The Real Deal New York

From the January issue: For some buyers’ brokers, it’s their greatest fear come to pass. More and more apartment hunters, armed with listing information gleaned from the Web, are representing themselves rather than using a real estate agent. “I have buyers coming at me [at open houses], unrepresented, clutching fistfuls of paper,” said Halstead Property senior vice president Charles Homet, who primarily works with sellers. “They pride themselves on their Internet acumen and they feel they have enough information.” This is the long-feared bogeyman of the Internet era for buyers’ brokers: the idea that buyers will no longer need them because they can find listings online and deal directly with the seller’s agent.And while buyers’ brokers clearly have an advantage right now in the soft market, the long term is a different story. In some ways, the changes are already afoot. Prudential Douglas Elliman vice chairman Dolly Lenz said she is doing “a lot more direct deals,” estimating that she may be working with twice as many unrepresented buyers now as in past years.