It was 10 years ago this month that something new appeared online: the original Real Estate Center on AOL was introduced, an area devoted to all things real estate.

The AOL area was not the first real estate hub online -- Prodigy, CompuServe, Delphi, and GEnie already had real estate features and they were each vastly larger than AOL.

As I recall, AOL back then had just 120,000 members. It operated from a single building in Tysons Corner, VA, a few miles outside Washington, D.C. Lunch with company head Steve Case meant a short walk to the little deli a few doors away in a building that housed the headquarters of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

But it didn't take long for the Real Estate Center to grow -- unique visits soon topped seven figures at a time when both the Internet and AOL were far smaller than today.

The Internet very quickly showed its power, as local booksellers, travel agents, and stockbrokers could all attest. Might the same thing happen in real estate?

After a decade of IPOs, private placements, curious accounting, and endless streams of blaring news releases we have the same answer today as we did then: Real estate is a localized commodity and real estate brokerage will not be replaced by online sites.

AOL succeeded because it was positioned as a medium and a marketplace; not as a competitor for the broker's dollar. The idea was to sell memberships, collect monthly fees, and build an audience that would attract advertisers to produce another income stream. Brokers, lenders, and consumers were equally welcome to share a platform.

The Real Estate Center offered mortgage information from more than 100 lenders, a library with shareware and text materials, and a classified area with homes for sale nationwide. But most importantly, the Center featured a series of non- commercial message boards that typically held 60,000 questions-and-answers at any time.

Who answered consumer questions? A group of brokers, lawyers, lenders, home inspectors, financial planners, and others who essentially provided a kind of "pro bono" work online. The result was credibility, solid content, enormous volumes of traffic, and what NetGuide magazine described as the best real estate resource online, "bar none." ("Surreal Estate," April, 1995)

Many of today's online efforts were started by people who originally began with the Real Estate Center and the principles which made the Center successful remain in place today:

1. Technology is not a substitute for being there. The Internet has value in terms of research, communication, leads and marketing, but consumers want the experience of physically visiting real estate and dealing with people who have local expertise.

2. Avoid gatekeeping. Instead, foster interchange, create a community, and become the place to be.

3. Believable, engaging, and "actionable" content that will keep sites fresh and visitors coming back is a major key to online success.

4. While technology is evolving at a furious pace, people are largely unchanged in terms of their interests, abilities, and the amount of time available to them each day. Use technology -- but keep things simple and accessible.

5. Be respectful. As the expression goes, no one has a monopoly on good ideas. Welcome everyone -- including people with whom you disagree.

6. Be helpful. The Internet does not mean the end of courtesy or grace. To the extent possible, try to assist others.

7. Recognize the benefits -- and limits -- of online technology. There is a value to Internet real estate sites, but only so much can flow through a modem.

8. Recognize your limits. There are some questions which are unanswerable because a sufficient number of facts are simply unavailable.

9. Respond to e-mail several times a day -- seven days a week.

10. Build a community. Do your job well and the people who use your services will become your advocates and marketers.

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