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Point2 Technologies Presents at the Real Trends 2007 Symposium on the Housing Consumer

Who:    Point2 Technologies Inc.
What:    Brendan King, Point2 Technologies chief operating officer will join a panel of experts to discuss “Innovative Ways to Reach Consumers,” at the Real Trends 2007 Symposium on the Housing Consumer, in Denver, CO. Point2’s presentation will discuss evolving consumer trends and expectations online, and will address the most effective ways real estate professionals can reach consumers through the use of advanced predictive marketing and web-based automated communications and lead management technologies.

For more information about Predictive Marketing and Point2 NLS (National Listing Service), visit www.Point2NLS.com.
When:    Friday September 28, 2007, at 8:30 AM.
Where:    2007 Symposium on the Housing Consumer
The Westin Tabor Center - Downtown Denver, Colorado

About Real Trends

REAL Trends, Inc. is a publishing and communications company considered to be a leading source of analysis and information on the residential brokerage industry. REAL Trends is based in Denver, Colorado.
With 19 years of continual growth, REAL Trends continues to provide real estate professionals with new and innovative resources on the latest industry trends and strategies into the future.

Real Trends’ Symposium on the Housing Consumer is the only conference in the real estate industry that is focused on examining how real estate professionals can profit through understanding the housing consumer. The Symposium focuses on three areas:
•    What segments of the housing market have the best opportunity for growth?
•    How to find and reach consumers with your marketing and messages?
•    How can a real estate professional create new profit from these segments?
•    The tactics and techniques for growing your business in a profitable manner.

About Point2 Technologies

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. The Company is the largest provider of online marketing and lead management software

for real estate professionals, with over 150,000 brokers and agents subscribing to Point2 NLS, in 85 countries. Membership in Point2 NLS continues to grow by over 1000 additional members each week. Point2 is also one of the largest providers of e-commerce solutions to the heavy equipment industry, powers Caterpillar Inc.’s global heavy equipment dealer network and owns and operates UsedIron.com, one of the largest used equipment venues online.

Founded in 1996, Point2 Technologies is privately held and employs a staff of 100 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.

CONTACT: Point2 Technologies
Roger Noujeim, 1-888-955-7900
rnoujeim@point2.com

INMAN News Names Point2 Technologies Chief Operating Officer to 'Most Influential Leaders' List

Saskatoon, SK and Vancouver, BC – September 26, 2007 – Point2 Technologies Inc. (“Point2”) Chief Operating Officer, Brendan King has been named to the INMAN News Top 100 Most Influential Leaders in Real Estate: 2007 Report, the Company announced today.

The annual special report compiles a list of the top 100 most influential people in real estate, as well as outside figures whose actions influence the home buying and selling business. The executives on the list embrace leadership, innovation, ingenuity, power and persistence.

King is listed in the Technology and Online Real Estate category, which highlights individuals who have made contributions and continue to lead in the areas of technology and the Internet with an online business platform or technology system that has changed the way industry professionals conduct business.

“On behalf of all staff at Point2, without whom industry-changing innovations such as Point2 NLS would have never happened, I’d like to thank INMAN News for its continuous leadership, and for its confidence in Point2’s contributions to the industry,” added King. “I would also like to take this opportunity to re-assert Point2’s relentless commitment to the rapid and visionary development of online marketing technologies focused single mindedly on helping to support and advance the value of organized real estate and the real estate profession.”

The report cites Point2 National Listing Service (Point2 NLS) as one of the company’s key accomplishments in 2007.

The free service was introduced under King’s leadership and breaks traditional MLS geographic listing marketing boundaries that for years have limited real estate professionals’ ability to effectively market listings beyond their local MLS jurisdictions, by now enabling them to automatically cooperate to advertise properties in 85 countries with a  single push of a button, and for free. More information can be obtained at www.Point2NLS.com.

