According to RealtyStocks.com, the largest real estate investment trusts are outperforming the overall REIT market by about 9 percent on the year. In May, overall price gains of more than 200 REITs were down by almost 1 percent. These same stocks were up almost 1.5 percent on the year, or about 5 percent including dividends.

But the 20 REITs with the largest market caps scored prices gains of 10.6 percent for the first five months of the year, or 14 percent including dividends.

The strongest market sectors for the year are regional malls and offices, both up more than 9 percent. But regional malls took a downturn in May, down more than 5 percent.

The best performer for both May and for the year, believe it or not, is lodging. These stocks are up almost ½ percent for May, and almost 6 percent on the year.

And then there’s technology, where last year’s smart investor is this year’s sucker. In the industry’s newest acronyms – real estate technology and Internet companies (RETICs) and on-site service providers (OSPs) – performance was incredible last year, with a gain of nearly 89 percent. But from January through May, these issues have suffered losses of 54 percent. Ouch.

Speaking of investments, no word strikes boredom in the heart of short-term investors more than “institutional.” On the other hand, those who follow institutional investors often experience some of the biggest gains of their lives.

And now, with the help of Real Capital Markets (RCM), real estate institutional investors – known as some of the slowest adopters of technology – finally can come into this century. Through its Web site (www.realcapitalmarkets.com), RCM is offering electronically based solutions to help institutional investors with “all phases of the transaction process.”

“Our success is directly attributed to our ability to create a user-friendly platform that efficiently and affordably serves the transactional needs of institutional real estate owners and investors in a secure and confidential environment,” CEO Stephen Alter said.

Alter went on to claim that RCM is the Internet’s only broker-neutral host facilitating capitalization and the transaction process.

Institutional real estate owners or exclusive listing brokers pay a nominal fee for a customized presentation of their properties on realcapitalmarkets.com. Visitors to the site can view a general description of the listed properties and are provided contact information to obtain a user name and password, which allows them to view a more detailed, customized online presentation of the property after executing a confidentiality agreement.

Published: June 20, 2000

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Lesley Hensell covers commercial real estate and financial issues for Realty Times. Based outside of Dallas, Lesley works with high-tech and real estate clients as an independent marketing and public relations consultant. She also writes for several publications, including the Dallas Morning News. E-mail Lesley at: lhensell@earthlink.net