Dwellicious, a site launched by former eNeighborhoods managers that allows consumers to save their list of favorite homes to a personalized Web page, has rolled out a subscription version of its service for real estate professionals.
The site offers a real estate version of social bookmarking — popularized by online services such as digg and delicious. Social bookmarking tools can be used to create online lists of items from a variety of sites that can be organized, stored and shared with others at a centralized site.
Unlike some other social bookmarking sites that feature lists of static content, Dwellicious automatically updates the list of favorite homes with visual cues that indicate changes in status, price or the addition of images.
Dwellicious users can also choose to keep tabs on favorite properties via automated RSS (really simple syndication) feeds.
The site emerged from beta earlier this month during the Inman News Connect Real Estate conference in New York City.
Greg Robertson, who had served as general manager of real estate technology company eNeighborhoods, co-founded Dwellicious parent company W&R Studios with Dan Woolley, a former senior vice president of technology for eNeighborhoods.
"What’s interesting here with real estate: data changes. Prices can go up or down. We needed to create ‘smart’ bookmarks that (indicated) that," he said.
While not all Internet users may be familiar with social bookmarking tools, Robertson has an easier way to explain how the site works: "It’s like a shopping cart for (property) listings," he said, and consumers can put properties they like into their "shopping cart," which is actually a personalized Web page at the Dwellicious site.
Robertson said it’s common for consumers to search multiple Web sites, though there has not been an easy way for consumers to consolidate the properties they find to a single location. A Dwellicious user might find five properties at Realtor.com, three at Trulia and one at Zillow, for example, that they could save to a master list, and they can check back on that list for updates on those properties.
Users must register for the service by entering a name and e-mail address, and the site works best when users add bookmark links provided at the site to their Web browsers (there are instructions that walk users through this during the registration process).
There are about 20 real estate search sites that now allow Dwellicious users to add property links to their personal Dwellicious pages, including: century21.com, coldwellbanker.com, craigslist.ca, craigslist.org, cyberhomes.com, frontdoor.com, har.com, homefinder.com, homes.com, homesdatabase.com, realtor.com, redfin.com, remax.com, rentals.com, sdlookup.com, trulia.com, yahoo.com, zillow.com, zipvo.com.
The site’s basic services are free, and this week Dwellicious announced the launch of paid subscription services for real estate professionals. Based on user settings, subscribing real estate professionals can use Dwellicious to follow their clients’ home-search activities to gauge the types of properties they are interested in.
The company is marketing the subscription model, dubbed Dwellicious Pro, to individual brokers and agents, at a cost of $29.95 per month, and on Monday announced a promotion of the subscription-based tool in partnership with Realtor.com (free three-month subscriptions for a limited number of users).
Subscribing real estate professionals receive a branded Dwellicious page and access to a "dashboard" that serves as a window into clients’ search activity. Subscribers "will be given statistics, charts and graphs on client searching behavior, bookmarked listing prices, changes in prices to bookmarked listings, and … (a) sales pipeline report," according to a company announcement about the service.
In addition to a list of properties at their personalized Dwellicious pages, users can choose from a set of "cool tools" that include a basic map, a map of amenities and an accompanying "Walk Score" (see Inman News) based on a home’s proximity to local businesses and other sites, automated property valuation estimates by Zillow and Cyberhomes, neighborhood and comparable past sales data by Zillow, neighborhood schools information by education.com, and shared photos from Google’s Panoramio, among other features.
The site also allows users to attach public or private comments to individual properties. Personal accounts can be set up so that a couple can share properties and related discussions with each other online while keeping the information private from other users.
"The concept that we’re (working with) is what we call ‘co-shopping.’ To me, buying real estate or selling real estate is inherently a social process," Robertson said.
While searching for homes has changed, and buyers are doing more searching on their own, Robertson noted that Dwellicious is intended to keep real estate agents involved in the process even when they are not physically present with clients.
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