FOR SALE: Any house in Eastern CT

The 2006 National Association of Realtors (NAR) Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reports some interesting statistics on how buyers find the home they purchase.  Despite what sellers may think, buyers are not very likely to find the home they buy by searching ads in the newspaper. In fact, they are more likely to find a home for sale by spotting a yard sign.  36% of buyers say they first heard of the home they purchased from a real estate agent, 24% from the internet and 15% from a yard sign.  Only 5% of buyers find their home from newspaper print advertising.

If buyers don't use newspapers to find homes, then why do agents invest in print advertising when it is clearly not the best investment for getting a seller's home sold? Most agents do print advertising to appease their seller.  After all, doesn't every seller expect to find their home advertised in the newspaper?  Regardless of what they expect, sellers would be better served if their agents put their advertising dollar where it matters most – the internet.  A seller should expect to find their house featured on their agent’s website with plenty of good photos, enhanced on Realtor.com and added to such real estate portals as Goggle Base and Trulia.

I've never been sold on newspaper advertising.  It appears that buyers aren't sold on it either.