John Peckham is a one-man real estate operation. Last year, he sold $10 million in real estate without spending a penny of print advertising. So what's the secret of a man who works alone in a Boston office (called Peckham Boston Advisory Company) without a secretary, relying only on his cordless headset and six telephone lines? The Internet. Sure, we've heard all about how cybertools work wonders, but Peckham's got the numbers to prove it. "I'm selling more now than I did with 10 to 15 salespeople, back in the days when I owned Data Realty [the company Peckham sold in 1980]," he says. He's so convinced of the merits of online promotion, in fact, that Peckham started a year and a half ago the Real Estate Cyberspace Society, one of the country's fastest-growing real estate organizations. The Real Estate Cyberspace Society currently has 1,000 members all over the world.

Peckham has been a disciple of technology since 1963, when he formed Data Realty Corporation. In those days, his technology of choice was an IBM key punch and sorter. Since 1963, Peckham has witnessed first-hand the evolution of technology and has harnessed it in its various forms to sell more than $1 billion in real estate. The author of several books, Peckham has a syndicated column, "Selling in Cyberspace" that appears in several publications, including the New England Real Estate Journal and the Florida Real Estate Journal. He recently spoke with AgentNews Managing Editor Courtney Ronan about his predictions for 1998 -- where technology is headed and the effects it will have on the business transactions not only of Realtors, but the business community as a whole.

A.N.: When did you first discover the potential of the Internet as an effective marketing tool?
J.P.: If there was any one moment I realized the power of connectivity, it was when I sent out a message about a property I had to a list server about two years ago. There were 92 people on that list at the time. Within three hours, I had eight potential buyers who responded by e-mail. One of the eight people flew to meet me and bought the property three days later. That's when I thought to myself, 'This is awesome.' Since then, I've been marketing technologies and expanding techniques using the Internet to help people promote their properties, or -- equally important -- themselves.

A.N.: Give us an overview of the Real Estate Cyberspace Society -- how and why you started it, and where it's going.
J.P.: About a year and a half ago, I formed a partnership with a man who had the infrastructure in place. Since then, I bought out his interest, and now we're based in Newton [Mass.] with a virtual office in Pennsylvania. We deliver our primary services off the Internet, but we also give people the ability to learn in their cars and other locations. Every 60 days, we produce a 90-minute audiotape containing a series of interviews with various 'cybermasters' -- our members -- and their Web addresses. And we produce along with those tapes a four-page newsletter that transcribes the tapes, so that people can read them wherever they are. But our Web page is one of the most heavily traveled sites on the Web. Between two and five new members join the society each day through the Web.

A.N.: Besides simply having an Internet presence, how have you marketed the society and gained membership? Is it strictly word of mouth? What's drawing people to your organization?
J.P.: I conduct a seminar called "Investing in Real Estate," and close to 40 percent of the attendees join the society. We have a RECS -- Real Estate Cyberspace Specialist -- designation available to our members, which they can obtain by attending a seminar or going through training on video. I think Bill Gates said it better than anyone else in his book, "The Road Ahead." He said that the time has come for people to project their abilities to use cybertools -- to use that as a selling point in their businesses. We give them the tools to gain recognition -- for example, when they obtain the RECS designation, we give them a press release, and they fill in their names. The release advertises their designation and our society.

A.N.: Do you target computer novices as well as experts?
J.P.: We target all levels -- from one member who couldn't start a disk we'd sent her because she couldn't seem to pull the metal part off to authors on the subject of technology. Our membership is 40 percent residential, 40 percent commercial, and 20 percent appraisers, mortgage brokers, lenders, even automobile dealers and manufacturers. About 80 percent of what we do is applicable to any businessperson, and 15 percent is particular to real estate. We have homeowner members, too.

A.N.: So tell us what we can expect in 1998. What does technology hold for us?
J.P.: At the end of this month, I'm scheduled to give a talk called "Real Estate Warp: A Look to the Year 2008," so I'll narrow it down a bit for the year 2000:

• We'll see a continued dramatic increase in the use of cybertools -- the Internet -- by real estate agents to market themselves and their properties.
• We'll see increasing parity between the low percentage of real estate professionals who are computer-literate, and the much-lower percentage of real estate professionals who are connectivity-literate [meaning proficient at the Internet, e-mail, etc.] At the same time, we'll see an even greater increase in the number of professionals with connectivity prowess.
• We'll see a rapidly increasing appreciation in the use of e-mail as a highly effective tool to assist agents in marketing their products and themselves.
• By the end of 1998, it will be far more obvious to the leaders of real estate organizations and companies that connectivity and cyberspace marketing plans must be put into place to compete effectively in today's and tomorrow's markets.
• We'll experience an increase in the distribution of e-mail and newsletters to centers of influence and clients.
• The use of e-mail to coordinate negotiations between agents, clients, and others involved in transactions will increase.
• Agents will increasingly need to show and impress the public with their capability to use cybertools. Where in the past, people wanted to advertise in newspapers, clients will now demand that their listings be online.

"And this goes beyond just listing a property on your site -- many other things will have to be done to market agents as cyber-savvy," Peckham adds. He knows of one agent, in fact, who distributed to his clients -- both established and prospective -- an America OnLine disk entitling them to 30 days of free service, so that he could update them on various developments or the progress of his home-selling efforts and leads via a personalized Web page for each client. That strategy paid off; the agent conducted 500 transactions in one year. With that innovative philosophy in mind, the Cyberspace Society gives each of its members a list of eight to 10 tools, such as digital cameras, that they may use to point people to their sites and hold their interest. "The trend toward fewer and fewer agents controlling more and more of the business will become more apparent," Peckham says. "Those of us who are using cybertools will not only be earning more money; we'll be having more fun."

If you're interested in finding out more about the Real Estate Cyberspace Society, either check out the society's Web site at www.recyber.com; or e-mail John Peckham at bostonjack@earthlink.net.

Published: January 20, 1998

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