Software Upgrade
Taps Human Emotions to Reshape Residential Real Estate Marketing and
Provide Consumers a New Level of Information on Listed Properties
November 29, 2005
Saskatoon,
SK and Vancouver, BC – November 29, 2005 – In an unprecedented move,
Point2 Technologies (“Point2”) today launched Point2 Agent 6.0 (“Point2
Agent”), the first real estate broker and agent software platform to
bring homeowner comments to prospective buyers researching homes
online. The breakthrough reflects increasing consumer demand for more
involvement in the real estate buying and selling process.
Seamlessly integrating 15 new features and enhancements, Point2 Agent
now allows home sellers for the first time ever to enter information
about their property, online, directly onto their Realtor’s® website,
under a dedicated Seller’s Comments section.
The
revolutionary capability enables Realtors® to work more closely with
customers to enhance the presentation of their home and to influence
its value, by giving them the option to contribute meaningful insight
and emotions to the listing, helping to better differentiate the
property and shape buyer decisions. Home seller input is designed to
add to a listing a degree of depth never available to home buyers
before and that only the home owner can deliver with a high level of
credibility.
“We’ve had an extremely positive reaction from customers, buyers and sellers alike,” says Joy Costello,
RE/MAX real estate agent in Las Vegas. “In the past, a buyer rarely had
an opportunity to pick the owner’s mind and listen to how they felt
about the home, the neighbours and the community. We can now offer to
home buyers important information they simply could not access before,
which is the ability to get a true feel about a property that is of
interest to them, directly from the homeowner, in their own words.”
“A
home purchase is a highly emotional decision, and consumers clearly
want to be more involved in the process,” said Brendan King, chief
operating officer at Point2 Technologies. “Point2 Agent taps these two
key dynamics to give real estate professionals a major new edge in
marketing their services, gives home owners a new opportunity to
differentiate their homes, and empowers consumers with a new connection
to the home owner, which they never had before.”
“This
is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to consumer involvement in the
real estate transaction process, but a significant step in the right
direction that Realtors® and consumers are likely to embrace very
quickly,” said Jeff Tomlin, manager of market research at Point2
Technologies. “Realtors® who adopt revolutionary ideas that support
consumer interests, reflect a sense of value and professionalism that
can undoubtedly impact their business at the expense of their
competitors.”
Point2 Agent New Feature List
In addition to Seller Comments, Point2 Agent 6.0 offers the following new features:
• Google Sitemap – Allows agents to quickly and easily include webpages to the Google search engine, for more effective marketing.
• Google Map Module – Allows agents to easily
add a Google map to their website, featuring their listings. The Map
offers to site visitors a quick and easy way to browse listing
locations visually, by geographic area, and to select listings they
want to find out more about, right off the map, for more convenience;
• Open House Module – Allows agents to easily display and promote open house listings on their website;
• Audio Attachment – Enables the attachment of audio recordings to listings, for enhanced listing presentations;
• Photo Album – Enables agents to easily upload images and photos, and create slide shows;
• Marketplace Statistics Integration – Allows agents to determine the source of their leads and frequency of visitor viewings of any particular listing featured on Point2 Homes;
• UltraStats – A powerful web reporting tool
that empowers agents with critical website traffic data to facilitate
better resource allocation, marketing and decisions;
• RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Listings Feed –
Allows consumers to receive new listing information from the agent, and
to view them without having to go to the agent’s website or check their
email;
• Seller and Contact RSS – A productivity tool
that adds new contact information to the agent’s CRM (Customer
Relationship Management) tool, as soon as a visitor enters his or her
information on the agent’s website; The system also immediately informs
the agent of the new addition;
• Mobile Feature Sheet – Downloads listing
brochures instantaneously to the agent’s PDA (Personal Digital
Assistant) or handheld device, for on-the-go access in the field;
• Domain Name Renewal – Convenient domain name renewal directly through the agent’s website;
• Common Includes – Saves valuable time by automatically replicating content across the agent’s website, as required;
• Graphics Library – Expanded library of images and photos for use in agent website customization; and,
• Background Colours – An expanded colour palette for use in website customization.
Pricing and Availability
New Point2 Agent features will be rolled into the platform
systematically, through December 2005, to provide users with access to
the new capabilities as soon as they become available.
About Point2 Agent
With nearly 70,000 subscribers in 55 countries, Point2 Agent is the
industry’s leading real estate website, online marketing and
advertising software solution. More information can be obtained at www.Point2Agent.com.
About Point2 Technologies Inc.
Point2 Technologies is a global leader in online marketing and
eBusiness software solutions for the real estate and heavy equipment
industries. Leveraging Point2 proprietary and patented technology,
Point2 develops and markets software solutions that enable
organizations to conduct business over the Internet more easily and
more profitably.
Founded
in 1996, Point2 Technologies is a privately held, profitable
organization. The company employs a staff of 95 at its headquarters in
Saskatoon, SK and its Vancouver, BC offices. In recognition for its
ground-breaking technology and industry leadership, in the year 2000
Point2 Technologies received the No. 1 eBusiness designation in Canada
by global management consultants, Bain & Company and Canada’s
national business daily, The Globe and Mail. Point2 was also named one
of the Top 200 most promising B2B companies in the world, by Forbes
Magazine. More information can be obtained at http://www.point2.com.
Point2®
is a trademark of Point2 Technologies Inc. All other company and
product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which
they are associated.
Media Relations contact:
Roger Noujeim
Public Relations Director
Toll Free: 1-888-955-7900 ext. 224 (U.S. and Canada)
Tel: 1-604-675-9393
rnoujeim@point2.com
Investor Relations contact:
Robert Gutek
Vice President, Finance
Toll Free: 1-866-955-7900 ext. 213 (U.S. and Canada)
Tel: 1-306-955-9736 ext. 213
rgutek@point2.com