Neighborhood data powers home-search site

FindaHome.com seeks to build broker network

Thursday, March 29, 2007

By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Inman News

FindaHome.com is a site for home buyers who are seeking a low-crime, predominantly white and Republican neighborhood where Portuguese is spoken, there are a bunch of well-educated young couples who make lots of money, and there is a nearby Montessori private school, Safeway grocery store, Peet's coffee shop and Thai restaurant.

It's also a site for people who want to live in a bay-side neighborhood with average rainfall and plenty of golf courses, condos and health clubs, or a sunny, ethnically diverse place with a plethora of parks and playgrounds, churches and veterinarians.

You get the point. FindaHome.com mixes a monumental amount of data into its neighborhood-search platform, which is integrated with mapping tools, color-coded overlays and data charts to provide a very broad range of customized search options. Site users can also search among for-sale properties, and the site's creators are planning to build an international network of subscribing brokers to populate the site with more property information. The site's beta version includes a limited sampling of property listings.

Real estate-related mapping technologies on the Internet have evolved well beyond simple house-shaped "pushpin" icons and driving directions to help users visualize complex sets of data and learn more about neighborhood areas.

Scott Tatro, the co-founder of the site, is no stranger to mapping technology -- he is a licensee and a sublicensor of a patented mapping technology that is the subject of a patent infringement lawsuit, and he is also named in a countersuit that charges he participated in a racketeering scheme with officials at a company that is selling licenses to the technology. He denies this charge, and both cases are ongoing.

The stakes in those lawsuits are high, as the integration of property search with mapping is now ubiquitous in the real estate industry and the National Association of Realtors has lent its financial support to the legal defense of a Pennsylvania Realtor who is charged with patent infringement in the case.

HomePages.com, PropertyShark.com and HotPads.com are among the other examples of property-search sites that offer rich neighborhood data, and the FindaHome.com search platform uses technology that was licensed from another company, NeighborhoodMatch Inc. NeighborhoodScout.com, Neighboroo.com and ZipCodeStats.com are among the other sites with detailed neighborhood information. Such sites draw heavily from publicly available U.S. Census statistics.

Tatro said the company is seeking subscriptions from one broker in each multiple listing service area across the country so that subscribing brokers can upload property information from their local MLSs to the site. The subscription fee is $199 per month, which includes a guarantee that leads generated through the site "will be sufficient to make the membership profitable within the first 90 days."

He is also marketing the FindaHome.com site as a solution for brokers to avoid possible legal penalties that could result from patent-infringement lawsuits. There is no guarantee that the patent's licensors will prevail in the case or that all brokers will be found liable -- the patent's backers are seeking class-action status for the case though the agent's lawyers are opposing class-action status. Mark Tornetta, the inventor of the patented technology, had filed lawsuits against Microsoft Corp and Moore USA in 1998 charging that the companies' HomeAdvisor and cyberhomes.com infringed on his patents, though those lawsuits were later dropped.

Envirian, a real estate brokerage company, and LendingTree, which operates the RealEstate.com Web site and brokerage company, are among the companies that have paid for licensing rights to the technology.

Real Estate Alliance Ltd., a Pennsylvania company that is licensing the patented mapping technology, "will never be able to sell a license to or collect a dime in settlement form any of the brokers that are selected as part of our network," Tatro explained, as his own company has "the buying power and license rights to provide those licenses to the broker" as a sublicensor of the technology.

"The FindaHome.com team has committed to leverage its sublicensing agreement rights to indemnify its broker members so that they never have to worry about any form of infringement, past, present or future. We are also including terms in our agreement that states that if the patent holders eventually win their case and the broker/member has liability, then we will pay for their license at our cost."

The brokers who subscribe to FindaHome.com will be able to place a version of the site's property and neighborhood search engine on their own Web sites, and to share the neighborhood mapping technology, minus the property-search capability, with other Web sites. Participating brokers can generate leads from their own Web site's version of the search tools and from the FindaHome.com site.

Some of the search functions available at the main site will not be available on the brokers' version, he said, such as features that display ethnicity information for a given area. It is illegal under fair-housing laws, for example, for real estate agents to steer clients to certain neighborhood areas based on ethnicity. "We are pulling out several of those more questionable criteria from the (brokers') version," Tatro said.

Coldwell Banker goes virtual with property sales

Company sets up shop in Second Life online world

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Inman News

Coldwell Banker has put up a shingle in the Second Life digital frontier, and is among the first real-world real estate companies to sell virtual homes in cyberspace.

Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual world with its own currency, Linden dollars, that can be purchased for real money.

There are about 5 million registered Second Life users, or "residents," and about 1.7 million of them are more active users who have participated in the virtual world -- or "metaverse" -- within the past 60 days. Residents are represented by customized characters called avatars. (See Inman News report.)

"It's the real wild, wild West," said Charlie Young, senior vice president of marketing for Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corp., which has about 3,800 affiliated real estate offices and 124,000 sales associates in 31 countries.

Second Life is dominated by a small group of land barons who dominate the real estate market, Young said, and the company saw an opportunity to participate in the online world while marketing its real-world services in a new venue. "Second Life consumers were being taken advantage of in some regard, in terms of price-gouging," Young said.

Similarly, Young noted, Coldwell Banker got its start 101 years ago when its original founder, Colbert Coldwell, set up shop in post-earthquake San Francisco in an effort to professionalize the real estate industry in a time of rampant corruption.

So Coldwell Banker three months ago began to buy up some virtual land in Second Life and paid a third-party virtual architect for some home designs. And voila -- the company launched its virtual realty business Friday.

David Marine, Coldwell Banker's senior manager of eMarketing, said it's not uncommon for homes to sell in Second Life for about $60 in U.S. dollars, and for landowners to sell parcels in groups rather than individually. "The average resident who wants to buy one piece of land is kind of at a loss," Marine said. Coldwell Banker is pricing its properties for about $20 in U.S. dollars, he added.

Perhaps, said Young, the company will develop a working "code of ethics" for the virtual world.

The company staffs a sales office in Second Life with live agent avatars who can schedule appointments for users to view properties and can answer questions and offer information about the company's real-world services. The office is open for business from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Young said these in-world agents are essentially customer-service professionals, not licensed real estate agents. And they don't receive commissions for virtual sales -- they are paid a regular salary, he said.

"We're not in this to make money off virtual real estate transactions," he said. Instead, the company is hoping to build brand recognition with an ultra-tech-savvy audience. "The brand has been looking for avenues to start connecting to the younger consumer, the new consumer," he said.

"Our first and primary objective is all about making a connection from a brand perspective," Young said, and the company has worked to integrate its virtual presence with its real service offerings.

The company's virtual presence in Second Life allows users to jump to real-world tools to search for the company's for-sale properties and agents and find estimated home values, for example. A virtual golden retriever -- the mascot for the Coldwell Banker system -- sits at the entryway to the company's Second Life office and can lead visitors to sample the company's services.

In the digital world, the company has an inventory of about 500 homes that it will sell or rent, and also has plans to sell vacant land for users to build custom homes. The common areas in these developments feature corporate branding, as do the yard signs in front of the available homes. Coldwell Banker also advertises its brand and properties elsewhere within the Second Life space.

Just as advertisers gradually crawled, walked and then flocked to the Web, Second Life is evolving as a destination for corporations and corporate advertising -- though that has stirred a backlash from some users. "We expect there are going to be two camps," Young said.

"We expect the average Second Life everyday citizen is going to be very accepting. We're not just advertising -- we're participating in their experience. We know that land barons who are pretty influential members of the community are going to be not so happy with us. We are going to be there as long as members of Second Life wants us to be," he said.

Other companies have set up shop at Second Life, too. Cisco Systems announced in December the launch of its Second Life presence to showcase products, display the design for a company-branded future baseball stadium, and to host events. Microsoft Corp. has its own island in Second Life.

It's not yet clear, Young said, whether Coldwell Banker will enter the commercial virtual real estate business within Second Life and whether the company will participate in brokering resale properties. Also, he said, it's possible that real-world Coldwell Banker sales associates may want to try their hand at virtually representing Second Life clients.

"This is an experimental lab for us. We don't know where it's going to take us," Young said. "We will learn things about how the Internet works. Things about Second Life could drive the Internet experience in the future outside of Second Life."

Buyers of Coldwell Banker virtual homes have assurances that their neighbors won't be able to super-size their homes to block out virtual views -- homeowners can decorate inside but won't be able to change the outside of their homes. Also, there are restrictions against commercial developments in Coldwell Banker's subdivisions -- so no next-door rock concerts or disco clubs.

