Looks like the PR campaign worked

A new real estate network, Zolve, is launching today. An early morning trot over to the Zolve Web site gets you this: "Launching Soon! The site would be launched in the next few minutes. Please check back soon."

Inman News got a sneak peek for today's story on Zolve's launch: "Social networking meets referral management."

And the company also has mentions around the blogosphere:

"Zolve - a Whole New Real Estate Marketplace for Professionals" (GeekEstate Blog)
"Yo, Check Out My Listings— and Put Me in Your 'Top Friends' List" (BusinessWeek's Hot Property)
"Zolve Tries to Kick ActiveRain While It's Down" (Future of Real Estate Marketing)
"Zolve: A Social Network for Real Estate Agents" (TechCrunch)
"ZOLVE.com - Another RE Network" (RainCityGuide)

Nice coverage for a Web site that isn't even live yet.

The attention bestowed on the new service from broker and U.S. Military serviceman Brian Wilson may have to do with the interesting story behind how he came up with it. Wilson dreamed it up while serving in Iraq and worked with a team of India-based developers while he was in the Middle East.

The idea? Give real estate agents a social network where they can blog and connect with each other, sharing referrals and business while moving digital contracts around online.

The cost? $400 per year. Wilson says the point is to generate referrals between real-estate professionals.

A real life example would be a California agent referring a client to a Denver agent he met on Zolve. The question is how often does that situation come up? Once per year would seem to cover the cost of joining.

Some bloggers have commented that Zolve may come at a good time as many agents are looking for new ways to drum up business and build relationships. The company has a similar approach to ActiveRain, which launched a member-to-member referral service this year.

But is real estate now in a state of social network fatigue? We haven't heard of anyone meeting their agent via Facebook, ActiveRain or LinkedIn. And while the slow market affords many the time to experiment, we wonder what is working and what is just plain fun.

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