Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, Second Edition, The

Chapter 12. Negotiating via Information Technology

LaRae Maruyama, controller for the U.S. Olympic Committee, sifted through about 300 Colorado Springs real-estate listings and looked at 60 houses over five months before she found what she wanted. Her search might have taken even longer, were it not for the Internet. Except for actual closing, home buyers and sellers can go through every stage of a home search without ever leaving their desks. According to the National Association of Realtors, some 23 percent of buyers now use the Internet as a search tool, up from only 2 percent in 1995. Most Web sites allow buyers to create a profile of the home they want, from location and price to the number of bathrooms (Hoffman 1999; see Sidebar 12-1