Newsroom

Listings portal gets $5 million in funding

Inman News

Edgeio, a service for online classified listings that launched this year, has raised $5 million in financing led by Intel Capital, the company announced last week.

Since launching in March 2006, edgeio says it has amassed more than 100 million listings from 14,000 cities across the globe. The listings aggregator collects Web listings in various categories, including homes, jobs and cars, and also sends traffic back to the original publishers.

Edgeio constantly monitors RSS-enabled Web sites and pulls any item tagged "listing" and publishes the listing on the edgeio Web site and network. RSS, which stands for "Really Simple Syndication," is an XML-based protocol that allows for the automatic distribution of Internet content. Many news-related sites, blogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS feed.

A Realtor, for instance, could go to edgeio.com and enter some of his or her for-sale home listings, or the Realtor could enable an RSS feed from his or her Web site or blog where listings appear and edgeio will automatically pick them up.

The Silicon Valley, Calif., company was co-founded by Keith Teare, who formerly worked with EasyNet and RealNames, and Michael Arrington, who works as a business and marketing consultant and writes the technology blog TechCrunch.

The first round of financing also included an investment from Transcosmos Investments and Business Development Inc., a Japanese public company with a Silicon Valley investment arm focused on Internet-based U.S. technology companies expanding into the Japanese marketplace.

Edgeio says it has more than 3,000 publishers – including key players in the jobs, autos, real estate and leisure sectors -- who upload their listings via its edgedirect service. Many bloggers are publishing listings to their blogs and having them automatically entered into edgeio via the "listing tag," the company said in an announcement.

In addition, edgeio has become a distribution channel for sites offering to distribute listings, such as vFlyer, Postlets and the Point2 network.

Edgeio also announced today the launch of a Chinese language version of its Web site, named mulu100.com, which in Chinese means, "catalog of catalogs." The Chinese service has initially formed a partnership with edeng.cn, a China-based listings site that is similar to craigslist.org.

"Chinese listings began to appear on edgeio within a few days of us launching," Teare said in a statement. "We decided that the Chinese market would be our first localized site and we now have a significant number of listings from all over the country."

Edgeio has filed for patents covering its distributed marketplaces architecture and many of the Web site's features.

Down To Earth

Point2 announces real estate agent directory

Inman News

Point2 Technoligies Inc. has introduced a real estate agent directory that is sorted by cities and neighborhoods and associated with property listings. The new tool is integrated with the real estate tech company's property-search portal.

The new tool allows consumers in 82 countries to locate and review agents in their area, according to a company announcement.

"Consumers are now able to search for agents by cities and neighborhoods they are interested in. This type of national search doesn't exist anywhere else today," said Brendan King, chief operating officer for Point2 Technologies, in a statement. The agent directory only displays agents who "have actually listed, sold listings or are local experts," according to the announcement.

The company also announced that its Point2Homes.com search site now allows users to view the number of listings their property search criteria will return before they submit the terms to the search engine.

Traffic on Point2Homes.com draws an average 600,000 to 800,000 unique visitors each month, the company announced.

An estimated 500 to 800 new listings are added to that site each day, the company announced. Listings at the site are aggregated from the company's own technology platforms and are not drawn from the MLS or scraped from third-party sites, the company noted. The company's listings are also distributed to such sites as Google Base, Yahoo! Classifieds, Trulia, Oodle, LiveDeal, Propsmart and Edgeio, among others.

Point2 Technologies Launches Breakthrough Global Real Estate Agent Directory

Saskatoon, SK and Vancouver, BC – October 23, 2006 – Point2 Technologies Inc. (“Point2”) today introduced Point2 Agent Directory, the real estate industry’s first agent index sorted by neighborhoods and associated with listings.

Integrated into Point2’s consumer real estate search portal, Point2Homes.com, the global directory is part of a major push by Point2 to maximize online exposure for its real estate software platform subscribers and improve the online search experience for consumers.

The undertaking taps extensive Point2 proprietary data, neighborhood directory and international user base to enable consumers in 82 countries to locate and review agents in their area.

