It's Not Your Father's CCIM

Delivering Value... Let's say that you're selling a property or leasing space. How do you put a marketing package together quickly and inexpensively? Answer ... Join the CCIM Institute. Hey, this is not a commercial. It's just that Jay Lucas, past president of the CCIM Institute, recently toured me around their Site To Do Business (password required). Lucas demonstrated how quickly and easily CCIM members could create an "Express Package."

What do you need? Demographics? Maps? Aerial photographs? Flood Zone studies? Business reports? Zip code analyses? STDB Online has all this and more. After completing a report, you can send it as a web link, or you can send the actual PDF file. CCIM buys rights to this information in bulk and then provides access to its 7,000 members (plus 6,000 candidates) as part of its annual $450 membership fee. Just create a few marketing packages and you've paid for your membership.

Yes, any large professional organization or service provider could theoretically provide a similar service. And some do. But contracting with information vendors, designing a web interface, and educating users is a huge task. CCIM started STDB Online two-and-a-half years ago, and Lucas says that they've still got a number of major enhancements planned.

Last week a column in the New York Times concluded, "The Internet revolution, for all its speculative excesses, really is changing the world." (Adam Cohen, Feb 6, 2002) How true. So long real estate dot-coms. RIP: Comro, RealCentric, RealtyIQ, Zethus and a host of others. But you can't dispute the fact that web-based applications will fundamentally affect the quality of real estate services. What do you think?

--Peter Pike