Content
1. Featured Sites
2. New and Notable
3. Web Success
4. Win REA!
5. Statistics
7. PikeNet Changes
8. Subscribing and Canceling

1. Featured Sites... The Retail Tenant Database is a treasure of information. How many times have you wondered "Which retailers are expanding in my market?" Now that information is available for free online. In less than a minute, I found the names of 400 food related retailers expanding in California. This database is also a subscription service. So for $25 per month you can download 20 company profiles and mailing labels ($1 per thereafter) with detailed information about the retailer and the space sought. This online database is a service of Trade Dimensions, which publishes a range of print directories for the retail industry.

MapGuide is another very interesting service. Developed by Argus Maps, this is a plug-in for your web browser that enables you to search for and view demographic information by states, counties, census tracks, ZIP codes or your own ring boundaries. Go to the MapGuide site and download the program. It installs automatically if you are using Netscape. Return to MapGuide, visit the MapGuide Demo Site and click Reports. There you'll find a series of examples of reports based upon data from Urban Decisions Systems and instructions for creating your own reports from their data. A basic report is $37.50. (For hyperlinks to the above sites to to "Featured Sites" toward the bottom of the PikeNet home page.)

2. New and Notable... The Smith Guide now includes all Orange County, California, commercial properties with pictures (4,100 industrial, 6,200 office, 3,600 retail and 730 land listings). Metro Concepts provides brokerage and tenant representation services in Chicago. PRARS, the Public Register's Annual Report Service, enables visitors to order printed annual reports from hundreds of companies. Each report will be mailed free within 24 hours after being ordered online. The Superstore Battle is an interesting forum moderated by David L. Peterson discussing the pros and cons of permitting "big box" retailers to build mega stores in New York City.

BOMI Institute's excellent site describes its comprehensive courses for property managers, facilities managers and maintenance professionals seeking RPA, FMA, SMT and SMA designations. ARES, the American Real Estate Society, provides indices to their publications, including the Journal of Real Estate Research and the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management.

3. Web Success... Peter Flis, a broker in Marcus & Millichap's Sacramento office spoke with a client at night, downloaded information on a $2 million apartment complex in Kansas City from his company's web site, faxed it to his client that same evening, submitted a letter of intent the next day and closed the sale several months later, after arranging financing.

4. Win REA! So far 29 persons have registered for our drawing of a free copy of REA, the Real Estate Assistant personal information manager. We'll select a name at random from the first 50 registrants. To register, click the hyperlink at the top of the PikeNet home page. The retail value is $395.

6. Statistics... The Wall Street Journal reports that 73.4% of all World Wide Web users are in the U.S., 10.8 % in Canada, 8.4% in Canada/Mexico, 3.6% in Australia/New Zealand and 1.8% in Asia with smaller percentages in other areas.

7. PikeNet Changes... I added a Market Toolkit for Chicago. Please send e-mail with any ideas for other Chicago area real estate resources that should be included in this Toolkit.

8. Subscribing and Canceling... If you do not want to receive this Dispatch, please reply with "cancel" in the Message field to remove your name. Please include your name and company. If you know a person who would like to be added to this list, please send me an e-mail with the word "subscribe."

--Peter Pike /