RealSelect Inc., provider of the largest online real estate marketing and listing service, received $5 million in equity financing to expand its sales and marketing efforts.
RealSelect, the search engine provider for Realtor.com, official site of the National Association of Realtors and the largest listing of homes for sale on the World Wide Web, is getting the equity infusion from Geocapital Partners, which provides venture capital for information service and technology companies.
By developing partnerships to become the home listings provider for America Online, Excite, NBC, USA Today and AT&T, RealSelect Chief Executive Officer Stuart Wolff has reportedly been positioning Realtor.com for a public offering.
“Geocapital’s investment will enable us to continue our rapid growth and further our leadership position for real estate marketing on the Internet,” Wolff said in a statement.
Wolff’s RealSelect took over Realtor.com after its predecessor, the Realtor Information Network, flopped last year. He, President Richard Janssen and other private investors own 85 percent of RealSelect, with NAR retaining the other 15 percent.
Wolff claims that “home views” at Realtor.com have hit 30 million per month, though there is apparently disagreement in the industry over how many “hits” are from legitimate home shoppers and how well they translate into actual home sales.
Through Realtor.com, RealSelect provides consumer access to more than 1 million home listings across the country, searchable by price, location and amenities.
Realtor.com is the single largest compilation of U.S. home listings on the Web. Other services include CyberHomes, HomeSeekers and HomeScout.
HomeScout has more than 500,000 homes listed, HomeSeekers has 337,000 and CyberHomes has about 350,000 listings, although each service offers different services and features.
Right directions
You don’t have to worry about folding up that road map anymore. Just keep it out of the sunlight.
GeoSystems’ MapQuest, the online mapping tool, and Nokia, makers of the handheld Communicator computer, have teamed up to provide a portable, online mapping system that was previously available only in Europe and Asia.
Actually the technology itself isn’t new to this country, since handheld, Internet-capable devices have been available and MapQuest has been pointing directions to Web surfers for some time. In fact, MapQuest is already the preferred content provider for AT&T’s PocketNet Wireless service. But it is a first for MapQuest to make a customized version of its TripQuest tool specifically for the Nokia.
Such a tool could benefit both road-weary house hunters and the agents who are off showing different homes each weekend. TripQuest offers door-to-door, city-to-city, and step-by-step directions to anywhere in North America, along with estimated travel time and visual maps.
Other Palmtop computer-makers like Compaq and Hewlett-Packard could follow.
Perhaps the largest tool of its kind on the Net, MapQuest offers consumers free access to online maps of more than three million cities and towns worldwide, detailed driving directions, and interactive travel planning tools. The company’s other partners include BigBook, Excite, InfoSpace, Travelocity and WebCrawler.
Wide angle
Be Here, a developer of 360-degree panoramic photography that recently has been used by the Associated Press, will be announcing a new nationwide, panoramic imaging network in New York.
The PanImage Service Network will allow both amateur and professional photographers to buy Be Here’s panoramic cameras at a special price and provide customers with Internet-ready, 360-degree photos.
Be Here will deliver customers directly to photographers within the network, and is negotiating agreements with major real estate, travel and entertainment parties to use regional Be Here services.
Be Here, along with Interactive Pictures Corp. (IPIX) and Live Picture Inc. has been a leader in developing panoramic, navigable images for the Web that are quicker to upload and view than primitive, stitched-together panoramic imaging.
Be Here’s PortalS1 camera system will be the foundation of the new network. It takes an instant single-frame, 360-degree shot and processes it into a virtual-reality PanImage, which can be viewed on a standard Web browser using Be Here’s Java-based previewer or another virtual reality plug-in. The system fits standard Nikon-mount 35mm cameras or digital cameras and can be used to capture still shots or broadcast live events over the Web.
In July, the San Jose, Calif., company teamed with ListingLink, then the largest Internet-based real estate listing service in California, for a service in that state that allows agents to create virtual tours of homes for sale.
Be Here had been planning a network of photographers and bureaus with the technology. The announcement will be made at the Photo Plus photography show in New York.
———-
Chicago Tribune Homes
Additional real estate information, including a monthly index of Inman News Features, is available at Chicago Tribune Homes on the World Wide Web. Go to chicago.tribune.com/go/homes/ and click News & Features.
