Two large Re/Max franchises — including the largest Re/Max franchise in the world, Denver area-based Re/Max Alliance — are the latest brokerages to brand neighborhood info site StreetAdvisor’s local reviews and highlight their agents as prominent local experts via the site.
By licensing its social-engineered review platform, brokerages can integrate StreetAdvisor’s consumer neighborhood reviews and local "expert" Q&As. create a page highlighting their agents as neighborhood experts and promote their reviews, and display StreetAdvisor content fenced to their location and to their agents, said StreetAdvisor co-founder Adam Spencer.
StreetAdvisor launched its "Pro" white-label product in November, with New York-based Houlihan Lawrence and Cincinnati-based Comey and Shepherd Realtors as its first customers.
The two Re/Max-affiliated brokerages that have signed up for Street Advisor Pro are major players in their markets. According to Real Trends, Re/Max Alliance ranked No. 28 in the U.S. with 9,067 closed transaction sides in 2011 The brokerage has 19 offices and 700 real estate pros in Colorado.
Also signing up for Street Advisor Pro is Los Angeles area Re/Max Estate Properties, with 600 agents and 13 offices, ranked No. 40 in the U.S. by Real Trends with $1.97 billion in sales volume in 2011.
"With great local content about neighborhoods and streets, and the ability for a consumer to ask questions or comment about a neighborhood, we’re giving the consumer the tools to truly choose exactly the right place to live," said Chad Ochsner, owner of Re/Max Alliance, in a statement. "And we’ve enabled our agents to show off what they know and directly engage with consumers on our website."
StreetAdvisor Pro provides "exactly the type of local content that will help us further solidify our reputation as local real estate experts," said John Sanders, vice president of technology at Los Angeles area-based Re/Max Estate Properties.
Neighborhoods have been called the last frontier of online real estate, and companies are beginning to launch products attempting to rope them in.
Walk Score, which launched as a commuting information-focused website, recently introduced a crowdsourcing neighborhood feature that allows users to create custom neighborhood tours, among other info.
Other rising neighborhood-profiling companies targeting the real estate industry include NabeWise (acquired recently by short-term rental coordinator Airbnb), which provides a "flavor" rating for neighborhoods in popular cities, including those overseas; BlockAvenue, a New York City-focused (as of now) site, which includes Facebook-enabled location reviews; and Nextdoor, a neighborhood-focused social media site. Inman News columnist Tara-Nicholle Nelson reviewed some of the sites in a recent article.
