Listingbook LLC, which provides online client management and direct marketing services for real estate agents, is taking over the operation of property search and valuation website Cyberhomes.com from LPS Real Estate Group Inc., the companies said today.
LPS said it will continue to support the Cyberhomes.com platform by providing public records data, automated valuation models (AVMs) and residential property listing data aggregation, as well as a national advertising sales platform.
LPS has relationships with more than 300 multiple listing services (MLSs) and 250 brokerage companies, and Cyberhomes.com currently provides data on 3.2 million listings and valuations on 80.6 million additional properties.
LPS last year licensed much of the technology and data powering the site to Realtors Property Resource LLC, a startup venture funded by the National Association of Realtors that’s building a national property database for NAR members.
Key Cyberhomes LLC executives, including Marty Frame, joined RPR at the time, and LPS will continue to provide public records data to that venture.
Greensboro, N.C.-based Listingbook partners with multiple listing services (MLS) to allow agents to register buyers and sellers to provide them with access to active and sold listings data.
Listingbook provides comparative market analyses (CMAs), manages open houses and showing appointments, and facilitates communications between agent and their clients.
Since announcing a national expansion plan in 2006, Listingbook today claims partnerships with more than 40 MLSs with a combined user base of about 500,000 agents.
Currently, the company says more than 140,000 agents are using Listingbook accounts to serve more than 1 million consumers.
In March, Listingbook announced agreements with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based MLS Listings Inc., and the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches.
Listingbook Chief Operating Officer Todd John said the agreement with LPS to operate Cyberhomes.com will help Listingbook generate more leads for agents, and build out its national and local advertising platform.
"The Cyberhomes acquisition really helps us to cast a much broader net, and take that window shopper and convert them into a lead that can be managed with our client management system," John said.
The companies issued separate press releases to describe the deal. LPS said the companies "have signed an agreement for Listingbook to take over the operations of Cyberhomes.com.
Cyberhomes.com, which launched in 1995 as a listing site, has since been eclipsed in traffic by other real estate portals including Realtor.com, Zillow.com and Trulia.com.
Listingbook.com, which last year broke into a list of Top 20 real estate websites maintained by Hitwise, currently gets more traffic than Cyberhomes.com, which no longer ranks among top real estate sites.
Last year, Cyberhomes.com was named "Best Web Site Solely Devoted to Residential or Commercial Real Estate and/or Home Design" by the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
Judges said the site offered "excellent consumer coverage for buyers and sellers about every aspect of the home sale process."
John said Listingbook plans "to continue to grow the Cyberhomes brand" by making enhancements to the site and taking advantage of technological synergies between Cyberhomes and Listingbook.