Real Estate Is Finding a Home on the Internet

My new year’s resolution for 1996 is to get more hip to technology. Just a year ago, I felt like I was on the cutting edge--with a speedy personal computer and access to three online services: America Online, Prodigy and Lexis/Nexis. Since the start of last year, though, the Internet and its World Wide Web have become household words and the volume of information available with a PC and a modem has exploded--including information related to real estate. Keeping up with change has become tougher than ever. Bradley Inman, a fellow real estate columnist and the publisher of the Internet’s International Real Estate Directory, counts more than 3,000 real estate-related Web sites that offer, mostly at no charge, mortgage rates, residential and commercial listings and online opportunities to “chat” and exchange information and ideas. Inman suspects there may be another 7,000 sites he hasn’t accounted for--and the list is expanding like an amoeba. “Real estate on the Web is coming on gangbusters,” Inman said.

Anyone can “jump” onto the Internet using any major online service, such as AOL, Prodigy and CompuServe, or directly via an Internet access provider. Once on the Internet, browsers can enter Inman’s cyberspace world by typing https://www.ired.com. It’s both fascinating and frustrating; There’s too much information for anyone to tap into all of it.

Still, computer users can check the listings of several major real estate companies in the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County or seek out bulletin boards that feature homes and condos being sold directly by their owners. Lenders are allowing Internet users to inquire about real estate loans. And Net surfers can get answers to questions about interest rates, taxes, price comparables and even real estate-related job listings.

Brendan McKane of McKane Noble Realty in Studio City hopes to attract new agents to his 30-agent office with an ad in the San Fernando Valley Assn. of Realtors’ weekly publication touting his firm’s presence on the Internet. Actually, McKane is planning to get onto the Net this month with listings and a McKane Noble Web site that browsers will eventually tap into for more information about the company and its listings.

McKane admits that the Internet clearly hasn’t yet become the prime way properties are advertised or listed, “but nobody wants to look like they’re behind the loop. Soon there will be a redefinition of how real estate is handled. Buyers will be able to do their own property searches with their own computers.”

Buyers can already search for financing and the best interest rates online. Mortgage Market Information Services Inc., for example, operates Mortgage Market On-Line, where computer users can get mortgage rates, a directory of lenders and articles about home finance.

Interested people need only set their World Wide Web browsers to https://www.interest.com. From there, Internet surfers click on the home page item that is most applicable to their quest. Keith Kubik, marketing director for MMIS, is convinced that the Internet “will stimulate competition among lenders.”

Auto/Brokernet is another online service that offers agents and brokers a way to market their properties to the whole world or search Properties Wanted databases for new clients. For a fee, agents can submit a color photo and a short recording that allows others to see and hear a description of the featured item. There is also a private online forum for real estate agents and brokers to network--without getting out of the house!

Of course, there is lots of junk on the Internet. Recently, I searched for Valley residential listings on the Prodigy system. I found one local listing--and it lacked an address and any specifics about the house’s location. It took me about five minutes to find that useless listing. Needless to say, one has to know where and how to get the most out of your searches.