What’s new on the Web for real estate brokers and salespeople? Who’s doing it and how well is it working? Inman News asked Marc Davison, VP of VREO Software in San Luis Obispo, Calif., for the answers.
IN: How many years has VREO been in business?
VS: Three years.
IN: What is your company vision?
VS: To further the understanding of what a Web site in 2004 and beyond is supposed to be. The current paradigm underscores a product line laced with so many search engine variables and forms for lead generation that nary a site out there actually helps a client conduct actual business. What further exasperates the issue is Google’s retooling of its algorithm and the reality that most online consumers are just too darned concerned about spam to fill out forms to garner simple information.
Our vision is to craft a product that moves the user’s entire work environment onto an Internet platform, so the ever-increasing Web-based consumer audience can reap a true benefit from its online experience. Our vision finally is to make the end user–the site’s visitor–very happy, which immediately translates to a happy Web site host.
IN: What is your business model?
VS: Design and sell agent/broker/corporate/association Web-based systems that generate true business opportunities, secure clients (thereby) saving them valuable time in their real estate transaction, and creating revenue opportunities for our users.
IN: Do you have a killer application? If so, what is it?
VS: Web site systems with unlimited domain name start pages for direct listing marketing and promotion. Automated billing and reconciliation systems for companies that collect dues and service fees from their members and directly depositing these fees into their merchant accounts, shaving huge expenses from old-school accounting departments.
IN: What is the most popular feature of your product?
VS: Web-based “Spotlight Property” brochures that essentially generate a listing into a beautifully designed three-page property brochure along with a domain name specific to the property such as 123mainstreethome.com. These pages each become the domain start page to a Web site, thus thrusting a specific (name) front and center when the URL is typed in as seen in an offline or online advertisement. These online brochures then remain live online as part of a live, Web-based sold gallery portfolio. This feature allows our clients to present the link to the buyers of the home they have sold for reference, perhaps to show friends and family who live out of town what their new home looks like. In other words, you never know just when some new buyer may need to market that home and what criteria they want to evaluate as they consider a Realtor again.
