1. Spreading the Word--Insignia and Richard Ellis. ..... On Monday, October 20, 1997, Insignia Financial Group announced that it had executed a letter of intent to acquire Richard Ellis Group Limited and posted a press release at its web site (What’s New, Press Releases). Richard Ellis made an announcement at its web site (Main News) in a rather elliptical fashion: "The Board of Insignia Financial Group Inc confirms that it is in discussion with the Board of Richard Ellis Group Limited to acquire the equity of the company for an undisclosed sum…"

Estates Gazette Interactive (EGi), which covers U.K. property news, posted an article at its web site the same day valuing the merger at "a reported £80m." Intriguingly, EGi News reported on the web two days later, October 23, 1997, under the headline "Americans target JLW and DTZ in race for global expansion" that JLW and LaSalle might be talking, and CB might be acquiring a stake in its ally DTZ Debenham Thorpe.

2. Web Success. .... We’re making progress. The Wall Street Journal published a REIT Directory on October 22, 1997, with 28 REITs taking out advertisements. Of the 28, 12 published web site addresses and 4 published e-mail addresses (57%). That leaves 12 others without electronic access. Prediction: A year from today there will not be many REITs without electronic access.

http://www.pikenet.com/cgi-bin/pikenet/?F=success/success05

3. New and Notable. ..... The Simon DeBartolo Group is a REIT specializing in retail properties--regional malls and community centers--nationwide. ….. Starwood Lodging Trust is a REIT which buys and owns hotel properties nationwide. ….. Lincoln Equities Group owns, develops and manages commercial properties in the tri-state area of NJ and NY. ….. The Volunteer Site is an industrial park for companies interested in ecology and technology near Chatanooga, TN.

Measure America, based in Tampa, FL, offers rentable area re-measuring services for commercial property. ….. Carolinas Real Data provides real estate statistics, research and data on NC, SC and VA. ….. Riser Management Systems, L.P., provides telecommunications engineering, consulting and riser management services nationwide. ….. LINK, a venture of IDEX Technologies and North American Van Lines, offers facilities logistics technologies and relocation management.

4. PikeNet: RealAudio Welcome. .... I recently added a RealAudio welcome to PikeNet on my home page. To listen you’ll need the RealAudio plug-in which is easy to download and install. ….. If the web is all about communication, audio is a good way to begin to develop a relationship with your tenant, client, or customer. Another effective way to differentiate yourself from other firms.

http://www.pikenet.com/welcome.ram

5. Knowledge Base: How to Find Property Tax Rates. ..... Need to find a property tax rate in a particular ZIP code? It’s easy at the Loan Locator site. For step-by-step instructions, click the PikeNet Knowledge Base on the home page, click "Property and Market Information," and, finally, click the appropriate question.

http://www.pikenet.com/pike?func=showPublicPage&page= questions/question_property

6. Sponsor. ..... Inman Commercial. ….. To get commercial real estate professionals to your Web site each day, give them the Internet’s only "real time" real estate news: Inman Commercial. Your site’s news pages are customized with your logo and news from veteran journalists like Adam Feuerstein and Warren Lutz. To increase your web traffic, repeat visits and the time professionals spend on your site, get Inman Commercial. Call 1-800-775-4662, Ext. 128, or email us at service@inman.com.

http://db.inman.com/inman/inf/inman/comm.cfm

7. PikeNet Address Change. ...... Please note two important changes that will affect a small number of PikeNet visitors. I am in the process of transferring the domains pike.net and pike.com to another firm. Make sure that your bookmark for PikeNet is linked to pikenet.com, not pike.net. Likewise, please make sure that you use as my e-mail address, not ppike@pike.com.

8. Subscribing. .....If you would like to be subscribe to this free Dispatch, please send e-mail with the word "subscribe" in the title to Peter Pike .