Real Estate 2.0 Sites Launching in New Orleans
We just got back from the National Association of Realtors conference expo in New Orleans, and I wanted to share the news of the launches of two Web 2.0 game changers for the real estate industry.
Simulagent.com
Simulagent is a web-based publishing platform for real estate agents created by some friends of ours. The show served as their marketing launch and they are moving into a closed beta roll out in a couple weeks. It’s a great platform that has potential to make a mark in the real estate industry and we heard a lot of buzz at this conference as Realtors are figuring out that they need to move past their v. 1.0 brochureware website to a more interactive platform that includes MLS listings and blogging capabilities as well. Simulagent will offer just that, a turn-key web-based website builder. Their stated benefits:
Ease of use — WYSIWYG site creation through the browser, good bye Frontpage and expensive web developers
Built in blog functionality — enables realtors to build communities around their sites and update content
Search engine friendly site structure — search engine traffic is critical to real estate sites, and Simulagent is built to leverage search traffic
We wish Gerard and Brian all the best with Simulagent, they have gone a lot of the ups and downs that we have been going through with SiteMighty. It was great to see them at the show all of a sudden things start to feel very “real” after months of nose to the grindstone development work. Great job on getting here guys!
Eppraisal.com
Eppraisal.com is a real estate appraisal service, much like Zillow.com which launched several months ago with much fanfare. The service is easy to use, just type in your address and you are taken to a page providing an “estimated value” range for your house. To get the “detailed appraisal” you must register with the site. You are also asked if you are currently in the process of buying or selling a home (as many people checking appraisals might be), and if you are, they offer to have a real estate agent contact you.
I liked the mapping service powered by Microsoft Virtual Earth that provides the birds eye view of your house, but also a perspective-based 3D view as well.
While the virtual appraisal idea is similar, Eppraisal is taking a different approach than Zillow with their business model. Zillow took the industry disruptor approach and basically eschewed working with the existing agent driven structure of the real estate industry. They opted for a pure play advertising model running ads throughout the site. Eppraisal is taking a more nuanced approach and is working to integrate themselves into the long established industry structure. Their model is as a lead generation service where they sell the data collected from consumers who register for the appraisals to individual agents. In addition they are capitalizing on the current widget craze by offering their appraisal service as white label value added plug in for existing agents sites. It was great to see Damien and Erik (Erik’s great personal blog) again too. Thanks for the update on Eppraisal.com and best of luck.
I see a Simulagent plugin powered by Eppraisal in the future. Both are great services, and we really like the real estate industry space. If you can sell your service as something that will help someone else improve their own business, you’ve got a true value added business model that people will be willing to pay for. That’s our goal with SiteMighty, and I’m excited to watch the success of these two services.