Realty Times is celebrating its two-year anniversary. That may not seem long, but on the Internet, it's an eon. So how's the site doing? Better than ever, and there's a lot more to come.

Agent News/Realty Times was created in 1997 by Jody Lane, a former Realtor and commercial broker, and his two partners, Scott Davis, an MIT grad, and Chris Warrick, a webmaster and entrepreneur. Their goal was to bring news and other services to Realtors and real estate consumers in a way that had never been attempted before. Agent News was launched October 15, 1997, and was incorporated as a feature into the expanded news service, Realty Times.

Two years, 25 writers, and hundreds of distribution strategic partners later, Realty Times has grown to be the largest, most comprehensive, and most widely distributed real estate news service on the Internet. Realty Times has over 250,000 visitors and creates personalized newsletters for over 14,000 real estate agents each month.

It seems appropriate to take a moment to reflect on the past and take a look at the future of online real estate with one of the key players in realty e-commerce, Jody Lane, founder of Realty Times.

Robert Lee: On your two-year anniversary, what are your thoughts?

Jody Lane: This month we're going to show our first profit which puts us in rare company as an Internet business. I thought we would do that after one year, so I'm not as gleeful as you would think.

RL: Tell us how you got there.

JL: In July of 1997, I had an idea to create a news site just about real estate agents. And I ran the idea by Jeff Johns at the California Association of REALTORS® (CAR.) We were going to partner with CAR, which was to be largely responsible for the distribution of Agent News. Shortly thereafter, we talked to Brad Inman about providing content for the site, with my group responsible for hosting, producing and ad sells.

Sometime in August, Jeff Johns left CAR and I lost my bridge to CAR. Brad was fearful that we wouldn't be successful because we didn't have the proper distribution, so he backed out. I looked up and had no partners and only an idea and a mockup. Literally, the day after I talked to Brad, Stuart Wolff at RealSelect called, and listened to the idea, saw the mockup and we created a partnership over the phone. I hired Blanche Evans, who is still the editor of Agent News and now famous in her own right, and we got rocking.

RL: What was the launch of Agent News like?

JL: The first day, we had 200 visitors. Hell, I had called that many people to look at it! And worse we stayed at those numbers for a while. I never would tell Blanche and the new writers how many readers we had. I just told them their stuff was great. I did not want them to get discouraged. The hardest part was spending money on good content when there were just a few readers, but I believed that the publication had to be good or even those few readers would not return.

RL: Why do you think it took so long before Agent News caught on?

JL: In the agreement with Realtor.com, they were supposed to link to us from day one. However, because of some political problems with NAR, Realtor.com didn't start linking to us until March 98, leaving us to sink or swim alone for six months. However, I have to hand it to Stuart Wolff. He stuck to his promise, politics and all, and we became the exclusive news service for Realtor.com.

RL: But traffic wasn't just dependent on Realtor.com, was it?

JL: No, we got placement on several key search engines and created other strategic partnerships that helped us expand our traffic independently of Realtor.com.

RL: How did Agent News evolve into Real Times?

JL: Once we got the hang of doing Agent News, I didn't feel it was a very long step to provide a full fledged real estate news site. At that time, nobody was providing real estate news for the consumer, which has always been our number one goal.

RL: Real Times changed its named to Realty Times. What was the reason for that?

JL: About a year ago, it became apparent that a partnership with Realtor.com was not in our best interest and they in fact owned the domain name of realtytimes.com. Therefore we changed it to Realty Times.

RL: A lot of people still think Realtor.com owns Realty Times.

JL: I don't know how many ways to say this, but we own 100% of Realty Times.

RL: There have been some bumps in this long road. Can you expand on this?

JL: Let me put it this way, It has cost me every dime of my net worth and more to reach this level. I'm reminded by a friend of mine who once said, "I always knew I was going to be a millionaire before 30 and I'm only $1.2 million short."

RL: Did you have all this money in savings?