The company is attempting to bring some order to a sometimes chaotic land. "There is certainly no urban planning," Young said. Meanwhile, Coldwell Banker offers "well laid-out, well-planned communities. They all have houses built on them -- they all have roads and infrastructure within those communities." As a bonus, the company is throwing in free virtual furniture for home buyers.

Just as in the real world, Coldwell Banker wants to know more about its clients and prospective customers in Second Life. "We have an extremely detailed reporting mechanism," Young said, so there is a record of any avatar who steps into the office. The company plans to keep track of its virtual transactions, too.

On Monday the company recorded its first virtual-home sale, and Young said the company expects that its initial inventory may be sold or rented within six weeks "if all goes well."

Young said the company's virtual presence could be used as a forum for company agents and officials to hold meetings and interact, and the company's Second Life office includes an amphitheater with seating for about 50 avatars. "We are looking at the virtual aspect of communication that Second Life could bring," Young said.

Point2 goes public with Web site usage information; Company provides real-time data on Web traffic, member stats

Point2 goes public with Web site usage information

Monday, March 26, 2007

Inman News

Point2, a technology company that offers online tools for real estate professionals including a National Listing Service that allows members to manage the marketing of other property listings, has opened its user statistics to the world.

The company today announced the public availability of several company statistics, including membership, listings, incoming prospects and unique visitors at the site, and also announced a branding initiative that incorporates several products under the Point2 National Listing Service name.

As of this morning, the Point2 NLS was growing at a rate of 179 members per day and 979 listings per day, and attracted 3,906 prospects per day and 67,981 unique visitors per day, according to the new "Realtime Statistics" page at the site.

"One of the things we're trying to do is strive for transparency," said Brendan King, chief operating officer of Point2 Technologies. "We're trying to get really, really transparent about everything we do to build trust."

While members of the site already have access to reporting tools specific to their own property listings and traffic at the NLS site, King said that hopefully the statistics will encourage other real estate professionals to participate in the system.

Besides membership and visitor statistics, the company is providing such technical information as page-load time at the site and outstanding customer-service issues and resolution time, including the number of customer-service issues closed per day and the busiest category for customer-service issues.

The Point2 NLS had 15.5 million page views in the past 30 days, 2.9 million unique visitors, and 5.9 million views of detail pages for property listings. Also, the site reported 117,899 total members, 494,796 listings, and 3.2 million total photos at the site.

Licensed real estate professionals can be members of the Point2 NLS, and Point2 operates a public property-search site at Point2Homes.com.

As for the branding initiative, Point2 announced that its Point2 Broker, Point2 Agent, Point2 Builder and Point2 PropMan services will be re-branded as Point2 NLS for brokers, agents, builders and property managers, while the Point2 Homes will maintain its separate identity.

US Condo Exchange Continues Global Expansion - Hires New Chief Marketing Officer

USCondex the world's first and largest online condo marketplace, today announced the appointment of Xavior Miller as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Mr. Miller will be responsible for company marketing, eCommerce, and branding initiatives.

Miami, Florida (PRWEB) March 26, 2007 -- USCondex the world's first and largest online condo marketplace, today announced the appointment of Xavior Miller as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Mr. Miller will be responsible for company marketing, eCommerce, and branding initiatives.

"Mr. Miller brings over 12 years of branding, product development, and interactive marketing experience to our company," says Richard Swerdlow, CEO at USCondex. "His previous work with major global brands including; Travelocity, American Express, and Crystal Cruises will allow him to create innovative marketing solutions for USCondex."

Over the last 12 years, Mr. Miller has had notable success in several industries, including online travel, entertainment and retail. He was most recently at RazorGator, a Kleiner Perkins company, where he led the eCommerce operations and was key in preparing the company's online business for which they received Series A funding.

Prior to Razorgator, Mr. Miller assisted in the growth of Travelocity, American Express Travel, Crystal Cruises, Navigant International and a company he founded in 1994 XStreamSolutions.net.

"I am excited to join a talented and passionate team of experts at USCondex," Says Mr. Miller. "Like many of my previous ventures, this company is poised to revolutionize their industry and I am here to contribute my expertise to help make that happen."

For more information please contact Adam Kujacznski at 305.476.2075

US Condo Exchange, LLC (www.uscondex.com) is a global leader in the online condominium marketplace, with over 300,000 listings spanning 40 countries valued at over $100B. USCondex is based in Miami, FL, and was founded by CEO Richard Swerdlow and James Haft, managing director of Pacific Alliance Limited, LLC, a New York-based investment bank, in 2006