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We are proud to announce that MapThatPad now interfaces with New York based real estate listing website, UrbanEdge.  In fact, as you see in the image above, UrbanEdge listings have an image right on the website which allows you to save it!  So you have three ways to save an UrbanEdge listing into MapThatPad: click on the icon on the listing as shown above, copy-past the listing URL, or use the MapThatPad bookmarklet.

Just like us, our friends at UrbanEdge are committed to making the apartment hunting process easier. First of all, apartment hunters want real listings of real apartments with real addresses and that is exactly what they provide.  Also, let's face it, broker aren't for everyone - they can be pushy, misleading, and ask for a fee.  UrbanEdge works directly with the owners and property managers of the apartments listed on their site.  This means that their database is real and kept up to date.  You don't have to click through multiple listings for the same apartment posted by different brokers or owners as on other sites.  Simply put: no brokers; no re-posts; no fees; no bs.  They also have a great Renter's Guide section that helps newbies navigate through some treacherous real estate terminology and a Neighborhood Guide that helps New-Yorkers and New-New-Yorkers learn what's what with different neighborhoods.  So, overall they're a great resource for your NYC apartment hunt - make sure you give them a try on your next one!  We sure are fans.

 

 

 

"2010 was a year of tremendous activity at Move, as we took significant steps toward realigning our business to continue and grow our long standing market leadership," said

Steve Berkowitz

, chief executive officer at Move, Inc. "Move's mission is to connect real estate professionals and consumers to facilitate more real estate transactions.  The increased use of the internet and mobile devices in the real estate industry has changed the ways consumers and real estate professionals interact.  Move is committed to delivering products and services that meet the market's needs.  As we head into 2011, we are focused on serving the complete home-buying cycle with an expanding list of distribution partners and real estate solutions."

4th Quarter 2010 Highlights:

• Market leadership: Move maintained its leading market position, leading the industry in unique users and total engagement.  In 2010, on a monthly basis, the Move Network attracted an average of 11 million unique users(1) who spent on average more than 224 million minutes monthly on our network(1).  Visitors to the Move Network viewed nearly 4.4 billion total pages in 2010, more than the next six competitors combined.  
• MortgageMatch.com:  Launched in December, MortgageMatch.com was developed to give first time buyers or refinancing owners the tools they need to find and prequalify for the right loan in as little as 10 minutes. In its first month in operation, MortgageMatch.com's state-of-the-art decision engine helped more than 30,000 prospective homebuyers know in just a few minutes how much they can afford to borrow and what their monthly payments would be based on real rates and loan choices for which they qualify.
• AOL: Move announced an agreement whereby Move will power the AOL Real Estate search experience.  The agreement delivers a powerful ad network for agents and advertisers to expand their reach and visibility to AOL.com's millions of monthly visitors. The AOL Real Estate experience powered by Move will deliver a user experience customized for AOL with instant access to accurate property listings, neighborhood and school content, and connections to real estate experts. Leveraging Move's ListHub network, Move will syndicate millions of listings to AOL Real Estate and power the home buyer's search experience.
• Mobile Highlights: Move launched the Realtor.com Real Estate Search Android and Windows Phone 7 application in November, building on the success of Move's Realtor.com iPhone app launched in January.  In 2010, the Realtor.com mobile apps have been downloaded over 3 million times with hundreds of thousands of consumers connecting directly with real estate professionals.

Say hello to "HotSpots"

HotSpots combines a broad housing market overview with individual property insight, taking visual search to a whole new level.

The colored price points dynamically recalibrate based on zoom level and location, making it simple to see relationships between location and price! Each colored dot is an actual listing you can click and view pictures, property details, and send an inquiry.

The dark red points represent the most expensive properties and the light blue points represent the least expensive ones on a cost per bedroom basis. Marking a property as a "favorite" changes the point to a star, making it easy to come back to your favorite properties. Points which have already been previewed shrink in size, helping you discover new properties even faster.

The ability to see hundreds of properties on one screen, categorized by price and location, significantly reduces the time it takes to spot and send an inquiry to a hot property...give it a try!

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We Updated Search. You Commented. We Listened.

 

A few weeks ago, we updated the home shopping search experience on Zillow with the intent to give our users better shopping tools to find the home of their dreams. We added a more usable map area, added keyword search to the list of filters, and also changed the format of the list so that the map stays in view when you scroll through the homes.

No one has ever accused us of being complacent; we are constantly working to improve the Zillow site, and we’re certainly willing to take risks and learn from our mistakes.

 

Buyfolio just launched a collaborative listing search tool between brokers and clients, similar to Streeteasy's Folders.  Buyfolio searches the entire REBNY database of listings, and has a bit of a more robust of a UI, compared to Streeteasy.

They currently support listings from:
Brown Harris Stevens
CitiHabitats
Corcoran
CharlesRutenberg

Halstead
Heddings

NYTimes

OLR

Prudential Elliman

Stribling

Sotheby's

Streeteasy

Trulia

Warburg

ForRent.com partners with RentWiki.com to increase consumer engagement and encourage feedback
Renters can now provide neighborhood feedback on leading apartment listing website

   For Rent Media Solutions™, a leading resource for apartment searches nationwide and operator of ForRent.com, a division of Dominion Enterprises, announces its exclusive partnership with RentWiki.com. The partnership introduces user-generated content to the leading multi-housing website.

“Consumers trust the unbiased opinion of other consumers,” said Brock MacLean, senior vice president of national sales and development. “According to a September 2010 study from the Pew Research Center, nearly one-fourth of U.S. adults say they have posted comments or reviews online about the products or services they buy. We embrace the opportunity this exclusive RentWiki partnership presents us to incorporate user-generated content into our site. This creates another platform for renters to communicate with each other. It also lets property managers monitor what is being said about the neighborhood around them.”

This functionality will also help increase visibility for nearby properties. Information from Neighborhood Wiki, one of RentWiki’s distinct types of user-generated content, is contributed by people who live in that particular area. Neighborhood Wiki allows current residents to post comments, and includes neighborhood information like an overview and pros and cons—as seen in the Dunwoody Reviews within the Greater Atlanta metro.

“The communications landscape is changing and RentWiki understands that social media is playing a major role in online communications,” said Robert Turnbull, co-founder and president of RentWiki.com. “RentWiki.com and ForRent.com are both well-known names among renters and property managers alike. We value the trust gained by renters and, through this partnership, welcome the opportunity to share their neighborhood feedback on ForRent.com.”