Innovative Search Features of New Homes.com Cited as Key Accomplishment

NORFOLK, VA (Dec. 11, 2018) – David Mele, president of Homes.com, has been recognized in the Trailblazer category of RISMedia’s 2018 Real Estate Newsmakers for providing both consumers and real estate professionals with innovative smart home search tools through the new Homes.com. Launched earlier this year, the site’s industry-first features have simplified the search process for home shoppers while increasing opportunities for agents and brokers to connect with potential clients.

The website was the culmination of months of development initiated as part of Mele’s mission to differentiate the Homes.com brand. Key innovations include the first national visual search tool that matches photos submitted by consumers to available homes with a similar look, a personalized “match” score for each search result, flexible price searches ensuring that listings priced slightly above or below the target price are not missed, and other features not available from any other listing service.

These functions – many of them powered by artificial intelligence – are also improving lead quality for real estate pros by enhancing consumers’ ability to zero in on the homes that best fit their needs and tastes.

“With almost every home search beginning online, we decided to make the search experience simpler, smarter, and friendlier. Leveraging months of interviews with consumers and real estate pros, we completely reimagined the home search process from the ground up,” Mele said. “The new Homes.com is a great example of how incorporating new technology and better usability can streamline the home search process for consumers and real estate pros alike.”

The complete list of RISMedia 2018 Real Estate Newsmakers is at https://rismedia.com/2019-newsmakers/.

About Homes.com

Homes.com offers today’s demanding homebuyers, renters and those somewhere in between a simply smarter home search.  With features like Homes.com Match, HomeShare and Snap & Search, home shoppers now have a more personalized way to search for their next home.  Since its launch over 25 years ago, Homes.com offers real estate professionals brand and property advertising, search engine marketing and instant response lead generation to help them succeed online.  For more information, visit Homes.com.

Technology-Driven Brokerage Recognized for Providing Top Performing Tools to All Sellstate Advisors

Norfolk, Va. (Nov 14, 2018) – The RISMedia Tech Titan Award was presented to Arthur Darmanin, CEO of Sellstate Realty Systems, and his team for their 2018 technological achievements.  Sellstate was recognized during the November 2nd RISMedia Power Broker Dinner, which was part of The National Association of REALTORS® annual conference in Boston. Homes.com®, leading online real estate destination and provider of real estate marketing solutions, sponsored this year’s RISMedia’s Tech Titan Award.

The Tech Titan Award is presented to individuals transforming the industry by integrating new forms of technology into their companies to improve and enhance overall consumer experience. Arthur Darmanin and the Sellstate team are dedicated to embracing technology and providing innovative tools to enhance and expand their brokerage.

“I’m thrilled and honored to receive the Tech Titan Award on behalf of everyone at Sellstate Realty,” said Darmanin. ”We look at technology from a simple point of view—how is this technology going to help our advisors close more deals? It may sound overly simplistic, but at the end of the day, our purpose, our goal, and our mission is to make sure that we give our advisors the tools they need to close more deals.”

Sellstate Realty Systems’ technology vision combines the flexibility of mobile technology and automated, time-saving tools to give their busy advisors everything they need to manage their business on the go.  The Sellstate Power Suite, powered by Homes.com, offers a comprehensive technology package that includes single property websites, a cloud-based CRM, monthly newsletters, email marketing, a design center and more, is offered to all advisors along with extensive training and support to ensure a high level of service to their clients.

“Homes.com is pleased to recognize Arthur Darmanin and Sellstate Realty with the RISMedia Tech Titan award for their technology accomplishments,” said Dave Mele, president of Homes.com. “As Sellstate Realty continues to expand into new markets in the coming years, Homes.com is proud to be part of their technology solution.”

About Homes.com
A top real estate search destination, Homes.com is visited by more than 10 million consumers each month. Homes.com leverages search visibility to connect this in-market audience with real estate professionals in their local areas of interest. Offering real estate marketing and media services such as brand advertising, property listing exposure and syndication, search engine marketing and instant response lead generation, Homes.com helps real estate agents and other real estate industry partners succeed online. From lead aggregation and customer relationship management to website management, email marketing and so much more, Homes.com Connect offers agents access to all the tools necessary to convert leads into transaction-ready clients in one centralized and easy to use system. For more information, visit www.Homes.com.

About Sellstate
Sellstate Realty Systems Network, Inc. is a national real estate franchise. Based out of Fort Myers, Florida, Sellstate has expanded its operation into several states across the country. With a focus on high commission, breakthrough technology and revenue sharing, Sellstate strives to provide the best possible experience for its brokers, agents and their clients. Through its strategic alliances, Sellstate is able to provide clients’ listings with a monthly global consumer reach of two hundred million unique visitors. www.sellstate.com.

