Florida home buyers get Roost

Real estate search platform Roost has expanded its coverage of for-sale listings in Florida through partnerships with multiple listings services in greater Orlando, Miami and Tampa Bay, the company said in separate press releases this month.

With the three new markets in Florida, Roost now provides access to listings in more than 11,000 cities in about 20 markets.

Roost claims that its agreements with MLSs provide home buyers with more comprehensive listings than sites that rely on feeds from agents, brokers or listing syndicators.

Roost partners with a local MLS and local brokers, providing consumers access to homes-for-sale data via a network of individual broker sites accessed through the Roost.com search engine. Consumers go to Roost to search for listings in available markets, see property basics in search results, and then click over to brokers' IDX sites for the full details on homes.

Instead of selling banner advertising or featured listings spots to brokers, the company charges brokers for the traffic it pushes to their IDX sites on a cost-per-click basis. The company does not charge setup fees or require commitment terms from brokers.

From a Realtor's perspective, Roost is "essentially a targeted search-engine marketing vehicle," CEO Alex Chang said when the San Francisco-based company launched in January (see story).

Other markets covered by Roost include Atlanta, Baltimore, Boise, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orange County (Calif.), Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, Modesto, San Diego, Silicon Valley, St. Louis, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

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