MLSs taking Point2 up on offer of free, public-facing website

Realtor associations in San Francisco and El Paso are the first in the country to take advantage of an offer from real estate marketing software provider Point2 Technologies Inc. to build them free public-facing websites with many of the bells and whistles found on the big listing portals. The San Francisco Association of Realtors' new public-facing website, which is currently in beta and launching soon, allows users to search by neighborhood, ZIP code, or custom-drawn radius or polygon, in order to retrieve information including price history, recent sales and parcel-based data for off-market properties. Listing detail pages also provide demographic information, crime data, price "heat maps," and map overlays showing neighborhoods, school district boundaries, school sites, geohazards and other information. "This is our answer to everything that Zillow and Trulia are doing," said Walt Baczkowski, SFAR's CEO. Baczkowski said the responsive design website has all the info consum...