JL: Some of it, yes, but we went through that quickly. Actually, my wife, Nora Lane, is a very successful real estate agent. And all of her commissions have gone to keeping this site going and making sure everyone is paid. She is the real hero here.

RL: What was your costliest mistake?

JL: In the spring of 1998, we were closing a very large business deal that would have put Realty Times on a different level. My financing backed out at the very last minute. I wish I had done more to try to get that deal closed. It took a full year to recover and become profitable.

RL: What has surprised you the most about your journey?

JL: That a guy who couldn't turn on a computer until '91 and who can't write a decent paragraph can become publisher of the largest online real estate news site. If anyone had told me that I would be publisher of any publication, I would have told them they were crazy.

RL: You've had the opportunity to observe many companies and their Internet strategies. Some are successful and some don't have a clue. What are your thoughts?

JL: It's amazing to me to look at companies who had an incredible early lead and watch them fumble the ball - companies like ListingLink, IRED, and Cyberhomes. They were all leaders in their fields at one time. Then there are companies that I'm very impressed with - like E-Loan, Bamboo.com, and RentNet.

RL: What do you think it takes to be a winner on the Internet?

JL: I think it takes a good vision, good leadership and capital. Lots of capital. If you leave out any of these three, you are toast.

RL: By a good vision, do you mean a good idea?

JL: No. An idea is just part of it. How to implement, strategize and figure out the uses for the idea is good vision. There are a thousand good ideas; not that many of them will be profitable.

RL: What are some of the interesting happenings you have seen in your two-year tenure?

JL: First, it is that companies like Microsoft and Yahoo!. Both thought they would conquer the real estate arena because of who they were. Yahoo! has totally retreated and I would have to say that Microsoft has been extremely humbled. However, I think it would be a mistake to count Microsoft out.

Second, there is a phenomenon going on presently that I find incredible. And that is consumers are much further along in their use of the Internet in accessing information about real estate than most REALTORS® are. I used to think that the agent's role was not in jeopardy, however, I'm beginning to believe that it is. The Internet is the consumer's number one choice for finding information and communicating with service providers. Some Realtors would not even put the Internet in their top 10.

RL: What companies do you think are worth watching?

JL: I think you have to be impressed with what Stuart Wolff and Homestore have done. Stuart really made sense of the Net and real estate. The millions he raised and spent on the portals brought real estate to the forefront for the consumer. If he can create a consistent and growing revenue stream, HomeStore may become one of the largest companies in this country. He has done most things right so far.

And I think you need to keep an eye on Homeseekers. They remind me of Avis - they try harder. Also, I think I'm starting to see a shift in Homeadvisor's strategy - focusing more on loans. If this is true, they will in fact, become the force that was predicted 12 - 18 months ago. .

RL: Why do you think Realty Times has been successful?

JL: I think one of the reasons is that we refused to do mindless reprints of press releases as feature stories. It blows me away that when Realtor.com signs an advertising agreement with Lycos, that anybody would consider that real estate news.

We focus on original content, and our effort to attract the best name writers in the industry plays a large part. When we do a story on a company, we focus on what the company's effect will be on the industry at large. I think we try hard to write about what the consumer needs and wants instead of what writers want to write about. I send back editorials all the time, because some writers don't get what we're trying to do.

RL: What is your favorite Realty Times story?

JL: That's a no-brainer - the story about Irene Mabry - Agent of the Year.

RL: What is the most controversial story you've ever done?

JL: That would have to be the exclusive we ran about the Clareity study that showed that a number of listings sites were inflating their numbers. My phone started ringing at 3:00 a.m. and did not stop all day.

RL: What's next?

JL: Well, we are going to continue to break ground. Realty Times was the first real estate news site to have a front page consumer news section, the first to produce an online newsletter for agents, and the first to feature interactive real estate news.

We have several things in the works, and we should be making some announcements soon.

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Happy birthday, Realty Times. And may your 250,000 monthly visitors each raise a glass to you!

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Published: October 15, 1999

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