Real Estate Proves Fertile Ground for L.A. Web Sites.

As more and more commercial real estate brokers and tenants log onto the Internet to get information about dealmaking, the number of Web Sites targeting the industry is sharply growing.

Several based in the Los Angeles area are gaining fame as a way for brokers and consumers to keep track of deals, market trends and even gossip in the real estate world.

"I think a lot of the guys use Web sites on a daily basis," said Stan Gerlach, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis. "But from broker to broker there's a difference - some guys may be on it three or four times a day. I'm on it probably once a day, average."

Besides the big-name, general information portals like Yahoo and MapQuest, brokers are turning to numerous Web sites oriented exclusively to commercial real estate.

All the major brokerages have their own sites, with information about their firm's service offerings, property listings and biographical profiles of their executives. Several even allow users to haggle online.

These sites are part of the "extranet," a Web site or portion of a site set up exclusively by certain brokerages, like Cresa Partners and CB Richard Ellis. These extranets are dedicated to getting the participants through the final stages of a deal. Instead of meeting in person, participants can log on to keep track of what would normally be the paperwork part of the deal. The extranet area is accessible only to the participants, via a password.

While cyber-dealmaking is accelerating, most commercial real estate Web sites are devoted to information, especially about property listings.

Among those is Alhambra-based PropertyFirst.com Inc., which was launched last June.

Listings and more

PropertyFirst.com provides information on commercial property listings for sale and for lease. Funded in part by Brentwood Venture Capital and the California Public Employees Retirement System, the company also distributes database search engine software so clients can group and sort listings on the site. Users also can access commercial real estate stories and stock quotes.

The properties currently listed on PropertyFirst.com have an aggregate value of $11 billion. "We're trying to give (brokers) a prospect list that they wouldn't have had before," said Lori Mendel, vice president of PropertyFirst.com.

Some 250 different companies have properties listed on the site, which is currently free to use. In the near future, Mendel anticipates that PropertyFirst.com will begin generating revenues by charging for listings. The fee will probably range between $100 and $200 per listing, with those companies having a high volume of listings getting a lower a per-listing fee.

At Studio City-based PropertyGo.com, listings are directed at both brokers and tenants.

Among the brokerages that have listings on the Web site are CB Richard Ellis, Seeley Co., Piken Co. and Lee & Associates. As for tenants, they can place a "want ad" describing the kind of property they are interested in buying or leasing.

Mark Chase, president of PropertyGo.com, said the site includes listings for about 3,000 individual buildings and 30,000 executive suites. For a single listing for three months, PropertyGo.com charges $129, Chase said, although discounts are given to companies that list a large number of properties.

Slow to embrace

Chase expects the site to grow as more people turn to the Web for leads.

"Real estate people are slow to change, and I'm not really sure a lot of them have seen the value of the Internet," Chase said. "Right about now they're just starting to become more accepting of it, and embrace how it can help their business."

Not all sites are strictly business. When it comes to real estate gossip, brokers cite Rentv.com as revealing some of the dishiest dirt around.

The site was launched in October 1999, after founder Steve Bloom toyed with the idea of staffing a cable television station for real estate news. He soon altered the business plan to make the information applicable for a newsy Web site.

"A lot of (its appeal) is the attitude," Bloom said. "We've done some focus groups and people say they like the content, plain and simple. We're willing to take risks with the way we express things... and we store the information people might miss on a day-to-day basis."

With the popularity of these sites, is there any chance that the traditional broker might disappear?

"I think certain segments of brokers will be squeezed at the margins," Bloom said. "But there are some services they provide that will never be replaced. In certain large, complicated transactions, there can be a lot of time and money saved when people draw on the experience of a broker."