The full INMAN News report can be downloaded at http://www.inman.com/Member/specialreports/leaders07/100_most_influential.pdf.  

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. The Company is the largest provider of online marketing and lead management software for real estate professionals, with over 150,000 brokers and agents subscribing to Point2 NLS, in 85 countries. Membership in Point2 NLS continues to grow by over 1000 additional members each week. Point2 is also one of the largest providers of e-commerce solutions to the heavy equipment industry, powers Caterpillar Inc.’s global heavy equipment dealer network and owns and operates UsedIron.com, one of the largest used equipment venues online.


Founded in 1996, Point2 Technologies is privately held and employs a staff of 100 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.


Media contact:

Roger Noujeim
Public Relations Director
Point2 Technologies Inc.
Toll Free: 1-888-955-7900 Ext. 224 (U.S. and Canada)
Tel. 1-604-675-9393 Ext. 224
rnoujeim@point2.com

VFlyer lets agents track return on marketing dollar

By Bernice Ross
Inman News

Part 2 of 2: Technology for a better business

Tired of having to go to a separate vendor for your fliers, your Web site marketing and creating unique Web addresses for your listings? If so, VFlyer.com has a solution to make your business soar.

One of the most difficult aspects of Web 1.0 was how complex it was to integrate the various Web solutions an agent or broker needed. For example, you might have your Web site with one provider, your blog residing at a different provider, and your e-mail newsletter at a third provider. Web 2.0 solutions are now integrating these separate functions into a single platform that allows users to easily obtain all of these services in one place.

Last week's article examined how the Point2 Technology platform integrates Web site technology with syndication to multiple Web sites. They also offer a "National Listing Service," a blog, syndication to other agents, and a new technology platform for using Facebook. All of this is available at no charge.

VFlyer.com provides a different solution that addresses many of the same issues. Until now, you would probably use two different suppliers to publish Web listings online vs. marketing in print media. VFlyer integrates these two functions plus doing much more.

When you sign up for a VFlyer account, you have the option of creating a separate Web address, or URL, for each of your listings. Their system does this automatically. Unlike the Point2 system that requires you to upload your listings one by one, the VFlyer program allows its premium users (for a fee) to do bulk uploads.

Like Point2, VFlyer also syndicates to numerous Web sites, including eBay and MySpace, as well as to blogs such as ActiveRain.com. It also allows you to import e-mail addresses so you can send the digital version of your flier to the appropriate members of your database.

To use this function, it's smart to set up subgroups in whatever system you use for e-mail. Many agents and brokers use Microsoft Outlook. You can set up a "new group" in Outlook and then simply click on the names of the members you wish to include. Consequently, you could have one client who may appear in three different groups. For example, one person could belong to your past client group, your current investors, as well as your second-home database. Setting up subgroups is a smart way to niche market your services.

VFlyer also allows you to create a PDF of your flier and print hard copies of your brochure. Using a "widget" (a piece of HTML code) you can add your flier to your Web site or blog. The VFlyer SMS service ("Short Message Service" -- the technology that allows your mobile phone to display text messages, Web sites, pictures, animations, and songs) also allows you to create flyers that can be displayed on mobile phones.

In addition, VFlyer has a simple program that allows you to add graphics to your brochures. In the past, it required a fair amount of expertise to add a "Just Listed" banner to your online brochure. This function is now as easy as "point and click."

Perhaps the most important function that both Point2 and VFlyer provide, however, is the ability to track results. For years, most agents and brokers have marketed without tracking the return on their marketing dollar. Given the shift in today's market, it's important to make every marketing dollar count. Each of these providers allows you to see how many unique visitors your Web marketing program is generating. This is an extremely important tool in terms of obtaining more correctly priced listings. For example, if you're competing with two other agents for a listing, show the sellers how many hits your marketing has generated from Yahoo! Classifieds, Trulia, craigslist, etc. You can bet that most other agents will be unable to provide that data.

