1. WEB SUCCESS. LamBis Consulting, based in Dallas, TX, recently "procured two national consulting contracts from clients who first learned of our services on the web." One assignment involved market studies for housing and other involved property inspections for a REIT. According to Charles Bissell, both clients found the LamBis web site after doing a search at AltaVista.

2. NEW AND NOTABLE. The Stone Real Estate Group, which provides commercial real estate services in Northern Indiana from South Bend, has launched a nice web site. Professional Property Management Group offers management, leasing and brokerage services from Redding, CA. The Bay Area Real Estate Journal, produced by the California Real Estate Journal and Inman News, is a new publication covering news around San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The Horizon Property Management System is developed and marketed by Fraser Williams. Office Buildings Magazine has added Cincinnati to its database of building information and photographs covering all major Northeastern markets.

3. SPONSOR: KORPACZ REAL ESTATE SOURCE DIRECTORY. Need asking rents for Class-A office space in major markets? Convenience store sales, profits, and expenses? FEMA flood maps on CD-ROM? Check out the new Korpacz Real Estate Source Directory on the web at http://directory.korpacz.com with over 1,400 real estate information products, software, books, and Internet resources to identify what’s available, where to get it, and what it costs--published by The Korpacz Company, Inc.

4. REAL ESTATE CONNECT 97. Produced by Inman News, last week’s excellent real estate technology conference in San Francisco, featured some provocative presentations. Ward Hansen, a professor at the Stanford Business School, delivered an opening talk that set the framework for the two-day session. According to Hansen, "There is a disappearing line between Internet commerce and commerce." He went on to say that "web lift" benefits large companies more than small. That’s due to the major investment in design and ongoing maintenance required to produce a significant site.

Matt Kursh of Microsoft announced that Microsoft intended to launch a major web site soon that would enable consumers to develop insight, make a decision and take action (IDA) when purchasing home. This would obviously have dramatic implication for residential brokers and services, e.g., multiple listing systems, although Kursh said that the company "did not think that it would be in Microsoft’s interest" to participate in brokerage fees (for now?).

Bill Millichap of Marcus & Millichap predicted that there would be "no successful national clearing house for properties" before 2002, if then. He felt that the main problem with free listing services was the limited quantity and quality of information that national services offered. Millichap said that he did expect that by 2002 "information providers will be on the web, but with subscription services." Of course, dozens of Intenet listing services would take issue with these remarks.

Millichap does believe that "Apartment rental sites will be the primary/secondary source for matching apartment renters with rental opportunities." Marcus & Millichap owns the AllApartments web site, which covers over 4.3 million apartment units. Millichap spoke candidly about the slow pace of Internet adoption by the commercial real estate industry, saying that his web site had only generated four transactions. However, the firm is continuing to invest in the development of its site, particularly the intranet component.

5. KNOWLEDGE BASE: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION. I get frequent e-mail asking where to find demographic information on the web. New this week in the PikeNet Directory is The Dismal Scientist, which features economic analysis, market commentary and demographic information on major MSAs. For step-by-step instructions, click on the Knowledge Base hyperlink on the PikeNet home page and scroll down to "Using The Dismal Scientist to find demographic information." I plan to cover the Census Bureau next week. Know another source? Send e-mail. And, of course, check out the Korpacz Directory mentioned above.

6. DISPATCH FORMAT. Long time readers will recognize that last week I shortened the Dispatch to an "Express" version which contained a summary of the complete Dispatch. A number of readers complained that there was not enough content. So this week, I return to my standard format. If you think this is too long, please send me your feedback. I appreciate your input! And remember that the Dispatch is always posted at PikeNet with hyperlinks to all sites mentioned. If your mail program supports clickable links, click the URL under the "Contents" above or go to the PikeNet home page and click "Current Issue." It’s easy.

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--Peter Pike