Info/Law

I spent the last several days in my new hometown(s), the Twin Cities, buying a house. Like most everything else, the internet has improved this process enormously. In the past, my wife and I would have needed to devote one or more lengthy and intense trips to visiting houses and educating ourselves about neighborhoods and the local real estate market. Instead, we have received personalized MLS search results by e-mail for months, including pictures and detailed descriptions. We communicated with our buyer’s broker by e-mail. When we thought a house looked promising, he visited and took more pictures on his digital camera, which he posted for us on his web site.

But the internet cannot replace everything. When our broker saw a house that seemed like it might be “the one,” the pictures looked good to me but not so fantastic that I knew we’d found the perfect place. At his urging, my wife and I flew out to Minnesota the next morning (booking our tickets on the web, of course!) and looked at the place ourselves. Then and only then, when we could walk around, see it, poke it, did we know — or rather, feel — that our broker was right and this house was “the one.” Even the most sophisticated and painstaking simulation in Second Life couldn’t possibly replicate that instinct. Just 48 hours later we had the house under contract; we close next month.

The internet helped a ton — but, obviously, some things just can’t be done virtually!

Filed under: Cognitive Decisionmaking, Digital Media, Internet & Society, Minnesota, Virtual Worlds