Depending on who you talk to, Interealty is the largest multiple listing service vendor or nearly the largest when it comes to the home listings game. Now they’re gearing up for something completely different.
By early next year, Interealty will launch what it’s calling the “first national comprehensive real estate site” on the World Wide Web–a service not just about buying and selling homes, but how to keep them, too.
Interealty is getting support from four of the nation’s largest media groups: Advance Publications, Cox Newspapers, Knight-Ridder and Tribune Co., which publishes the Chicago Tribune. They will help provide local content on the new site to be called PropertyChannel.
“Right now there are a number of listing warehouses with basic search and retrieval. But there isn’t sufficient national promotion, let alone sufficient local promotion, within each of the markets,” said David Charron, senior vice president of PropertyChannel.
Charron said PropertyChannel’s media partners will help “get out the vote” on the service once it launches in 1998. Interealty introduced the new service to Realtors at the recent National Association of Realtors convention in New Orleans.
PropertyChannel will feature localized content by metropolitan areas. Visitors will be able to choose their city and read local, scrolling news, reach local businesses, check out local community groups, chat with neighbors and get door-to-door mapping directions.
PropertyChannel also will allow users to create “My Channel,” or a portfolio of information on home listings or other services. A user can add a house to his or her “file” and the service will send updates if there’s a price change or the house is sold.
For each individual listing, PropertyChannel will provide the usual agent information and also links to other homes the agent has listed.
Besides the media hook, PropertyChannel is taking a step into the home improvement arena with links to local businesses, providing monthly content on subjects such as whether to use wallpaper to redecorate your home. There also will be interactive calculators, crime rates, and property valuation and home inspection information.
“We’re going to really be thinking about the ownership life cycle,” said Michael Lasky, PropertyChannel’s chief operating officer.
“People don’t just buy bricks and mortar when they buy a house–they buy a community,” he said.
PropertyChannel will get its listings from both MLS brokers with whom it has agreements and those where it doesn’t, Charron said. He said the company is getting a good response from individual brokers, whom he says do not have to pay for the service and will not lose control over their listings.
Charron said PropertyChannel still is compiling agreements with separate listing services and does not yet have a total listing count.
— Warren Lutz
Street connections
Microsoft is lending a hand to connect real estate agents for one of the largest franchises in the industry through an extranet.
Re/Max Mainstreet, which will debut early next year, will be a password-protected extranet site that allows Re/Max affiliates, suppliers and staff to communicate and share business information from anywhere in the world. Re/Max has more than 47,000 members in 2,800 countries.
An extranet is an Internet network that links businesses with their suppliers, customers, or other businesses. The shared resources can be part of one company’s intranet that is made accessible only to its clients, or it can be publicly accessible.
Microsoft Internet technologies and platforms will be used to create the site, which will be built by Online System Services Inc.
“Re/Max Mainstreet is an industry-leading example of how extranets enable franchisers to extend world-class communication and information-sharing services to franchisees,” said Roger Gerdes, business development manager of Microsoft’s small business marketing group.
Re/Max Mainstreet will be introduced to Re/Max members during the 25th Annual Re/Max International Convention, March 1-5, in Las Vegas.
News mix
Intuit Inc., which last month went fully active with its multilender platform QuickenMortgage.com, has a new branding partner.
The financial software maker and CNNfn.com, a Web site sponsored by Cable News Network, have unveiled a new co-branded financial information service called Quicken.com on FN.
The new site will be a blend of financial news supplied by CNNfn and mortgage information and shopping through Intuit’s Quicken services. Lou Dobbs, president of CNNfn, said the site combines “indispensable news” with “the best tools for managing finance.”
The site’s address will be www.cnnfn.com/quickenonfn/. It will replace CNNfn’s “Your Money” section.
CNN is a unit of Time Warner Inc.
On the Plus side
Nearly 1 million AT&T WorldNet subscribers will get a few clicks closer to apartment hunting with the addition of Apartments Plus, a rental listing and relocation service.
Apartments Plus has more than 400,000 listings in 30 states and expects to have nationwide listings by the end of the year. The service will be located in WorldNet’s real estate section.
AT&T WorldNet Service is the largest direct Internet service provider in the U.S. Apartments Plus already is available to America Online’s 10 million customers.
Apartments Plus features an apartment search, video and photo tours, access to truck and furniture rental services and links to affordable housing options. Interested viewers can e-mail property managers directly.
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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.
