Not surprisingly, there are those in the forefront of online transactional databases who believe that the future is now and the industry is ready. NetStruxr chairman and CEO Greg Williams told GlobeSt.com just that in a recent UpClose interview. "Independent brokers come to us and tell us they want to adopt us for their corporate clients," said the San Francisco-based executive. "That says to me that the buyer--and not just the large, sophisticated buyer--is ready for it. E-commerce is in the forefront of the industry's thinking. It's certainly on the agenda for IDRC and Nacore."

Others are less sure. Charlotte-based AvidXchange co-founder and CEO David Miller, for one, states that interfacing on line is hardly a substitute for face time. He admits that software cannot replace the human element in the transaction, and those doing the deals couldn't agree more.

"There always will be two individuals getting together to make a deal," Howard Lovett of Crescent Real Estate Equities Inc. tells GlobeSt.com Southwest bureau chief Connie Gore. And Michael Heidrich, a senior vice president at Realvest Partners Inc. in Maitland, FL, tells Southeast bureau chief Alex Finkelstein, "There are too many reasons to see the space physically and meet the principals. As far as finalizing contracts, leases and other paper work online, I am doing that now."

Crescent Equities leasing manager Kirby White likens commercial deals to a homeowner buying a house. "You can do a lot online, but you want to see it," the executive states. "At least for me, I would want to see, feel and touch it. I wold want to see what that view really looks like in reality before I make the decision."

However, White is among those who doesn't rule out deals being completed entirely on-line. However, "I don't see it on the horizon," he says. "But, who's to say what we'll be doing 10 to 15 years from now?"

While most real estate executives are betting for a mixture of electronic and face-to-face interface, no one can deny the strides that have been made by the industry on the technological front. A Building Owners and Managers Association survey this past October found 7% of procurement officers buying on line, but that number is expected to jump to as high as 70% this October, notes AvidXchange boss David Miller. However, the human element comes into play there as well, since those officers have relationships with various vendors.

The commercial lending business has gone electronic, says Glaser Financial vice president Pete Evans, at least as far as lenders and originators dealing with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which have automated their processes and created helpful databases. The computer is less helpful, however, in the borrowers' search for lenders. Borrowers may shop online with a number of mortgage brokers, all of whom may then pitch the same deal to their institutional sources. But after a while, Chicago-based Evans explains, those capital sources get leery of an over-shopped deal.

"It's counter-productive because you have so many people looking at the same deal," Evans says. "They think no one has control." And it is the loss of control that will keep real estate transactions taking place over the conference table rather than over the Internet.