Silicon Valley tech startup Plurchase has launched a collaborative housing search website add-on, the company announced recently.
The Plurchase product is a sidebar that website owners can install to allow their users to shop for homes with whomever they like, whether it be their real estate agent, spouse or friend. Users invite others via through Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail. They can then share listings, chat, see what friends are looking at, keep notes, and vote on listings in real time.
"It keeps a sorted shopping list for you, so you can see a full-page view of all the properties you’re considering, sorted by votes. The purpose of this feature is to replace the confusing jumble of e-mails or spreadsheets or Word documents people currently use to track listings," said Jeff Ferber, founder of Plurchase.
The cost of Plurchase for site owners is a few cents per user session, Ferber said. "We’ll put them in pricing tiers (e.g., 1,000 sessions for $25 per month), but (we) haven’t finalized those yet," he added.
Users can also collaborate offline. When someone adds a comment while shopping without their friend, Plurchase sends that friend a notification e-mail.
Rentals site RentHop just launched Plurchase on its site at the end of August. The tool can handle any site, including sites for for-sale and rental listings, Ferber said. Site owners can add a block of JavaScript code to enable Plurchase, he said.
