RISMEDIA, September 9, 2011–Onboard Informatics, the premier data and technology services provider to top-tier real estate, media, and technology companies, powers Lifestyle Search for Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS®. Lifestyle Search, a dynamic home search tool that helps real estate brands create a unique and comprehensive search experience on their sites, allows consumers to find their “best place to live.”
In a recent survey, conducted by Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS®, 73% of respondents answered “yes” when asked whether lifestyle search would be a valuable tool to home buyers during the home search process. The Lifestyle Search feature, powered by Onboard Informatics, allows visitors to the Prudential Fox & Roach, Realtors website to search for a home in the Greater Philadelphia region, based on neighborhood criteria that is important to them – family friendly, quality of schools, proximity to arts and culture —all prior to searching for a physical home.
“Neighborhood search is a missing link in today’s online home search process and the lifestyle search fills that void. Today’s consumers are used to having a variety of options to find their home and a lifestyle search complements the traditional search perfectly in helping them find their home” says Rajeev Sajja, vice president of Online and Sales Associate Technologies at Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS®.
The Lifestyle Search Engine combines millions of data points with battle-tested analytics to determine the places that best match the user’s input. Using a sliding scale, consumers rank the importance of the criteria – whether the area is family friendly; fun, hip, and trendy; is convenient for commuting; quality of schools; and nearness to culture activities. The engine finds the best matching neighborhoods and ranks the results, providing the consumer with a targeted list of places that fits their criteria.
“In additional to helping our online consumer, it also helps our sales associates with their buyers and sellers” says Sajja.
“According to NAR’s 2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, only 6% of home buyers are willing to compromise on the quality of the neighborhood during the home buying process, and only 3% on the quality of schools – Lifestyle Search tool meets the evolving needs of the consumers,” stated Marc Siden, CEO, Onboard Informatics. “Consumers know what they want and this tool positions Prudential Fox & Roach, Realtors as a neighborhood expert.”
About Onboard Informatics
Since 2001, Onboard Informatics has provided comprehensive local, regional and national real estate data solutions, powerful Web tools and Web services to some of the most innovative companies in the real estate, publishing, and technology. Onboard delivers seamless integration of property listings, lifestyle search, community, school, neighborhood, geographic and demographic information to support clients in achieving business objectives on Web and mobile platforms. Privately held since its founding, Onboard is located in the heart of the world’s financial center in the Wall Street area of New York City. For more information about Onboard Informatics visit www.onboardinformatics.com.
About Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS®
Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS ®, the nation’s fourth largest provider of home services, is an independently owned and operated member of the Prudential Real Estate Affiliate, Inc. and the largest Prudential affiliate in the country. As the Tri-State area’s real estate leader, the company has more than 55 sales locations and 3700 associates. Through its affiliate, the Trident Group, the company provides one-stop shopping and facilitated services to its clients including mortgage financing and title, property and casualty insurance. Visit our website at www.prufoxroach.com.
