The world of real estate has evolved greatly over the years. What was once a very guarded business where listing information was sacred and buyers relied solely upon Realtors to find them a home, has grown into an industry where buyers find the home they end up buying close to 50 percent of the time. Why have things changed so much? Two words: The Internet.

For most homebuyers in the Puget Sound area the Internet is nothing new; over 90 percent of you are already using it to search for homes. However, even since the dawn of the Internet things have progressed greatly. Now, with high-speed Internet access, buyers have the ability to go online, look at multiple photos, take virtual tours, and here audio descriptions of homes on the market. Some of these functions were not possible before high-speed Internet access because of the bandwidth required to download photos and multi-media images.

Because of the advancement in Internet technology, real estate companies have taken great strides to enhance their Web sites. On the most innovative real estate Web sites, buyers can take a virtual tour of any home they’re interested in before ever physically stepping inside. In fact, more and more real estate companies are reporting situations where buyers from other parts of the country are purchasing homes in Seattle, site unseen, because of the quality of information and images they are able to access online. It’s a new phenomenon in residential real estate sales.

Research shows that many homebuyers search for homes while at work because most offices offer high-speed Internet access — something that is becoming more commonplace in homes, but is not the norm just yet. In fact, agents say that much of their client correspondence takes place during workday business hours because their clients are utilizing high-speed Internet access at the office to search for homes. And now, with the onset of wireless Internet access, there’s a whole new way—and place—for buyers to search for homes.

Late last year Starbucks Coffee Company, in partnership with T-Mobile and Hewlett Packard (HP), announced that they would be offering high-speed broadband “Wi-Fi” wireless Internet access in over 1,200 of their stores in the United States and Europe — including nearly every Starbucks location in the greater Puget Sound area. The service is called T-Mobile HotSpot and it’s available to anyone who has a Wi-Fi equipped laptop computer or Pocket PC. This revolution has kicked off a new trend in Internet surfing whereby homebuyers can stop by their favorite Starbucks, order a latte, sit back in a comfortable chair with their laptop computer, and search for homes.

Also known as “Wi-Fi” technology, T-Mobile HotSpot is backed by T-1 connections, making it reliable and fast enough to accommodate a full spectrum of applications from checking e-mail to rich multi-media, and of course, searching for homes. Starbucks and partners state that the high-speed wireless connection is as much as 40-50 times faster than standard dial-up Internet access, making it the perfect tool to take virtual tours of homes for sale, all from the comfort of your local Starbucks.

Thanks to T-Mobile HotSpot, real estate agents are now using Starbucks as a mobile office where they can check e-mail, access the Multiple Listing Service, and perform other real estate-related job tasks that require Internet access. It’s also a comfortable and convenient place for them to meet with clients to look for homes on the Internet and access online real estate information and documents. Since the launch last year, T-Mobile HotSpot is now available in over 2,100 Starbucks coffeehouses, making it accessible to millions of people across the country.

Technology has definitely had an enormous impact on real estate and how people search for homes — and with the wireless revolution firmly in place, this evolution will only continue to advance.

For more information about T-Mobile HotSpot at Starbucks, go to: www.starbucks.com/real-estate.

(Editor’s Note: J. Lennox Scott is the Chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate. You can visit his Web site at www.johnlscott.com.).