The home-buying process richly deserves its reputation as a time-consuming, complex, paper-intensive, and by all accounts inefficient transaction. With more than 5 million existing homes sold annually in the United States -- producing transaction fee revenue of over $50 billion -- it's not surprising that a multitude of Net-oriented firms are promising efficiency in exchange for a piece of the transaction-fee pie.

One such company is Realty Plus Online, a Sacramento, California, firm that has developed software to automate and streamline the entire escrow process. Its product, CloseYourDeal.com, allows real estate agents, lenders, title companies, appraisers, and even home inspectors to coцrdinate and monitor their activities online. The service is free to real estate agents, buyers, and sellers; Realty Plus generates revenue by charging title companies, lenders, and appraisers a fee for each closed deal. In May, the company announced the first successful closing using the CloseYourDeal.com platform.

But while CloseYourDeal.com and its competitors -- including ezClose.com, iProperty.com, and RealEC -- all promise to automate the actual transaction, it's the ability to provide consumers with free, broad, real-time information and imagery that is truly transforming the residential real estate marketplace.

Today Internet-enabled consumers have instant access to home listings, interactive maps, and community statistics from the many portal-sponsored real estate sites, as well as from more comprehensive home owners' sites such as Homestore.com and Move.com. Soon these same consumers will be able to tour a home online, thanks to the 360-degree panoramic viewing technology developed by Internet Pictures (iPix) and others (see "Profile"). And when it comes time to consider financing, E-Loan, iOwn.com, iLoan.com, and a host of other sites will gladly provide objective mortgage-lender comparisons, online loan applications, and almost instantaneous lender responses.

But what does all this mean for the agent? Traditional real estate agents have effectively had their hands forced: either use the Web to perform faster, cheaper, and more effectively, or suffer an ignominious demise at the hands of those who do.

No one understands this better than Scott Kucirek, president and cofounder of Ziprealty.com, an online real estate brokerage that is able to offer its customers cash rebates thanks to the efficiencies of the Internet. Still, Mr. Kucirek remains steadfast in his support of the agent's role. As he says, "For most people, the home purchase will be the largest single transaction of their lives. Thus, they will always seek advice and counsel from an expert in the field."

There is no doubt that the Internet will forever change the agent's role, concedes Joel Singer, executive vice president of the California Association of Realtors. Mr. Singer notes that traditional realtors are now seeing a new kind of consumer, one better educated by the Internet. Still, he says, "The very nature of the transaction -- high value, infrequent and significant differentiation in the product -- necessitates the use of a realtor."

There is little reason to believe that local realtors will go the way of the dinosaur. But all evidence points to a new type of agent, a more efficient practitioner, forced by the Internet to provide consumers with greater value at a reduced fee.