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For one, real estate agents calm anxious buyers and sellers.

As soon as a binding offer is accepted, buyers wonder if they have paid too much while sellers wonder if they have sold it too quickly and a better offer might still be out there. Providing perspective on the wider market and understanding trends are not easy skills to replicate.

It is for this kind of reason that eXp Realty, a U.S.-based brokerage that uses a virtual office environment, continues to add agents to its roster. The company announced this week that it has doubled the number of real estate agents to 12,000 in a matter of months. The company now trades on NASDAQ and has reached a market cap of one billion dollars. It has expanded even into British Columbia.

At the same time, traditional brokerages, such as Long & Foster continue to survive and expand. Co-founded by Wes Foster in 1968 and staffed today with 11,000 agents, the Virginia-based realtor is the largest independent real estate brokerage by sales volume in the United States. They have seen and embraced change over the past 50 years.

Ignoring the forecasts of doom and gloom, Home Services of America, an affiliate of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, acquired Long and Foster last September.

Also, it doesn’t have to be an either-or choice between brick-and-mortar and click-and-order. There is room for fusion between the two models. Consider that the U.S.-based Zillow Group Inc., a real estate information company with a market cap of over US$12 billion, has partnered with Century 21, a traditional real estate brokerage in Canada to display Century 21’s listings on Zillow’s web-portals. Already Zillow carries detailed information on over 110 million homes in the U.S.