Realty Info as Near as a Keyboard
In a free-association word test, computer does not usually leap to mind after real estate .
Yet an assortment of real estate assistance and resources is available by way of computer to anyone who subscribes to one of the major on-line information services that provide a pipeline to other computer operators and instantaneous information retrieval.
Many computer users equate Prodigy, CompuServe, America Online) and GEnie with such popular features as headline news, sports scores, weather forecasts, airline ticket purchasing and computer support services.
With a little digging, though, the on-line services can shed light on many aspects of real estate that would otherwise take a trip to the library, a stop at a computer software store, a chat with a neighbor with first-hand experience or a consultation with a real estate agent, mortgage lender, home inspector or investment adviser.
“This is very addictive,” warned Baton Rouge real estate broker Paula Gilbert, who oversees GEnie’s real estate forum.
One self-professed computer junkie hooked on the ready access to real estate information is Kevin Hawkins, a communications professional with the Federal National Mortgage Assn. (Fannie Mae), a major supplier of the funds to mortgage companies that lend to homeowners.
Hawkins said he spends 10 minutes on-line weekday mornings before reaching for his newspaper and coffee and 20 minutes in the evenings to stay abreast of news related to real estate.
On weekends, Hawkins puts in another three hours in front of his computer screen transferring articles from the electronic databases and testing new software offered at little or no charge through the on-line systems. “I am stunned at the kind of stuff coming out of there,” Hawkins said.
Although Hawkins is fairly sophisticated in his real estate information quests, the on-line services also offer a bulletin board that is well-suited to the first-time home buyer or seller.
There, a subscriber can gather opinions and advice by typing messages in “real time” with whoever happens to be connected to the bulletin board at the same time.
“There is a sense of community in the network nation,” said real estate advice book author Peter G. Miller, host of the real estate department of the 300,000-member America Online. “These people like to share things and they just like being part of this process.”
America Online also furnishes a second real estate bulletin board through its joint venture with the San Jose Mercury News newspaper. Real estate and consumer affairs reporter Broderick Perkins is in charge what he calls a “freewheeling, question-and-answer, give-and-take about residential real estate.”
Every evening at 10 p.m Eastern time finds GEnie’s Gilbert at her terminal hosting a real estate coffee klatch among a handful of the estimated 400,000 GEnie subscribers (the company does not reveal membership figures.)
“Professionals in the business access this because that is what they are interested in, but the majority are ordinary people,” Gilbert said. “They are looking for answers to home-improvement questions or are in the housing market and want to know if they are being handled right by the professionals. Most have a specific problem they want to be solved.”
CompuServe users can chat on the “Investors Forum” to any of the 1.3 million members that might wander into that zone. Those specifically interested in Florida’s housing picture can drop in on the “Florida Today Forum.”
On-line members, secure in their anonymity, can also leave real estate questions on a bulletin board that they might otherwise be too nervous or embarrassed to ask about in person. Realty experts under contract with the on-line company will respond within a day or so. However, anyone else who reads the query is free to add their two cents or debate an answer.
Although Prodigy does not run a real-time chat operation, it does offer several nationally known experts through its “Money Talk Club” to field questions from its 2 million users. The line-up includes syndicated realty columnist Robert J. Bruss, mortgage and banking finance expert Robert Heady and the staff of the Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine.
“I answer as many questions as I can, but I am just amazed at the high quality of people who have time to waste on their computers answering questions,” Bruss said.
Home sellers can also use the on-line services to advertise their properties, although none of the companies at this point comes close to serving as a nationwide clearinghouse of homes for sale. The odds of actually striking a match through the on-line services are slim, but they can provide a feel for a local market or vacation home possibilities.
America On-Line has dedicated a special section of its Real Estate Online area to what it calls the “MLS,” the same abbreviation by which real estate broker-run multiple listing services are known.
GEnie likewise does not charge for properties listed on the Home Roundtable, although classifieds elsewhere in the system carry a charge. GEnie is also the first of the on-line outfits to handle photographs of homes entered by users with a digital scanner and read by others with a special viewer.
On Prodigy and CompuServe homes sale listings are folded into a larger classified ad section and there is a charge for each listing.
Relocating families can go on-line for leads on their new destinations. GEnie offers a free relocation magazine by city. CompuServe, as part of its Electronic Mall, makes available discounted relocation services, including community evaluations, school system rankings, job search assistance and cost of living comparisons.
For $10 a search, home buyers and renters on CompuServe can further scope out a community by tapping into the Neighborhood Report for demographic profiles by ZIP code. Each area summary includes population, race, age, occupation, household income and renter vs. owner breakdowns, average home values and rents and housing stock age.
The on-line services are also a source of free or low-cost software, so-called “freeware” and “shareware,” that can perform a variety of realty functions. Among the programs on-line users can transfer to their own systems are mortgage amortization calculators, mortgage borrower qualifiers, floor plan illustrators, remodeling cost estimators and rental property managers.
Mortgage shoppers can cruise the systems for other kinds of help. CompuServe offers a monthly mortgage payment calculator on command. America Online tracks interest rates offered by three national lenders and supplies the average weekly mortgage interest rate based on a 2,000-lender survey. CompuServe displays the interest rates quoted by the two largest secondary mortgage market companies and the Treasury note rates to which adjustable-rate mortgages are indexed.
Three key housing economic indicators are also instantly available via Prodigy: housing starts, new home sales and new home prices.
That is the kind of information that novice buyers find reassuring, said Gary Bethard, a Prodigy regional manager based in Fairfax. “The first time I bought a house, I looked under every rock I could to make sure I was doing the right thing,” he said.