Developers and Real Estate Businesses Will Now be Able to Sync Data Directly through Interface

Norfolk, Va. (Oct. 31, 2018) – Working to reduce duplicate data across real estate platforms and to integrate more seamlessly with other real estate products, Homes.com®, a top consumer real estate resource and leading provider of marketing solutions for real estate professionals, announced today its new API. The new program streamlines agent workflow by allowing agents to easily manage leads and contacts across the many platforms they use. The new Homes.com API offers real estate technology companies and brokerages an easy way to receive and send data from Homes.com and the Homes.com Connect platform through an application programing interface. Participating Homes.com API partners will now have an efficient method to receive client data directly from Homes.com and the Homes.com Connect marketing applications.

For example, an agent using BombBomb to send video emails will now be able to seamlessly integrate lead information from Homes.com to initiate video email campaigns within BombBomb. And when a lead from Homes.com Connect successfully converts into a buyer or seller, the information can be pushed effortlessly into DocuSign Rooms for Real Estate to manage the transaction. The Homes.com API will allow applications like these to communicate with the centralized Homes.com Connect contact management database, eliminating the pain of duplicate entry and maintaining separate databases. “We know that our customers use a variety of tools when working with clients,” said Dave Mele,
president of Homes.com, “and providing an easy way for them to manage that process makes sense and adds tremendous value to the tools we provide. The new Homes.com API provides an easy way for leads, contacts, and associated lead activity to be shared between Homes.com Connect and our integration partners. The API also supports ongoing lead activities, ensuring that integrated systems remain in sync.” For more information about the Homes.com API, visit https://api.homesconnect.com, or to learn more about Homes.com marketing services, visit https://marketing.homes.com/.

About Homes.com
A top real estate search destination, Homes.com is visited by more than 10 million consumers each month. Homes.com leverages search visibility to connect this in-market audience with real estate professionals in their local areas of interest. Offering real estate marketing and media services such as brand advertising, property listing exposure and syndication, search engine marketing and instant response lead generation, Homes.com helps real estate agents and other real estate industry partners succeed online. From lead aggregation and customer relationship management to website management, email marketing and so much more, Homes.com Connect offers agents access to all the
tools necessary to convert leads into transaction-ready clients in one centralized and easy to use system.

Airbnb Profitability Analysis Generated Major Media Coverage for National Real Estate Brand

NORFOLK, VA (Oct. 18, 2018) – Homes.com announced today that it has been named the winner in the Best Use of Search – Real Estate & Property category in the 2018 U.S. Search Awards, with its fun, informative and visually compelling campaign on Airbnb rentals. In partnership with agency, Go Fish Digital, the initiative centered on US cities where homeowners can get the best return on their home investment by renting with Airbnb. It generated nearly 50 print and TV media placements ranging from Forbes to Fox and ABC News, associated backlinks, almost 500 article shares, and more than 5,000 visits to the supporting post on the Homes.com blog.

The campaign titled “The Best and Worst Cities for Making Money on Airbnb,” leveraged an analysis of Airbnb rental prices and average mortgage costs based on Homes.com partner data in major metropolitan areas. Simple, easy-to-understand infographics highlighted the 20 cities with the lowest and highest daily rental rates, the lowest and highest daily profit considering local mortgage costs, and the number of Airbnb rental days required to cover average mortgage expenses in each market.

The project provided an innovative and entertaining way to reach potential homebuyers who are considering buying a second home as an investment as well as existing homeowners researching Airbnb profitability, with the secondary goal of raising brand awareness for Homes.com. The U.S. Search Awards celebrate expertise, talent, and achievements of the search industry, so this recognition reflects the high marks it received through the judging criteria, including clear objectives, creative and effective implementation, and tangible and demonstrable results.

“Our content marketing program is designed to build brand visibility, traffic, and links to our site, and the Airbnb campaign aligned perfectly with those goals,” said Grant Simmons, VP Search Marketing, Homes.com. “It performed extremely well with the quantity and quality of media coverage, the number of links to Homes.com and social shares, so receiving this award is a great testament to the collaborative spirit & creativity of the Homes.com team and our agency partners.”

The 2018 U.S. Search Awards celebrate SEO, PPC and content marketing, attracting hundreds of entries from the leading search and digital agencies as well as notable brands in North America and across the globe who deliver work for the U.S. market. Entries are judged by a panel of industry leaders and experts in a rigorous two-stage process that includes pre-scoring to determine shortlists and judging meetings where entries are discussed and evaluated in detail to decide winners.

