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SIOR: Web Is Key Info Source For Brokerages

WASHINGTON, DC-A study conducted by the SIOR Educational Foundation questions whether Web sites will change the way brokerages conduct business in the near future, but says the Web is becoming an important information conduit.

By Wendy Watkins | Updated on June 08, 2001

WASHINGTON, DC-Even as some e-commerce sites specializing in selling, listing and leasing commercial real estate struggle for survival, a study conducted for the SIOR Educational Foundation predicts the Web will be a vital distribution and information tool for commercial brokerages. Pricing for online services will soon become an important issue, according to the analysis.

Study authors Joseph Gyourko and Asuka Nakahara, director and associate director of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, say the recent bankruptcy of Zethus “casts doubt on the near-term potential for an e-firm to fundamentally change the business model of traditional commercial brokerages.” Zethus, backed by Goldman Sachs, had planned to provide technology for Web-based commercial property transactions.

Gyourko and Nakahara point to what they call the first signs of a “discount brokerage model” for commercial real estate that they say if successfully adopted, could “facilitate the move to a more purely Internet-based brokerage operation.” As an example, the study highlights Tenantwise.com in Manhattan, a discount brokerage-type operation that could be a model that would move clients toward a strictly Web-based operation. For online commercial real estate companies like Peracon or Zethus to be successful online, “it may be important for a successful discount model to have been developed,” the authors write.

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