RISMEDIA, March 1, 2007-RealtyTrac(TM) announced a new interactive 3-D mapping tool that integrates Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping technology into its nationwide database of more than 1.2 million properties, creating a "mashup" Web application that represents an exponential leap in convenience, and a much richer user experience for anyone pursuing foreclosures or researching the foreclosures market.
RealtyTrac, (http://www.realtytrac.com), an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of pre-foreclosure and foreclosure properties, with over 850,000 properties from nearly 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal's Real Estate Journal.
The new application integrates RealtyTrac properties into Microsoft's state-of-the-art mapping platform. This allows users to see where all properties within the map area are located, mouse over the property for details, and to sort properties by type: pre-foreclosure, auction, bank-owned, FSBO, resale and new construction. Equally revolutionary is the map's drag and drop feature, which allows the site user to conduct an entire search from within the map by simply dragging and dropping the map image; RealtyTrac properties automatically re-populate the new map area.
"Microsoft's Virtual Earth mapping and aerial photography functionality will remove one of the major stumbling blocks when it comes to researching a potential foreclosure purchase-the scarcity of property photos," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. "In the past, the lack of home photos was an unfortunate fact of life for buyers and investors interested in the foreclosures market. Now, thanks to the marriage of Microsoft's cutting-edge technology and RealtyTrac's comprehensive foreclosure marketplace, users have amazingly close bird's-eye photos paired with relevant foreclosure details for hundreds of thousands of properties across the country."
"We are thrilled that RealtyTrac, one of the leading online marketplaces for foreclosure properties, will be incorporating the Virtual Earth platform into their Web site," said Erik Jorgensen, GM of Live Search Maps at Microsoft. "With Virtual Earth's bird's-eye capabilities, RealtyTrac will be able to provide its customers with an incredibly powerful and easy way to search for properties online."
RealtyTrac site users can now view foreclosure properties from a 45-degree angle overhead and from multiple directions-all with just a few clicks. The new map experience is an enormous improvement and is unique among all national foreclosure services, giving RealtyTrac customers remarkably clear and detailed images and a distinct advantage over investors and home buyers using other services. Site users will be able to use these interactive mapping features to look for homes in a two dimensional street-level map, an aerial satellite view or a 3-D bird's-eye view.
"High-definition interactive mapping is revolutionizing how the real estate industry displays properties and how consumers look for homes," Saccacio added. "Our customers now have the ability to immerse themselves in a high-resolution, 3-D mapping environment, and actually conduct their property search without ever leaving the map."
The new mapping interface can be accessed on RealtyTrac from any search results or property details page. The mapping interface pinpoints the location of the original property of interest and identifies other properties in the area by property type, giving users the ability to see how many pre-foreclosures, auctions, bank-owned homes, for sale by owner homes and resale homes are in the neighborhood-and to seamlessly view more details for any of those other properties. Users can also perform property searches directly from the mapping interface by either typing in a new location or using the built-in zooming and panning tools. RealtyTrac, which is already the only foreclosure site to include comparable sales data as part of its basic subscription, has also incorporated the Virtual Earth technology into maps of the homes identified in the comparable sales results.
For more information, visit http://www.realtytrac.com.