This is also important in terms of helping sellers achieve maximum exposure to the marketplace -- and maximum price. When you go on a listing appointment, sellers want to know how you will market their home. An easy response is to say, "Your home will be marketed on more than 30 different Web sites." Twenty of these come from loading the property into Point2. You can also prepare you "VFlyer" and show them how both the print and online versions of their listing will appear. Ask for feedback as well as what changes they would make. When they start telling you how to change the flier, the listing is yours.

100 most influential real estate leaders

 Inman News

Inman News has compiled a list of the 100 most influential people in real estate in 2007, reflecting the industry's best and brightest, as well as outside figures whose actions influence the home buying and selling business. The people on this list embrace leadership, innovation, ingenuity, power and persistence.

CLICK HERE to download the 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders: 2007 [PDF]

Point2 Technologies Executive Role

Saskatoon, SK and Vancouver, BC – September 20, 2007 – Point2 Technologies Inc. (“Point2”) today announced that following the resignation of its former CEO, Wendell Willick last week, his responsibilities have been assumed by Point2’s existing and long time executive leadership team.

“While unfortunate, the events are completely unrelated to the business of Point2 and have no effect on our business,” said Brendan King, Point2 Technologies chief operating officer. “Our focus remains completely on our customers and on driving breakthrough technologies that set consistently set new benchmarks and position our customers to dominate their field.”

Mr. Willick had a hands off approach to the day to day operations of the business, with the heavy equipment and real estate business division leaders driving the vision, decisions and operations of the respective businesses.

Willick resigned amidst personal legal charges unrelated to the business of Point2.

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. The Company is the largest provider of online marketing and lead management software for real estate professionals, with over 150,000 brokers and agents subscribing to Point2 NLS, in 85 countries. Membership in Point2 NLS continues to grow by over 1000 additional members each week. Point2 is also one of the largest providers of e-commerce solutions to the heavy equipment industry, powers Caterpillar Inc.’s global heavy equipment dealer network and owns and operates UsedIron.com, one of the largest used equipment venues online.

Founded in 1996, Point2 Technologies is privately held and employs a staff of 100 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.

Roger Noujeim
Director of Public Relations
Point2 Technologies Inc.
T. 604-675-9393 Ext. 224
C. 415-248-6335
E.rnoujeim@point2.com

Or, if unavailable:

Jason Golding
Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel
Point2 Technologies Inc.
T. 306-955-7900
C. 306-241-0069

Opportunity knocks online for Realtors

By Bernice Ross
Inman News

Part 1 of 2: Technology for a better business

Consolidation is one of the key trends occurring in the real estate industry today. Are you ready to capitalize on this trend in your business?

Will there be a single multiple listing service for the entire country? While there has been a heated discussion about this topic, few people have noted the parallel consolidation of the vendor services that agents and brokers use. Integrated, single platforms of services are rapidly replacing the piecemeal approach that required agents and brokers to go to multiple vendors to obtain the services they need. What's even more surprising is that many of these new platforms are available at no charge.

I recently conducted a new-agent training class and wanted to illustrate to the class how easy it is to set up a Web site. Several years ago, you would have invested several thousand dollars to have a quality Web site. Today, agents can create a Web site in just a few minutes and have an amazing array of services available from that site, all at no charge. Before you say, "I already have a Web site," remember that searching the Web is akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. The more places that you and your listings appear the more likely you will be to generate and convert leads.

Sadly, most agent and broker Web sites lack landing pages. The reason to have a landing page is to motivate leads to give you their contact information. The strategy works by offering your Web visitor a free report or some other offer of service such as a complimentary CMA. Since your Web visitor must supply a valid e-mail address to receive the information, you are now engaging in "give-to-get marketing." In other words, you offer a service and then allow your Web visitors to determine whether they want the service. In exchange, you obtain their contact information.

