Another shot has been fired in the battle over which organization will claim the title of number one in the real estate form business, though the side making the latest move says it has been in the works for several months.

The Greater Boston Real Estate Board is set to send its formidable real estate forms sales business into cyberspace when it brings its newest Web site – www.formsforrealestate.com – online Friday, April 21.

The move to the Internet comes about three months after the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, of which GBREB’s residential division is a part, announced it too was offering several real estate forms for sale.

“This has been in the works for many months,” said GBREB CEO Edwin J. Shanahan. “It’s all a part of our efforts to expand and enhance services for our members.” He added it was just coincidental that the Web site was being launched in the wake of reported troubles that MAR was having marketing its rival forms.

MAR’s effort to market MassForms has been anything but smooth, as local association executives demanded the suspension of a direct-marketing campaign for the forms. Some local association executives believe the campaign was encouraging Realtors to bypass local associations – which also offer the forms – when making purchases. The state association voted to stop direct marketing after an emergency meeting of MAR officials to address the situation, although it may resume in the future.

For the most part, GBREB officials have tried to keep out of the spotlight as the form issue heated up, but are again entering the arena with the hopes of boosting one of their more significant sources of non-dues revenue.

“We’re looking forward to getting a lot of additional business as more people discover the site,” Shanahan said. In addition to visits from those who heard about the site specifically, Shanahan hopes “people looking for real estate forms on the Internet might type in different phrases, and when they punch in ‘forms for real estate’ they’ll end up at our site.”

Visitors to formsforrealestate.com will be able to select from a variety of residential, commercial and rental forms, and have the option of ordering the forms in paper format or on a disk. Currently, forms that can be directly downloaded onto the customer’s computer are not available. “People can print out a sample of the form they’re ordering that says ‘SAMPLE’ across the page, so they can examine the paper and know exactly what they’re ordering before they order it,” said Noreen A. Nicholson, GBREB’s information technology director.

Nicholson said the site will have “shopping cart” technology that allows customers to add or remove different forms from their shopping list before they complete their orders. Orders typically leave the GBREB offices between 24 and 48 hours after they’re placed and are shipped by UPS or by priority mail at the post office.

Orders can be placed by using Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover. “That’s one area where the real estate board decided to err on the side of being liberal,” Shanahan said.

The site also has a customer service section, which includes policies regarding returns and exchanges, as well as how to redeem coupons or take advantage of other special offers.

Forms may be purchased by anyone, but Nicholson said GBREB members will have their own area of the Web site where forms may be purchased at a discount.

“This is definitely not just for GBREB members. Anyone can use the site,” Shanahan said. “This might be useful for someone who is looking to purchase a house. They can buy a purchase offer form, and that way they’ll be armed when they go looking at properties with a GBREB form. It’s also useful for landlords that have a couple of rental units. They might not consider themselves professionals, but they still need some types of forms.”

Shanahan added that GBREB’s Beacon Hill office in Boston gets a high volume of walk-in traffic looking for real estate forms. The advent of formsfor-
realestate.com, he said, should reduce some of that traffic when customers realize they can now order forms from their computers.

Clearing Confusion
The real estate forms Web site will prominently feature the GBREB logo, Shanahan said. He said the logo should help to clear up any confusion about the source of the real estate forms.

There have been instances recently where real estate professionals thought MassForms were the result of collaboration between GBREB and MAR, Shanahan said. “No doubt there has been some confusion,” he said. “We’ve heard from a steady stream of customers who want to make sure they’re getting GBREB forms.

Shanahan stressed the Web site was destined to happen, regardless of whether a forms competitor emerged in the marketplace. “This idea has probably been around since the beginning when Carolyn [Sidor] and I took over” GBREB in early 1999. “We wanted to catch up, technologically speaking.

“This Web site launching is not in response to anything or anybody,” he continued. “It’s part of the evolution of GBREB.”

MAR’s Web site is undergoing an evolution of its own. According to MAR spokesman John Dulczewski, MAR will be offering MassForms on its Web site starting in May. Visitors will also be able to order books and study guides at the site, Dulczewski said.