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64 properties from the comfort of your couch directly into the buyers' hands. A decade and a half later, we've come to realize that rather than the Internet taking away the value of the agent, it has freed the agent to concentrate on more important things. But for the most part, online property auction companies ‒‒ particularly those based in Silicon Valley ‒‒ have gone out of their way to cut real estate agents out of the transaction, says Rayman Mathoda, president of Genesis Auctions and Genesis Capital. Genesis, says Weiss, was built around the idea of making life a whole lot easier for everyone involved in the often lengthy, often frustrating process of buying or selling property. And that includes tapping into the value a real estate agent ‒‒ the most visible support beam in the entire real estate world ‒‒ can bring to a transaction. What the fusion of Genesis and H&M does, in part, is enhance what an agent can do in a transaction by providing a multi-channel platform for doing business. An agent can now help clients find and purchase at auction, live or online, as easily as he can steer a buyer through the standard process wrought by an MLS listing. In return, an agent can help clients who want to buy or sell quickly find a new outlet for properties without having to wait for live auctions in a physical location elsewhere. e combination of these two companies is no small matter. What you're now going to see is an amalgam of one of the largest offline property auction bases with one of the largest online property auction bases. Weiss herself says, "is is a game-changer." e game started changing last year, when Weiss and H&M principal David Webb realized that they had a lot more in common than just a few professional contacts. e two had known of each other through industry channels and had respected each other's work, Webb says, when they suddenly realized that they shared almost all of their professional values. Both companies, says Webb, are family- oriented firms that trade heavily on loyalty, the interest of the client, and the value of real estate agents and brokers. Both, they found, had weathered the recession by positioning themselves as conduits for sellers and investors to move properties fast, and both saw the future of the industry through the eyes of technology. e union of Genesis and H&M is expected to be completed over the next few months. e Genesis Auctions name will gradually phase into H&M as Q2 settles in, though Genesis Capital will continue as a business-to-business loan and mortgage company designed to help buyers in the company's online auctions. Webb suggests that until recently, the real estate world simply wasn't ready for the implications of what the Internet could do for it. Fifteen years ago, he says, the interactivity between businesses like real estate and the Internet simply wasn't a reality. General thinking had yet to come around to how real estate professionals could really use the web to enhance their businesses and, in turn, be enhanced by technology. But now that the world in general has come to integrate its lives with the Internet, says Weiss, this is the right time for a partnership like this one to take off. In addition to the technology, the merging of Genesis with H&M is largely fueled by the decidedly old-fashioned concepts of moxie and bold thinking. Fifty years ago, Hudson & Marshall changed the property auction game by developing a turnkey approach to auction marketing. Auction pros from the firm handle all aspects of a transaction, from the presale strategy and due diligence process through auction day activities and final closings to ensure a smooth, well-coordinated auction. Fifty years ago, that approach was pretty much unheard of, but as the decades rolled on, Hudson & Marshall's method ‒‒ and its success ‒‒ has become the playbook for other property auction companies scurrying to stay in

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