by William Cracraft

With potential real estate clients able to access vital data via the Internet, at least one real estate company is adding value to draw customers. “It’s really the change of our business into a new business model driven by client customer expectation and has to do with the delivery of service and giving customers a choice, said David Cobo President of Prudential California Realty at the PCR 1999 Northern California Network Meeting Wednesday.

The focus of the meeting, “The Future of Our Business,” addressed strategic alliances, expanding use of the Internet, recruiting and training. “It’s a look at the future of the home buying process,” said Cobo, and how to give service to consumers, “beyond simply buying a home and getting a mortgage. It’s a home servicing experience.”

“As (home buying) data becomes more readily available, there is going to be downward pressure on what people are willing to pay,” for real estate services, said John Yen Wong, owner of PCR’s Sunset office in San Francisco. “Whereas before, the realtor had all the information available and you’d go to them,” he said. With Internet sites, “now you have information available already. Historically, real estate agents said, we’re negotiators, we’re real estate agents. If you need legal information, go to a lawyer, if you want information about the condition of the property, go to the inspector,” Wong said.

“Part of today’s meeting has been not just vertical integration, where you have the ancillary service like mortgages and the stuff that happens right at the transaction, but to have access to information beyond the transaction,” Wong added. Savvy consumers are looking for more than a referral now. “What I’m seeing,” said Wong, “is the alliances forming with real estate agencies…that are willing to say, ‘we’re going to be a little more accountable, we’re forming an alliance with the company, we’re going to stick our name, to an extent, on the reports,” of strategic partners like EQE International, a engineering firm specializing in risk analysis.

EQE’s Tom Chan, senior vice president, attended the meeting in Napa. “We have expertise in our specialty area, risk engineering and information,” said Chan. EQE, based in Oakland, checks property for danger from earthquakes, flooding and the like. “We don’t have much expertise at the consumer level, certainly nowhere near the real estate expertise that Prudential brings,” said Chan.

“The idea is by combining them, that opens up the market, that’s a new distribution channel,” Chan added. “The fact that we’re endorsed by Prudential creates greater marketing opportunities for us. We also provide marketing opportunities for Prudential.” Green Mountain Energy has also formed a strategic partnership with PCR to provide home buyers with detailed information on Green Mountain’s renewable resource electricity.

PCR is working towards strategic partnerships with Microsoft’s Home Advisor team and Pictureworks of Danville, an imaging network development company. Pictureworks is working on enhancing the images consumer see when they view property on PCR’s websites.

Both partnership are tied to PCR’s commitment to better customer service via the Internet. Microsoft’s “overall strategy is to provide a broad set of content offerings for consumers,” said Daniel Burgeon, manager of Microsoft’s Home Advisor Group. “Real estate is one, cars and travel are others,” Bourgoin said. “All those properties are consolidating into one portal. We recognize that many real estate companies have strong brands in their communities and real estate is a local business. It is our desire to help establish and reinforce the strong brands in those communities to the extent possible,” he added.

Microsoft’s www. home advisor.com competes with widely-used realtor.com, an on-line listing service, but homeadvisor.com has information on getting started on a home search, financing and negotiating and closing tips as well as listings. “Web sites are a way of attracting an audience,” said Bill Chee, president of Prudential Locations of Honolulu and a speaker at the Napa meeting.

“A growing number of people are looking at the Internet as a research tool. Down the road two or three years, perhaps the majority will be using the Internet as a first point of contact,” Chee said. “Realtor.com has 1.3 million listings on it, virtually all the re-sales in the United States,” Chee said . “The kind of interesting piece is it is now an advertising tool and it will turn into an information system. The reason is, customers want more and more information,” he added.

“The whole idea of real estate becoming a profession, as opposed to being a bunch of sales people, is becoming real because the consumer’s not going to pay for anything less than that. That’s the major shift I see happening today,” said Wong.