An important part of your strategy in working with a landing page is to offer additional services each time someone requests information. For example, if a buyer clicks through from your report, "How to Save Money on Your Mortgage," you could follow up with "Five Inspection Tips Most Buyers Miss." The idea is to continue to offer services until your Web visitors decide to work with you.

The challenge for agents and brokers alike is that doing this process manually takes a great deal of time. New integrated technology solutions now allow you to do this quickly and easily. For example, when you sign up for one of the Point2Agent Web sites, you can create a Web site that is packed with landing pages, all of which offer services to your client. Once Web visitors click on a report, the system automatically sends it to them and then adds the data to your contact manager.

Point2's technology does much more. Once you post a listing on your Point2 site, it is syndicated to more than 20 different Web sites, including Yahoo! Classifieds, craigslist, Google, Oodle, Trulia, Live Deal and PropertySmart. You can also elect through their "Handshake" program to syndicate to any of the other 140,000-plus agents who are already in their system. Their "NLS," or National Listing Service, allows you to display your listings to the public as well. In addition to these resources, they also have a blogging product included in the package. The most exciting part of this package, however, is their new service that integrates into social networking site Facebook.

Much like MySpace.com, visitors to Facebook can post pictures, videos and other information on their "wall." Social networking sites are similar to a town hall meeting where like-minded people can gather to share information about common interests. Facebook.com is well on the road to becoming more popular than MySpace.com because it allows users to control access to their network. What Point2 has done is to integrate a new application into its current Web site product that posts your listings on Facebook in the appropriate neighborhood. It also allows you to establish yourself as the expert Realtor in the area by answering questions and participating in the Facebook community.

To establish yourself as an expert in today's Web 2.0 environment, follow these three easy steps:

1. Participate in a social networking site that is specific to your geographical location or neighborhood

2. Be a strong resource for community information

3. Post plenty of photos and videos about your location as well as relevant and interesting content.

Taking advantage of Web 2.0 is now easier than ever. If you haven't joined in, now's the time to do so!

Why So Many Want to Create Facebook Applications

By RIVA RICHMOND
September 4, 2007; Wall Street Journal Page B4

Site's Growing Ranks Seen as Potential Source Of Revenue, Customers

Another online gold rush is on. Entrepreneurs are scrambling to create small software programs for Facebook Inc.'s social-networking site and grab footholds in its emerging economy.

Three months ago, the Palo Alto, Calif., company invited software developers to create applications for its site. The response was immediate: Facebook says more than 70,000 developers, from college kids to big-corporation engineers, have signed up for the tools needed to build the free applications.

Meanwhile, Facebook members are energetically embracing the applications. They use them to dress up their profile pages with everything from maps showing what countries they've visited to outfits from a retail site to favorite YouTube videos. They send virtual cocktails and gifts to each other, share reviews of favorite books and movies, and play poker together among myriad other things. So far, Facebook says, there are some 2,000 applications on the site that regularly attract more than 100 users, and quite a few other programs, including the games and reviews, that entertain tens of thousands of devotees daily.

Many of the developers of these applications are entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses while others are expanding existing ones. And the applications, which are inexpensive to create, have the potential to become a large source of revenue and customers for those companies that can successfully mine Facebook's 30-million-strong community. To that end, companies are using a host of business models. Some, for instance, are selling advertising around the applications, while others promote their own products and services on Web pages shown to users of their applications.

"This is a watershed event that is going to affect business and technology for many years," much the way Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system did, says Rodney Rumford, editor and publisher of FaceReviews.com, a Solana Beach, Calif., company that reviews Facebook applications online and provides consulting and application-development services. "It's a tool for people to discover [businesses] in a way they couldn't be discovered before."

Promising Platform

The applications are garnering a big buzz among Web companies and venture capitalists alike. Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture firm Bay Partners has raised $300 million specifically for companies developing Facebook applications and is making $25,000 to $250,000 investments per application. "All Internet companies need a Facebook strategy or a presence on Facebook," says Partner Salil Deshpande, because Facebook usership is growing so quickly.

