Behind The E-conomy Facade You hear it all the time, the view that the Internet is great, wonderful, and the source of more home sales for the real estate community. It's a great theory -- but it isn't true. Huh? Whaddaya mean? Look at the Internet and you can instantly see that it represents a new medium and a new marketplace. What it does not represent is more transactions. In 1999 there were 5.2 million existing home sales -- the fourth record year in a row. Given an expanding economy, low levels of unemployment, and new household formations you would expect strong sales. But how many additional sales resulted from information available on the Internet? Try this test: If the economy stalled and home sales declined, would we then say that Internet information produced less real estate demand? The odds are that no one would point to the Internet one way or the other. The real issue concerning online commerce -- the issue that ought to impress brokers -- is not more sales or less sales, but rather the distribution of business opportunities. The Internet is not particularly creating new consumers, it is instead shifting the venue where buyers and sellers increasingly find information, meet brokers, and purchase realty services. Given that there are only so many opportunities to sell brokerage services, it follows that brokers must be where consumers browse, and that means being online. It also means something else: If my goal is to capture a substantial portion of all realty transactions, I don't want the level playing field which the Internet should represent. Instead, I want a situation where there are lots of consumers on one side, lots of brokers on the other, and a small path in the middle which connects the two groups. And me, I want to control this bottleneck so that I get a piece of every transaction. There are several approaches I can take to dominate the realty business. First, I can build and market a popular site. Alas there can be other popular sites, so this option does not create the lack of choice I need to give me marketplace leverage. Second, I can create new "standards" that degrade, devalue, exclude, and diminish competing sites while giving my offerings an advantage. This is a great approach because I don't actually have to help others buy or sell property to generate impressive revenues. Third, rather than charge consumers for my services, I can devise a site that comes between brokers and the public and then charge brokers for access to my audience. Increasing numbers of brokers are beginning to understand that their core concern must be equal, unfettered and direct access to consumers now and in the future -- and that the "future" could be as little as a year or two down the road. The result is a new thinking, one which says that as a broker I need to keep my options open. Will I support given national sites and services? Maybe -- but only if my cost/benefit analysis shows that such support makes sense. Will I build my own site? You bet. My site is the one I control, the one I'll promote, and the one where there is no middleman separating me from the consumer. And when I hear proposals for new sites, services, and standards, I'll certainly ask: Who benefits today, who benefits tomorrow, and how far into the future is "tomorrow?"
The Common-Sense Mortgage The latest edition of The Common-Sense Mortgage -- in its second printing since September -- is now available in bookstores online and off. In print for nearly 15 years and widely recognized as the standard consumer guide to real estate financing, it's described by syndicated columnist Robert Bruss as "an encyclopedic, detailed summary of just about everything real-estate investors, agents, lenders and borrowers want and need to know about mortgages." "On my scale of one to 10," says Bruss, "this superb book rates a 10." "This continues to be the most, lucid, comprehensive treatment of the subject on the market," says The Real Estate Professional. "If you want solid, reliable information about residential real estate financing, written in a thoughtful, convincing style, this is your source." For additional information, press here.
Question Of The Week Q What is an MLS number? A As properties are entered onto an MLS they are typically given an identification number. This means the property can show up when the list is searched for various features, and also when the specific number is entered. MLS numbers are generally created in numerical order as properties are added to the system. Brokers can thus look at MLS numbers and know when a listing is has been around for awhile, important intelligence when creating an offer. Listing brokers realize that current MLS numbers can be important, and for this reason sometimes re-list properties that have grown stale. Weekly Resource It sometimes happens that the latest and greatest technology is also just a passing fad. Where are they now, those great products and systems of yesteryear? One good accounting can be found at Master List of Dead Media. As you read it, consider how many of our current top-notch products and services are just passing through. | 
