Monday 22 April 2013

RESAAS sees joiners abound for its real estate social network; overseas expansion on the horizon


Real estate social network RESAAS (CNSX:RSS) has been buzzing this year, adding 17 real estate agencies to its network in the past three months alone, in addition to its user base experiencing strong organic growth, as it works to roll out its services from the West Coast to the East Coast. 
RESAAS is a social network for real estate professionals. The network is designed to allow real-time updating of property listings as well as the ability to sync with social media sites such as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter.
“The brokerages we have signed on to our premium platform are all benefiting from the power of social… that a single action reaches a huge audience without any additional effort,” says company president Tom Rossiter. Real-time updates are one area that set RESAAS apart from sites such as the Canadian Real Estate Association's Multiple Listing Service (MLS) website, where it takes a number of days for new listings to appear.
The company has so far made significant headway in the West, just last week signing another Century 21 brokerage in Southern California, Century 21 Showcase. 
The Vancouver-based company also has an office in Newport Beach, California, which Rossiter points out has the highest population of real estate agents in North America, and is a great location from which the firm can focus on adding new agencies based on the West Coast to its platform. 
Last month, the company started to add real estate agencies in the East, taking on Montreal-based real estate firm Profusion Realty, which is known for its work in the high-end real estate market in the Greater Montreal Area, and is a leading affiliate of the Christie’s International network.
Since opening for business in January, RESAAS has added firm after firm, bringing in Southern California-based Summit Realty Group, Star Real Estate, Modern Realty, Vernazza Realty, Parker Properties, OC Homes Realty, and Century 21 Adobe Realty - all in California, to name a few.
It has also brought on the high profile Royal LePage Kelowna in British Columbia, as well as Century 21 In Town Realty and The Residential Group Realty in downtown Vancouver.
Under all these premium agreements, real estate agents in these firms receive their own corporate branded agent pages, and are also part of a private internal social network within their office.
“With a broadcast network built in, we automate their social presence for agents,” says Rossiter. 
The company's platform is available for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and for Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system for smartphones, and late last year shipped its Real Estate Q&A app in Microsoft's growing Window's 8 App Store. 
With a direct sales strategy at work in the West Coast, the company is finding that word-of-mouth is suffice to start sales rolling in the East. 
“Our phone keeps ringing – real estate agencies in the East are already finding out about how RESAAS puts them in control of their content. We are also receiving interest from Europe already, well ahead of our roadmap,” asserts the company’s president. 
In what can only be regarded as a solid start to the year, RESAAS is looking to continue its growth trajectory, and is focused on adding “more and more agents” to its platform. 
RESAAS is a great proposition for any real estate firm. The platform is so malleable – it can bend in many different ways,” he says, adding that RESAAS is looking to complete another financing round in the beginning of the second quarter to raise funds for the expansion of its services into emerging markets. 
Since the company made its debut on the Canadian National Stock Exchange in February 2011, its stock has quadrupled in value, and is currently trading at $1.1, with around 28.1 million shares outstanding. 

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