RealSeekr marries social to search

Screenshot of RealSeekr.com

RealSeekr.com, a real estate search and networking site created by a Florida real estate broker, launched with about 1.6 million property listings and there are plans to reach 2.5 million listings by the end of July.

The site currently has relationships with brokers in about 20 states to supply property information. Since the site went live in mid-May, property feeds for an estimated 170,000 more listings have been secured for addition to the site, company officials reported.

Like Roost.com, another real estate search site, RealSeekr is building up its searchable inventory of active property listings by partnering with brokers in other states. Those brokers supply data feeds to the site from multiple listing services across the country through broker data-sharing agreements.

The RE/MAX Web site, remax.com, offers another example of a collection of Internet Data Exchange (IDX) feeds from multiple MLSs that power a national property search.

While there are many real estate-focused Web sites that focus on property search or social and professional networking, there are fewer that combine these features.

"There's a great marriage here in the consumer finding benefits with the site, and agents can use it as a marketing and prospecting tool as well," said Grant Freer, a real estate broker who is founder and CEO for RealSeekr. Freer and his wife, Gia, own GoListing.com, a boutique real estate brokerage firm based in Boca Raton, Fla.

"We're one of the first sites to be able to build in real-time communication and wrap it around millions of listings. Ultimately real estate is all about communication -- communication is at the core of what we tried to build here." The site's motto is "seek, learn, share, connect."

Other real estate social and professional networks include Zolve, a real estate social network launched in October by a Colorado real estate broker; ChaseNation, launched by Nevada luxury brokerage Chase International; and ActiveRain, among others. Real estate search and marketing sites Trulia and Zillow also offer user profiles and question-and-answer sections for consumers and real estate professionals.

In addition to its inventory of IDX-fed for-sale property listings, RealSeekr also displays information about properties in various stages of foreclosure through a partnership with data provider RealtyTrac, and allows users to post information about for-sale-by-owner properties.

While basic features at the site are free, advanced features such as enhancements for property listings and video conferencing require a subscription, which is $249 per year. The subscription includes a Web camera and microphone and a Skype account that users can use to engage in voice or video calls.

RealSeekr subscriptions allow users to share property listings with other members, includes a text-messaging alert service that distributes leads to cell phones and other mobile Internet devices, and geographically targeted classified property ads.

Subscribers can add more photos and other information at the site for properties that they have listed for sale.

Free basic memberships allows users to upload property listings, build referral groups, create and participate in blogs, and chat with consumers and real estate professionals, among other features. Homeowners can be members.

Agents who use the Twitter.com site can feed their Twitter messages to their online profile page.

Users can search for site members by name, company, location, type of profession and language, and can search for agents based on name, company, location, specialty, language and type of brokerage.

Freer said he expects that a variety of real estate professionals will participate in the site, including title professionals, lawyers and loan officers.

The Web project was self-funded, he said. "To be able to do this without venture-capital backing has been a wonderful achievement."

Site members do not pay for any leads they receive through the site, Freer said.

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