The worst of the initial dot-com fallout is behind us. Now that stronger sites are surviving and businesses are rethinking online strategies, real estate professionals can re-evaluate Internet trends and look ahead to how those might affect our industry.

More Internet users

In spite of dot-com failures and layoffs since last March, the number of Internet users has continued to climb. Online user numbers have risen rapidly since the mid-1990s, growing from an estimated 40 million in 1995 to 100 million in 1997 to about 350 million now. Such a momentum of growth will only continue to build. That's good news for real estate, whose percentage of buyers using the Web has risen right along with total Internet users. According to the 1999 National Association of REALTORS® study of homebuyers and sellers, homebuyers using the Web as a source of real estate information (mostly listings) rose from 2 percent in 1995 to more than 40 percent in 2000.

Older business models

The predicted demise of old-line companies in the new dot-com environment just did not happen. In fact, the opposite is happening. As sites financed by venture capital collapse, struggle or consolidate, traditional firms providing products and services are moving online as bricks-and-clicks operations.

Sears, Kmart, Wal-Mart and others are looking to the Internet for a whole new marketing reach. And as the March 13, 20001 Wall Street Journal reported, there is even a trend of dot-coms joining up with nonprofit but stable dot-orgs. In real estate, the Homestore.com network attracted more than 5 million visitors in January, establishing a new user record for its Web sites. The homebuyer hub, partnered with NAR, has passed the profitability milestone in two consecutive quarters. The site contains nearly 1.5 million listings. Homestore's major competitor, Homeadvisor.com, is running a close second in listings with more than 850,000 properties. That site has just recently begun releasing its transaction management platform, and Homestore's is not far behind. These and other similar programs promise to streamline the homebuying and selling process.

Broadband connections

While both these leading real estate portals provide virtual tours, the sites' users will be able to download the tours 10 times faster with high-speed Internet connections. Also, DSL, cable and satellite connections will enable homebuyers to search listings in a mere fraction of the time it takes on conventional modem systems, and broadband connections will maximize the efficiency of transaction management programs. The Strategis Group estimates that nearly 2 million households subscribed to high-speed access by year-end 1999 and predicts that subscriber numbers will soar to 25 million by 2004.

Online education

Use of the Internet as a business training tool is becoming widespread. RE/MAX, for one, is pursuing educational opportunities for its membership through University,com, which has recently merged with EntrePort.com, owner of !Succeed.com, provider of online success tools for real estate professionals.

And advancement of high-speed technology will make other Internet education accessible to users. At RE/MAX, our 6-year-old RE/MAX Satellite Network is currently piloting a program to provide our agents with streaming, full-motion video of continuing education and designation courses. Accessible anytime day or night, these online courses will be more convenient and economical for students than traditional classes. They will enable more of our agents than ever before to acquire advanced professional training.

Since the 2000 dot-com shakeout, the major challenge for business has been to learn how to use the Internet more effectively. It's imperative that real estate practitioners who are not yet online take advantage of this marketing and educational venue. It's not going to go away. But agents who ignore it might.