The complete list of 2018 U.S. Search Awards winners is at www.ussearchawards.com.

About Homes.com

Homes.com offers today’s demanding homebuyers, renters and those somewhere in between a simply smarter home search. With features like Homes.com Match, HomeShare and Snap & Search, homeshoppers now have a more personalized and conversational way to search for their next home. Since its launch over 25 years ago, Homes.com offers real estate professionals brand and property advertising, search engine marketing and instant response lead generation to help them succeed online. For more information, visit Homes.com.

Search by Photo, Specify ‘Must Have’ versus ‘Nice to Have,’ Descriptive Headlines Created by AI and More on a Completely New Site

NORFOLK, VA (May 10, 2018) – Today, Homes.com launched a completely new website with a series of industry-first features that make the online home search process smarter, faster, more personalized, more shareable, and easier to organize than any other national real estate search site. The new consumer-facing features as well as real estate pro-specific enhancements are expected to create more opportunities for real estate professionals to connect with in-market consumers. This commitment strengthens the company’s policy of always sending consumer inquiries to the listing agent whether or not they are preferred advertisers.

Reimagined from the ground up in partnership with digital agency Grow, the new Homes.com site delivers a truly differentiated and more engaging search experience through unique features that include:

• The first national visual search tool for homebuyers – Homes.com Snap & Search BETA  enables shoppers to upload photos of homes whose looks they like, and utilizes artificial intelligence to return local listings with a similar architectural style or exterior finish. Using machine learning algorithms, the site will analyze hundreds of millions of property images to provide matches for the end user.
• Personalized ‘Match’ scores for every search result – Homes.com Match uniquely asks users their “must have” and “nice to have” amenities along with their other preferences like desired schools, then prominently displays a “Match” score (e.g. 92%) for each home in their results based on those parameters. Best matches are listed first to help users narrow the search quickly.
  
• Descriptive listing headlines that help sell – Instead of displaying search results by address-only headings, Homes.com automatically generates a programmatic headline highlighting the standout features of each listing.  Titles like “Lovingly Maintained 3 Bedroom House in Red Mill” make it easy for consumers to zero in on homes of interest while also providing enhanced marketing for the listing agent.
• Flexible price searches – The new site returns search results that include homes “around” the user’s specified price, broadening buyer options as well as assisting real estate pros by ensuring their listings priced slightly above or below the target price are not missed.
• Fewer clicks to see house details – With just one click from the search results pages, users can see a complete image gallery for each listing, Google street and satellite views, as well as the “Match” score. They can also save favorite listings without leaving the search results. It’s a faster and simpler way to separate the “maybes” from the “nos.”
• Better sharing and organization of the search journey – The site’s robust new HomeShare function lets users save favorite listings, create different share lists, and collaboratively discuss homes of interest with partners, parents, friends or agents – all with visual thumbnails instead of links that require extra steps to identify each property.

“We’ve spent many months reimagining home search from the ground up to make it smarter, faster and easier for home shoppers to find their dream home, while also making sure agents and brokers have the opportunity to connect with consumers more frequently,” said David Mele, President of Homes.com. “The new site introduces many first-to-market features for the industry and is a game changer for consumers searching for their next home.”  

The site also continues to incorporate features that benefit the industry, including clear identification of the listing agent and broker on the listing details page. A new advertising option called Homes.com City Sponsor will unobtrusively integrate prominently placed ads for pros and their listings on the  search results page. These ads mirror the look of the non-sponsored listings and help combat banner blindness that prevents consumers from noticing banner ads because of their prevalence. Learn more about the new, Homes.com City Sponsor and other advertising opportunities on Homes.com.

About Homes.com

Homes.com offers today’s demanding homebuyers, renters and those somewhere in between a simply smarter home search.  With features like Homes.com Match, HomeShare and Snap & Search, homeshoppers now have a more personalized and conversational way to search for their next home.  Since its launch over 25 years ago, Homes.com offers real estate professionals brand and property advertising, search engine marketing and instant response lead generation to help them succeed online.  For more information, visit Homes.com.

About Grow

Grow is a Virginia-based digital agency that works with some of the world’s most pioneering brands, including Google, Spotify, NBC, adidas, Oxygen Network and Adult Swim. They create digital experiences, products and interactive installations that are unique, engaging and results-focused for their clients. Notable recent projects include Window Wonderland for Google Shopping, Madden GIFERATOR for EA Sports, as part of Google’s Art, Copy & Code initiative, as well as The Pursuit, an interactive, crime thriller game created with Oxygen Media.