little trickier to represent accurately online. Buyers are often surprised at what they see when they get to a house as compared to the online representation. “It looks a lot better than it did online” or “This home sure shows better on the internet” are the kinds of comments that every agent has heard. Until some technology comes along which can more accurately give people “a feel” for the property, the neighborhood, the neighbors, etc. purchasing a home online will only work for the odd gutsy buyer. Given the fact that a home almost always makes the buyers “biggest transaction list,” the cost to view in person is relatively small for the comfort it provides.
Love your blog!
With an Alexa rating of 19, Amazon is an internet Amazon. But will visitors look for the cars or the books & CDS? Like Google, does the fact you have a lot of eyeballs mean you can market anything? If you are the listing agent who wants to market on any net venue available, does it matter?
Thanks Norm.
Not only does Amazon have eyeballs to offer, they have an excellent reputation and a trusted brand. I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase anything from them which I could adequately research beforehand, even a car. But then, a 2007 Lincoln MKX is a Lincoln MKX regardless of who acts as the vendor.
A resale home has too many potential areas of uncertainty, at too significant a cost to think any large numbers of buyers will ever have the guts to click the “Buy Me” button. For now, and the foreseeable future, some work will be required on the ground to provide buyers with an accurate representation of the property, deal with the buyer’s concerns and fears, and then bring the buyer and seller to agreement. Perhaps Amazon could prove itself to be a valuable venue to advertise properties and as a listing agent it would be worth a try. Having said that, I doubt that would be of much interest to Amazon as it probably wouldn’t be a good fit with their current business model.
However, I have been wrong before.
Good points Norm. Homes are not cars. It’s hard enough to value them online. But trusted sites like amazon have a shot, at least to make the introduction between buyer and broker.