Ever since I was a college student I have been going to sporting events and buying tickets off the street at good prices.  For years I carried the seating chart of the Atlanta Braves baseball field because I found that the scalpers always try to tell you the seats are behind the 3rd base dugout when they are actually in the upper deck.

This weekend I saw a couple baseball games and a football game with my son.  Little did I know that scalpers are almost out of business now because of the Internet.  Being a Realtor on Hilton Head Island, I am very aware of why the Internet is such a valuable advertising tool.  Very few people look in the daily newspapers and Island Real Estate Magazines any more – they all look online.

When my son and I were talking about going to the Jets – Patriots game, I told him that I was sure we could buy some tickets at the game.  He said that we could probably find tickets online and get better seats. 

Chip looked on Stubhub and on Craigslist.

We found a guy who had two tickets; called him and met him in the parking lot and bought the tickets from him.

The next day we went to the Braves – Mets game and found some great tickets on Stubhub at a greatly reduced price – directly behind the dugout.  They are probably the best tickets I have ever had for a baseball game in my life. 

I started thinking how the Internet has changed every thing that we do and it was very obvious to me that it has a drastic effect on how baseball and football tickets sell.  If it has affected this, it has definitely affected how real estate is sold.

We are seeing less and less dependence on print media; i.e. – real estate magazines and newspapers, and more dependence on the Internet.  I don’t think that is going to change in the short run.

Because of this, we are spending more and more time and money advertising on the Internet – we are doing everything we can to make sure that our sellers are not at a disadvantage when it comes to advertising real estate on Hilton Head Island.