By Jean Newton

A new term has been coined to describe the real estate industry - high-touch. Cathy Whatley, president-elect of the National Association of Realtors, said real estate will remain a high-touch business even as the industry embraces the latest in technology changes. That’s what consumers want and that’s the forecast Whatley made to technology vendors and real estate industry leaders at a recent technology conference, Real Estate Connect, held in San Francisco.

“I predict that the real estate industry will adopt emerging new technologies that support the underlying premise of the market, which is one-to-one marketing. And despite technology, real estate will remain a very high-touch business,” Whatley told the general session.

Technologically savvy buyers today want the high-touch features that real estate agents provide, Whatley said, even when they are using the Internet as a tool. The National Association of Realtors hopes to lead the way in bringing about “this new information marketplace today, tomorrow and well into the future. And we will continue to do what we do best, which is to touch home buyers in ways that technology cannot - to offer our expertise, our advice and our passion for service,” she said.