2007 Press Releases
RE/MAX IS A GREAT BROKERAGE COMPANY ACCORDING TO SWANEPOEL TRENDS REPORT
(Denver, Colo., February 21, 2007) - The real estate industry as a whole has “accepted” technology and most leading and large brokers embrace it to enhance their services. But not every organization is as advanced and sitting on the cutting edge as RE/MAX, says Stefan Swanepoel, in his 2007
Swanepoel Trends Report.
According to Swanepoel, “real estate is an information-based service industry. It used to be that real estate brokers and agents were the holders of information and consumers were dependent on them for it. But that has all changed with Web 2.0. Now it’s all about the sharing of information and collaboration with others and many Realtors® don’t yet get that.”
RE/MAX became the first national franchisor to post listings of all real estate brokerages on its corporate website (www.remax.com). It is a collection of national IDX office websites that is compliant with industry and MLS regulations and appears seamless to the consumer. This provides the consumer a good online home shopping experience without having to register. Remax.com currently covers nearly 90% of the nation’s listings and continues to add more listings each day. The site will soon boast greatly enhanced mapping features, providing rich content and a great user experience. The back-end system, known as Leadstreet, gives RE/MAX Affiliates access to a powerful application that allows them to accept leads via wireless devices and incubate leads through drip email marketing campaigns. The features being offered continue to be enhanced and improved through frequent upgrades to the system.
According to the Report, Web 2.0 is different because of ubiquitous broadband, inexpensive hardware and open-source software. It provides a wider and much more robust platform for development than its predecessor and therefore makes access to and the sorting of vast amounts of information much easier. The intention of remax.com is to generate leads via the corporate website and pass them through to RE/MAX agents without any referral fees to RE/MAX International. The system has received more than 1.45 million leads since the new site was launched.
The 2007
Swanepoel Trends Report also identifies RE/MAX as one of the three most recognizable real estate brands in the real estate industry, together with Coldwell Banker and Century 21. Depending on what criteria you use, and which survey you read, all three brands have at some stage been listed as the #1 brand. RE/MAX however has the clearest, least confusing real estate brand of the three and is less mistaken for an industry other than real estate than are the other two.
No other Report succinctly examines the real estate brokerage industry in more detail than the Swanepoel Trends Report. Its annual publishing of the Top 10 trends impacting the industry is widely accepted as the best roadmap for brokers and agents. Published by RealSure Publishing the report can be obtained at
www.ReTrends.com.
