Real estate is supposed to be slowing as a result of inflationary pressures, lay-offs and declines on Wall Street. But MSN has had no problems ramping up a new discussion area for brokers, a service which attracted more than 1,400 members since Monday.

In just a few days, the MSN feature has emerged as one of the largest broker discussion services online. It competes for members and postings with such established newsgroups as Real Talk and the Residential News Group as well as message boards operated in private areas by the National Association of Realtors.

The Realtor Discussion Forum is open both to MSN members and non-members. Brokers and salespeople can sign up from any ISP service and then decide how they want to access the service:

• As a message board on the web.

• As a daily digest.

• As individual message board postings.

Given that hundreds of messages are being posted daily, it seems likely that most users will opt for the digest or the on-site message boards. However, if there's a single topic that seems especially interesting, it can be tagged so that users receive new postings by e-mail for that subject alone.

The initial discussion areas include general postings, tech issues, business strategies, Internet leads, referrals, and agency issues.

The area also features a series of free tools:

Photo Album. Allows members without cost to post photos of homes available for sale.

Chat Area. A chat room open to members. For my system this requires a brief download to access.

Links. An area that allows members to add their own links for everyone to see.

Files. Up to 30 MB can be stored online, including such items as documents, text files, photos, etc.

Hugh Siler, the spokesperson for MSN, says, "we've been quite surprised by the overwhelming response. We thought, 'if 500 Realtors signed up in one day, we'd be ecstatic.' We hit that goal in about 4 hours after launching the forum. The only thing we've done to promote the discussion forum is to e-mail an invitation to Realtors and offer the first 200 people to sign up a chance to win Microsoft's new Office XP software."

"One of the ways we've received so many members so quickly," explained Siler, "is that it's very easy for a member to invite a colleague to join the site -- in fact, that's the whole idea of the community."

The area is an MSN product, according to Siler, just one of the thousands of online discussion groups maintained by the service.

The purpose of the area, he says, is act as a platform where brokers and salespeople can freely exchange information.

"The goal was to create an objective area where Realtors could go -- at no cost -- to find and exchange information on any one of a number of topics," says Siler. "This Realtor Discussion Forum is the only one of its kind where someone can post a question and instantaneously receive feedback from their peers -- judging by the 1,400 members who've already joined, we're rather confident the area will continue to grow in members and content.

"We've seen a wide range of discussions and requests already on the forum: from a rookie Realtor looking for a mentor to top producers sharing tips on how to work with Internet leads and more."

While the service is at an early stage, the general discussion and the referral boards are the two most popular areas, followed by Internet lead discussions, according to Siler. Realtors have also posted hundreds of pictures of properties for sale, he says.

For more articles by Peter G. Miller, please press here.

Published: October 19, 2001

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