The most influential man in real estate...

Donald Trump you say? Tom Barrack? Nope. When it comes to the world of real estate economics, there's nobody more influential than this guy, David Geltner, director of the MIT Center for Real Estate. That's the conclusion of the Real Estate Economics. According to this announcement from MIT, Geltner's work was referenced most often by other economists in the field between 2000 and 2004. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that Geltner wrote the book on commercial real estate...literally: "Commercial Real Estate Analysis and Investments," which is going into its second edition this year. According to MIT, the first edition, which appeared in 2001 "pioneered the teaching of a rigorous economics-based framework for analyzing and understanding real estate investment, featuring a groundbreaking integration of urban and financial economics."

Admittedly, there's some glad handing here: Geltner spent three years as managing editor of...what else...Real Estate Economics! Hmm...

Welcome to the PoIP Blog!

So this is a new blog and it's all about property on the Internet or, as I like to call it, PoIP...Property over Internet Protocol. I must admit, I'm copping that term a bit from the telecommunications field, where VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is all the rage. But I think the same concept holds true in the decidedly earth bound business of real estate. Web sites and Web based services like Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, PropertyShark are transforming the business of buying and selling homes, renting apartments and even the suburban spectator sport of guessing whose home is worth more: yours or your neighbors (answer: your neighbors).

Of course, there's no shortage of real estate blogs (I'm tracking around 15 now in Google Reader, but that's just a sampling). But PoIP is going to try to do something a bit different: focusing just on the intersection of real estate and technology. I hope you enjoy it.