Execs discuss impact of Internet technology on real estate.Just days before NASDAQ's technology stocks took a perilous, if short-lived, dip, execs from three companies leading the real estate dot-com (1) Refers to the period (dot) followed by the abbreviation of the commercial domain (.com) at the end of an Internet address. Since the .com domain is so widely used, the Internet became known as the "dot-com" world, and dot-com companies are those formed to offer services or revolution, and one who was holding out, discussed the issues the real estate industry is expected to confront as the dot-com movement gains momentum. Peter Slatin, editor of GRID Magazine, moderated the discussion, sponsored by Commercial Real Estate Women of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of (CREW-NY) and Grid Magazine. Even though each participant brought his or her own perspective to the discussion, all agreed on three points: 1) real estate brokerage was bound to be affected by dot-com enterprises; 2) the coms were "do" for a shakeout Shakeout A situation in which many investors exit their positions, often at a loss, because of uncertainty or recent bad news circulating around a particular security or industry. Notes: During the dotcom boom and bust, numerous shakeouts occurred. , and 3) the surviving dot-coms would be found to offer clients a value-added beyond a typical real estate transaction. Speakers included Jon Paulson, senior vice president of PropertyFirst.com; Heather Shively, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of CapitalThinking.com, Kevin Travers, president of Comro.com and Simon Ziff, president of Ackman-Ziff Realty realty n. a short form of "real estate." (See: real estate) REALTY. An abstract of real, as distinguished from personalty. Realty relates to lands and tenements, rents or other hereditaments. Vide Real Property. . "'For-sale' and 'for-lease' listings on the web are fast becoming a commodity," said Paulson, senior vice president, Strategic Accounts Group, PropertyFirst.com. "The coms that will survive will provide comprehensive, complete, accurate and up-to-date information and tools to analyze and manipulate manipulate To cause a security to sell at an artificial price. Although investment bankers are permitted to manipulate temporarily the stock they underwrite, most other forms of manipulation are illegal. that information. The Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the will accelerate transactions, reduce costs, and help manage risks." Heather Shively, co-founder of CapitalThinking.com said, "Our company is dedicated to substantially improve the overall process of securing commercial mortgage financing. We have made a massive investment in our technology and real estate groups to re-engineer an inefficient system - from origination Origination The process through which a mortgage lender creates a mortgage secured by some amount of the mortgagor's real property. Notes: Also known as loan origination, everyone must go through the origination process when securing a mortgage for a piece of real and lender sourcing to loan packaging and information management. When we began thinking about starting the business, we asked ourselves what technology could we build that would increase the flow of these transactions." Shively said that CapitalThinking can typically reduce a 100-day transaction to 30 days. "For a very long time the flow of real estate information has been in a 'push' proposition," said Kevin Travers, president and founder of Comro.com. 'We'd send people information, it would get lost, we'd re-send it. Our company was created in an effort to reverse the process to a 'pull' proposition, thereby creating a central system of highly detailed, updated information that you could retrieve when you needed it." Comro.com currently warehouses information on over 500 million square feet of office, industrial, and retail space. "Our focus is on maximizing the exposure of the property for the institutional owner," said Travers. "And we have three vehicles for doing so: removing the friction from the flow of information by eliminating some of the inefficiencies; empowering people by making available information to those who have in the past not had it; and finally, by creating a community within the industry that facilitates participants coming together." Off the panel, Simon Ziff, president of Ackman-Ziff Realty, a capital advisory firm, was the only firm not yet involved in a dot-com enterprise. "We get hired to structure, negotiate and close the deal," said Ziff. At the present time, Ziff said, he did not see the Internet playing a role in his business. However, he said he was open to the prospect of acquiring or starting a dot-com business. And then, as if predicting the forthcoming shakeout, he said, "But so far, I haven't seen a P&L statement that satisfies me five years out." "The dot-com revolution will change the role a traditional broker plays," Travers added. 'Those who survive will realize that their function in this new marketplace is no longer to be a 'purveyor of information'. The new role is not just about information. It's about the added value Added value in financial analysis of shares is to be distinguished from value added. Used as a measure of shareholder value, calculated using the formula:
"There will definitely be changes,' said PropertyFirst's Paulson. 'Brokerage is going to get hammered ham·mered adj. 1. Shaped or worked with a metalworker's hammer and often showing the marks of these tools: a bowl of hammered brass. 2. Slang Drunk or intoxicated. Adj. . There will be some price pressure and fees will be squeezed. Disintermediation The elimination of the distributor and/or retailer (the middleman) when making a purchase. The term is used to refer to purchasing directly from a manufacturer's Web site, the benefits of which are convenience, fast turnaround time and sometimes lower prices. within the brokerage community is a real factor. The Internet gives owners an opportunity to gain control of their properties; get the fat out of the industry and re-define roles. The true professionals, however, will continue to gain market share. Those who don't add value other than matching buyer and seller or landlord and tenant will retire." |
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