While many online companies work toward getting residential agents online, Web sites for commercial brokers and agents are only just now starting to get a big push.

Companies such as Realestate.com and Loopnet.com offer Web sites can be used like an online brochure to promote yourself, your company and your listings, without your having to become your own Webmaster.

As in the residential space, these high-trafficked sites sell template Web sites for brokers and agents where the advantage is for you to be linked to your listings and readily available to answer an email or an email page from an interested investor who may want more information or a complete package.

Web sites for brokers are the storefront - the public presence for the broker. It can also give broader exposure because it can be niche-oriented. A broker can combine a specialty in retail, office, industrial, multi-family, hotels, motels, and other properties, and combine their niche with geographic expertise.

Loopnet

LoopNet has developed complete web sites for over 62 national and regional commercial real estate organizations including Coldwell Banker Commercial and regional CCIM associations. LoopNet also operates CommercialSource.com, the official commercial real estate site for the National Association of REALTORS®. The company's personal listing service, LoopLink, is included on over 1,000 commercial real estate web sites including Colliers International, Grubb & Ellis and Prudential.

Just introduced at Loopnet are The CuttingEdge template sites which can get up and running in under an hour. Offered in five different styles, the sites are designed to promote you and your company name, logo and contact information on every page; promote your credentials; your properties with a link from LoopNet back to your Web site; and a link to online financing.

Broker Web site packages can be upgraded from five pages to seven or eleven pages.

Realestate.com

Regional and independent small shops try to build exposure on the Web for their agents with basic contact information. But agents should get their own domain name for a personal site which not only helps build brand awareness but introduces the agent - the individual who makes the sale, earns the trust of the client and makes the business happen. Realestate.com believes that it can offer the independent broker a real advantage online, and that the site will be instrumental in pushing control back to the broker. Kathy Nunnally, senior director of Realestate.com's commercial division, says "Larger brokers understand it is about a personal relationships, and I think the corporate mindset will change and this (the Internet) will be embraced.

The company's Web site program for commercial brokers is called CommercialPlus(tm). These are customized, individual Web sites featuring the broker's name, contact information, company logo, qualifications and unique Web address-www.brokername.realestate.com, which is maintained by RealEstate.com. Brokers also will have access to a "brokers-only," password-protected Resource Center where they will find third-party listings and research, market reports and demographics, as well as be able to communicate with clients via email, search public records, research latest financing rates, and access various forms and contracts. The site also offers commercial listings through Cityfeet.com, giving investors a means to search for brokers. Realestate.com will also replicate the information on the main page of the commercial site and post it on each broker's Realestate.com Web site. The 400 pages of content is significant because many investors are reluctant to ask questions. Having information available saves the investor's face as well as time for the broker.

The Resource Center is a back-office tool where the broker can query for available space for their client, an important search function for brokers who want to control the information. Commercial real estate is so dynamic that the information has to constantly verified. If the investor performs the same search, they can easily come up with outdated or incorrect information, or miss a property better suited for their specifications. Only the broker can supply such in-depth details as "where the railroad tracks run."

In focus groups, Realestate.com has learned that this approach suits investors. Business owners like a marketplace such as a Realestate.com, and they understand pricing, but they admit that they are not likely to carry out the transaction on their own. They know they aren't educated about the marketplace and are reluctant to make decisions outside the scope of their core business knowledge.

Because commercial real estate is more complex, Realestate.com is emphasizing its resource centers - the back side of the commercial page. In addition to demographic and market reports of all kinds, Realestate.com is the first company to announce a Web-based Geographic Information System, (GIS) with access to thematic mapping. This is an analytical map which integrates disparate sources of data and shows dynamic themes throughout.

For example, you might look at income as a variable, showing light to dark with darker levels of income in that area, then you could show another theme, such as how many hotels are in the area, and how populated they are. You would see where concentrations of wealth are in the market.

GIS thematic mapping has been available to large institutions but this is the first time it has been made available to brokers at large. Brokers will be able to create their own thematic maps for a minimal cost - less than $100. The GIS can be used for marketing a property, to show the property's relationship to the marketplace.

Published: June 28, 2000

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

Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. For more articles by Blanche, click here.