Tech Roundup: IBuyer Programs, Earnest Money Tech and More
ERA Real Estate Announces ERA Moves
ERA Real Estate announced the launch of ERA® Moves, an automated program powered by MooveGuru, that allows ERA® affiliated independent agents to provide their clients exclusive offers, discounts and a concierge service that reduces the stress, time and expense associated with the moving process. ERA is the first to offer this nationwide, all at zero cost to the agent and broker, while creating an additional revenue stream for affiliated brokerages through referral fees.
The ERA Moves program offers agents two ways to stay “top of mind” with their clients and positions them as local market experts. The first is an automated email marketing program that sends clients agent-branded, personalized emails with local, home-related money-saving offers during the home buying process and continues throughout the homeownership lifecycle. The second provides clients with a dedicated concierge to connect all of their utilities to their new house – a process that can often take over five hours and upwards of seven calls – with just one 30-minute phone call.
Lone Wolf and Earnnest Partner to Digitize Earnest Money Deposit Process
Lone Wolf Technologies, the North American leader in residential real estate technology, and Earnnest, the future of real estate payments, announced a strategic partnership between their two organizations. This partnership will integrate Lone Wolf’s industry-leading transaction management solutions, zipForm® Plus and TransactionDesk, with Earnnest’s secure earnest payment platform to digitize the entire earnest money deposit (EMD) process for real estate agents, brokerages, and consumers.
With this integration, real estate agents can invite buyers to the Earnnest platform from within their transaction management solutions. Earnnest will enable buyers to securely send their earnest and trust payments directly to escrow holders from their financial institution. It then provides notifications and updates on money movement to both the agent and buyer throughout the life of the transaction. This brings the EMD process online and simplifies the entire transaction for real estate agents, brokerages, and buyers. It also provides the industry with yet another valuable service to offer consumers—directly from within the transaction platform they are already using.
Market Leader Launches KW MarketPlace
Market Leader, a Premier Platinum Partner in the Keller Cloud Innovator Program (KCIP), announced that its professional suite of tools, Market Leader Professional (Market Leader Pro) has launched in the KW MarketPlace, an app store on the Keller Cloud platform.
KW associates can now access Market Leader tools that seamlessly integrate with the Keller Cloud platform. Market Leader Pro drives increased productivity and sales with fully customizable websites, exclusive buyer and seller leads, deep website and contact insights, and marketing automation—all fully integrated, seamlessly syncing lead and contact data, with Command, KW’s smart CRM-plus solution.
Steve Ozonian Joins Board of Directors at Inside Real Estate
Inside Real Estate, an independently-owned real estate software companies and a trusted technology partner to over 200,000 top brokerages, agents & teams announced this week the appointment of Steve Ozonian to its Board of Directors. Known as a visionary leader in the real estate tech space, Ozonian brings over 3 decades of experience serving in executive roles at Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Prudential Real Estate & Relocation, and REALTOR.com.
The Stars Have Aligned: Coldwell Banker Real Estate Officially Unveils New North Star Branding
Six months ago, Coldwell Banker Real Estate previewed a new logo, dubbed the “CB North Star mark,” which symbolized the brand’s position as a guide for clients and a leader in the real estate industry. After an extensive testing and discovery phase, the brand has finalized the new logo and corresponding identity standards, yard signs, marketing materials, office concepts and a full suite of branded apparel.
The brand released the “Coldwell Banker Look Book” along with new identity standards and a “Playbook” to guide Coldwell Banker-affiliated companies through their own rebrands. In addition to these assets, the brand will host sessions at its annual Coldwell Banker Leadership Summit, September 12-14, in Chicago to present learnings from the rebranding process in test markets. The brand is also releasing a weekly podcast dubbed “The Road to Rebrand” and a mini-documentary titled “Story Behind the Star.” If you want to be a part of Coldwell Banker Project North Star, visit https://www.coldwellbanker.com/careers and explore how the Coldwell Banker brand can be the North Star to guide your career.
Prevu Raises $2 Million in Seed Funding to Grow its Digital Home Buying Platform
Prevu, a customer-focused digital home buying platform delivering industry-leading efficiency and savings, announced today the closing of its $2 million seed funding round. The round was led by Corigin Ventures, a prominent seed-stage venture capital firm with expertise in the real estate technology and consumer industries as well as a history of backing startups disrupting residential brokerage business models. Prior successful investments include Compass, Transfix, Latch, ClassPass and Wheels Up. Kairos and AVG Basecamp Fund also contributed to the seed round.
Prevu was designed to offer buyers an unparalleled value proposition. With Prevu, customers benefit from a seamless, modern online experience and the opportunity to save time and money while taking greater control over the most important financial decision of their lives – purchasing a home.
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Winans Empowers Home Sellers with iBuyer Platform
Real estate powerhouse Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Winans announced the launch of their Flex MoveTM Program. With Flex Move, homeowners get multiple instant offers on their home with the push of a button and can easily compare iBuyer offers with selling on the open market. A local professional with BHGRE Winans provides expertise and counsel for whichever path the homeowner chooses.
As Dallas/Fort Worth’s premier lifestyle real estate company, BHGRE Winans is proving its commitment to bring all options to the table for its clients. These options now include purchase offers from Opendoor, Zillow Offers, RedfinNow, Perch and Offerpad – commonly referred to as iBuyers because these online firms offer to “instantly buy” homes. The Flex Move platform provides online tools that make it easy to collect offers from all active iBuyers in the market as well as a real-world estimate of selling price and net profits by listing on the open market. These industry-leading tools provide homeowners with transparency, data, and professional expertise and guidance. Find more information at betterdfw.com.
Side Launches in Texas, Empowers High-Performing Agents to Own Flourishing Businesses, Boutique Brands
Side, the only brokerage company in real estate that turns high-performing agents and teams into flourishing businesses and boutique brands they own, today announced its launch in Texas, paving a new future path for the market’s most successful professionals.
Side’s groundbreaking approach to real estate is to support high-performing agents and teams with technology and brokerage services. Side helps them set up their own boutique real estate brand and supports their growth beyond the production plateau even top agents often reach. Side also partners with independent brokers who already own their brand and business but are looking to break free from the limitations of managing back-end operations without support. Side is led by experienced industry professionals who handle marketing and compliance and world-class engineers who develop technology that improves productivity and client experience.
Side is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.sideinc.com.
Parks Realty Launches Instant Offers
Middle Tennessee’s real estate powerhouse Parks Realty announces the launch of Parks Go, giving homeowners multiple instant offers on their home with the push of a button. Parks Go helps homeowners easily compare iBuyer offers with selling on the open market. A local professional with Parks Realty provides expertise and counsel for whichever path the homeowner chooses.
As one of the largest real estate companies in Middle Tennessee, Parks is proving its commitment to bring all options to the table for its clients. These options now include purchase offers from Opendoor and Zillow Offers – commonly referred to as iBuyers because these online firms offer to “instantly buy” homes. The Parks Go platform provides online tools that make it easy to collect offers from all active iBuyers in the market as well as a real-world estimate of selling price and net profits by listing on the open market. These industry-leading tools provide homeowners with transparency, data, and professional expertise and guidance. Find more information at parksathome.com.
OJO LABS Acquires RealSavvy
OJO Labs, which empowers consumers to make better decisions through its conversational AI (artificial intelligence) platform, “OJO,” acquired Austin-based RealSavvy, a powerful real estate software platform for REALTORS®, brokers, and teams that combines its collaborative IDX with customizable websites, branded mobile apps, and a fully-integrated predictive CRM.
