That's why I was impressed last week when I stumbled across Wal-Mart Realty, a division of Wal-Mart Stores. Interestingly, Wal-Mart Realty describes itself as a "full-service real estate company." So in addition to buildings for lease and sale, you can get construction services, economic development assistance, demographic help, and asset management services.

You'll find hundreds of buildings and land parcels for sale or lease. Wal-Mart seems to offer most properties directly. But they also appear to use two primary service providers to dispose of vacant properties -- Rockwood Exchange in Kansas City and Chicago, and CB Richard Ellis in Houston.

The Wal-Mart site is a little confusing because it says that bids were due for Rockwood's properties on June 5 and CB's properties on August 21. But most of their listings seem to be active. Separately, Wal-Mart also has a Land Auction page with a couple of dozen "absolute" actions handled by Higgenbotham Auctioneers. Finally, Wal-Mart also uploads many of its lease availabilities and land listings to LoopNet.

So, if the Internet is all about communications, which corporations do the best job of interacting with the professional real estate community online? Send e-mail, and I'll report in a future Dispatch.

--Peter Pike