Shares of large Internet companies together with Yahoo Inc. felt under pressure amid concerns about its advertising exposure to the softening real-estate market.

An RBC Capital Markets research report on the topic seemed to dampen on any upside gain Yahoo had hoped to achieve from announcing its social-networking feature, called del.icio.us, has tripled its audience size to more than 1 million during the past nine months.

Despite a market slowdown and repeated attempts by Internet-only companies to wrest business away, real estate industry still has a firm hold on home sellers and buyers in the United States.

In the September 2006 survey of consumers, the Discover Small Business Watch found that traditional real estate agents did well with home buyers, and exceedingly well with home sellers.  The survey shows that people selling their homes see much more value in having personal help when seeking buyers. Sixty-one percent of home sellers said they would prefer the services of an agent versus only 4 percent who said they would prefer an online service to help sell their homes.

DEARBORN -- Ford Motor Co. is outsourcing part of its Ford Land division operations and plans to close 60 Ford Credit branch offices and eliminate some 1,500 Ford Credit jobs as part of its ongoing North American restructuring effort.

The automaker is negotiating with the Trammell Crow Co. to take over some aspects of Ford Land's operations, including construction and maintenance. The details of that agreement are still not final, but Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans confirmed Monday that Ford has been in talks with the global real estate management company since June.

NEW YORK- American tennis star Andre Agassi, who retired from center court earlier this month, has wasted no time in building a new career -- in real estate.

A company set up by Agassi and his wife Steffi Graf, a former world No. 1 tennis player, said on Monday it had partnered with privately owned Exclusive Resorts LLC, a time-share company headed by AOL co-founder Steve Case to develop "luxury resort communities."

A leading international investment firm, Arcapita headquartered in Bahrain, announced it has sold its interest in two assisted living real estate portfolios in the United States to Sunrise REIT, a Canadian listed trust, for a transaction value of approximately USD525 million.

The two portfolios, consisting of assisted living properties located across the United States, were acquired by Arcapita and its co-investors, alongside Sunrise Senior Living, in 2002. Assisted living facilities are aimed at providing a residential environment for individuals who need assistance with activities of daily living such as eating and laundry, but who wish to live as independently as possible.

In England, sales are most evident in the southern regions, with 24% of agents reporting landlords exiting the market in the Eastern region and London, while in the South East the figure was 22%.

Of the 15% of agents reporting that landlords are changing existing properties to overcome rules on HMOs, many have reported landlords are no longer letting property to more than three tenants. Students have been the most affected group, identified by 42% of agents in most regions of the country. However, in the Eastern region migrants were the hardest hit group.