“The Point2 Agent Directory is truly one of a kind. Consumers are now able to search for agents by cities and neighborhoods they are interested in. This type of national search doesn’t exist anywhere else today,” says Brendan King, chief operating officer, Point2 Technologies. “Further, Point2’s proprietary algorithm only displays Agents and Brokers that list or sell homes, and therefore bring true expertise in those neighborhoods. In short, this is the most useful directory of real estate professionals ever compiled.”

An agent’s reputation and their knowledge of the local area are the top two most important factors that sellers consider in choosing an agent, according to the National Association of Realtors®’ 2005 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report.

“We believe that the Point2 Agent Directory is the only index truly useful to consumers, because agents in the respective neighborhoods have actually listed, sold listings or are local experts,” added King. “While home buyers consider responsiveness the most important factor in selecting an agent, the Point2 local neighborhood expert directory also gives home sellers an edge they can tap right on Point2Homes.com.”

Recent upgrades to Point2Homes.com also include easier, faster property search. Visitors to the site can now view the number of listings their property search criteria will return, before they submit the terms to the search engine, saving them time and unnecessary frustration.
 
Traffic on Point2Homes.com increased ten fold in September 2006, compared to a year ago. The site today averages between 600,000 and 800,000 unique visitors each month.

The number of real estate properties featured on Point2Homes.com also continues to increase at a rapid pace. Between 500 and 800 new listings are added to the site each day, reflecting 100 to 200 new daily subscribers to the Point2 real estate lead management and online marketing platform.

Listings featured on Point2Homes.com are aggregated from all Point2 platforms including Point2 Broker, Point2 Agent and Point2 Builder, and are not drawn from the MLS® or scraped from third party sites. In North America, the listings are syndicated to popular third party real estate consumer search sites, including Google Base, Yahoo! Classifieds, Trulia, Oodle, LiveDeal, Propsmart and Edgeio, among others.

About Point2 Technologies Inc.

Point2 Technologies provides online marketing and eBusiness software solutions for the real estate and heavy equipment industries. Leveraging Point2 proprietary and patented technology, Point2 develops and markets software solutions that enable organizations to conduct business over the Internet more easily and more profitably.

Founded in 1996, Point2 Technologies is privately held and employs a staff of 90 at its headquarters in Saskatoon, SK and its Vancouver, BC offices. More information can be obtained at www.Point2.com.

Point2® is a trademark of Point2 Technologies Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Selling Your Home? Make It Stand Out

Toledo Blade

Ask someone in the real estate industry how business has been lately and they're likely to tell you it has slowed down compared to last year. With mortgage rates rising, fewer people are in a hurry to move, and houses are staying on the market longer.

As a result of the increase in inventory, sellers are losing their ability to get top dollar. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says pending home sales are already showing signs of leveling out, indicating the housing market is entering a period of stabilization. Existing home sales are projected to drop 6 percent to 6.65 million this year from a record of 7.08 million in 2005.

But if you have to sell anyway because of a move, job relocation or for some other reason, there are steps you can take to make your property stand out from the rest.

Mark Fortune is a Re/Max Realtor whose territory covers most of Southern California. He says first impressions are critical. "When you walk up the driveway with a potential buyer, they want to see pride of ownership. If they don't feel good about the looks on the outside, they'll find flaws on the inside too. It's critical that your home have curb appeal if you want it to sell," he says.

That means trimming the trees, resurfacing the driveway, keeping the lawn mowed and the plants well manicured. Whatever it takes to make it look nicer than the neighboring homes on your street.

Inside, Fortune recommends sellers paint any rooms that need it, replace broken tiles and dirty carpet and remove the clutter. "You want a potential buyer to feel like they can just move in and take up residence. Not like they'll have to do a lot of work to get the home up to their standards," says Fortune.

Once you're ready to list your home, seek out an agent who is up on the latest trends. "Agents used to just put a sign out front, take out an ad in the local paper and wait for people to come. But the real estate industry has evolved a lot in the past few years and the old ways of doing things no longer suffice," says Brendan King, chief operating officer at Point2 Technologies, a software technology company specializing in online marketing tools for real estate professionals. "Online is where people are beginning their search for their new home, and they're going to a number of different sites for this information. If you want your home to sell, your listing needs to show up on as many sites as possible."

"I've had people call me up from half way across the world to make appointments to see houses they found online. Multiple photos and solid exposure on the Internet really do a good job of helping sell the property," says Fortune.