Real Estate 2.0 Sites Launching in New Orleans
- November 13th, 2006 /
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 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 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.
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- categories: All, Entrepreneurship, New Orleans /
Nov 14, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Hey Chris, great meeting up with you yesterday at NAR. We really like what Gerard is doing at Simulagent too, he’s got a good product that stands to make a big impact in the real estate space. Collaboration with tools like his are exactly what we’re looking to do.
One of the points you mentioned was that we’re creating white labels of eppraisal.com for real estate professionals. That’s actually the basis of our model – we would rather people to go the agent’s site and look up property valuations, then be connected to that real estate agent, rather than just do it on our site. The real estate agent is the glue that holds the industry together and they need to be intimately involved in the process.
Also, don’t forget to send me a beta invite to SiteMighty, I want to see if I can break it (I know, highly doubtful as it’s coming from your team).
Nov 15, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Chris and Blake – Thanks for the support, feedback, and for stopping by the booth. I’m really looking forward to watching all of us grow in this web 2.0 world.
The approach we have taken with Simulagent, has been to simplify the publishing and distribution of content in ways that, until recently, have not been possible. Integrating value added services like eppraisal.com, among a few others, will allow us to further bridge the information gap between home buyers, sellers, and agents.
If anyone wants to get involved in our beta testing — contact me.
I wanna crack at SM too!
Jan 30, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Just checked the eappraisal site, it seems that it doesn’t have enough in new england area to generate a comparable report. Looks nice though, I’ll check back.
Apr 19, 2007 at 7:11 pm
he approach we have taken with Simulagent, has been to simplify the publishing and distribution of content in ways that, until recently, have not been possible. Integrating value added services like eppraisal.com, among a few others, will allow us to further bridge the information gap between home buyers, sellers, and agents.