Inman

Online real estate debate heats up

Real estate, mortgage, media and technology innovators from across the country will gather to network and assess future developments in online real estate during Inman NewsReal Estate Connect 2004, July 28-30 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Advance registration rate of $499 ends Monday, March 15. Sign up online or call (800) 775-4662, ext. 122.

Barry Diller, CEO of IAC/InteractiveCorp, will keynote the conference. Interactive Corp. engages worldwide in the business of interactivity via the Internet, the television and the telephone. In 2003, IAC sent shock waves through the real estate industry when it purchased real estate and mortgage innovator LendingTree for more than $700 million, triggering a wave of other acquisitions, including eRealty, GetSmart and RealEstate.com.

The closing session on July 30 will feature Lawrence Lessig, professor of Law at Stanford Law School and author of “The Future of Ideas.”

“The phrase ‘real estate’ is one of the most frequently searched terms on the Internet today, with an estimated 20 million unique users each month logging on to view home listings,” said Bradley Inman, founder and publisher of Inman News, which produces Real Estate Connect 2004.

The trend has turned online search companies like Google into overnight successes and is one reason behind the recent acquisition of several major online players, a renewed flow of venture capital into online real estate and the creation of new lead generation operations by traditional brokerages like Weichert Realtors, Inman said.

“Add to that the fact that newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune are awakening from their slumber to compete for Internet real estate leads and capture a major share of local real estate advertising and you have the ingredients for some major changes in the business of real estate,” Inman said.

Understanding what these changes mean to the future of the industry and how these new entities work is of critical importance to anybody with a stake in the real estate transaction, according to Inman.

Real Estate Connect 2004 offers dozens of panels and forums on a wide range of topics, including:

  • American Real Estate Idol: A dozen entrepreneurs will introduce their new products before a live audience and a panel of real estate celebrity judges.
  • The Big Trend Dig: A diverse panel of experts will unveil and interpret the results of a new survey on the future of the Internet and real estate.
  • The Business Card Exchange: Join industry innovators for roundtable discussions on more than a dozen topics, including “Mobile Computing: Latest Toys, Newest Tools,” “How Broadband Will Change Interactive Marketing,” “What Consumers Want to See on the Web” and “Lead Generation Success Stories.”
  • Special Lead Forum: Acquiring Customers Off the Web: Learn how to “game” the online real estate lead machine from the brightest stars in online real estate.
  • Meet the Leaders: Sit down with industry leaders.

    Attendees also can learn more about the products and services offered by more than 50 exhibitors at the Real Estate Connect 2004 product showcase.

    Sponsors of Real Estate Connect 2004 include: Reply Real Estate, Bank of America, DataQuick, First American Real Estate Solutions, Stewart Title Guaranty Co., LendingTree, RealLiving, HomeGain, Yahoo! Real Estate and EXIT Realty International.

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