Revolutionary ideas have always been the mark of humanity. It is what made us superior to animals and proves that we are the dominant species on this planet. Invention and innovation made life easier but more complicated. As ironic as it may seem, technology is making each generation culturally different.

There’s an old adage about not reinventing the wheel. Pretty much implying that some inventions are perfect just the way they are. MLM and MLS are two attempts to “Reinvent the Wheel” Is technology allowing drastic changes within the marketing and real estate industry finally possible?

It is interesting to see how many internet millionaires make their money from MLM programs. I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t personally used some sort of viral, reseller or MLM solution to make their first million in cyberspace.

Scalability is usually not a problem for an Internet business, especially for a service-oriented company. Brick and mortar stores take time to build a larger facility, table space limitations for restaurants, shelf space for boutiques; garage space is even needed for a break-up shop to expand operations. Cyberspace, however, web pages can be added to a site taking up very little space. Hosting companies may be limited on hard drive space, but it’s very cheap to add more. Changing the hosting company does not change the market either. The adage location, location, location does not apply to an Internet business.

Search engine position and exposure is the game that location once was. The higher you rank in the search engines, the more traffic your business “location” will get. However, traditional MLM has changed this approach. Getting people to market your product and getting more and more of these distributors based on a nested commission approach also took a very drastic turn by turning the location into an “I’m everywhere” business. Starbucks can succeed in this approach by using bricks and mortar. But who hasn’t been approached by a friend or relative with an MLM business at one point or another? Avon built a successful brand using nothing more than a network of independent distributors. Although MLM is not an approach for everyone, no matter what your friendly Amway distributor says, but there is no denying that it has generated millions of dollars for people all over the world.

Real Estate MLS is another way to reinvent the wheel by creating a centralized database for buyers and sellers to come together, which is the complete opposite of the MLM approach. Created a driving place for business to happen. As a child, I always wondered why stores selling the same merchandise would come together and compete with each other on every sale. Then one day I realized the answer as a consumer. If I wanted a computer peripheral, I go to a place where there are a lot of computer stores. If I want to buy clothes, I go to a shopping center where there are many options. Malls, Sotheby’s, Wal-Mart, amazon.com and e-bay have created a one stop shop where people go and buy. A centralized database is cheaper and offers the consumer more choice. The flat fee MLS in the real estate industry has probably saved millions of sellers in the US millions of dollars in advertising and commissions, providing qualified buyers using the power of a real estate agent and paying much less.

Is it possible to unite these two theorems, wildly different approaches to reaching the consumer, two attempts to reinvent the wheel of any business? www.4thishouse.com will certainly try. It will try to achieve a centralized and fully automated nationwide real estate service that sells using MLM. Now it is possible for anyone with a website to earn through the real estate industry without being a licensed real estate agent. Someone said that this is a drastic attempt to reinvent the wheel. 4thishouse.com’s answer is simple. We just added revolutionary new tires, rubber and grooves that have already been proven to work and put them together.

Time will tell if this will work. The affiliate links are certainly putting the www.4thishouse.com site at the top. I guess it goes back to location, location, location one more time. This time around, the new wheel is powered by cool 18-inch shiny chrome wheels and lab-tested grooves and rubbers.