A real estate software company has purchased Pocket Real Estate, a company that offers search capability of MLS property information through mobile phones and hand-held computers, company officials announced this week.
Borran Software, a developer of real estate transaction management systems, announced that it will focus on three products as a result of the merger: Pocket Real Estate; Borran Connect!, an online office information management system that integrates sales functions, contracts and transactions, listing management, scheduling and communications with back-office accounting and administration; and RealBroker, a real estate accounting system that handles sales transactions and financial reports, among other functions.
The two companies started discussions mid-2005. “As we began to explore the features and benefits of our individual product lines, it became very clear that we would complement each other very well,” said Pocket Real Estate President Everett Kaneshige. “Discussions about the potential for future growth, development, and integration fueled our excitement. It was obvious that a merger was the right thing to do.”
Under mutual agreement, Pocket Real Estate will maintain most of its key employees and will continue to operate from their Hawaii offices, in addition to Borran’s U.S. and Canadian locations, according to the announcement. Kaneshige will continue to lead the Pocket Real Estate division and all customers will remain Pocket Real Estate customers, but the company is now owned by Borran Software USA,” said Thom Kennedy, President and CEO of Borran Software.
“I’m quite thrilled about this merger,” Kaneshige said. “It enables both companies to grow much stronger than we would independently. Together, we can offer … access to back-office information on the new smart devices such as Treos, IPAQs, and Blackberries, along with handheld computers and cell phones. It is finally true full office integration, from the sales agent in the field to transaction tracking, accounting and office management. This has never been done before.”
Over the next several months, Borran Software will be integrating selected features from its Connect! product line into the functionality of Pocket Real Estate, according to the announcement. “We can hardly hold back our excitement with all the ideas our first general meeting brought forward, such as GPS, voice recognition and transaction management,” Kennedy said.
Borran has a goal to improve agents’ ability “to conduct wireless and paperless transactions in the field, eliminate dual entry and improve efficiency,” according to the announcement.
In 2001, Pocket Real Estate was honored as one of the “Top 10 Must Have Products in the Real Estate Industry,” according to Real Estate Technology magazine. It was endorsed by the Council of Residential Specialists and was included in NAR’s e-PRO training curriculum. Today, Pocket Real Estate is available for use by over 500,000 real estate agents in all 50 states, Canada, Virgin Islands and Guam.
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