RISMEDIA, May 22, 2008- softRealty.com, a web-based home search tool for agents’ websites, is one of just 25 participants in the First Multiple Listing Service’s FMLSweb Approved Data Vendor program. softRealty.com launched on April 1, 2008, and so far more than 250 Atlanta-area agents and brokers have registered to use it. The company aims to have its software in use nationwide within the next 12 months.
“We are very excited to be one of the approved FMLS data vendors,” said Doug Hurst, President and CEO of softRealty.com. “The entire staff at FMLS has been wonderful to work with and their high level of technical expertise has made our entry into this exclusive group very easy.”
Hurst notes that online search capabilities are vital for real estate agents because more than 80 percent of home buyers shop the Internet first. softRealty.com’s product drives traffic to the agent’s website and turns those leads into clients. softRealty.com uses specialized algorithms to aggregate massive volumes of highly non-standardized data from multiple listing services nationwide and transform it into a user friendly presentation.
By joining the FMLSweb Approved Data Vendor program, softRealty.com will be able to offer free IDX to the 42,000 FMLS members located in Georgia and the Southeast.
Inspired by homebuyers, softRealty.com’s product allows users to search for properties by specifying street address, neighborhoods, schools, city, state, zip code, county, or listing number. Users can review their searches with a property list or map and expand and refine with the Advanced Search Options feature.
Specific property details include photos, virtual tours, print brochures, mortgage calculators and Google maps. Additional features to be rolled out soon are the ability for users to save properties and hide individual listings or entire neighborhoods.
softRealty.com is able to offer this service to agents and brokers free of charge through advertising on their sites, while guaranteeing that ads from competing companies will not appear on their sites. Advertising will provide visitors with information on products and services relevant to their home buying experiences.
Founded by David Carroll, a seasoned enterprise-level software architect and former IT consultant, softRealty.com blends the networking power of Web 2.0 with agent-branded property search services to capture the attention of the collective home buying consumer network. softRealty.com will serve real estate professionals by providing an affordable, all-inclusive line of products designed to keep real estate brokers and agents connected to their clients, properties, and businesses.
