ZipRealty has signed up two Florida brokerages — Prudential Tropical Realty in Tampa and Illustrated Properties in Palm Beach — as referral partners, bringing the total number of brokerages participating in its "Powered by Zip" program to 10.
Brokerages participating in the Powered by Zip program feed all of the Internet Data Exchange (IDX) listings in their market — including those represented by other brokers — to ZipRealty.com.
In return, ZipRealty provides its partner brokerages with all of the leads generated by the website in their market, plus a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that partner brokerages can also use to manage their own leads.
Prudential Tropical Realty has 17 offices and nearly 500 agents covering the central Gulf Coast, and completed more than 4,000 transaction sides in 2011, the companies said.
Illustrated Properties is the largest independent real estate company in Palm Beach, Martin and Collier counties, and its more than 500 agents completed nearly 4,000 transaction sides in 2011.
The eight previously announced Powered by Zip partners are Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Metro Brokers in Atlanta; Westchester, N.Y.-based Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Rand Realty; Long Realty in Tucson; Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston in Raleigh, N.C.; Coldwell Banker Hearthside in Philadelphia; Bob Parks Realty in Nashville; Coldwell Banker Vanguard in Jacksonville, Fla.; and Prudential Utah in Salt Lake City.
"ZipRealty technology now powers a major chunk of the Florida market, with Tampa and Palm Beach joining Jacksonville in our Powered by Zip Program," said ZipRealty CEO Lanny Baker in a statement. "The strong presence of our broker-partners in Tampa, Palm Beach and Jacksonville and their local agents paired with our technology is a winning combination for current and prospective homebuyers and sellers in three of Florida’s major real estate markets."
ZipRealty launched the Powered by Zip referral program last year in Atlanta, after closing brokerage offices in a dozen markets. The company continues to operate as a brokerage in 20 markets where it’s not providing referrals, and in May hired its first-ever president of brokerage operations, former Foxtons North America CEO Van Davis.
Multiple listing services typically restrict the display of IDX listings to member broker and agent websites. ZipRealty maintains it has the right to display IDX listings in "Powered by Zip" markets where it’s not a brokerage because the branding of its partner brokers is prominently displayed on ZipRealty.com.
For example, if you search for properties in Westchester, N.Y., the logo of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Rand Realty is striped across the top of the page.
The Powered by Zip program was recognized by Inman News as the "most innovative real estate website or Web service," one of eight Inman News Innovator Awards winners announced last week at the Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco.
