Here are the results of a Yahoo! survey of 500 home buyers and sellers on how the Internet plays into their real estate decisions.

• Home buyers and sellers consider approximately two agents on average before making a final decision.
• The Internet impacts consumer trust. Forty percent of respondents credited a site in increasing their trust in the agent.
• 74 percent of people who accessed an agent Web site got there with the help of a search engine.
• The online research process is quick and intense: consumers spent
  an average of 12 hours online researching agents and 75 percent
  selected an agent within one week of starting their search.
• 45 percent of respondents used the Internet to learn about agents they didn’t know existed.
• 41 percent discovered special deals and promotions offered from an agent through the Internet.

From FOREM.