Gregg Larson, senior partner of real estate consulting firm Clareity Consulting, took a considerable risk two years ago when, along with partners Ira Luntz and W.B. Freeman, he left behind a six-figure salary, a 401K, an array of cushy benefits, and a company car to begin a new venture. What inspired him to jump with both feet into the unknown? "We saw the real estate industry going through a lot of chaos that was probably going to continue for another five years," Larson says. And wherever there's chaos, of course, there's an untapped market for consultants. "The real estate transaction was so screwed up," he continues. "It was paper-intensive and time-consuming."

As the industry continues to warm up to technology, "Realtors will always be involved in the process," Larson adds. "There's time, and there's crime." In other words, Realtors are an effective buffer. Now that consumers may download information about a near-limitless array of homes for sale, sellers need Realtors to provide them with a measure of security that could be jeopardized if Web surfers and the merely curious were given unlimited access to every home they found online. And Realtors have a leg up on the information that not only works in consumers' best interests, but saves them time, as well.

Nevertheless, real estate executives everywhere are considering how to best adapt themselves and their business practices to the medium that won't go away -- the Internet. "We're making the process paperless," Larson says, "but you need information to do that. We're really information consultants. We help companies gain a competitive advantage through information." Although Clareity performs a multitude of services for its clients, 80 percent of its business is Internet-related, proving the 'Net's position as the number-one medium -- at least for the immediate future.

Larson most recently served as director of new business development for Moore Data Management Services. He is also one of the creators of CyberHomes, one of the Web's first mega-listing sites. Larson recently spoke with AgentNews about some of his predictions for the future of real estate technology.

A.N.: What are your impressions of the real estate industry, based upon the experiences you've had with your clients? Is this industry lagging behind the push for technology, or do most of your clients seem to embrace it?
G.L.: It runs the full spectrum -- from people who have their heads in the sand to companies that invest heavily in technology, mostly for recruiting and retention purposes, and to increase their productivity. I've spoken to people who have had less success with technology, but they all agree that because of the advantages the Internet gives them in recruiting efforts, the investment pays for itself. In the future, there's going to be fewer agents, they're going to be more automated, and they're going to be conducting more transactions because each transaction will take them less time, and they'll have access to more information [online].

A.N.: It's been two years since you founded CyberHomes. How is the site doing right now, in your opinion?
G.L.: When I helped create CyberHomes two years ago, no local MLS services had listings online. To this day, although realtor.com certainly has more listings, no one's surpassed CyberHomes from a coolness standpoint. The larger listing services like CyberHomes need to reinvent themselves. It's not smart to have all of those listings on one site. It's too manual a process to maintain that; it's too top-heavy. Eighty-five percent of moves are local. Consumers really don't need these huge listing sites. And the advertising costs are too expensive. The biggest trend for 1998 is that every local MLS is establishing its own presence on the Internet. Finally, these guys [local MLSs and local Realtor associations] are waking up and developing their own listing sites online. They're selling ads locally, and they're setting up an Intranet for their members. It's quicker and more cost-effective. This is the absolute story for 1998. In a stampede, local MLSs are going on the 'Net themselves -- they need their own presence. You can't make money through the giants.

A.N.: Is there any effort being made to stop this trend?
G.L.: Big brokers may try to stop these local MLS listings from going online because they don't want to level the playing field for small brokers. But that's primitive thinking. They already have an advantage over the little guys -- they have a significant market share. It's destructive to the entire market and to their credibility with consumers. Consumers hate advertising subsets -- with just one broker's listings, for example. They want the entire database of local listings, and ideally, for-sale-by-owner homes, too. And they want them real-time. Local MLSs ultimately will prevail. Larger listing sites won't work next year; that's my prediction.

A.N.: Are there any inherent weaknesses involved in going the local MLS route?
G.L.: One weakness MLSs have is that they don't know how to sell an ad to save their lives. But it's not that hard. They need to take advantage of the local marketplace and find partners -- newspapers, TV, radio -- for advertising and to bring traffic. That's what we're helping our clients do right now, all over the country.

Published: February 11, 1998

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.