After a rough start, the real estate industry has finally grown out of its technological infancy. With the building blocks in place, the industry can and will spread its electronic wings further. Where does that leave you as 1998 approaches? Read on.

Debbie Ferrari: (Eighteen)
separate web sites, tailored
to sites they’re linked to.

Debbie Ferrari, an associate broker with San Clemente Real Estate Co., San Clemente, Calif., says she has kept traffic high by creating nine (now 18) web sites, each with its own URL, that are tailored to the sites they’re linked to. For instance,
she has one site that’s a link in Homeseekers (www.homeseekers.com)and one at Choicemall(www.choicemall.com),
an online shopping network covering everything
from entertainment to real estate. They’re all to drive people to her main 45-page site and all registered with the search engines, thereby increasing her odds of being found.

In some ways, 1997 was the year that tech talk turned to action. After years of speculation about the ramifications of the Internet, and after experimentation with the first generation of high-tech gadgets such as digital cameras, this was the year that the cutting edge began to gravitate toward the mainstream—as a growing number of practitioners started to see technological advances impacting their daily business dealings. Industry Observers say the revolution has only just begun.

If there’s one point the experts are unanimous on, it’s that in 1997 the big buzz in the biz was the Internet. "This has been the year that real estate companies and salespeople truly began to use the web," says Daniel Burrus of Burrus Research, Milwaukee, a technology consultant who follows the business. The most obvious use has been online listings. Leading the charge: mega-web sites such as the National Association of RealtorsŪ’ www.RealtorŪ.com, which added its 1 millionth listing.

Content-rich online listings: Now that the vast majority of listings have been brought online, "We need to enhance the functionality" of those listings, says Stuart Wolff of RealSelect, which operates www.RealtorŪ.com for the RealtorsŪ Information Network, a NAR subsidiary. Look for listings to incorporate more information about the community and to provide visual enhancements as well—floor plans, interior views, and neighborhood views.