Indeed, Facebook's monthly visitor numbers doubled to 30.6 million in July from six months earlier, according to measurement firm comScore Networks Inc. That growth has been propelled by a mass movement onto the site since Facebook opened itself to nonuniversity email-address holders.

The Facebook platform is so promising in part because its members use it to connect with people they know -- or want to know -- in the nonvirtual world. Unlike News Corp.'s MySpace and most other social-networking sites, Facebook members aren't anonymous. They use their real names and connect with each other to the degree they choose. Facebook also allows businesses to interact with Facebook users fairly freely, while restricting access to any personal data.

"They make it a safe place for communication and for doing business," says Lee Lorenzen, chief executive of Altura Ventures LLC, a Monterey, Calif., firm that also is funding application creators and has purchased several applications.

"We're certainly pleased with how much it's taken off," say Brandee Barker, a spokeswoman for Facebook. "We already have a thriving ecosystem of businesses built on the Facebook platform."

Getting More Sophisticated

Applications are easy to create. Developers build, test and debug their applications and, when they're done, submit them to Facebook for review and testing. If approved, Facebook simply turns them on.

The first wave of Facebook applications were simple and designed to win over large numbers of people. For instance, more than two million users have been recruited by their friends to put cartoons of ninjas and pirates on their profile pages, thanks to a contest created by a trio of developers.

A sample of a ShopStyle application that was added to a Facebook profile page.

But the new entrepreneurs entering the arena are bringing with them applications that are more sophisticated and can engage users more often and for longer periods of time. To do so, they try to harness the connections that link its members, or what has become known as Facebook's "social graph."

Take "Neighbors," an application launched four weeks ago by Point2 Technologies Inc., a Vancouver-based company that operates a Web-based real-estate listing service called Point2 NLS. The application uses the company's broker-defined neighborhood system to help Facebook members meet other people who live near them and share local information and photos. It also shows properties for sale in the neighborhood from any of Point2's broker and agent members, which the company says number about 140,000 in 86 countries.

"We're trying to help these real-estate professionals connect to the Facebook community," says Brendan King, Point2's chief operating officer.

"My Style," which was created in June by online-shopping site ShopStyle Inc., lets Facebook's fashionistas place on their profile pages pictures of items they like from the retailer's site, such as Oscar de la Renta dresses. Los Altos, Calif.-based ShopStyle.com, which debuted in February, sells brand-name products from about 100 retailers.

"Our aim is getting more people involved in the ShopStyle community," says Andy Moss, the company's founder and CEO. He says ShopStyle.com has gotten 5,000 of the 25,000 members of its own fashion-focused community from Facebook, but it remains unclear whether the application will successfully drive product purchases.

Help Getting Away

One application helps people plan real getaways. SideStep Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif., travel search-engine provider, launched its "Trips" application eight weeks ago to help friends and families organize vacations. The application, which SideStep says has about a quarter million users and cost $10,000 or $20,000 to build, provides a place where groups can set travel dates, create itineraries and post messages to each other.

Less than two weeks ago, SideStep added a search box to its application, which, the company says, now drives 2,000 visits to its site each day -- where people can search for airplane tickets, hotels and rental cars. SideStep plans to enhance the application and, eventually, show some targeted ads.

Another popular application, "Visual Bookshelf," helps Facebook members find new books to read by getting recommendations and reading reviews written by their friends. The application, which is adding 10,000 new users a day, was created by Web-development firm Hungry Machine LLC of Washington, D.C., which operates several Facebook applications and creates others for clients. The application shows ads to Visual Bookshelf users. Also, Hungry Machine has a link to Amazon.com on the application and gets a commission for each book sold through the link.

Tim O'Shaughnessy, head of business development at Hungry Machine, says applications that help people express who they are and connect with friends over the things that matter to them will spread person to person and become big successes.