With listings of homes for sale updated every 15 minutes, Campbell, CA-based R.E. InfoLink is the latest among a handful of MLS providers nationwide to open previously proprietary data to the public.

Likewise, the American Appraisal Institute is poised to electronically speed property value data to anyone who wants to obtain comparables and other property value data.

Web originated mortgages are expected to achieve a 30 percent market share by 2005 according to Palo Alto, CA-based research firm Killen & Associates.

With even the paper-heavy title and escrow segment is performing more and more of its duties on the Internet, a seamless, electronic integration of all a real estate transaction's components is inevitable.

"The technology is here. The only thing missing is a plan," said Blanche Evans, Dallas-based RealTimes.com's Agent News editor.

The problem for consumers in the coming Millennium of true virtual realty, however, will be deciphering all the nuances of esoteric data that flows as fast as they can click a mouse.

"So many Web-based services and so much information is available for both the buyer and the seller that they are in danger of information overload. The real estate agent will be an important part of the transaction, because the agent will be able to gather and interpret information for the consumer," said Evans, slated to pen "How to Buy and Sell Your Home Using the Internet," for Dearborn Financial Publishing's Real Estate Education Co. division in Chicago, IL.

Far ahead of the game are the MLS and the mortgage segments of the industry.

R.E. InfoLink, serving Californian's Silicon Valley and surrounding areas, along with the Charlottesville (VA) Area Association of REALTORS' site, Cincinnati (OH) Area Board of REALTORS' MLS of Greater Cincinnati, the MLS of Central Oregon' s Central Oregon Real Estate site and the Mt. Clemens, MI-based Michigan MLS site, have begun to rid the Web of stale, outdated listings that no longer exist, yet languish on sites for weeks, sometimes months without adequate updating systems.

While providing up-to-the-minute, one-stop shopping trips for listings in specific areas, the MLS listing sites also provide consumers with access to area REALTORS, community information, news and other local services.

"National home sites appear to rule, but their Achilles heel is the lack of localized information. When someone buys a home, they buy the community, the neighborhood, and then the house. Values can change from one street to the next. This is priceless information that can only be obtained at the local level, and it is the single reason that the home transaction will remain the domain of the agent and the MLS," said Evans.

What MLS listing sites have done for keeping current local information, the mortgage industry has done for loan processing speed. The Web has proven so effective for mortgages, as many as 75 percent of all homeowners who refinance by the start of the new Millennium will conduct the transaction on the Internet, according to Scott Cooley, a mortgage software engineer, president and CEO of Contour Software, Inc., in Campbell, CA.

Speaking to members of the National Association of REALTORS^® during its recent convention earlier this month in Anaheim, CA, Cooley said other industry segments, title and escrow, appraisal, home inspections, mortgage insurance and others will soon begin to forge their destinies in cyberspace.

"There are so many players that have to tie together -- integrating them is our biggest challenge," Cooley said.

Published: November 20, 1998

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