Opportunities for New/Improved Electronic Intermediaries



"Brokers are too busy to learn the ins and outs of every real estate
website out there. We want to control the user interface to make it as easy
as possible for brokers to access the information they need."
Scott Williams, Chief Information Officer
Grubb & Ellis.

Commercial MLS

Most of the current website offerings only offer listings on property held by that particular company or listings that brokers have chosen to load onto the site.  There is not currently an electronic intermediary that is proactively going into markets and seeking listings.  (On the residential side, companies such as Microsoft's www.homeadvisormsn.com and HomeStore.com's www.realtor.com are battling to gain access to the multiple listing service data across the country.)  One company that is currently going into markets and actively seeking listings (The CoStar Group) is not currently planning to put those listings on the Internet. 

Brokers spend about 40% of their time looking for information on properties.  They don't want to have to spend more time searching through the Internet to find the websites and then searching through the websites to find the properties.

Jeff Hipschman, Chief Information Officer at Julien J. Studley Inc stated:

"Real estate data providers should spend less time building fancy proprietary websites and instead concentrate on developing "data feeds" so that companies like Studley could integrate the information directly into their own computer networks. 

The idea is really simple. Brokers turn on their computers in the morning and log onto the company's intranet, allowing them to communicate internally with a colleague down the hall or across the country. From the same browser window, the broker can also access property listing information from an outside provider like Realty Information Group (Co-Star), or call up a report on sales comps in his market from COMPS Infosystems. And if he's preparing a report for a client, he can drop the information into a secure extranet, allowing the client who is likely sitting across town to 
access the information on his own web browser." 


"Most real estate brokers are, in fact, knowledgeable intermediaries and as
such fear replacement by direct sales. For example, rather than go to a
store packed with overhead, you now may order lotion directly from
Crabtree & Evelyn or computers from Gateway. The same, in theory,
could be done with real estate via the Internet. Who needs brokers if
building owners put all the information a potential buyer needs out on the Web?

But tekkies in the know will tell you that the Internet's greatest
opportunities are for intermediaries who know how to unlock hidden,unrecognized markets."


Niche Markets

Because there is such a proliferation of information and no one recognized source for information, targeting niche markets seems to present opportunities.  We could only find two sites currently that seem to target niche markets in the commerical arena.
  •  Offices2share.com matches companies that have excess office space with businesses or individuals in need of space  The companies targeted are start-ups, fast-growing companies and small businesses and brokers who have clients who want to lease surplus space caused by downsizing or under-utilization. 
  • www.xchangenet.com provides a complete array of services for 1031 Exchanges.  1031 exchanges allow owners of certain types of like kind Real and Personal property to sell their property and buy other like kind property without paying the Capital Gains Tax.

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