DENTON (UNT), Texas -- The maze keeping you from your dream house is about to have a few direct trails blazed through it thanks to the Internet, according to two University of North Texas professors.

Drs. John Baen and Randall S. Guttery examined what impact the Internet would have on the Texas real-estate industry. Thanks to the information available and the transactions that can be conducted online, the number of people involved in a real-estate deal could be cut by 75 percent in a few years.

"The day is past where agents and brokers are the only ones with access to information," said Baen, a professor in UNT's Department of Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law (FIREL).

The research has been published in several journals, including Tierra Grande and Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management. The authors won a $1,000 best-paper award from the American Real Estate Society in June for their research.

The study shows that the amount of time it takes to close on a house could be reduced to just a couple of weeks. The average fee paid to agents will be cut in half and thousands of agents, lawyers and appraisers could be out of work.

The Internet allows people to track down listings of houses for sale in their neighborhood, conduct title searches, figure how much their monthly mortgage would be and apply for a loan.

"The Internet is the future competitor of people in the real-estate industry," said Guttery, an assistant professor in the FIREL department. "Technology will weed it down to the best and most necessary."

Part of the research involved sending students out to see what kinds of deals they could get through traditional means and the Internet. The two who searched on the Internet found lower interest rates and would have paid almost $2,000 less in closing costs.

Published: August 18, 1998

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