When the Department of Justice and the National Association of REALTORS® agreed to a settlement that made virtual office website platforms available to every broker in the Nation, WAV Group expected widespread adoption and innovation of client servicing tools leveraging full/VOW data. It did not happen. Perhaps it was because of the economy was slumping or perhaps it was because of category killers like Listingbook, rDesk, and AgentAchieve. Regardless, we have kept our eyes open for innovation.
A Silicon Valley based company called RealScout jumped up on the radar in a significant way this week with the announcement of over $6 million dollar funding round. We were aware of the company because the tool has been in use by one of America’s top teams – Ken DeLeon, always ranked among the top teams in America by sales volume.
Ken DeLeon is in a super competitive marketplace where massive firms Alain Pinel Realtors, Intero, Coldwell Banker NRT, and Sotheby’s NRT are duking it out. Moreover, tech brokers like Redfin and NRT’s Zip Realty have a massive online presence that rivals Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com. Moreover, MLS Listings has a superb client-servicing tool
To stay on track with a goal of $500M in sales this year, Ken has put RealScout front and center as the means for servicing the firms clients. All of his agents are employees, not independent sales reps. Today, he employs 42 staff members, many with degrees in accounting or law to augment their real estate license. It is a unique and impressive organization.
Before DeLeon’s brokerage-wide launch of RealScout, his clients were mostly using the MLS Portal or Redfin. “With RealScout, my clients can use natural language search – large backyard, near Google Shuttle Stop, etc. – 17 sales have come from RealScout as defined by customers. Clients use it as their primary search tool,” said DeLeon. I spoke with him at 6:30 Sunday night, where he is easy to find in his office. “My customers love the categories and tagging solutions in the RealScout search. Clients can leave notes for our agents.”
As you see in this press release, “RealScout is focused on increasing the number of transactions for real estate agents by improving agents’ close rates with buyers who are actively in the market for a new home.” That means moving fast in the Silicon Valley area where many neighborhoods have days on market below 10. Clearly the injection of funding will allow RealScout to fuel customer acquisition and expand into new markets.
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